Analysis of publicpurpose.com's Transit Performance Brief for WMATA

The first table, below, shows the apparent calculations performed by publicpurpose.com in which it concluded that since 1983 WMATA's operating cost per passenger had increased by 23.6%, and that in 2002 WMATA was spending $158 million more than it should be based upon the numbers provided by publicpurpose.com, it appears that it assumed that service and ridership in 1983 and in 2002 were identical, which is grossly incorrect.

In addition to this rather substantial apparent error, there are some other factors which ought to be considered, such as service levels. If we accept the inflation calculations used by publicpurpose.com, and adjust for actual ridership and service, we get a very different result: WMATA is far more productive and cost effective in 2002 than it was in 1983, and has implemented substantial cost savings, as shown in the next table:

The cost of federally-mandated (but not funded) paratransit service does, in fact, reduce cost-effectiveness, and there was no such service in 1983.So, if the costs of MetroAccess are removed from the 2002 cost, to make the numbers more comparable for like services, the following table results: