Rail vs. Roads

There's an ironic subtext to Capital Metro's Green Line report: Rail transit is being held to a higher standard of investment scrutiny than are roads, which are also wildly expensive. By comparison to the proposed Green Line, there's a $500 million price tag on design and construction for the Texas Department of Transportation's new 6.2-mile Manor Expressway, a toll road in the median of Highway 290 from U.S. 183 to Parmer Lane, scheduled to start construction next year. That's about $80.6 million per mile. At the upper estimate of $192 million, the Green Line would come in at $6.8 million per mile. No submittal of ridership projections was required for that toll road expenditure; annualized costs per passenger mile were not calculated. But it's a safer bet that tolls can pay back construction costs (if not ancillary and opportunity costs) in a way the transit fare-box never will.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority project was green-lighted on the basis of current, growing congestion – traffic on U.S. 290 East between U.S. 183 and SH 130 has increased more than 78% since 1990. Daily traffic is estimated at 40,000 vehicles when the toll road opens in 2013, increasing to around 60,000 vehicles by 2030. (U.S. 290 also will be widened as part of the project; those lanes will remain untolled.) Without passenger rail in the corridor – projected to serve the same volume of travelers as two highway lanes in each direction – a toll road and/or expensive widening of 290 eventually would be needed all the way to Elgin.