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United States
Public transport
All aboard!
Aug 31st 2006 | PORTLAND
From The Economist print edition
Light rail and buses beckon. But will Americans really abandon their cars?
PORTLAND, Oregon, is a fabulous city, at least when it's not raining. Trees line the streets, the microbrews are full-bodied, cyclists abound. And then there is the 44-mile (71km) MAX light-rail system, started 20 years ago. Over $1.6 billion went into developing the MAX, mostly from local and federal governments. The handsome payoff includes Portland's perpetual reputation as among America's nicest places to live, and some $4 billion-worth of development near the stations. Since 2001 the MAX has even whisked people from the airport to the centre of town in just over half an hour for under $2â€â€the first “train to the plane†on the west coast.
The city has been a light-rail pioneer. Few systems pre-date the MAX, which is now busy expanding deeper into the suburbs. But light railâ€â€small passenger trains that, unlike underground trains or commuter railways, often use an overhead electricity source and may operate in the streetsâ€â€is suddenly booming across America. Charlotte, Phoenix, and Oceanside, California, are building light-rail lines from scratch. Denver, Dallas, St Louis and many others are racing to extend existing systems, sometimes along old railway tracks. Dozens more cities, from Albuquerque to Atlanta to Louisville, are mulling light rail over. Downtown streetcars are also making a comeback, in Portland and elsewhere.
Congestion is a big reason, especially in bumper-to-bumper Seattle and fast-growing sunbelt cities. Painful petrol prices, already above $3 a gallon, have also sent Americans racing for the rails. Gary Thomas, the executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, reports a “flood†of new riders during the post-Katrina petrol rise a year ago, and thinks about half of them have stayed on. A host of problems ensued, from overcrowded park-and-ride lots to lack of seating on trains. Dallas was far from alone: according to the American Public Transport Association (APTA), user-figures for public transport rose more than 4% in the first quarter of 2006 over a year earlier. Those are strong figures for a sector that typically slugs along at 2%, slightly ahead of population growth. Rider-figures for light rail were up 11.2%, and even buses carried 4.5% more passengers.
Americans have not always embraced public transport. “We had people carrying signs saying ‘Light Rail Kills Babies’,†recalls John Inglish, head of the Utah Transit Authority, which has 19 miles of track around Salt Lake City. Proponents were likened to communists, he says. Now the system has almost too many ridersâ€â€up 39% in May from a year earlier. Last autumn the crowds were so great that the trains' suspensions dropped, and carriage doors at a few stations in Salt Lake could not close unless half the passengers leaned over to one side. (Siemens, the manufacturer, has since fixed the problem.) The true test of Utahans' enthusiasm will come in November, when voters will decide whether to pay higher property taxes to support an $895m expansion into four new light-rail routes.
Light rail is hugely expensive. The federal government can cover 80% of the cost, but it is so deluged with applications that 50% is more typical. On the local level, higher taxes are always a hard sellâ€â€and several municipal governments are often involved, which complicates matters. A much-advertised benefit of light rail is that it sparks economic development around stations. At first, though, as is happening in Houston now, householders can delay projects out of fear that their property will fall victim to the bulldozers.
Cost overruns have already caused trouble in Seattle, which had to budget in an extra $1 billion several years ago. The city's financial storm has calmed, and Sound Transit expects to complete a light-rail link to the airport by 2009. Now, though, planners across America must worry about a huge jump in the price of construction materials. Concrete for tunnels, barriers and supports costs around 11% more than last year. Prices of steel, cement and copper wiring have gone up too.
APNot just for the desperate and disreputable
Can cities get by with buses, which are far cheaper than rail? Sadly, few people want to ride on buses unless they have to. In many American cities they are the transport of the poor, the drunk and the illegal. They are slow and often smelly, and come at unpredictable intervals. And when they stop, they may block traffic.
But petrol prices are having an effect. Buses have seen some astonishing growth, especially in smaller cities, notes William Millar, the president of APTA. Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the heart of oil and gas country, has seen bus travel jump 28% in a year. In Austin, journeys along park-and-ride routes are up 14% in a year. Many systems are running their buses on natural gas or cooking oil, to save money and draw in green riders.
The oddest bus-booster may be Las Vegas, which cannot get enough of sprawl and cars. Sin City has no plans for light rail. It does have a privately owned monorail, whose customer base is slowly disintegrating: in July it had 600,763 passengers, down 41% in a year. And, until recently, bus was “a four-letter wordâ€Â, says Jacob Snow of southern Nevada's transport commission. But he is trying to change attitudes. In 2004 his agency introduced “bus rapid transitâ€Â, described (perhaps wistfully) as a “cross between a bus and a bullet trainâ€Â. It has a dedicated bus lane and operates in a low-density area of north Vegas. “You can do what light rail does with a bus for one-third of the cost,†insists Mr Snow. Adding to the mix, last October Las Vegas began service on “The Deuceâ€Â, a fancily named bus that runs along the Strip. It is a double-decker, the better to see the casinos, and the launch included showgirls.
Enticements like these will hardly persuade Americans to abandon their SUVs. Driving is the ultimate convenience, especially for doing multiple errands at different places. But technology has several improvements in store for public transport, executives say. One forthcoming convenience is wireless internet access. Just this week Caltrain, a Bay Area commuter-rail system, declared that it has successfully installed a wireless system on a 16-mile stretch of track near Palo Alto. Sound Transit, in Seattle, is also testing wireless on buses and a commuter railway line.
As important, technology may change the whole boarding process. Soon more cities will have a number to dial to learn exactly where the bus or train is, enabling people to stay at home an extra ten minutes. That may be especially useful when baby-boomers start getting feeble. Google Transit is working on providing public-transport directions (at the moment only Portland is available, in beta). And more cities may adopt technology like Washington Metro's “SmarTrip†card, which gets users quickly through the turnstiles and is easy to top up.
Someday, dreams Mr Millar, driving licences may even act as smart-cards. Utah is planning a pilot programme this autumn on its ski buses, whereby customers can pay by simply waving a credit or other payment card in the right spot. Besides being convenient, this also saves paying bus workers to count up small change. That, at least, sounds like a system that is heading in the right direction.
United States
Public transport
All aboard!
Aug 31st 2006 | PORTLAND
From The Economist print edition
Light rail and buses beckon. But will Americans really abandon their cars?
PORTLAND, Oregon, is a fabulous city, at least when it's not raining. Trees line the streets, the microbrews are full-bodied, cyclists abound. And then there is the 44-mile (71km) MAX light-rail system, started 20 years ago. Over $1.6 billion went into developing the MAX, mostly from local and federal governments. The handsome payoff includes Portland's perpetual reputation as among America's nicest places to live, and some $4 billion-worth of development near the stations. Since 2001 the MAX has even whisked people from the airport to the centre of town in just over half an hour for under $2â€â€the first “train to the plane†on the west coast.
The city has been a light-rail pioneer. Few systems pre-date the MAX, which is now busy expanding deeper into the suburbs. But light railâ€â€small passenger trains that, unlike underground trains or commuter railways, often use an overhead electricity source and may operate in the streetsâ€â€is suddenly booming across America. Charlotte, Phoenix, and Oceanside, California, are building light-rail lines from scratch. Denver, Dallas, St Louis and many others are racing to extend existing systems, sometimes along old railway tracks. Dozens more cities, from Albuquerque to Atlanta to Louisville, are mulling light rail over. Downtown streetcars are also making a comeback, in Portland and elsewhere.
Congestion is a big reason, especially in bumper-to-bumper Seattle and fast-growing sunbelt cities. Painful petrol prices, already above $3 a gallon, have also sent Americans racing for the rails. Gary Thomas, the executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, reports a “flood†of new riders during the post-Katrina petrol rise a year ago, and thinks about half of them have stayed on. A host of problems ensued, from overcrowded park-and-ride lots to lack of seating on trains. Dallas was far from alone: according to the American Public Transport Association (APTA), user-figures for public transport rose more than 4% in the first quarter of 2006 over a year earlier. Those are strong figures for a sector that typically slugs along at 2%, slightly ahead of population growth. Rider-figures for light rail were up 11.2%, and even buses carried 4.5% more passengers.
Americans have not always embraced public transport. “We had people carrying signs saying ‘Light Rail Kills Babies’,†recalls John Inglish, head of the Utah Transit Authority, which has 19 miles of track around Salt Lake City. Proponents were likened to communists, he says. Now the system has almost too many ridersâ€â€up 39% in May from a year earlier. Last autumn the crowds were so great that the trains' suspensions dropped, and carriage doors at a few stations in Salt Lake could not close unless half the passengers leaned over to one side. (Siemens, the manufacturer, has since fixed the problem.) The true test of Utahans' enthusiasm will come in November, when voters will decide whether to pay higher property taxes to support an $895m expansion into four new light-rail routes.
Light rail is hugely expensive. The federal government can cover 80% of the cost, but it is so deluged with applications that 50% is more typical. On the local level, higher taxes are always a hard sellâ€â€and several municipal governments are often involved, which complicates matters. A much-advertised benefit of light rail is that it sparks economic development around stations. At first, though, as is happening in Houston now, householders can delay projects out of fear that their property will fall victim to the bulldozers.
Cost overruns have already caused trouble in Seattle, which had to budget in an extra $1 billion several years ago. The city's financial storm has calmed, and Sound Transit expects to complete a light-rail link to the airport by 2009. Now, though, planners across America must worry about a huge jump in the price of construction materials. Concrete for tunnels, barriers and supports costs around 11% more than last year. Prices of steel, cement and copper wiring have gone up too.
APNot just for the desperate and disreputable
Can cities get by with buses, which are far cheaper than rail? Sadly, few people want to ride on buses unless they have to. In many American cities they are the transport of the poor, the drunk and the illegal. They are slow and often smelly, and come at unpredictable intervals. And when they stop, they may block traffic.
But petrol prices are having an effect. Buses have seen some astonishing growth, especially in smaller cities, notes William Millar, the president of APTA. Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the heart of oil and gas country, has seen bus travel jump 28% in a year. In Austin, journeys along park-and-ride routes are up 14% in a year. Many systems are running their buses on natural gas or cooking oil, to save money and draw in green riders.
The oddest bus-booster may be Las Vegas, which cannot get enough of sprawl and cars. Sin City has no plans for light rail. It does have a privately owned monorail, whose customer base is slowly disintegrating: in July it had 600,763 passengers, down 41% in a year. And, until recently, bus was “a four-letter wordâ€Â, says Jacob Snow of southern Nevada's transport commission. But he is trying to change attitudes. In 2004 his agency introduced “bus rapid transitâ€Â, described (perhaps wistfully) as a “cross between a bus and a bullet trainâ€Â. It has a dedicated bus lane and operates in a low-density area of north Vegas. “You can do what light rail does with a bus for one-third of the cost,†insists Mr Snow. Adding to the mix, last October Las Vegas began service on “The Deuceâ€Â, a fancily named bus that runs along the Strip. It is a double-decker, the better to see the casinos, and the launch included showgirls.
Enticements like these will hardly persuade Americans to abandon their SUVs. Driving is the ultimate convenience, especially for doing multiple errands at different places. But technology has several improvements in store for public transport, executives say. One forthcoming convenience is wireless internet access. Just this week Caltrain, a Bay Area commuter-rail system, declared that it has successfully installed a wireless system on a 16-mile stretch of track near Palo Alto. Sound Transit, in Seattle, is also testing wireless on buses and a commuter railway line.
As important, technology may change the whole boarding process. Soon more cities will have a number to dial to learn exactly where the bus or train is, enabling people to stay at home an extra ten minutes. That may be especially useful when baby-boomers start getting feeble. Google Transit is working on providing public-transport directions (at the moment only Portland is available, in beta). And more cities may adopt technology like Washington Metro's “SmarTrip†card, which gets users quickly through the turnstiles and is easy to top up.
Someday, dreams Mr Millar, driving licences may even act as smart-cards. Utah is planning a pilot programme this autumn on its ski buses, whereby customers can pay by simply waving a credit or other payment card in the right spot. Besides being convenient, this also saves paying bus workers to count up small change. That, at least, sounds like a system that is heading in the right direction.