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Austin Commuter Rail - Good Deal or Bad Deal?
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<p>Capital Metro's commuter rail line between Leander and Austin is a good deal or bad deal depending on whether one sees it from a passenger's perspective or a taxpayer's perspective.</p> <p><b>The Good Deal:</b> Commuting on the train is more comfortable than the express buses that provide parallel rush hour as well as solo non-rush hour service. And Quicker! A morning trip from Leander to central Austin takes 1 hour 2 minutes on the train compared to 1 hour 19 minutes on a comparably scheduled express bus. Moreover, the train is not subject to the weather delays that can wreck the bus schedules. However, if one has to use a connector bus once they get downtown Austin, another 10 minutes may be tacked onto the train trip; thereby reducing the train advantage to seven minutes. Recent random fare verifications have shown that 97 per cent of the passengers are paying (honor system) the required fare. </p> <p><b>The Bad Deal:</b> Capital Metro's 2010 budget included $6,615,938 for commuter rail operations or an average of $66.16 per day per passenger, based on an average of 400 daily passengers. This does not include the cost of the connector buses at the MLK, Kramer, and downtown stations, or the cost of quarantining the freight trains during commuter operations. Although the line has been running just over nine months, I annualized the data to reflect the significant start-up costs incurred during the first quarter of 2010. </p> <p>The estimated cost to upgrade the Austin and Western, as well as buy the Stadler rail vehicles, was $105 million. Assuming the capital costs are being funded with 30 year municipal bonds yielding 4.16%, which is the average current yield for 30 year central Texas tax free bonds, the total cost to upgrade the Austin and Western will be approximately $236 million or an average daily capital subsidy per rider of $78.68, bringing the total subsidy to $144.84. </p> <p>Passengers pay $6.00 for a round trip to Austin from Leander, with lesser amounts to and from intermediate stations. Using the $6.00 fare as a base line, the taxpayers are on the hook for a subsidy of at least $138.84 per passenger per day. Even if the trains operate at full capacity, which is unlikely in the near future, an average subsidy of $24.49 would be required daily per passenger. </p> <p>Beginning this month, as part of an attempt to increase the number of train passengers, the average round trip fare will be reduced to $5.50. Also, mid-day trains, as well as limited Saturday service, will begin operating from Lakeline to downtown and back. Hopefully, these improvements will draw more passengers, but the service will still require a very steep taxpayer subsidy. </p>
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