| Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper? |
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| Monday, 26 November 2007 | |
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Jacksonville, you've been sold a bill of goods for too long. Right-of-way aside, which one is cheaper to construct... a single lane of road or a single line of rail? North Carolina Railroad Track Improvements: Raleigh-Greensboro East Durham - milepost H56.9- H59.1 Description: Build 10,400 feet of new track to create a passing siding in East Durham. As part of the project one half mile of Rigsbee Road will be relocated. The track also will be realigned and curves straightened (to allow for increased speeds up to 79 mph). The existing track will become the new siding when the new mainline track is built. Install two No. 20 turnouts to allow trains to travel faster (from 70 to 79 mph) through the siding. 1 mile = 5,280 feet 1.97 miles of new 79 mph track / $6,500,000 total construction costs = $3.3 million / mile.
Description: Constructed a total of 12,500 feet of new 45 mph track. The existing siding became the mainline track, while the existing mainline became the new siding. Installed two No. 20 turnouts to allow trains to travel faster (from 10 to 45 mph) through the siding. 1 mile = 5,280 feet 2.37 miles of new 45 mph track / $3,600,000 total construction costs = $1.5 million / mile.
Description: The 1,200 foot long two lane extention of 44th Street from Gateway mall to Golfair Blvd. Project will include curbs and sidewalks. 1 mile = 5,280 feet 4.4 x $1.08 million = $4.75 million / mile
$1.5 million / mile = single line of 45 mph track (the S-Line would not need anything over 45 mph track) ***A typical newly constructed road will most likely consist of two lanes, thus: $4.75 million / mile = new two lane road. Laying rail is cheaper than constructing an asphalt road
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November 26, 2007, 3:05 pm
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
Singing my song fella's... Right on Man!
Ocklawaha
November 29, 2007, 12:17 am
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
In all the studies JTA has conducted on the rail issue, have they looked into possible ridership for any rail system built in Jax? As much as I'd LOVE to see rail in Jax, I don't know how the masses here would take to it.
November 29, 2007, 6:39 am
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
Here's the situation. Based on information from their own technology accessment reports, rail would attract more passengers, but from looking at general capital cost estimates, they believe its too expensive. Unfortunately, for us those general numbers come from a large range of cities, many of which have significant portions of elevated track or subways, upping those costs. So JTA's plan is to build a bus system (that will end up costing more than laying rail in the first place) and then converting it to rail when ridership grows. Our position is that we should take advantage of our existing tracks (which happen to parallel JTA's selected corridors), and go with rail. Considering the most expensive part of any start up system will be ROW and installing infrastructure, by using what we already have, we drop those costs significantly, while getting a superior method of mass transit from the start.
November 29, 2007, 9:24 am
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
What these studies also don't include is the *real* cost of operation. The cost of roads from the city's perspective doesn't include the cost of all that gas that is burned by everyone's cars (not to mention car maintenance). So the real cost to city residents for rail is orders of magnitude cheaper.
Not only that, but when we start having oil shortages (probably starting next year) railways (which can be powered by electricity) will suddenly seem like the only practical solution. Building roads inevitably leads to more oil/gas consumption and we're already far too dependent on oil.
Also, when you widen a road or build new ones you tend to get more people moving into the area with the newer/wider roads (because of the reduced traffic). This means more demand for city resources (water, anyone?) and... Increased traffic! Building and widening roads is like putting a band-aid on a wound that requires stitches.
Then there's the disaster scenarios: If a big hurricane blows through Jacksonville there will be many, many trees down blocking roads (and quite possibly requiring road repairs). Removing debris from a railway is a lot quicker, less resource-intensive, and cheaper than removing it from roads (meaning you can get back to our lives faster). They even have special railway cars to clear it all up in one go.
-Riskable
http://riskable.com
"If you elect leaders that act irresponsibly towards nature, you'll find that irresponsibility is the nature of your leaders."
"If you don't like traffic stop having so many kids!"
November 29, 2007, 1:13 pm
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
Thanks for the info lake. I'm just confused as to why JTA wouldn't conduct a study that would be more representative of a transit system that would be implemented in Jacksonville.
When you say the studies show rail would attract more passengers, I'm assuming that means more than BRT would attract. That sounds reasonable, as I think people would be more likely to get on a train than a bus, but do the studies go into detail as to the expected numbers of riders?
November 29, 2007, 2:05 pm
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
After spending so much time researching these issues, I'm convinced that there's no advantage to constructing dedicated busways over rail if the cost to build them exceeds rail. In Jax's case, this is the issue.
Apples to apples, for BRT to overcome rail in terms of ridership, you would have to count existing buses that would be rerouted to the busway for BRT, while at the same time isolate rail by its self.
However, its not about competition, because a well designed transit system they complement each other. Rail should serve as the trunk line while existing buses and various (affordable) forms of BRT feed riders into that rail trunk line. Doing such will save us a lot of money and time, as well as potentially change our sprawling development patterns.
November 29, 2007, 10:10 pm
Re: Road or Rail: Which one is cheaper?
From the January 2008 issue of TRAINS magazine:
In a surprise move, Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority voted in October to use light rail, not bus rapid transit, on all five of its upcoming transit routes. The board also approved a route for the University light rail line, which will provide a 10-mile east-west complement to the existing Main Street line, the Houston Chronicle reported. A 2003 referendum required the MTA to install the five transit routes, but federally backed and less expensive bus routes were considered the most likely mode. Houston launched its first light rail line in 2004.
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