POINT OF VIEW: URBAN RAIL TRANSIT SYSTEMS. RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF RAIL TRANSIT

This article examines the strong impact of rail transit on cities in terms of transportation patterns, land use development, and the quality of life. It then looks at rail transit developments in recent decades, followed by a discussion of what makes a rail transit system successful. Next, difficulties in forecasting are examined, and it is pointed out that, while some errors in cost and ridership projections do exist and deserve attention, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration report "Urban Rail Transit Projects: Forecast Versus Actual Ridership and Costs" (1989) exaggerates these errors. Similar examples of missed forecasts for the Interstate highway system and the multimillion dollar eight-lane highway tunnel at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., are pointed out. It is concluded that, if the UMTA findings were correct, "rail systems are successful even with higher costs and lower ridership than those meeting UMTA's criteria".

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• Availability:
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• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Vuchic, V R
• Publication Date: 1991-9

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References;
• Pagination: p. 13-19
• Serial:
  • TR News
  • Issue Number: 156
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0738-6826

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Cost estimating; Estimates; Forecasting; Rail transit; Ridership; Urban transit
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00616513
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 30 1991 12:00AM