ARLINGTON--Under the "Things that make you go 'Hmmmm?'" category: Should taxpayers stop funding VRE and lease new cars for those riders instead? That's just what one organization is proposing. Sound too good to be true? That's because it is.

The Heritage Foundation recently published a Web monograph--available at heritage.org--by Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D., titled "Getting Urban Transit Systems Focused on Cost and Service." The Free Lance-Star published a column by Utt along similar lines ["VRE needs change, but it doesn't need any more taxpayer dollars, March 4]. The Virginia Railway Express is cited as an example of rail passenger transportation and what Utt characterizes as a "19th- century technology [that] doesn't measure up to 21st-century needs." He also calls for severe cuts in VRE service and increases in fares.

Utt repeats several assertions typically used by critics of public transit. So, let's take them one at a time:

Do transit systems not cover their costs from fare-box revenue and therefore require government subsidies that burden taxpayers?

The truth is, as with any other investment, what matters is the return on investment. Transit investments benefit transit users and the population at large--because transit usage eases traffic congestion, reduces air pollution, conserves energy, and acts as an economic stimulus.

That's why the U.S. Department of Transportation, in its reports to Congress, uses a methodology that considers mobility, location efficiency and congestion relief. The conclusion? Transit benefits exceed costs by over $12 per trip.

The Texas Transportation Institute reported that annual congestion costs are $1.2 billion lower in the Washington area because of its existing transit system. Northern Virginia Transportation Commission consultants found the rate of return on the investments by the commonwealth of Virginia in Metrorail is over 19 percent annually in additional state tax revenues.

And the 428,977 weekday transit trips in Northern Virginia save 8,150 tons of air pollutants and 59 million gallons of motor fuel each year.