"Do Economists Reach a Conclusion On Rail Transit?"

For many policy issues there is general agreement on policy goals. That is not the case with rail transit. Depending on who you ask, rail transit should reduce traffic congestion, improve mobility, get motorists out of their cars, clean the air, stimulate the economy, boost property values, concentrate development, fight sprawl, decrease social alienation, help make a city “world class,” and so on. Once we focus solely on economists the list of potential goals shrinks considerably, but we are still left with a bundle of goals.

Summarizing economists’ views on rail transit poses additional challenges. Even simply separating the economists from the non-economists can be quite challenging.