Posted on 06/04/2015 7:31:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Though many public transit systems across the U.S. have increased fares in recent years, chances are your local transit system still isn’t breaking even on your ride: According to a Hamilton Project (THP) post, of the more than 1,800 mass transit systems in the United States—including those running trains, buses, or other transport modes—only about two percent reported that fare revenue exceeded operating expenses in 2013.
And when it comes to metro rail systems across the U.S.—which include heavy rail, such as subways and elevated trains, and light rail, which operates at street level—all U.S. systems reported operating at a loss.
So just how much money are they losing? In general, average losses per trip are smaller for larger metro systems. For instance, riders in the five largest systems—New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area—pay about a dollar less than the actual cost of each trip. But when it comes to the smaller systems in cities like Seattle, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, riders end up paying approximately four dollars less than the cost of each trip.
Overall, these 10 metro rail systems are losing the most money per passenger ride:
10. Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFT Metro), NY Average loss per passenger ride: $2.83
9. Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), MD Average loss per passenger ride: $2.90
8. San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI), CA Average loss per passenger ride: $3.13
7. The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), OH Average loss per passenger ride: $3.23
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Billions go in to support tens of millions fo rUnions and like minded contractors to support politicians who negotiate the contracts for Unions. And so it goes. A money laundering machine by looting the treasury.
Whenever I hear the terms "money for infrastructure and education", I see a wink and nod to the Unions.
More's the pity...
What would be interesting would be to investigate how much the highest executives for each of these transit authorities are getting paid (yearly, and in a per passenger cost..) And comparing the average employee salary to say the median family income in the various jurisdictions.
Unjustified salaries, benefits and retirements are likely the biggest factor in these losses. And in my opinion, are simply open embezzlement of public money - taking that which there is absolutely no rational justification for paying that rate of salary and benefits.
As for the supposed land and business value increase from light rail stations - how much do they deduct for all the land the stations, rail, support infrastructure and parking? How much for the original land purchases? All of that should be subtracted (not to mention the yearly losses and whatever unfunded liabilities are also unaccounted for) from the ‘increased land values.’
Nah. The Niagara Frontier Transit Authority's train runs through downtown Buffalo -- doesn't go near the Falls. And, yes, it is federally supported.
It was the "gift" of a retiring, very-powerful member of Congress in the late seventies. Henry Nowak.
Yeah, but those pension checks always come on time!
It would be cheaper to have specific point to point autodriving cars/vans than to have these white elephants.
Losing $2.50-$3.00 per ride?
So raise the fare.
Is math that hard?
Oh, that’s right. It’s only money when you sign your name to the back of a check....
We’re still not number one at anything, which means we’re not winners...
Could be. I understand it’s the most expensive tunnel per linear foot ever built by man.
that particular light rail has actually killed people.
I remember the updates about the “Train of Death”
I took a job in NYC right out of HS. Subway and bus fares were $.15. You bought tokens back then. No hi tech electronic cards.
Their saving grace may be how horrible it is to drive in the city so they have a higher percentage of the population riding it.
I suspect most of these are phony numbers. The rail systems track “boardings” with IR cameras. That includes fair jumpers, who are legion in Denver’s system. It also includes multiple “boardings” for folks who make multiple stops along the way.
Thus, when they calculate subsidy per boarding, it is MUCH lower than subsidy per paying customer. The way to get a real sense of how much rail systems cost the taxpayers is to compute operating expenses less revenue. The divide that by the average fare for paying customers.
For Denver Fast Tracks, that came out to over $25 subsidy per paying customer in 2012 and it’s getting worse in more recent years. For Access a ride (wheel chair accessible), the numbers are more like $45 per boarding. All courtesy of the taxpayers.
“IIRC, one of Scott Walker’s first acts as Wisconsin’s governor was to turn down $800M in federal light rail funding for a route between Milwaukee and Madison. The Democrats said it was stupid to turn down “free money”. Walker felt the light rail system would quickly start to suck up state funds, so the federal $800M went elsewhere (California ?).”
Walker is smart. All the federal funds do is pay for construction. Then the city is left with a huge white elephant in operating costs, including track that has to be replaced every ten years and cars every 12. Year in and year out. Denver’s ratio of operating costs to revenue in 2013 was 10/1 for light rail with no end in sight.
It would be like your uncle pays the down payment on a $5,000,000 mansion for you. But not the mortgage or upkeep.
Note that the Supreme Court has clarified limits on Congress’s power to lay taxes.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
In fact, federal funding for transit systems shouldn't have left the states in the first place, the corrupt feds stealing such vote-winning funding from the states by means of unconstitutional federal taxes, taxes which Congress cannot justify under is constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers.
Also consider that if the 17th Amendment had never been ratified then the Senate would probably have killed the unconstitutional bill that appropriated taxes for this purpose.
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear, and a bunch of corrupt senators along with it.
Shinjuku and Shibuya Staitons in the Tokyo area
Even forty years ago, the major department stores
had entrances directly off the subway, and you could
go from one to another with out going outside.
I can only imagine what it’s like now.
Correct. In Shinjuku, you can literally walk to the basement level of a department store after you get off the Tokyo Metro or Toei subway lines that go through that area. Mind you, Shinjuku Station’s layout is so complex that even people born in Tokyo or are long-time residents there are still confused on how to get around that station, especially when you have the JR East, Seibu, Odakyu, and Keio commuter rail and Tokyo Metro and Toei subway systems all converging on one station.
Well removing a lane for a train is stupid. I did see something interesting from South America several years ago. A tv show explaining how some cities down there work. Special high speed buses with special bus lanes. They operate in an express mode and don’t stop every other block. They have trackers that are computerized and the lights are synced to them. They simply move you from point a, to point b fast. They were saying LA was going to do a pilot program on that. I wonder how it turned out.
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