Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirrus
>> There's no money for both. The transit authority is "very inefficient" with system-wide operating cost recovery
This is exactly why a streetcar would make sense. For such a high ridership route, shorter vehicles are extremely inefficient since you need so many drivers. Broadway would have higher cost recovery if it wasn't moving such a huge number of passengers in small vehicles. Other than its initial capital cost, streetcars would have no downside but would save huge amounts of money in operating, because you could move the same number of people with fewer vehicles.
Streetcars do not make sense on low ridership routes, but we're talking about what might be the highest ridership bus route on the continent.
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Streetcar may be able to carry more people per unit, but it also got a higher cost per unit. The current cost per boarding on the 99 is
just 61 cents. Adding the cost for deadheading and layover, it should still be well under a dollar per boarding. That is, the transit authority is actually getting a massive operating revenue from the line. However, compare this
to the Toronto streetcar, where most route cost well over $2 per passenger. Although this might improve with the longer new-generation trains, I don't think it would become more profitable than the current 99 B-Line.