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I don't link to letters to the editor very often, as even in this day and age I don't know if people exactly bargained for having their names put on blogs. Plus there is often an obvious and histrionic effort by the conservatives in Clark County to inundate the letters page with right wing baloney.

So it's refreshing to see someone who has reservations about light rail make an interesting point without accusing everyone who has a different view of bad faith. The letter is headlined "Improve moving A to Z."

There is no third set of rails and therefore no express runs are possible. Currently there are C-Tran express buses that carry commuters between Vancouver and downtown Portland. To me, keeping these runs or expanding them makes more sense than extending light rail to points in Clark County.

I won't put the author's name on this page, in keeping with past decisions not to do so, but the writer should be congratulated and The Columbian should use it as a standard. It might be debatable whether express buses will work as well as the writer hopes, but that's a technical transportation issue, not a matter of ideology.

Those of us who are hopeful about a future light rail to link to Clark County should be honest about it. Light rail is very expensive, and it doesn't go everywhere people need to go. It might be a good first step to a better transit system, or it might simply be too expensive. Hopefully we'll know more in the coming months about the cost. Still, it's encouraging to see citizens come up with interesting viewpoints.