Rail Transit and Reauthorization

The Cato Institute will publish a new report tomorrow looking at the inequities of federal transit funding. Antiplanner readers can download a preview copy today; many of the results in the paper have previously been reported here.

The Antiplanner has argued for years that federal transit funding was inefficient because it encouraged transit agencies to choose high-cost alternatives in any transit corridor. The new paper shows the results of this inefficiency: transit agencies that have persuaded local politicians to go along with these high-cost alternatives have ended up with as much as eight times more federal transit dollars per transit rider than agencies that settled for low-cost alternatives.
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Congress must reauthorize federal highway and transit funding by May 31, and it appears that election of a Republican majority to both houses did nothing to end the gridlock that has beset transportation since at least 2011, when the previous six-year bill expired. Since then, Congress has been unable to do more than pass extensions of a few months to two years. Perhaps new information about the inequities of transit funding will help Congress reach a better solution this year.

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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.

5 Responses to Rail Transit and Reauthorization

  1. C. P. Zilliacus says:

    The Antiplanner wrote (In the report):

    Rail transit projects include a large hidden cost that is never mentioned by rail proponents: they must be rebuilt, almost from the ground up, about every 30 years. That’s the useful life of tracks, power facilities, signals, and stations. After that, keeping them in a state of good repair becomes increasingly expensive, and few, if any, present-day transit agencies have successfully done so. The recent numerous problems on the Washington Metro system, from broken rails to smoke in the tunnels that killed a woman in January 2015, and the 2009 accident that killed nine people, can be directly attributed to the failure of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to find the funds for such rehabilitation. According to the FTA, as of 2010, America’s rail transit systems suffered from a $59 billion maintenance backlog.

    Don’t forget the “mid-life overhauls” that rail transit vehicles need after about 15 years of service. Very, very expensive.

    The backlog has only grown since then as transit agencies are spending less on maintenance than is nemeded to keep their rail systems from deteriorating any further, much less enough to restore them to a state of good repair. “There will never be enough money” to bring rail transit systems up to a state of good repair, a New York transit official lamented in 2007.

    Agreed.

    The subject of repair and rehabilitation is usually ignored in planning documents for new train lines.

    On the flipside, toll-financed highway projects generally require pavement and bridges to last at least as long as the toll revenue bonds issued to pay for them are outstanding.

  2. gilfoil says:

    This inequity is a national disgrace. We must stop fighting until every transit system is as shitty and segregated as Milwaukee’s or Detroit’s.

    http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/02/03/man-walks-21-miles-for-work-each-day-because-of-detroits-terrible-transit/

  3. Frank says:

    Nice Freudian. Clearly you want to kill your father and sleep with your mother. After a trip to the local brew pub of course. On subsidized sidewalks.

  4. kx1781 says:

    They reason the dude walks so far is Detroit ain’t got no jobs for him. That ain’t a problem a few more buses will fix.

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