Transit Cost Chart

[W. K. Lis]

The Infrastructurist at http://www.infrastructurist.com/ has an article on transit costs. Follow this link for the article.

Both Austin, Texas, and Hartford, Connecticut, claim they’ll be offering their citizens “bus rapid transit†in the next few years. But with Austin paying only $1 million a mile for its new service, and Hartford shelling out sixty times that much per mile, can the two really be put in the same category?

Actually, yes. This chart illustrates the enormous cost differences for transit projects. The variations, of course, relate to the characteristics of the proposed lines. For instance, in the category of intercity rail, Ohio is upgrading freight tracks between Cincinnati and Cleveland at a cost of $1 million a mile to allow for passenger service at 80 mph. California, by comparison, plans to spend $65 million a mile for a brand-new 220 mph high-speed system linking L.A. and San Francisco. Not surprisingly, constructing a reserved corridor for bullet trains is exponentially more expensive than making improvements to existing tracks.

Similarly, while Hartford’s busway will run entirely in its own right-of-way and offer quick commutes, Austin’s MetroRapid will share its route with other vehicles and as a result will be quite a bit slower.

The point is that there are a wide range of solutions available, and it’s difficult to generalize about the cost of transit. It also tends to be true that you get what you pay for.

 

[kEiThZ]

In Canada, Ottawa is a great example of how quickly BRT can pack on the dollars. That said, a well-built BRT (like Ottawa) also offers a defined path for upgrades and significant cost advantages down the road when upgrades to LRT become necessary. If the cost of the downtown tunnel were excluded, Ottawa's conversion to LRT comes at a pretty decent price...all due to the Transitway incorporating some pre-LRT features.

 

[jeicow]

With the obvious mistake for 'Toronto Spadina', I'm not sure how much trust I put into this chart. It seems most of these costs are still preconstruction estimates so they hold not value since infrastructure projects almost always come in over budget, meaning the estimate is the low end figure at best.

 

[kettal]

With the obvious mistake for 'Toronto Spadina', I'm not sure how much trust I put into this chart.

Perhaps I am lacking sleep, but I don't notice any mistake there??

 

[sjc]

The Spadina number looks about right.

http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Projects_and_initiatives/Spadina_subway_extension/index.jsp

Cost of Project: $2.6 billion Canadian dollars
Length of Project: 8.6km

Cost/km = $302 million/km

$302 times 1.6 = $483 million/mile

The chart shows $423 million. I assume this is in $US which would put it in the same ballpark depending on the exchange rate they used.

 

[kEiThZ]

Just imagine what they'd say about Transit City!