Light Rail Myth #7

Light rail and jobs.

Now that a commercial developer-led light rail advocate community organization is dawning on the horizon, a series of public relations myths will befall the unsuspecting public. In a weekly series, I will attempt to anticipate these fantasies and dispel them with a reality statement and supporting data.

The Myth: Light rail transit construction is a good way to provide jobs.

Follow up:

The Reality: Bus systems provide more jobs per public dollar expended, and more local employment.

A metropolitan transit authority found that light rail construction creates one person-year of employment for each $414,793 of taxpayer money. Operation produces one year of employment for every $88,253 in subsidies. Bus operation creates one job for each $65,737 in public subsidy.

Furthermore, the jobs created by bus service are local. So does other bus operating expenditures, such as parts, fuel services, rent, and so on, create the jobs. In contrast, many of the jobs created by light rail construction are located far away; most rail cars, for example, come from Japan, Italy, and Germany, or assembled in a far off U.S. city. In the Norfolk’s Tide case, the S70 rail cars are assembled in Sacramento, California by the U.S. subsidiary of Siemen AG a German global conglomerate. The drive systems are manufactured in Germany.

Rail construction may boost some city’s economy, but not in our region.

Siemens AG is a German engineering conglomerate, which is the largest in Europe. Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin, Munich and Erlangen, Germany.

Preceding World War II, Siemens was involved in funding the rise of the Nazi Party and the secret rearmament of Germany. During the Second World War, Siemens supported the Hitler regime, contributed to the war effort, and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy. Siemens had many factories in and around notorious concentration camps to build electric switches for military uses. In one example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to the camp.