Reference info
Just sharing some info I dug up for a conversation with a few coworkers.
To follow up with some detail of a convo we had a week or so ago about how much money is going towards rail spending and hybrid buses:
First here is a graph of combined state and federal spending on transportation.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/issinfo/transpdg.htm
Metro Transit is 197 million of the 2305 million spent. Excluding 400 million in bonding and 400 million in prepaying future federal funds. So the transit budget is approx 9.6% of the spending on transportation.
You can also see some of these numbers reflected in the state's fund statement report at:
http://www.budget.state.mn.us/budget/summary/fund_statements/080228_con_fund_state.pdf
Now finding how much of the operation costs go towards operation of the light rail transit system is harder. I can't find any good references for that. But you can look at this link for the 2002-2007 capital spending plan for transit:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/issinfo/ssmettf.htm
That shows that of the 2002-2007 capital spending budget the light rail line took 32%.
Combining the 9% of all spending going towards transit combined with the 32% of the capital budget spent towards the line, you arrive at a figure of about 3% of spending went towards establishing a light rail line. Compared to the 81.4% that goes towards roads and bridges.
And looking at this for a total state funding perspective, you can see here that transportation is 8.8% of the total state spending:
http://www.budget.state.mn.us/budget/summary/charts/080228_all_funds_piecharts.pdf
So that means we're looking at approx %0.3 percent of state spending is going towards establishing and building the light rail transit line from 2002-2007. So when I made my statement that light rail is taking up a very small percent of the state budget, I think the figures show that is true.
Now, to follow up on a comment made about the cost of hybrid buses versus diesel buses, there was a comment made that they cost three times as much. Just to provide some information on that.
You can look at news articles here for some costs:
http://www.startribune.com/local/11828731.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/389372/hybrid_electric_transit_buses_come.html
You can look at a report put out by the Met council and look at some of their hybrid bus projects and when you do the math it comes in at the half million a bus price range:
http://www.metrocouncil.org/planning/transportation/TIP/2008_2011.pdf
Now, that comes to closer to a 57% increase over the approx. $350 for a standard bus. Not quite three times. And the benefits are you are getting a 22% decrease in fuel usage and projected 90% reduction in emissions with 50% reduction in the soot spit out. Combine that with a 15 year depreciation cycle and expected increases in the emissions restrictions from the state and federal governments and it could save having to repurchase buses before their full depreciation cycle in the near future.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/news/2007/news_584.htm
http://www.metrocouncil.org/directions/transit/transit2006/gogreener.htm
Just thought I'd share some info since I've been poked recently about that. :P
To follow up with some detail of a convo we had a week or so ago about how much money is going towards rail spending and hybrid buses:
First here is a graph of combined state and federal spending on transportation.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/issinfo/transpdg.htm
Metro Transit is 197 million of the 2305 million spent. Excluding 400 million in bonding and 400 million in prepaying future federal funds. So the transit budget is approx 9.6% of the spending on transportation.
You can also see some of these numbers reflected in the state's fund statement report at:
http://www.budget.state.mn.us/budget/summary/fund_statements/080228_con_fund_state.pdf
Now finding how much of the operation costs go towards operation of the light rail transit system is harder. I can't find any good references for that. But you can look at this link for the 2002-2007 capital spending plan for transit:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/issinfo/ssmettf.htm
That shows that of the 2002-2007 capital spending budget the light rail line took 32%.
Combining the 9% of all spending going towards transit combined with the 32% of the capital budget spent towards the line, you arrive at a figure of about 3% of spending went towards establishing a light rail line. Compared to the 81.4% that goes towards roads and bridges.
And looking at this for a total state funding perspective, you can see here that transportation is 8.8% of the total state spending:
http://www.budget.state.mn.us/budget/summary/charts/080228_all_funds_piecharts.pdf
So that means we're looking at approx %0.3 percent of state spending is going towards establishing and building the light rail transit line from 2002-2007. So when I made my statement that light rail is taking up a very small percent of the state budget, I think the figures show that is true.
Now, to follow up on a comment made about the cost of hybrid buses versus diesel buses, there was a comment made that they cost three times as much. Just to provide some information on that.
You can look at news articles here for some costs:
http://www.startribune.com/local/11828731.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/389372/hybrid_electric_transit_buses_come.html
You can look at a report put out by the Met council and look at some of their hybrid bus projects and when you do the math it comes in at the half million a bus price range:
http://www.metrocouncil.org/planning/transportation/TIP/2008_2011.pdf
Now, that comes to closer to a 57% increase over the approx. $350 for a standard bus. Not quite three times. And the benefits are you are getting a 22% decrease in fuel usage and projected 90% reduction in emissions with 50% reduction in the soot spit out. Combine that with a 15 year depreciation cycle and expected increases in the emissions restrictions from the state and federal governments and it could save having to repurchase buses before their full depreciation cycle in the near future.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/news/2007/news_584.htm
http://www.metrocouncil.org/directions/transit/transit2006/gogreener.htm
Just thought I'd share some info since I've been poked recently about that. :P