NOTES

The first part of the table shows all major U.S. rail transit lines, including trips and passenger miles per year and directional route miles, from tables 19 and 27 of the National Transit Database . A directional route mile is one-way; a fifteen-mile rail line therefore has 30 directional route miles. I left Seattle and Memphis out of the light-rail table (though they are in the national total) because their lines are just short tourist trolleys. I broke out New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia lines among several providers.

The second part of the table shows freeway data from the 1998 Highway Statistics, table HM-72, including freeway vehicle miles per day and freeway lane miles for the fifty largest urban areas. I multiplied vehicle mile by 1.6 to get passenger miles, based on the 1995 Nationwide Passenger Transportation Survey .

The data indicate that only the New York City subway and PATH lines produce more passenger miles of travel per directional route mile than the average urban freeway. The most productive light rail line produces about a third as many passenger miles as the average freeway. New York heavily skews the data for heavy and commuter rail lines; averages fall by 40 percent if New York is left out. Los Angeles slightly skews the data for freeway; the average drops by 4 percent if LA is left out. Somehow, LA freeways are nearly 50 percent more productive than average, probably indicating heavier loads during non-peak hours.

These data should lay to rest any claim that light rail, commuter rail, or even most heavy rail lines are anywhere near as productive as freeways.

These data suggest that, for an average urban area outside of New York City:

• Light rail makes sense as a transportation investment if its cost per directional route mile is less than a fifth of the cost of freeway lane miles (two-fifths per route mile);

• Heavy rail makes sense if its cost per directional route mile is half or less of the cost per freeway lane mile (or equal per route mile);

• Commuter rail makes sense if its cost per directional route mile is a tenth or less of the cost per freeway lane mile (or a fifth per route mile).

Few if any rail transit projects of the last decades or any proposed today meet these criteria.