All The Way From Tucson
» NYT: In Phoenix, Weekend Users Make Light Rail a Success
Another light rail system operating around the nation ... another early success story.
Among the many detractors -- and they were multitudinous -- who thought a light rail line in this sprawling city would be a riderless $1 billion failure was Starlee Rhoades, the spokeswoman for the Goldwater Institute, a vocal critic of the rail's expense. "I've taken it," Ms. Rhoades said, slightly sheepishly. "It's useful."
She and her colleagues still think the rail is oversubsidized, but in terms of predictions of failure, she said, "We don't dwell."
The light rail here, which opened in December, has been a greater success than its proponents thought it would be, but not quite the way they envisioned. Unlike the rest of the country's public transportation systems, which are used principally by commuters, the 20 miles of light rail here stretching from central Phoenix to Mesa and Tempe is used largely by people going to restaurants, bars, ball games and cultural events downtown.
The rail was projected to attract 26,000 riders per day, but the number is closer to 33,000, boosted in large part by weekend riders. Only 27 percent use the train for work, according to its operator, compared with 60 percent of other public transit users on average nationwide.
It's also worth pointing out for some around town here that Phoenix's rail is at grade level. For all the critics of how expensive rail is, it sure it a peculiar argument to suggest that, in order for it to be effective, it should be made even more expensive. Not that this change would make a difference in the minds of critics ... it's just a ploy to turn the argument back into one of cost.
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If you've been to Phoenix and seen this rail line, you'd know that it is nothing like Houston. If the problem for Houston rail is that it isn't a dense enough city, you'd think we were NYC compared to Phoenix. Every other lot along the whole rail line (except for right downtown) is vacant. The streets it runs on are nothing like Richmond Ave. There is tons of right of way space. There is very little traffic on most of the affected streets. Take Houston inside the loop, level 50% of the buildings and move 75% of the people out -- then putting in rail would be easy and people would think it was "neat" (putting cost aside). But Houston's next rail lines -- building and then running -- won't be anything like the Phoenix line.
Also, there are tons of college kids riding the line, boosting the ridership. Now, I like college kids being able to easily get to the Dback/Suns games and far-away bars as much as the next guy, but is this really why rail should be built? It's much like our Main Street line, which has an enormous % of its ridership for the 1 or 2 stops from the parking lots into the Medical Center. Did we really build the thing for hospital worker parking? Take out ASU students and parking lot commuters, and I submit that neither line is as well-used as proponents urge. But of course proponents like to count those riders as if they were the same as people making 10+ mile commutes.
Back to your at-grade comment. Of course at-grade rail works in Phoenix. It's like a half-empty prairie out there. And of course at-grade rail would NOT work in Chicago or NYC. Houston is in between, but I fear it is too much towards the already-crowded end that it won't work here. But we shall see.