CA: Light-rail woes grow -Cost of Running VTA Trolleys Soars While Ridership has Plummeted

Mercury News ^ | Feb. 06, 2004 | Tracey Kaplan and Gary Richards

[calcowgirl]

A nearly empty train prepares to leave the Santa Teresa Station on VTA's light rail system in San Jose.

Silicon Valley's light-rail network, already ranked among the most expensive and least efficient in the nation, has gotten even worse.

Trains that were once near capacity now carry about 15 passengers per car, among the fewest of similar trolley lines in the country. And from 2001 to 2003, fewer riders and growing expenses combined to more than double the cost of providing a trip. Last year, the VTA spent a whopping $8.42 per passenger per trip -- even though it charged those passengers $1.50.

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

Not surprised at all. I recently heard a coworker refer to the Light Rail as the "Empty Train to Nowhere" - I believe it. I pass the Light Rail trains several times daily and I always make a note to look inside if I can - I typically see 2 or 3 people midday and about 1/3 full at rush hour.

"Last year, the VTA spent a whopping $8.42 per passenger per trip -- even though it charged those passengers $1.50."

Stunning. I just know after reading this there are VTA management types thinking "We will just have to make it up in volume". I have lived here (Sunnyvale) for 13 years and have used the Light Rail only once at a friends request. I almost could have driven to Oakland during the time it took Light Rail to get from Great America to downtown SJ.

[backhoe]

Light Rail- Boon or Boondoggle? The Quest for the Holy Rail....

[calcowgirl]

I just know after reading this there are VTA management types thinking "We will just have to make it up in volume".

LOL! So true.

From the article: "Because of the relatively low amount the agency reaps from fares, most of that cost must be met by taxes..."

And most likely, taxes from non-riders.

[AmericanVictory]

Don't you love those overeducated enviromentos? They love to make the taxpayers pay to build them, but don't ask them to actually ride them.

[hummingbird]

FYI...guess Houston is not the only city suffering light rail...good links.

[GATOR NAVY]

It's a rule here-any post on rail service of any kind must include a ping to Willie Green.

[Flyer]

Despite the problems, some VTA board members want to expand the 29.5-mile network

Typical. It ain't worth a load of beans, so let's expand it.

[Bud Krieger]

The light rail system here in St.Louis is doing rather well. : " The average weekday ridership for MetroLink in FY 2003 was 44,539 ". And this is basically one single line.

They are currently expanding the system to other metro areas. I guess if it is planned well it can work.

I think the success of our system is because parking in downtown St.Louis is horrible. Make parking scarce and expensive, then a light rail systems can work. The lack of downtown parking was one of the reasons why our rail system was built.

[Simmy2.5]

Houston's Light Rail problems at the moment, from what I can see is, one, too many riders (if that is even possible), and people not following traffic laws (either by incompetence, bad signage). San Jose's light rail problem has to do more with convience along with the dotcom bust that eliminated many jobs that the system depended on, which in turn, effected ridership (and that high cost of running the system isn't helping either).

And San Jose's Downtown, for all intent and purposes, isn't all that exciting for either visitors or locals. Other then the Arena for a hockey game, after the offices close, there isn't a lot to do in downtown. Especially with the extremely successful Santana Row open (giving a "downtown" feel to retail), which just so happens to be across the street of the also very successful Valley Fair mall, no one is going to downtown for shopping (eliminating even more potential ridership). Sure, mayors and a bunch of "urban" activist try to improve downtown...to no avail. Light rail is just a dud in San Jose.

[EGPWS]

Don't you love those overeducated enviromentos?

As much as I like has-been wrestlers who become a Governor and place their hopes for a legacy on LIGHT RAIL debacles!

Thanks Jesse! My hard earned labor has found it's place in the tune of crickets singing at boarding docks.

[EGPWS]

I think the success of our system is because parking in downtown St.Louis is horrible.

Perhaps St. Louis should be savvy and promote bicycles for transportation like Minneapolis does, then parking wouldn't be a problem. Bicycle lanes and promotion of non-environmentally challenging vehicles AND light rail taking up the street and parking areas can only convince one to be prudent and not drive to work!

[Bud Krieger]

Perhaps St. Louis should be savvy and promote bicycles for transportation like Minneapolis does, then parking wouldn't be a problem.

---

I hope this is a joke. Because it was really funny.

I can just picture a bunch of Minnesotans bicycling to work in a sub-zero February blizzard , all bundled up , pedaling their little hearts out down the highway , with the wind blowing them off the road and into the ditches !!

Gotta love that Liberal mentallity.

[EGPWS]

I can just picture a bunch of Minnesotans bicycling to work in a subzero February blizzard , all bundled up , pedaling their little hearts out down the highway ,...

I don't have to picture it, yes it is reality. God bless their fortitude in their actions that make them feel good, however their feel good attitude comes about from a lack of common sense.

[jimtorr]

The last year I lived in Mountain View, '99-'2000, I found LR fairly convenient, though too expensive.

A Light Rail line was built right behind the building I worked in, so it was very convenient to hop a five minute ride into downtown Mountain View for lunch.

I had no other use for LR, though.

Even Cal Train was more usefull, for getting to-and-from SFO.

[glorgau]

$1.55 a passenger mile?!?!?

Why not just send them around in Taxis? The problem is that these areas have no density due to zoning restrictions.

[GOPcapitalist]

Typical. It ain't worth a load of beans, so let's expand it.

I've said it many times: these people have an irrational and obssessive psychological attraction to light rail. They build rail for the sake of having rail and defy ANY industry standard justification criterion, such as cost-benefit analysis. If the stats show that rail is flat out wrong and inefficient for a city they simply ignore and supress those stats! The only measure for rail that "counts" to them is the wholly anecdotal story about some stupid lady who gets to read a magazine on the way to work instead of sitting in traffic, fully of agony and "road rage." The rail car can be entirely empty except for that one lady, but because she makes a happy little anecdote for the newspapers she will become a "light rail success story" or some other such nonsense. Why else do you think that the Comical has been running light rail passenger interview anecdotes just like that non-stop for the last month?

The truly disgusting thing about it all is the presence of an iron triangle of cronyism in virtually all light rail systems. The construction firms and developers all whore themselves to the transit agency for perks off the government dole and the transit agency always responds in kind, calling upon its unchecked tax powers to raise the fees it pays out. In Houston Ed Wulfe is playing the role of pimp by guiding all his cronies into the METRO bedroom.

Even worse are the so-called "rail corporations" - those firms that specialize in building transit systems and rail cars and tracks and overhead wires etc. In Houston the main perpetrator there is Siemens, the industrial giant Eurotrash firm that dupes cities into buying similar rail systems from them all around the country. They bilk cities into buying "prototype" rail cars on multi-million dollar contracts that in turn give them a virtual guarantee on getting the contract for an expansion of the system. And as soon as time comes to vote on expanding it, Siemens is there on the doorstep to pump 50 Grand into the political campaign account of the pro-rail people. Some people are inclined to dismiss players like Siemens as companies simply doing what they are paid to do. In reality they are the biggest feeders at the public pig trough, and Siemens has been doing this exact same sort of thing with governments all over the world dating back to when Hitler contracted them to run infrastructure wires to Auschwitz in the 1930's. Just like every transit agency that pursues light rail, they are pros at bilking taxpayers and picking out their slice of the pie no matter who gets screwed in the process.

[GOPcapitalist]

Houston's Light Rail problems at the moment, from what I can see is, one, too many riders (if that is even possible)

Too many riders? Aside from opening weekend when it was free and the super bowl when there were events going on downtown with hundreds of thousands of tourists to ride, the thing has been running virtually EMPTY for the last month. The main park and ride lot serving it has been averaging something like 1/5th capacity on a given work day.

[John Jorsett]

Well, maybe this effort is a failure, but the $37 billion we spend on the bullet train from San Fran to So Cal will be money well spent. 187,000 riders a day to break even? No problem!

[RightWingAtheist]

That's my pet peeve about Minneapolis-having to get out of the way of TOTAL IDIOTS who insist on riding their bikes on icy and/or snow-covered sidewalks. I have a gut feeling that they're the same people who still have their Wellstone! signs up.