financial models such as the one they're using to justify the expense associated with this build have levers that are pulled which trigger the results they want the model to output. one of the triggers in their model that they have pulled is ridership growth. we all agree that there has been no rider growth at mci for 15 years. in order to get the desired output from their model, they've assumed growth. without the growth, their model doesn't work. ignoring the past 15 years, where will the growth come from? only the consultants know.