PORTLAND, Ore., is a fabulous city, at least when it's not raining. Trees line the streets, the microbrews are full-bodied, cyclists abound. And then there is the 71-kilometre MAX light-rail system, started 20 years ago.
Over $1.6 billion went into developing the MAX, mostly from local and federal governments. The handsome payoff includes Portland's perpetual reputation as among America's nicest places to live, and some $4 billion-worth of development near the stations. Since 2001 the MAX has even whisked people from the airport to the centre of town in just over half an hour for under $2 -- the first "train to the plane" on the West Coast.
The city has been a light-rail pioneer. Few systems pre-date the MAX, which is now busy expanding deeper into the suburbs. But light rail -- small passenger trains that, unlike underground trains or commuter railways, often use an overhead electricity source and may operate in the streets -- is suddenly booming across America.
Charlotte, Phoenix, and Oceanside, Calif., are building light-rail lines from scratch. Denver, Dallas, St. Louis and many others are racing to extend existing systems, sometimes along old railway tracks. Dozens more cities, from Albuquerque to Atlanta to Louisville, are mulling light rail over. Downtown streetcars are also making a comeback, in Portland and elsewhere.
Congestion is a big reason, especially in bumper-to-bumper Seattle and fast-growing Sunbelt cities. Painful gas prices, already above $3 US a gallon, have also sent Americans racing for the rails.
Gary Thomas, the executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, reports a flood of new riders during the post-Katrina gas rise a year ago, and thinks about half of them have stayed on. A host of problems ensued, from overcrowded park-and-ride lots to lack of seating on trains.
Dallas was far from alone: according to the American Public Transport Association (APTA), user-figures for public transport rose more than four per cent in the first quarter of 2006 over a year earlier.
Those are strong figures for a sector that typically slugs along at two per cent, slightly ahead of population growth. Rider-figures for light rail were up 11.2 per cent, and even buses carried 4.5 per cent more passengers.
Americans have not always embraced public transport. "We had people carrying signs saying 'Light Rail Kills Babies,'" recalls John Inglish, head of the Utah Transit Authority, which has 30 kilometres of track around Salt Lake City. Proponents were likened to communists, he says.
Now the system has almost too many riders -- up 39 per cent in May from a year earlier. Last autumn the crowds were so great that the trains' suspensions dropped, and carriage doors at a few stations in Salt Lake could not close unless half the passengers leaned over to one side. (Siemens, the manufacturer, has since fixed the problem.)
The true test of Utahans' enthusiasm will come in November, when voters will decide whether to pay higher property taxes to support an $895 million expansion into four new light-rail routes.
Light rail is hugely expensive. The federal government can cover 80 per cent of the cost, but it is so deluged with applications that 50 per cent is more typical. On the local level, higher taxes are always a hard sell -- and several municipal governments are often involved, which complicates matters.
A much-advertised benefit of light rail is that it sparks economic development around stations. At first, though, as is happening in Houston now, householders can delay projects out of fear that their property will fall victim to the bulldozers.
Cost overruns have already caused trouble in Seattle, which had to budget in an extra $1 billion several years ago. The city's financial storm has calmed, and Sound Transit expects to complete a light-rail link to the airport by 2009.
Now, though, planners across America must worry about a huge jump in the price of construction materials. Concrete for tunnels, barriers and supports costs around 11 per cent more than last year. Prices of steel, cement and copper wiring have gone up, too.
Can cities get by with buses, which are far cheaper than rail? Sadly, few people want to ride on buses unless they have to. In many American cities they are the transport of the poor, the drunk and the illegal. They are slow and often smelly, and come at unpredictable intervals. And when they stop, they may block traffic.
But gas prices are having an effect. Buses have seen some astonishing growth, especially in smaller cities, notes William Millar, the president of APTA. Tulsa, Okla., in the heart of oil and gas country, has seen bus travel jump 28 per cent in a year.
In Austin, Texas, journeys along park-and-ride routes are up
14 per
cent in a year. Many systems are running their buses on natural gas or
cooking oil to save money and draw in green riders.