Light Rail: A Billion Dollar Boondoggle 

By David Euchner 

In early August the “Tucsonans for Sensible Transportation” petitioned successfully to put a tax increase and a light rail plan (Propositions 200 and 201) on our city's November ballot.

Anticipating this since last year, I decided to research how light rail works, how much it costs, and whether it could succeed in Tucson. I was disturbed to find how much of a miserable failure light rail has been in every other city which has tried it.

When voters receive the election booklets from the City Clerk, they will read only one opposing argument to Proposition 201, which was submitted by the Pima County Libertarian Party. Unfortunately the booklet does not provide enough space to properly critique the light rail plan.

The proponents of light rail, TST, have focused on the most worthless statistics, such as “48% of light rail riders in Denver had never used transit before.” For some reason TST also considers it so important that you can apply makeup and talk on the cell phone on these trolleys that it makes it well worth a half billion dollars! One can only wonder if this bait-and-switch is intentional.

The voters will be deciding whether to commit Tucson to spending half a billion dollars on 13 miles of light rail. If TST will not give us the facts, then we all share the responsibility to find the facts for ourselves. My research has yielded the following substantial information: 

  • Light rail construction on average costs 41% more than the original projection. This means that TST's figure of $455 million for construction will be inflated to over $640 million.
  • TST focuses on the capacity of light rail to carry thousands of passengers. But the issue is use, not capacity, and on average each light rail trolley carries dozens of people, not thousands.
  • In Portland, Oregon, the poster-city for light rail and urban planning fans, the goal was to bring auto trips from 92% of all total trips in the city to 88%. They didn't succeed for the same reasons light rail failed in all other cities, but even if they succeeded then car traffic would not have been substantially reduced.
  • People do not ride light rail because it is extremely inconvenient. Unless you live next to one of the stops, you would have to take a bus to the trolley.
  • Light rail trolleys move at 21 mph; in most cities, light rail trips take 100% longer than travelling the same distance by bus or automobile.
  • The 60% federal dollars that TST is promising will not materialize. Presently Phoenix is unable to get the federal money for their light rail plan that was voted on three years ago, and many other cities throughout the country are biting the bullet.
  • The per-ride cost of light rail is obscene; according to United States Department of Transportation statistics, in 1990 the average cost of a one-way trip on recently built light rail systems was $9.44. Of course, this cost is not passed on to the riders, which means the taxpayers are footing the bill.
  • The claim that light rail carries more passengers than a freeway is pure fabrication. According to US DOT statistics, freeways carry six times more passengers per lane mile than light rail does per route mile.
  • According to Federal Transit Administration data, only New York City has rail ridership over 5% of passenger miles traveled. In most cities, including TST favorites Denver, Salt Lake City, St. Louis and Dallas, less than 0.5% of total passenger miles is via rail.
  • As a job-creating measure, light rail is a terrible hindrance to the local economy. The jobs are not filled by locals, and they are quite pricy. On average, each job created by light rail costs taxpayers over $414,000, while each job created by expanded bus service costs $65,000.
Beyond the statistics, there are several other problems with this light rail plan.

Extensive road widening will be needed to build light rail in several sections of Sixth Street and Broadway. This means endless construction and the seizure of private property through eminent domain. Gene Caywood of TST has grudgingly admitted to me in public debate that eminent domain is a necessary evil to complete his plan.

Because light rail gets right-of-way in traffic, automobiles waiting for the trolley to pass cause increasing, not decreasing, street level pollution.

Light rail does not lead to increased private development in the corridor. In Portland, the city had to provide millions of dollars in subsidies for businesses to open there.

Beyond that, Portland had the gall to brag that light rail led to the construction of a downtown parking garage! If light rail is such a success, then why is there such need for a parking garage at the end of the line? 

Light rail is a 19th century solution for a 21st century problem. All the evidence and sound analysis leads to the conclusion that light rail is a very expensive exercise in futility.

I encourage readers to visit www.pimalp.org to find more complete information and a bibliography of my research. I admit TST's website is prettier than ours, but we chose to emphasize substance over style. The facts are on our side. Let's learn from Phoenix's mistake and vote NO on Propositions 200 and 201. 

David Euchner is a Tucson attorney and Chairman of the Pima County Libertarian Party.