Top50The U.S. and

Canada’s

MAGAZINE’SMAGAZINE’S

Passenger RailProjects for 2003

METRO MAGAZINE JUNE | JULY 200336

As the costs of warskyrocket, so dothe costs of railprojects. Despite

the waning economy, totalproject costs in METRO’s 9th

annual North American rail projects survey jumped9% to a total of $58 billion. Although a sizeable per-centage increase, numbers still haven’t escalated ashigh as 2001, when costs increased 11%.

In its fiscal year 2004 budget, the U.S. Departmentof Transportation (DOT) requested $1.5 billion forNew Starts projects, $3 million more than 2003. Thisbudget reflects a proposed expansion of the programto make new non-fixed guideway transportation cor-ridor projects eligible for funding and encouragemore cost-effective transit options.

Transportation agencies appear to have more am-bitious plans in this year’s listing, with higher priced

proposals edging out smallerones. Fourteen properties list-ed billion dollar amounts forprojects in 2003.

The cutoff price for thebottom of our listing, $45

million for No. 50 Virginia Railway Express, is anincrease of $8 million from last year.

NYCT stays aheadGoing back up the list to the No. 1 spot — no real

surprise here — is MTA New York City Transit(NYCT) keeping its slot warm for the third year in arow with $9 billion total costs. Although it is down$863 million, New York still holds a $4 billion edgeover Chicago Transit Authority, which holds therunner-up slot. NYCT is also the leader in the railcarlist, with a whopping 6,348 vehicles, more than40% of the overall total in the Top 50.

MTA New York City continuesits reign in the top spot, with$9 billion in project costs, in

METRO’s 9TH annual rail study.By Janna Starcic, Associate Editor

Rail Projects Total

$58 BillioninTop 50

As you might expect with such alarge railcar fleet, NYCT leads in rider-ship as well, transporting 1.4 billionpassengers. Ridership numbers for thecombined fleets is unchanged from2002, with more than 3 billion passen-gers annually.

Railcar fleet mix numbers in thisyear’s list remained fairly stable, withheavy railcars continuing to dominateby increasing 9% to a total of 13,779.Light rail cars stayed put at 7%, with1,535 vehicles.

Although some rankings aren’tbudging, some are moving up, or out,

most notably in the Top 10. The high-est climber in the survey is the SantaClara Valley (Calif.) TransportationAuthority, moving up 12 places to No.3, with $5 billion in its project purse. Amajor portion — $3.8 billion — is ear-marked for a 16-mile Bay Area RapidTransit extension to the Silicon Valley.Another $775 million is set aside for12 miles of light rail extensions underconstruction.

Another agency to move up in therankings by enlarging its projectpurse is Triangle Transit Authorityin N.C., with a total of $813 million.

Two operations — Orange County(Calif.) Transportation Authority andWashington Metropolitan Area Tran-sit Authority — lost their Top 10 rank-ings to higher-priced projects in 2003.

Amtrak, remaining fairly quiet thisyear with no shutdown threats, re-ceived $900 million in this year’s pro-posed budget, and was put on a leashso to speak. The DOT was given over-sight authority of Amtrak’s spending,marking a new era of accountabilityfor the passenger rail service. To curtailits monetary drain, critics want Am-trak to cut its long-distance routes, ofwhich it has already trimmed two. Thepassenger rail service, with projectcosts of $559 million, continues with amid-list ranking of No. 28, a two-posi-tion drop from 2002.

Monorail for high rollersMaking its return to the Top 50 is

Las Vegas’ Regional TransportationCommission at No. 36 for its mono-rail project. The monorail will linkseven stations over 3.9 miles of elevat-ed dual-monorail guideway. The pro-ject uses two existing stations and re-vamps the existing less-than-one-mileguideway of the MGM Grand andBally’s hotels’ former monorail line.

Other projects on the rise includeNorth County (Oceanside, Calif.)Transit District’s (NCTD) Oceanside-Escondido rail corridor project, whichreceived a full-funding grant agree-ment for $351 million. The rail corri-dor proposal involves converting anexisting 22-mile freight rail corridorinto a diesel multiple unit transit sys-tem running east from the coastal cityof Oceanside to Escondido.

The alignment, which includes a1.7-mile loop of new right-of-way ser-vice to the California State Universi-ty-San Marcos campus, will also fea-ture 15 stations, four of which areexisting transit centers. NCTD esti-mates 19,000 daily riders by 2020. Theoperation only moves up one spotfrom 2002 to the No. 33 position, de-spite its $453 million showing.

If you know of, or are part of, a railagency that has plans for the future,but we missed for this year’s survey,please let us know so we can includeyou next year.

38 METRO MAGAZINE JUNE | JULY 2003

Other 1%

Heavy

67%

Commuter

20%

Light

7%

Locomotives

5%

Railcar Fleet Mix

In 2003, rail properties operated 13,779heavy railcars, 4,041 commuter cars,1,535 LRVs, 1,124 locomotives and 171 ve-hicles in the “other” category.

Top 10 Largest Rail FleetsMTA New York City Transit 6,348

Amtrak 2,188

Chicago Transit Authority 1,218

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 1,054

New Jersey Transit 1,037

MTA Long Island Railroad 976

MTA Metro-North Railroad 944

Metra Commuter Rail 910

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority 892

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority 869

MTA New York City garners another No. 1 spot in our ranking of largest fleets,with a 41% share of the 15,567 total vehicles. Amtrak plays second fiddle againthis year with 2,188 railcars.

Ridership numbers for the combinedfleets are virtually unchanged from 2002,with more than 3 billion passengers trans-ported annually.

➞

40 METRO MAGAZINE JUNE | JULY 2003

Top50Top50

Rank

Rank ’02

Agency

City

State

Cost of Projects

in Millions

Rail Riders Now

in Millions

Rail Riders Upon

Project Completion

Total RailcarsH

eavy Railcars

Other Railcars

Light Railcars

Locomotives

Comm

uter

Railcars

The U.S. and Canada’s

Passenger RailProjects for 2003

The U.S. and Canada’s

Passenger RailProjects for 2003

1 MTA New York City Transit New York NY 9,394 6,348 6,348 0 0 0 0 1,400 1,393 1

2 Chicago Transit Authority Chicago IL 5,193 1,218 1,190 0 0 0 28 152 152 4

3 Santa Clara Valley San Jose CA 5,000 80 0 80 0 0 0 0 — 15Transportation Authority

4 MTA Long Island Rail Road Jamaica NY 4,045 976 0 0 930 46 0 83.9 — 6

5 Tren Urbano San Juan PR 3,164 74 74 0 0 0 0 0 29 7

6 Sound Transit Seattle WA 2,874 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 2.3 5

7 New Jersey Transit Newark NJ 2,850 1,037 844 45 0 148 0 70.5 — 9

8 Massachusetts Bay Boston MA 2,500 1,054 408 189 377 80 143.4 — 3Transportation Authority

9 Southeastern Pennsylvania Philadelphia PA 1,400 869 345 167 349 8 0 131 — 7Transportation Authority

10 San Francisco Municipal Railway San Francisco CA 1,326 188 0 148 0 0 40 55.5 88 12

11 Metro-North Railroad New York NY 1,300 944 0 0 897 47 0 71.4 — 11

12 Valley Metro Rail Phoenix AZ 1,200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.026 13

12 Orange County Orange CA 1,200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21.8 10Transportation Authority

14 Los Angeles County Metropolitan Los Angeles CA 1,000 223 104 119 0 0 0 62.6 100 15Transportation Authority

15 Regional Transportation District Denver CO 879 49 0 49 0 0 0 10.4 16.1 19

16 Port Authority of Jersey City NJ 864 336 336 0 0 0 0 51.9 67 —New York/New Jersey

17 Triangle Transit Authority Raleigh/Durham NC 813 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 28

JUNE | JULY 2003 METRO MAGAZINE 41

Rank

Rank ’02

Agency

City

State

Cost of Projects

in Millions

Rail Riders Now

in Millions

Rail Riders Upon

Project Completion

Total RailcarsH

eavy Railcars

Other Railcars

Light Railcars

Locomotives

Comm

uter

Railcars

18 Connecticut Department Newington CT 807 283 0 0 262 21 0 32 36 21of Transportation

19 Port Authority of Pittsburgh PA 780 55 0 55 0 0 0 7.5 — 22Allegheny County

20 Southwest Ohio Regional Cincinnati OH 730 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7.5 20Transit Authority

21 Capital Metro Austin TX 700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23Transportation Authority

22 Metro Transit Minneapolis MN 675 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 7 —

23 Tri-County Commuter Pompano Beach FL 633 36 0 0 26 10 0 2.6 2.7 30Rail Authority

24 Metro St. Louis MO 625.3 65 0 65 0 0 0 14.6 — 27(formerly Bi-State Development Agency)

25 Transit Authority of River City Louisville KY 625 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.5 24

26 Sacramento Regional Sacramento CA 614 36 0 36 0 0 0 8.5 15 31Transit District

27 Maryland Transit Administration Baltimore MD 580 320 100 53 122 36 9 21 — 42

28 Amtrak Washington DC 559 2,188 1,752 0 0 436 0 23.5 — 25

29 Metra Commuter Rail Chicago IL 558 910 0 0 780 130 0 80.9 — 26

30 Caltrain San Carlos CA 550 134 110 0 0 24 0 9.9 20 —

31 Washington Metropolitan Area Washington DC 522 892 892 0 0 0 0 228 — 2Transit Authority

32 San Diego Metropolitan San Diego CA 460 123 0 123 0 0 0 24.8 26.1 —Transit Development Board

33 North County Transit District Oceanside CA 453 29 22 0 0 7 0 1.3 1.5 34

34 Charlotte Area Transit System Charlotte NC 371 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.4 35

Top50Top50The U.S. and Canada’s

Passenger RailProjects for 2003

The U.S. and Canada’s

Passenger RailProjects for 2003

42 METRO MAGAZINE JUNE | JULY 2003

35 Tri-County Metropolitan Portland OR 350 80 0 78 0 0 2 25.4 36.7 29Transportation District

36 Regional Transportation Las Vegas NV 346 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 41 —Commission of Southern Nevada

37 Societe de Transport de Montreal Montreal PQ 345 759 759 0 0 0 0 219 225 40

38 Metropolitan Transit Authority Houston TX 324 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14.6 36of Harris County

39 Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Atlanta GA 274 316 316 0 0 0 0 32.7 — —

40 Regional Transit Authority New Orleans LA 271 42 0 42 0 0 0 4.6 6.5 39

41 Southern California Regional Los Angeles CA 180 181 0 0 144 37 0 8.5 10 —Rail Authority

42 Calgary Transit Calgary AB 163 102 0 102 0 0 0 30.4 35.6 —

43 Northern Indiana Commuter Chesterton IN 100 69 0 0 68 1 0 3.6 4 42Transportation District

44 Utah Transit Authority Salt Lake City UT 89 40 0 40 0 0 0 9.5 10 45

45 Miami-Dade Transit Miami FL 88 165 136 29 0 0 0 18.6 19.8 46

46 Bay Area Rapid Oakland CA 77 95 0 0 0 17 78 1.3 1.9 42Transit District

47 Dallas Area Rapid Transit Dallas TX 75 126 0 95 13 4 14 15.8 — 33

48 Memphis Area Transit Authority Memphis TN 74 16 0 16 0 0 0 0.95 4 47

49 Alaska Railroad Co. Anchorage AK 71 96 43 0 0 53 0 0.48 — 37

50 Virginia Railway Express Alexandria VA 45 92 0 0 73 19 0 3 3.5 49

Rank

Rank ’02

Agency

City

State

Cost of Projects

in Millions

Rail Riders Now

in Millions

Rail Riders Upon

Project Completion

Total RailcarsH

eavy Railcars

Other Railcars

Light Railcars

Locomotives

Comm

uter

Railcars