What do you think of Detroit's proposed light rail system??

[UpperPeninsulaRon]

If you really want to think big, take a look at this regional high speed rail plan.

California High-Speed Rail

[djmilf]

usroute10 -- one of the sticking points is the number of people who would ride this light rail system daily. It may be 11,000 or it may be half a million. I'm more inclined to believe that it's 11,000 because I can't make the numbers work out if a round trip is counted by transit car instead of by passenger.

If there's $1.50 collected per fare, then 11,000 passengers each day yields $16,500 each day in revenue, or roughly $6 million a year to offset the $140 million annual subsidy. If there's half a million riders each day, then there's $750,000 daily revenue, or roughly $274 million in annual revenue. If that's the case, the Detroit Department of Transportation shouldn't be getting federal grants, it should be floating bonds or selling stock for what appears to be a highly profitable business venture.

Each fare that the DDOT sells for each bus ride it provides costs it about $5($183,000,000 in total expenditures, 37,000,000 in total passengers, numbers drawn from the City of Detroit 2008-2009 Executive Summary, Departmental Budget Information, Department of Transportation). This light rail mass transit proposal would cost the DDOT about $35 per fare.

What makes a good mass transit proposal? One that provides clean, safe, and affordable transportation for those who don't or can't or choose not to drive. One that gets people to their desired destinations in a reasonable amount of time. One that isn't seven times more expensive to operate than currently existing mass transit systems. Heck, I'd be satisfied with a proposal that was only twice more expensive to operate because, as you say, a light rail system might actually be the start of something big.

Does it have to extend to the suburbs? No, it doesn't. Would consolidating the two systems possibly eliminate duplicate transit routes and cut administrative overhead? Possibly, but that's another discussion.

If you had $84 million up front from the federal government, and could come up with another $140 million annually for mass transit, would you build a light rail line that covers 8 miles or would you nearly double the amount of money available to the DDOT annually to improve its current bus service?