This dissertation examines efforts to increase commuter rail ridership by improving and extending service, and the costs associated with these efforts, using Boston's MBTA system as a case study. The question to be answered is "Ridership, at what cost?" Many US cities are improving their existing commuter rail systems or starting new commuter rail operations. Boston is a particularly interesting case study because it has been extremely successful at increasing rail use, more than tripling ridership between 1975 and 1999.;The Boston case study suggests that approximately 80% of the recent ridership growth was due to MBTA policies and service improvements and 20% was due to factors outside the MBTA's control. The cost of attracting riders on the existing system was generally lower than the cost of attracting riders by building extensions. Moreover, increasing transit ridership by improving commuter bus service is a more cost-effective way of increasing transit ridership rather than building new extensions.;The findings are based on an analysis of the demand for and costs of Boston's commuter rail service. A new econometric model of Boston commuter rail ridership is developed using data on station-level ridership from 1980 to 1997. The model shows that policies to increase service frequency had the largest policy impact on ridership, followed by lowering fares.;Models of costs are developed to divide capital and operating costs into three components: costs needed to maintain the core system, costs needed to accommodate new riders, and costs needed to increase ridership on the core system. The analysis shows that the costs to maintain the core system were quite high, while the costs to increase ridership by improving service were significantly lower. The costs of increasing ridership by expanding the core system through new lines and extensions are then calculated and compared.;Finally, a comparison of commuter bus and rail service in locations where both are present shows that the extension of rail service into areas which previously had private commuter bus service increased transit use by 100% to 300%. However, the subsidies for the commuter rail lines and extensions were significantly higher than the commuter bus subsidies.
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