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Portland removes LRT free fare zone due to poor fare revenue and ridership

  • Reality Check

Light Rail advocates in Surrey love to tout Portland as a “successful” example of LRT in North America, but it’s clear that nobody knows what’s actually happening in Portland—because the reality does not look so great.

Just five days ago, TriMet (Portland’s public transportation agency) announced that it would do the following three things:

  1. Remove the downtown free rail zone, which enabled free downtown mobility on the MAX LRT and the Streetcar (buses had already been previously removed from the free fare zone in 2010)
  2. Remove fare zones, but raise system-wide fares to $2.50 (as opposed to $2.10 and $2.40 for 1 and 2 zone fares)
  3. Make more service cuts to an already crippled bus system—especially to late-night service.

If you have been to the City of Portland, you might have boarded a MAX light rail train, even for just a short hop, because it was free to ride. Soon, that will no longer be the case, as the transit operator has declared that there is no money to maintain a downtown free rail service.

Why Portland's transit reality is far grimmer than we see

The same LRT advocates touting Portland as a successful example have claimed that TransLink is “unsustainable” and that SkyTrain is “costly to operate” and “inappropriate” for its capital cost requirements. Yet in these tough times, as Portland prepares to make massive cuts, TransLink has been able to maintain existing service levels system-wide, and has even pursued targeted service increases—including to the SkyTrain[1].

That’s right: even in the midst of this economic recession, TransLink has actually increased SkyTrain service.

The mistaken picture that people have of our own system appears to have contributed to the clearly inaccurate view of Portland’s transit system. But in actuality, that system is brought down by one fundamental problem: it isn’t attracting enough ridership to cover its costs.[2][3]. The low farebox recovery makes the Portland transit system very vulnerable to sudden drops in ridership or operating cost increases.

As recently as 2009, the Portland transit system made another critical cut to its transit services that was completely missed by LRT advocates here in Surrey: it abandoned its 15-minute frequent transit network, citing a lack of funds. Meaning to say, on the majority of the former frequent transit routes (including some LRT lines), frequencies have been extended to every 17 or 20 minutes.[4]

Cities in America that followed Portland's example have crippled their transit systems

In a North American city, rapid transit has to compete with limited-access expressways and lower costs for car ownership and driving (especially compared to Europe)—while coping with lower density in urban and suburban developments that increase the distance to accessing public transit. Portland’s transit network design has not been able to overcome these things. A recent study shows that in several cases, driving was preferred over LRT—despite cost savings of even a partial LRT commute.[5]

Other cities in America that were eager to follow Portland’s “LRT example” have seen similar outcomes:

  • On Seattle’s Link Light Rail, ridership is far below original expectations.[6]
  • On Phoenix’s Metro Light Rail, low ridership and high operating subsidies have led the line to being called an “urban light rail fail” in Forbes magazine[7]. Others have noted a complete lack of transit-oriented development.[8]
  • On Los Angeles’s Metro Rail LRT, system-wide ridership dropped after the LRT replaced more competitive express buses.[9]
  • On Dallas’s DART light rail, there are less riders today than when it was first opened.[10]

Footnotes

  1. New SkyTrain cars were introduced in 2009-2010, doubling the length of most trains, which is reflected in TransLink’s reporting as a 20% increase in SkyTrain service hours. TransLink — 2011 year-end financial and performance report p. 54-55[↩]
  2. TriMet’s 2011 service and ridership information shows that rail experiences a farebox recovery ratio of about 45%, compared to over 100% for SkyTrain[↩]
  3. The same report shows that the system-wide farebox recovery ratio, including buses and access transit service, is just under 28%—meaning a subsidy of over 72%[↩]
  4. Portland: Counting by 17 — Human Transit Blog[↩]
  5. The Myth of “High Capacity Transit” — by John A. Charles Jr. of the Cascade Policy Institute[↩]
  6. Bettertransport.info’s page on Seattle’s Link Light Rail passenger boarding counts notes that Sound Transit has revised its ridership forecasts downward from initial estimates[↩]
  7. Urban Light Rail Fail — Warren Meyer, for Forbes[↩]
  8. “Ride the 20-mile line and watch the empty, blighted land go by. It’s astounding and depressing.” — Did Phoenix light rail fail? — Rogue Columnist[↩]
  9. LA Rail Transit a Failure — The Antiplanner[↩]
  10. “In total, and for most individual stations, fewer people use light rail stations than when they opened years ago.” — Dallas Dart Light Rail: Major Failure for Transit and Taxpayers. Austin’s results will be more devastating — Coalition on Sustainable Transportation[↩]

Pictured in header: Interior of a Portland MAX LRT train

Reality Check

Reality Check is the online blog run by the founder of SkyTrain for Surrey, a BC-based community organization that has advocated for the expansion of the Vancouer SkyTrain system, including our successful advocacy for the under-construction Surrey Langley SkyTrain extension.

Media Contact: Daryl Dela Cruz ​– Founder, SkyTrain for Surrey ・ Phone: +1 604 329 3529, [email protected]

Portland removes LRT free fare zone due to poor fare revenue and ridership