Hipster Duck
Senior Member
Well, that's not really the full story.
For starters, there will never ever be another LRT line in Phoenix with that kind of ridership (which is not all that high, if you look at the full picture- but more on that later). Not only did they hit all the major, centralized trip generators in a very decentralized city, but they basically picked the only route where transit is time competitive with the car at rush hour, and the only route where the majority of people are likely to walk to their destination, either for financial reasons (students at ASU) or due to spatial considerations (downtown office workers). Every other LRT extension they can ever conceive of in Phoenix from now on will have lower ridership than the starter line.
Secondly, the ridership numbers (35,000 approx.) are grossly inflated by the fact that parallel bus service was axed to make way for the LRT line. There used to be a fantastic bus service that ran every 10 minutes during the day and every 5 minutes at rush hour that got cut to make way for an LRT that runs every 15 minutes during the day and every 8-10 at rush hour. It was a tremendous service that ran directly to airport terminals and skirted the perimeter of the ASU campus rather than just having two stops at the northern end of the campus property. Secondly, ASU students themselves lost a very convenient (and free) shuttle bus service between the downtown and Tempe campuses that traveled directly between the two points without stopping. Many of the riders on the light rail today are students who have classes at both campuses. This loss was, I'll admit, mediated to some extent by the increased frequency of the light rail over the bus, but the time savings and the direct routing that the bus had formerly offered was certainly missed by many.
Finally, no discussion about LRT in Phoenix is complete without discussing all the bus services that were cut to balance the transit budget. Basically, all bus service after 10:30 PM was eliminated, in part to pay for the high cost of upkeeping the LRT. When you consider this, there is a high social cost to paying for a fancy new tram, not only a high economic cost.
Following the example of Phoenix, I would not advocate for an LRT in Mississauga. There is no need to build a new technology in a city and hire new people to maintain and service rail vehicles in a new facility. One thing Phoenix did well (before LRT) that is echoed in Mississauga is that this extremely suburban city had a decent understanding of how to run a bus service, because that was the technology it had used exclusively. I think that, with just a little financial input and some creative planning, Mississauga can make BRT work extremely well for them, both on Hurontario and on Dundas. Any long distance nodal transportation is better served with electric regional rail service, anyway.
