Transit Subsidies of $108 Per Ride

Yesterday, the Antiplanner predicted that at some point people would realize that transit is a waste. That point may have already been reached in Portland, which has voted down new taxes for transit the last four times they have been on the ballot. Moreover, on Monday a Portland television station reported that TriMet, Portland’s transit agency, is spending $108 to subsidize each and every ride on the Westside Express Service (WES).

The report quotes the Cascade Policy Institute‘s John Charles as saying, “They should just admit it was a mistake.” Even a representative of the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates agrees that “it’s too expensive.”

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In 2012, WES’s first full year of operation, the trains carried a disappointing 1,663 riders a day. By 2019, this was all the way up to 1,490 passengers a day. Fares averaged less than a dollar a ride but operating costs alone were more than $18 per ride. Amortizing the capital costs doubled that.

The pandemic pushed ridership down by at least 75 percent. In December, the trains carried an average of 290 riders per day. TriMet has cut service in half, but with many of the costs being fixed costs, the cost per trip has ballooned. WES is a perfect example of a train that ought to be replaced by a bus but won’t be due to the pigheadedness of transit officials and the willingness of the federal government to bail out the transit industry no matter how much money it wastes.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

One Response to Transit Subsidies of $108 Per Ride

  1. LazyReader says:

    Paradox of sunken costs…..
    “We’ve already spent this much, why not finish it”

    Uhhh, because it’ll lose money and you’re gonna spend More money we don’t have.
    Oh right.

    By that logic let’s keep bombing Iraq

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