“A report for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in 2007 indicated that of the region’s nearly 2.5 million commuters, barely 20,000 people (projected ridership was about 40,000 daily boardings) would ride the trains each day.
“Updating the cost estimates to 2011 dollars and applying federal discounting standards, the total annual subsidy would be more than $13,000 per rider, assuming a very optimistic 40 percent of the operating costs would be paid by passenger fares.
"The average Atlanta-area household spends about this much on housing each year. The taxpayer subsidy could be even higher if the typical cost overrun and overly optimistic patronage projections documented by the leading international research were to occur. The Atlanta region has opened more high-capacity rapid transit (MARTA) over the past 35 years than any metropolitan area besides Washington, D.C. Yet, only 3 percent of the region's commuters use transit, and most of them use buses. This is not because transit is undesirable. It is rather because transit does not and cannot go where people need to go in a time that is competitive with the automobile." — Wendell Cox, principal of Demographia, an international public policy firm (May 5 AJC).
“Where is the only commuter railroad between Chicago and Miami? Surely it must be …. Charlotte, which has light rail, or Atlanta, which already has heavy rail (with MARTA).
“The answer, surprising to some, is Nashville, where the Music City Star has operated along the 31 miles between Nashville and Lebanon, Tenn., since 2006. The Star was the least costly construction project of its kind in modern U.S. history. It was built for $41 million, combining federal, state and local funds.
“Leaders from seven Middle Tennessee counties that formed the Regional Transportation Authority came together to improve the area’s development, environment and quality of life with a project that seemed alternately challenging or just plain impossible. Ridership on the Star began with 500 rider-trips per day but steadily increased each year to the present average of 1,000 to 1,100 daily rider-trips. The passengers are almost exclusively people who had never used public transit in any form, a close-knit group so loyal to the Star that they will never willingly plow through the daily commute by car again.
“While these transit consumers understand what we mean by ‘quality of life,’ the term does not impress skeptics. They want to know if commuter rail will pay for itself. Of course it won’t: No public transit system in the world pays for itself. Transit is a key to development benefiting the whole community, however.
"The Music City Star has become an important part of a public transportation network that currently provides almost 11 million passenger trips annually. Middle Tennessee is … expecting 1 million new residents over the next 20 years. They'll need commuter rail when they get here." – Paul J. Ballard, CEO of the Nashville MTA and Regional Transportation Authority (AJC May 5).
