[Willie Green]

In reply #36, Publius stated: "San Diego, Calgary and Portland have been hugely successful."

In #39, WOSG replied: "I showed average of only 30% recovery from user fees, that's quite poor."

Truth: source link provide by WOSG in reply #26, referencing "Figure 10" lists "Operating Cost Covered by Fares" as 47.1% for Portland and 69.0% for San Diego.

Publius awarded 2 points out of 3.

No points awarded for Calgary either way, as it is not a U.S. city and U.S. federal involvement is not applicable. (At least I HOPE we're not financing Canadian mass transit, but you never know. Gotta take care of things here at home first!)

[Poohbah]

69% recovery in San Diego? Only if they're hiding large amounts of the operating costs in other funding lines.

[WOSG]

The overall average in all the listed cities was 30% ... not just those three.

And I dont understand how a system that only recovers a 1/2 of costs (ie Portland) is 'hugely successful'. that's still an economic failure.

Remember, these systems has their construction subsidized to start with by federal grants. The operating spending should be a minimum level of cost-recovery. Do you know of a single LRT in American that meets that standard?