What a shame. This is yet another major transit improvement derailed by transit "advocates".
How can it be a shame by transit advocates?
It cost $700,000 for a bus that carries 55 riders and $950,000 for a double deck bus that carry 74. They have to be replace every 12 years.
The road exist for buses.
It cost $4 mill for a loco plus $2 mill a car. They have to be replace every 25-50 years.
It will cost $$ to upgrade the existing line to get track speed up to 150km. Yearly upkeep.
If the ridership is only 100, then you need 2 buses to carry those numbers.
You need 1 loco and one cab car for a GO train.
If you put more stations in along the route, you can increase the train by a car or 2. This is a good example where DMU can be use at a cost of $5 mill.
For GO or who every operates this line at 75% recovery ratio, divide the the capital cost as well operating cost by 100 and you will find it will cost the rider an arm and leg to ride this rail service. If you were talking 1,000 riders, then it more clear rail is the way.
Using an RDC will cut the cost from both operation and capital cost point, but still got to upgrade the tracks. This will reduce the cost to the riders.
Need to do a business case for each type of service.
At the same time, having 1 train a day will force riders to spend extra time before work time or after they finish. This could add an extra hour or 2 to their travel time. It not something I would chose to do on a daily base.
Running a bus route from Whiby to Peterborough is the best way until the Lakeshore gets expanded to the east.
Using the rail line would take riders off the Lakeshore route and help open up a different market.
What is the distance between the 2 lines in Durham? Cut the distance in haft and you will see how much land use there is to support this line. The difference between the 2 lines, this line has more area to the north to draw riders from than the lakeshore which has almost nothing to the south to draw from.
I perfrer to see steel wheels but not at a poor cost ratio or taking better service improvement away from badly needed areas.
Unless you have more density near the Lakeshore line, you will reduce the ridership on it as well recovery ratio.
Since there is no plans by GO to purchase DMU's that will meet RR standards that can operate on the line at the same time as CP/CN, we are back to RDC or buses.
