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.
See the full-sized version of the chart after the jump.
Click chart for a larger version:
Yonah Freemark is an independent researcher currently working in France on comparative urban development as part of a Gordon Grand Fellowship from Yale University, from which he graduated in May 2008 with a BA in architecture. He blogs about transportation and land use issues at The Transport Politic and is a regular contributor to The Infrastructurist.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
So, Hardford is making a busway along an old rail corridor for $59mil/mi, whereas SLC is turning an old rail line into a light rail line for $50mil/mi. That doesn’t sound like Hartford is getting that good of a deal to me.
No, I think the problem with Bus Rapid Transit at anything more than a few mil/mi is that people in America cannot get past the Bus part. Rapid Transit or no, people consider it to be the transit method taken by the stinky class and has a limited audience.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I saw a story a while ago that china builds subways for $100 million a mile. That’s not so much cheaper than Miami actually.
Funny about Second Ave line, in New York is that in later phases they want to extend it to Brooklyn and then up Atlantic Avenue. At $2 billion/mi that’s a mighty expensive proposition.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Here in Seattle we have a light rail extension that will cost about $500 million a mile, but that’s because it’s all deep-bore tunnel.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:39 am
No, the Second Avenue subway won’t be built in Brooklyn. It will just connect to an already existing line that goes over to Brooklyn on the Brooklyn Bridge. Meanwhile, it’ll be a Loooooooooooooooooong time before that happens. That involves the final phase of the “T” line which goes all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge area. Won’t be done for at least 12 years, probably 20 the way things go. I do anticipate that the first phase, (what is it, about 120th St to 63rd St?) will actually be running within 6 years though.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:23 am
The MetroLink Extension (light rail built on deserted RR bed) in St Louis MO was built for approximately $80 million per mile, station expenditures were kept at a minimum (honor system cheaper) and the stations were built too close to each other making traveling slow and a waste of time. Cycling is virtually free and faster than the train. The time between trains was also extended to save money. The Extension which led to cost overruns (lawsuits) meant that more bus routes had to be eliminated. The system design destroyed any chances of having BRT in the near future.
Too often these designs fail to take advantage of existing routes since elected officials and advocates don’t want to be seen as “anti-car”.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:27 am
[...] for Brooklyn to build its own streetcar network, arguing that such a system would be effective in (relatively) cheaply improving the commuting options of people living in transit-unfriendly sections of the [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Great graphic and very meaningful comparative indicator (cost per mile of infrastructure). The second meaningful indicator needed to let people judge whether the line is a good deal or not is the cost/passenger mile - how many passengers per year or day the line is likely to carry. An expensive line that carries few people will look even worse on a passenger mile basis, obviously. And that cost will be pure subsidy, in most cases. But a high-demand corridor (if you believe the demand estimates), even if expensive, can be pretty cost-effective.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
[...] and COMPARISON SHOPPING FOR TRANSIT SYSTEMS (CHART) [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
[...] thing. But for cities facing a choice between building a streetcar system or high-end BRT–and the cost difference can be smaller than might think–it’s handy to know that transit riders overwhelming prefer streetcars. Well, [...]
June 17th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
All of this information omits completely the annual cost of providing service. “It ain’t the first cost - its the upkeep.” The Hartford CT. BusWay is just a total waste of money. It should have been Light Rail at less cost per mile and huge annual savings on operation.
Light Rail in Minneapolis, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City and Saint Louis moves people year after year for an average current cost of 40 cents per mile per person. Buses in larger cities with higher wages average close to a whole dollar per passenger-mile. With hundreds of millions of passenger-miles at stake, Light Rail is much less costly than BusWays for sure.
Why would anyone build Light Rail if that were not true.?
Also, Light Rail attracts more riders. Saves more oil. BusWays on average attract only one third of what is promised for them. Light Rail attracts an average of 22 % more than expected. Look at Los Angeles with the Blue Light Rail Line to Long Beach and the parallel costly Harbor FreeWay BusWay to San Pedro. Light Rail = 79,000 passengers a day. BusWay = 3,300. Only stupid people waste money on BusWays.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
[...] and COMPARISON SHOPPING FOR TRANSIT SYSTEMS (CHART) [...]
September 9th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
[...] Miami reminds us all of a post from the Infrastructurist back in May with a nice comparative chart of transit costs by mode, with references to specific [...]