Liberals love buses — at least when the buses are run by municipally owned enterprises with union workforces and operate at a loss that requires government subsidies. When buses provide profitable, inter-city service that competes with Amtrak, well, they’re not quite so enamored.
But conservatives love profitable, inter-city buses, which represent a triumph of entrepreneurial innovation in a competitive, unsubsidized and lightly regulated industry. A new study, “Supporting Passenger Mobility and Choice by Breaking Modal Stovepipes,” backed by the Reason Foundation, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the American Bus Association, finds that buses overall provide more cost-effective service than Amtrak. (Hat tip: Ron Utt.) Based upon an analysis of 20 representative routes, the study finds:
- In general, motorcoaches provide more schedule options than Amtrak.
- Total travel time is comparable — shorter for the train on 10 routes, and shorter for buses on 10.
- Bus fares were lower in 13 of the 20 routes examined.
- The cost to provide service is 25% less than Amtrak when both capital and operating costs are considered.
- Amtrak covered its capital and operating costs for only two of the routes examined — the Northeast Corridor and the Washington-to-Lynchburg service.
- Except in the Northeast Corridor, where Amtrak’s Accela service uses electric locomotives, buses emit half the CO2 per passenger than the trains.
“As we strive to improve mobility and our infrastructure in this time of debt and deficits, we need to spend our transportation funding more wisely than ever,” said Shirley Ybarra, senior transportation analyst with the Reason Foundation and a former Virginia secretary of transportation. “Before spending taxpayers’ money Congress needs to closely examine the benefits and cost-effectiveness of alternatives.”
The same logic applies to state policy here in the commonwealth. Is the state investment in inter-city rail providing inter-city connectivity that the private sector isn’t already… at no public expense?
Update: As coincidence would have it, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation has just released a draft statewide rail plan for public review. As part of its transportation-funding overhaul, the General Assembly dedicated a share of sales tax revenue to the Intercity Passenger Rail Operating and Capital Fund (IPROC). Thus, Virginia is expected to spend $44 million in revenue on inter-city rail this fiscal year and $56 million by FY2018, an 86% increase in funding. I’m surprised the bus lobby isn’t raising hell!
— JAB
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