I came across this excellent analysis from the Transport Politic showing an apples to apples comparison of dozens of premium transit capital expansion projects. As we already know, heavy rail comes in at the top of the most expensive projects, but light rail and commuter rail are much cheaper than some believe. These costs are comparable, and in some cases cheaper per mile of construction, than a BRT alternative. (And remember these technologies carry more passengers at the same cost of operations and maintenance over time).
Could this be a little motivation to take a second look at implementing parts of the People’s Transportation Plan with some combination of heavy rail/light rail/ and commuter rail? It’s not too late….
| Public Transit Capital Projects (via the Transport Politic) |
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Wait…where’s the column for corrupt pay offs to all the bureaucratic middle men? Or the column for jerk off “community Leaders” rob form it for individual projects? Or gross amounts of overtime given to Union labor?
I’m trying to be humorous, but I think i’m too close to the point.
The real comparison is not light rail vs heavy rail, it is those where right of way acquisistion cost are involved……..Compare the last completed metrorail addition in Miami, with one station and 1.4 miles of guideway at 74 mil per mile, with the current 2.4 miles for the earlington heights project at about 200 Mil per mile, where a lot of right of way costs were involved, as well as a large expense for the station at the miami intermodal center….ROW cost would be the same no matter which mode of transit is chose, and I think you’ll find that a lot of the light and commuter rail projects used existing ROW that did not have to be assembled piecemeal…….That is a big reason for the obscenely high price tag for the north and west extensions of the orange line, and why the cost for taking metrorail south along us 1 would be lower………and why it actually makes sense to go underground to serve areas like South Beach, which will not allow an elevated system, and where ROW acquisition would be cost prohibitive anyway, with disruption and utility and business relocation costs. Back when the east-west line included the underground section from the Orange bowl to the port of Miami, Miami beach officials petitioned FDOT and the county to bring it to Fifth street……It was actually part of the record of decision for that project…….
Td, where can we get a copy of that
From this chart, it sure seems like we need more commuter rail, diesel LRT and streetcar projects here in South Florida. But instead, our dummy elected officials will keep pushing for the Cadillac metrorail or oversold BRT as our only options. And remember, FDOT loves BRT b/c it’s pavement and allows the “flexibility” to hand it over to cars in the future.
PS. LRT is electric…not diesel
….and I’m not saying metrorail is a wrong option either…it should just be used sparingly (for high density areas).
…agreed about FDOT….they love their pavement