Issues in financing urban rail transit projects and value captures

Urban rail transit projects are suffering from the cost burden in Japan because the current financing system is dependent on borrowed money by loans and bonds that are repaid mainly by fares. The fund cannot bear the increasing expenditure demand due to the accelerated construction demand and the rising cost of land acquisition. This paper reexamines the financing system and analyses the possible menus for fund-raising from the viewpoint of imbalance between benefit receivers and cost burdeners on the basis of benefit principle, referring to Japanese examples.