Spatial and Temporal Variability of Rail Transit Costs and Cost Effectiveness

Abstract

Previous research has evaluated the temporal variability of transit costs and shown that peak period service costs more to operate in both gross and net terms. However, research on spatial variability of transit costs, particulalry for modes other than bus transit, is quite limited. Using transit agency data on labor and train allocations in the United States, I develop an accounting cost model that allocates variable and semi-fixed capital costs to times of day and each link and station of two regional rapid rail transit networks—the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)—to evaluate temporal and spatial variability of costs and average costs per rider. I find that costs per hour are highest, but average costs per rider are lowest, during weekday peak periods in both systems, and that costs are highest and costs per rider are lowest in the urban core area of the BART system, while there is no clear spatial pattern in the MARTA system.

Inequitable Inefficiency: A Case Study of Rail Transit Fare Policies

“…To do this, I use FY19 OD fare data provided by BART and MARTA, as well as ndings from the cost allocation study (Mallett, 2022) I do not control for directionality in my analysis; a trip from one station to another is analyzed in tandem with a trip in the reverse direction. Again, for consistency in analysis, I include only mainline tracks of the BART network (i.e., where traditional BART trains/technology operate), so exclude any trips that solely use non-mainline portions of track.…”

“…Measuring cost recovery variability amounts to analyzing how costs and fare receipts covary across time and space. I document cost and cost per rider variability in the cost allocation study (Mallett, 2022). In brief, I found that costs decrease but costs per rider increase with distance from the core of the BART system, that there is no clear spatial pattern in the MARTA system, and that the weekday peak period -out of eight operating time periods for BART and ve for MARTA -has the lowest cost per rider in both networks but the highest cost for BART and barely lower costs than the weekday base period for MARTA.…”

“…In brief, I found that costs decrease but costs per rider increase with distance from the core of the BART system, that there is no clear spatial pattern in the MARTA system, and that the weekday peak period -out of eight operating time periods for BART and ve for MARTA -has the lowest cost per rider in both networks but the highest cost for BART and barely lower costs than the weekday base period for MARTA. For details on the costs I allocated, how I allocated them, and the results, see Mallett (2022).…”

“…Table 1 provides agency pro le information of the BART and MARTA rail networks effective during FY19. Unless otherwise noted, this comes from the cost allocation portion of this research (Mallett, 2022). As in the cost allocation research (Mallett, 2022), while I include all BART stations in Table 1 and the following analysis, only mainline portions of BART track are included for consistency (i.e., I exclude BART's diesel-multiple unit eBART service and cablepowered Oakland Airport Connector service).…”

“…Unless otherwise noted, this comes from the cost allocation portion of this research (Mallett, 2022). As in the cost allocation research (Mallett, 2022), while I include all BART stations in Table 1 and the following analysis, only mainline portions of BART track are included for consistency (i.e., I exclude BART's diesel-multiple unit eBART service and cablepowered Oakland Airport Connector service). During FY19, the MARTA system had 38 stations, resulting in 703 two-way OD pairs compared to 48 stations and 1,128 two-way OD pairs for BART.…”