About Light Rail: Benefit or Boondoggle??

Whether light-rail systems in the United States are a benefit or a boondoggle in the communities that build them has been argued for many years. 

Proponents of light rail argue that rail transit increases community well-being by creating jobs, by boosting economic development and property values, and by reducing pollution and traffic congestion—all while providing drivers with an economical alternative to the automobile** see qualifier below . 
Opponents counter that light-rail transit provides little of these benefits to citizens and that the costs of such systems greatly outweigh any potential benefits.

The facts are important for residents in cities with existing light-rail transit and in cities considering proposals for building or expanding light-rail transit.

There are six key issues surrounding light-rail transit: 

• property values and development
• job creation
• traffic congestion and urban sprawl
• citizens' preferences for car over rail,
• air pollution
• solvency

Here are the conclusions:

Citizens can pay tens of millions of dollars annually to subsidize light-rail transit in their community. If the benefits exceed these costs, then rail transit would be socially beneficial. However, many of the argued benefits of light-rail transit, such as alleviating traffic congestion and pollution, may not come to bear.

One clear benefit of rail transit, however, is higher property values for homes and businesses located near a transit station. In fact, in many cities one can see economic development occurring around transit stations, although this may not be causal evidence of the relationship between rail transit and economic development. But again, the increase in property values and economic development are subsidized benefits and may not be greater than the subsidy costs. Both citizens and local officials should have an understanding of the costs of light-rail transit relative to the potential benefits.

Given the size of costs relative to the benefits, the creation of light-rail transit systems or the expansion of existing systems in American cities may be difficult to justify. Go to this link to read the entire details: Light Rail Publication from St. Louis Federal Reserve

**In a previous post about light rail there was a graph with Valley Metro's own statistics that only 5% of the population use public transportation - for the 3.1 Mile Central Mesa Light Rail extension there was an staggering investment of over $340 Million Dollars!
Who says we don't have "Million Dollar-Miles" in the New Urban Downtown Mesa???
 . . . and keep in mind that annual operating expenses  for lightrail will be paid by the City of Mesa with sales/use/consumption taxes to cover anticipated losses.