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From: friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: Dade Co. Metrorail Opens - (nf)
Message-ID: <20600009@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Jun-84 12:13:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.20600009
Posted: Wed Jun 13 12:13:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jun-84 00:20:37 EDT
References: <1474@inmet.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:inmet:-147400:uiucdcs:20600009:000:754
Nf-From: uiucdcs!friedman    Jun 13 11:13:00 1984

#R:inmet:-147400:uiucdcs:20600009:000:754
uiucdcs!friedman    Jun 13 11:13:00 1984

> Hmm... $1,000,000,000 divided by 7000 $/day divided by 5 days/week
> divided by 52 weeks/year... assuming zero cost of maintainance and
> operation, it ought to be paid off in only 550 years.  Are those numbers
> wrong ( I hope ) or is this yet another example of the foolishness of
> federal mass-transit subsidies?   Yes, yes, I know, they had to raise
> the gas tax to fix up the roads.  Ha! 

That figure of 7000 riders per day must be merely a startup figure.  It
works out to less than 2,000,000 riders per year, which is less than the
bus system here in little 'ol Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (a community of
about 100,000 people).

After a steady state is reached, this figure has to be grossly too low
for a metropolitan area as large as Dade.