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[quote user="Phoebe Vet"] Sam: I understand your background is number crunching in a for profit industry,  but I believe that you focus too much on the cost and value for individual customers instead of it's value to the community. Mass transit benefits the entire community, not just the actual riders.  Rail is almost always on time regardless of traffic density and transports larger numbers of people than busses can.  Most cities with well established rail transport would be paralyzed if the rail was removed. Most services provided by governments are not cost effective, that's why they are provided by the government rather than the private sector.  Some services that are provided by the government in cities and private enterprise in small communities demonstrate that the best.  For profit water systems are much more expensive for consumers than community systems.  For profit garbage collection is more expensive than government garbage collection.  But where people have to pay someone to pick up their garbage, people try to find ways around it.  They take their garbage to dumpsters in the middle of the night, and throw it out in the woods near their homes.  I had one tenant who just stored it in the family room until he moved out and left 75 bags of garbage behind. [/quote] Focus too much on cost?  Someone has to pay for the service.  If the users don't pay for it, then the taxpayers have to pick-up the tab.   Public transit benefits segments of the community.  In Dallas, for  many it is those who don't have an alternative mode of transportation, i.e. they don't own a car or cannot drive, etc.  Approximately 40% to 45% are in this category.  The other major group are commuters, who for a variety of reasons, prefer public transport to alternative modes.  They use public transit for the morning and evening rush to and from work. The third group, which is relatively small, are those who use public transit for special events, e.g. State Fair of Texas, events at the American Airlines Center, etc.  Recall that more people use the buses and HOV services than the light rail, which comes in a distinct third. Public transport is important for the community.  The key question is the form that it should take, which in part is a question of how much the community can afford.  Even the DOT has pulled back on its endorsement of light rail because of the costs.  Another related question is how many people will use in the system?  In the DFW Metroplex, less than five per cent of the population over 18 years of age use public transport.   Several years ago Phoenix decided to bid out garbage collection.  Apparently city employees were not managing it very well.  Interestingly, the Phoenix garbage collectors, who were unionized, were allowed to bid for the contract.  They won!  How did they do it?  They got real about their cost structure and responded to the competitive market place.  In my community trash collection is privatized.  The service is excellent. And less expensive than was the case when city employees picked up the trash.  The major reason is because the private contractor employees are more productive.  Not because they are paid poorly!  This by the way is a model that is found in many Texas communities.   Your correct in claiming that most services provided by governments are not cost effective.  It is the very reason why I believe that government should only offer those services that cannot be provided by a well regulated, competitive entity.  Government should not run commercial enterprises that can be run by a competitive entity.  This includes intercity passenger rail! In DFW the buses and light rail are operated by public service employees.  However, the Trinity Railway Express is outsourced to Herzog.  My contacts at DART tell me that they get a better deal from Herzog than would be the case if public service employees operated it.  This model, by the way, is used by many commuter rail agencies.  Although they are sole source contracts, the managers of the service provider know that if they do not meet the performance standards, they will lose the contract when it comes time to renew it.  Just ask Amtrak, which over the past year or so has lost two contracts because it did not perform well.
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