In multiple states, failing large-scale public transit projects have produced demands for state-taxpayer-funded bailouts. This has happened in California, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, to name just a few.
That’s why all Oklahomans should be concerned about Oklahoma City metro officials’ efforts to create a $1.8 billion commuter rail system covering 39 miles from Edmond to Oklahoma City to Norman.
Proponents claim passenger rail will boost economic development in the metro, but similar rail services have augmented the worst problems of urban settings—homelessness and crime—and spread them throughout surrounding areas.
That means the cost of the rail system is not just measured through increased tax burden, but also through increased criminal behavior and property destruction.
Consider data presented during a Dec. 9, 2025, meeting of the City of Dallas Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee.
Allen Guinn, a clinical professor of information technology and operations management at Southern Methodist University, visually mapped out areas where mass transit service, crime and homeless encampments all overlapped.
Guinn found a notable correlation between Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) service and homeless concentration, felony assaults, robbery, and felony drug sales.
In August 2025, Americans were horrified by video of Iryna Zarutska’s murder while riding the commuter rail service in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Her killer was a homeless, repeat offender who was allowed to ride without paying. The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor found up to 60 percent of light rail riders on the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) rode without paying. Why? Because CATS officials feared for the safety of their employees if they tried to collect payment.
Similar policies are common on other commuter rail systems nationwide. More than one-in-three individuals on the Sound Transit commuter rail system in Seattle, Washington, ride without paying.
A May 2025 study in the Journal of Experimental Criminology examined 20 years of data related to the Charlottee commuter rail system and found “a substantial percentage increase in crime associated with the opening of light rail stations in surrounding areas” that was “consistent across all crime categories and distances.”
Worst of all, the tax hike for commuter rail will indirectly de-fund public safety. The Oklahoma County jail is in desperate need of replacement. But a tax increase to fund a new county jail is unlikely to pass if a commuter-rail tax increase is put before voters first. Officials should prioritize locking up dangerous criminals over novelty tourist attractions.
Citizens across Oklahoma have already been forced, at least indirectly, to financially shoulder the added costs created by the failed policy approaches of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa public-school districts. State taxpayers must understand the same kind of increased burden is likely for non-metro residents if the “big city” rail system moves ahead in OKC.
About the author: Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
Tulsa Today Editor’s Note: More information on the proposal may be found here: https://www.onetransit.org/commuter-rail/.
The page promotes the program writing, “Commuter Rail will provide more transit choices to travel conveniently and safely to game days in Norman, the hottest ticket at Continental Coliseum, and the popular events in Edmond.”
If State Taxpayers are expected to contribute to this economic fantasy rail, maybe a daily commuter line between the two largest metro areas should come first.
Not to intrude upon self-aggrandizement efforts, but state tax money has been disproportionately allocated over many generations for OKC transportation issues – the bullseye of two national interstates totally free in Oklahoma while Tulsans are required to throw money at almost all roads coming and going.
OKC may hold the stolen state capital, but it is not the center of the universe.