I just returned from a short presentation by Mike Ransom on the Utah commuter Frontrunner rail line. \u00a0It is a lesson in how to not spend money.<\/p>\n
Right now, the rail line has about 100,000 one-way trips a month. \u00a0Split over about ~22 operating days this is somewhere over 4,000 trips a day. \u00a0Those are not round trip, so probably more like 2-3,000 people are riding the train each day. \u00a0The operating expenses are about 1.2 million\/month. \u00a0Thus, based on operating expenses alone, the train’s societal cost is about $12\/trip. \u00a0Or about $24 a round trip. \u00a0This is not the most efficient use of money.<\/p>\n
Of course, the train construction project cost about 600 million dollars. \u00a0Taking in the cost of capital, then, the train is costing more like $5-6 million a month. \u00a0In which case we are paying, as taxpayers, about $50 to $60 per trip– over a $100 a round trip. \u00a0And don’t worry. \u00a0Alot of that capital money came from the feds, so even if you don’t live in Utah you get to help pay for it.<\/p>\n
An alternate way to think about it is if we were to take that $5-6 million and use it to lease cars for each of the regular riders on the Frontrunner. \u00a0If we think those trip totals are largely composed of about 5-10,000 regular riders, we could spend about $500-$1000 a month leasing each of them a very very very nice car. \u00a0Or, here’s a thought, we could use the money in a way that would actually benefit more people.<\/p>\n
Don’t worry, though. \u00a0They are going to expand the line down to Provo and beyond so that all can benefit from the wonders of commuter rail in the American West — where you can now get on a train to take you from where you don’t live, to where you don’t work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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