01089179

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2042-07

http://scholar.google.com...tuck&publication_year=2008

Light rail operating costs vary with a system’s scale of operations, traffic density, vehicle and passenger outputs, and input prices. Previous attempts at estimating these cost relationships have been hampered by inadequate data and methodologies that restrict their functional forms, limit their output measures, omit factor prices, and fail to account for technical inefficiencies. With more data now available from an increased number of systems operating during longer time periods, new cost specifications that improve the precision and reduce the bias of cost estimates can be estimated. Here, light rail cost functions are estimated with 1994 to 2005 data for 21 U.S. light rail systems. The cost functions relate operating and maintenance costs to passenger and vehicle outputs, input prices, route densities, vehicle capacities, and latent cost inefficiencies. Four estimation methods are used: (a) iterative seemingly unrelated regression, (b) least-squares dummy variable, (c) maximum likelihood stochastic frontier, and (d) hierarchical Bayesian frontier models. Economies of size and density, input productivities, input substitution elasticities, and transit system inefficiencies are measured.

01106157

English

pp 58-70

2008

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309113090

Print

Figures (4) ; References (30) ; Tables (4)

Cost estimating; Light rail transit; Operating costs; Output

Cost functions; Cost models; Input; Maintenance costs

Administration and Management; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 29 2008 4:12PM

• Active Transit Signal Priority for Streetcars: Experience in Melbourne, Australia, and Toronto, Canada
• Air Passenger Preferences for Choice of Airport and Ground Access Mode in the New York City Metropolitan Region
• Analysis of Transit Quality of Service and Employment Accessibility for the Greater Chicago, Illinois, Region
• Boarding and Alighting Experiments: Overview of Setup and Performance and Some Preliminary Results
• Cluster-Based Optimization of Urban Transit Hub Locations: Methodology and Case Study in China
• Commuter Rail Circulator Route Network Design and Its Implications for Transit Accessibility
• Investigating Consistency in Transit Passenger Arrivals: Insights from Longitudinal Automated Fare Collection Data
• New-Generation Personal Rapid Transit Technologies: Overview and Comparison
• Process Management in Public Transit Planning: Case Study of Introduction Project of Light Rail Transit in Toyama, Japan
• Service Orientation, Bus-Rail Service Integration, and Transit Performance: Examination of 45 U.S. Metropolitan Areas
• Successful Historic Streetcar Service: Learning from the San Francisco, California, Experience