Value capture: Why we may be disappointed

Public transport systems, with rare exceptions, are in chronic funding crises. This has been true almost since the inception of motorized public transport. However, after World War II the problem went from chronic to acute. As private automobiles eclipsed public transport as preferred travel options, fare-box revenues declined precipitously while costs climbed (see Chapter 2). From that time through the present the urban public transport story has been a tale of struggle: struggle to retain riders, and struggle to secure sufficient public funding for continued operation. Hopes for funding for system expansion were always slim, until very recently - the subject matter of this chapter. The funding struggle was made more difficult by the new patterns of low-density suburbanization that better suited the needs of private motorcars. These patterns were not amenable to the higher living densities that economically viable public transport requires.