Light rail transit: Cost and output

Abstract

Growing concerns about environment, oil depletion, and traffic congestion call for a fresh look at mass transit—specifically non-polluting, low noise, nonoil-consuming, high-speed electric transit. This article attempts to relate cost to output, both for light rail and the alternative transit mode, i.e., the express bus. For that purpose a simple algebraic framework is developed, tailored to data obtained from a study of alternative transit modes in the Pittsburgh South Hills corridor. The data were prepared by De Leuw Cather and Company for the Port Authority of Allegheny County and were published by the U.S. Department of Transportation in a recent study of the state of light-rail art. The article finds the volume of output at which, considering cost alone, a mass-transit authority would be indifferent between light rail and express buses. At the end, noncost factors are considered.