Regional Materials and
Information
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St. Louis
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photo by Brad Joseph |
Be Sure You Have the Full Story on Transit!
Don't be surprised when you see Wendell Cox and other transit critics
touting an article from the July 2004 issue of the Regional Economist
titled "Light Rail: Boon or Boondoggle"
by St. Louis Fed economists Molly D. Castelazo and Thomas A. Garrett.
Indeed, much of the information is directly comprised and cited
from Cox's Demographia website (www.demographia.org).
Unfortunately, the report exhibits the typical errors made by transit
critics. "It ignores many benefits of rail transit and understates
the costs of automobile travel on the same corridors. Their study
fails to reflect current best practices for comparing highway and
transit investment cost effectiveness," says Todd Litman, Director
of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Litman also wrote a
critique of this report, which is available below.
On August 10th, 2004, authors Castelazo and Garrett presented their
report at the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis.
Read the Regional Economist Article Here: Light
Rail Boon or Boondoggle
Read the Full Report Here:
Light-Rail Transit
in America Light-Rail Transit in America
POLICY ISSUES AND PROSPECTS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Responses to the Report
The good news is, this report did not go unnoticed by transportation
professionals. In addition to having several transit professionals
in attendance at the Federal Reserve Bank presentation, many others
decided to author thorough critiques of the report.
For the full story on this issue, visit Citizens For Modern
Transit (www.cmt-stl.org)
(Many thanks go out to Tom Shrout of CMT for keeping us posted on
the latest developments!)
Evaluating Public
Transit Benefits in St.Louis: Critique of "Light Rail Boon
or Boondoggle"
By Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
| There has been considerable debate over the value of rail
transit service. Critics argue that it is economically inefficient
and more costly than alternatives, but their analysis often
focuses on just one or two of the full economic, social and
environmental benefits provided by high quality transit, and
underestimates the full costs of accommodating additional automobile
traffic on the same corridors. Rail transit can improve mobility
for non-drivers, reduce automobile travel and associated costs,
and support more efficient land use patterns. As a result, communities
with major rail transit systems tend to have less per capita
traffic congestion, lower per capita traffic fatalities, lower
road and parking facility costs, and consumer cost savings.
Read more..... |
White Paper by
John Roach
Development Programming Associates, St. Louis
| The recent paper authored by Mr. Garrett and Ms Castelazo,
St. Louis Fed economists, presented in the July issue of the
Regional Economist titled "Light Rail Boon or Boondoggle?"
is based upon a series of premises that neither reflect the
real world nor lead to productive analysis of public investments.
A later more extensive version has been posted that represents
an extension of the comments in the article published in the
Regional Economist. This paper represents comment on the expanded
version The paper is incomplete in analysis and amounts to a
tendentious recitation of standard Libertarian rhetoric. Read
more.... |
Light Rail
Transit: A Bargain Compared to Toll Roads
By E. L. Tennyson, P.E. with editing and comments by Dave Dobbs,
Texas Association for Public Transportation, publisher http://www.lightrailnow.org,
and Lyndon Henry
| Light Rail Transit (LRT) is far less costly than toll roads
if they are both built on the same or similar right-of-way.
Light Rail in a subway will be more expensive than a toll highway
on terra firma, but LRT will have far more capacity. Basically,
Light Rail on a right-of-way (ROW) that has no buildings on
it averages about $20 million per double-track mile excluding
rolling stock and shops. It will typically carry 1,500 to 3,500
people in the peak hour one-way but could carry 14,000 people
per hour if, as in Boston, there is a need to do so. Read
more.... |
Why St. Louis's
MetroLink Light Railway Is a Mobility Bargain: A Response to Recent
Anti-Rail Transit Diatribes Published by the Federal Reserve Bank
of St. Louis
By Lyndon Henry and David D. Dobbs August 2004
| The Boondoggle article (with criticisms particularly focused
on St. Louis's MetroLink LRT system) has far more of the character
of a political tract than a well-reasoned, fact-based analysis
conducive to sound public policy decisionmaking. W hile Garrett's
Light-Rail Transit in America study is slightly more demure
and informative, it shares most of the Boondoggle article's
fallacies and serious methodological weaknesses. Identifying
and understanding these fallacies and weaknesses is critical
to furthering sound transportation decisionmaking in US cities.
Read more... |
Comments on
“Light Rail: Boon or Boondoggle?”
By Haynes Goddard, Professor of Economics, University of Cincinnati
| Normally, we can count on the economic expertise at the various
Federal Reserve Banks to help fill the void. But in this case,
the short publication “ Light Rail: Boon or Boondoggle?”
by Molly D. Castelazo and Thomas A. Garrett, which appeared
in the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank’s “The Regional
Economist”, July 2004, only confuses the issues. This
article and the supporting study are poorly researched and analytically
deficient, raising questions about the quality of the economic
research supported at the Bank. It is clear that the authors
write on a topic for which they have little expertise, as this
is not competent research. Read
more.... |
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