The problem with this thought is that often times the ones making decisions about public transit are not the same people that rely on public transit. Policy makers would rather spend money on things that benefit them, which often leaves public transit inadequately funded. When it is inadequately funded, it becomes a catch 22. It sucks, so why fund it? But it sucks because we didn't fund it...
Exactly. Often times the policy makers are millionaires living in their multi million dollar house who drive expensive sports cars and would never be caught riding public transportation.
The decisions made with the when making cuts to commuter rail just proves this. Traditionally service peaks M-F during rush hour. People commuting into Boston for their 9 to 5 job. However, a lot of people also commute for third shift or weekend jobs. And oftentimes their destination is not Boston. For example, low income people in lynn without a car commuting to Gloucester to work.
During the first few months of the pandemic, numbers actually showed ridership flattened out. At one point in time early on during the pandemic, there were actually more people commuting for third shift and on the weekend than rush hour commuters to Boston. The data also showed that the bulk of the riders were interzone and not commuting into Boston. And that is a huge problem when it comes to revenue. Tickets are priced with a commuter mindset. There is a $7 base charge for commuting in or out of Boston. Then the ticket price goes up by about $1 per zone further out you travel. So someone traveling from say Lynn to Gloucester is only paying $3 for interzone.
So when revenue was down and they had a budget deficit, what did the policy makers do? They cut service from weekend and nights. So all the interzone commuters to rely on the commuter rail to get to their third shift or weekend job no longer have service. Their lifeline has been cut. The hour of operation now only works for those commuters commuting into Boston for a 9 to 5 job.
They didn't think about the need and how they can benefit society. They just made service cuts based on the thought that it's a commuter only service and that they would lose money operating nights and weekends. The issue wasn't ridership as it was higher at times during the pandemic for nights and weekend. The issue was it produced less revenue with the same number or more of reiders because of the ticketing structure that was designed for commuters. A better solution would have been to cut more of the frequency of trains during the weekday rush hour commutes instead of running trains at 15% capacity at rush hour levels all of 2020. Only in 2021 did they cut back that frequency and take away the express trains. Changes that came after cutting the weekend and night service.
Another laughable matter is what happened on Cape Cod in the 90's.
The New Haven railroad pulled out of the Cape in the 50's due to no freight prospects. I believe they abandoned and the row ownership was given to each community.
A regional railroad was started up and they used the line to haul the trash from the Capes transfer station to whatever dump it goes to off the cape.
There is only road over the canal into the cape, and only one main road that gets you to the end of the cape. With the number of vacationers and people who have second homes on the cape they visit during the weekends traffic onto the cape has become completely gridlock. You can sit for hours trying to get across the canal.
In the 1990's the State funded a project as well as accepted federal grants to rehab the whole rail line and create rail service all the way in to Providence Town at the tip of the Cape to alleviate traffic and give weekend vacationers and weekly vacationers a much easier method to get onto the cape. They spend millions on rehabbing the track and building new stations.
Only for no revenue train to ever go into service. Because policy makers for one community near the start of the cape decided they wanted a bike path for their recreation. So the full time residence of the Cape, the millionaires who live in their mansions tour out the tracks and put in a bike path after millions were spend in their town alone updating the tracks and putting in a station.
Because the row was owned by the town after the New Haven's abandonment, there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
In 7 years ago they did finally get some sort of train service to the cape in the summers. Though it pretty much just gets you across the canal and dumps you at Cape Code Transportation Authority transfer station. Your only option if you take the train is pretty much to take the bus. It doesn't dump you anywhere useful to get to without a car.
Also to the north and west of Boston there is a huge rapid transportation black hole. This is because they choose a bike path over rapid transportation in the 80's. When the commuter rail line was being transformed into rapid transportation / light rail.