Re: Monorail. Monorail! Monoraaaail!

In article <87mzgr2s33.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

whheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Wilson Heydt) writes:

In article <dt0rnn$e9m$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Keith F. Lynch <kfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

....

Indeed, Metro, over its 30 year history, during which it had
transported nearly a million people per day, has cost almost as
much as one highway bridge (http://www.wilsonbridge.com/) and
one road intersection (http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/).

Is that really "nearly amillion people aday" or is it really "nearly
a million *trips* a day"? Transit systems are very fond of counting
individual trips as if they were all distinct individuals. On a
commute system, the truth is about half of what is claimed.

Or, if they manage to count people who change trains on a single trip
twice (or go between train and bus) it can easily be 4 or 6 times.

It occurs to me that the million people a day figure is inconsistent
with my earlier calculations on Metro's total expenditure. According to
the Metro web page, revenue from fares pay for 55% of operating costs,
narrowly defined to not include replacemenet of worn out equipment.
According to the same page, the operating defit for next year is
expected to be $60 million. I put those numbers together to estimate
operating costs of a little over a hundred million dollars.

But if they are selling a million trips a day--the more conservative
reading of Keith's claim--at average price of $1.50 a trip (the page
says the minimum fare is $1.35, maximum $3.90, so that's a very
conservative estimate) that would be a fare income of about $500
million/year, implying an operating budget of about $900 million.

For those who haven't read the Metro web page, it's clear that its
purpose isn't to provide accurate information but to persuade the reader
that Metro needs to be given more money. So perhaps it isn't surprising
that they don't give clear information about the actual finances.

I did find the ridership figure, however, The combined ridership (rail
and bus) is 336 million trips (not people)/year.

--
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
.

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