RALEIGH, N.C. — A draft feasibility study for a 43-mile commuter rail line connecting Raleigh and Durham projects the project could cost $2.8 billion to $3.2 billion, WRAL-TV reports.
The $9 million study for regional transit agency GoTriangle is now being presented to local officials for review. A final version is slated to be is presented to the public in August.
The line would run southeast from Durham through Raleigh to the communities of Garner or Clayton. It would use an existing route owned by the North Carolina Railroad Co. and operated and maintained by Norfolk Southern, but would require infrastructure work including double tracking of some sections, 11 to 12 new stations, and rolling stock. A start-up service between Raleigh Union Station and Garner, which would cost $600 million to $700 million, is also an option.
“It may be easier to implement the [starter] project while you can continue to work on the more difficult challenges elsewhere in the corridor,” Katharine Eggleston, GoTriangle chief development officer, told the station.
The agency estimates it could attract 10,000 to 18,000 passengers per day, depending on ridership costs.
The caption under the map incorrectly states the cost…editors????
That $3.2 billion cost. Have they already factored in the 10% per year for inflation. If not the price will double in a little over 7 years.
They are widening a section of I-12 north of New Orleans from 2 lanes each way to 3 each way. roughly 6.5 miles length and cost of $125 million, or a price near $20 million per mile. NO new land purchases were necessary. Now the problem. Only 60% finished. Contractor NOW expected to loose big money because cost materials and labor have increased 25% more than “expected” when contract was awarded and construction started. Costs expected to go up at least another 20% by time of completion.
Also, when project is completed late next year it will already be outdated. Vehicle count, in 2018, before project started was approximately 80, 000 on this highway. I now stands at more than 110,000 a day with all the people bailing out of crime ridden New Orleans
Where can you build an urban interstate for $10 million per mile? Nowhere. Multiply that by ten, you’d hopefully get a good start.
Where can you build an urban interstate for $10 million per mile? The 1960’s? A 150 mile mostly rural expressway in Florida is estimated to cost $8 billion. The 12 mile I-595 in Fort Lauderdale cost $1 billion in 1991. When I-595 got two lane reversible toll lanes it cost $1.8 billion. The cost of $10 million per mile for urban expressways and $2 million per mile rural expressways is a myth that opponents use against transit projects to make the projects look unreasonable. Even an expressway to expressway interchange alone can cost $500 million to near $1 billion. Get real with cost comparisons before criticizing projects for being too costly.
That is about $70M per mile, about 7 times the cost of an urban interstate. I wonder how much of that is for stations and if they could do with making them of minimal design and/or joint usage with some other entity.
Yes, freeways cost moeny. Real money.
Wisconsin DOT got a mind-boggling bargain when it rebuilt 20 miles or so of Interstate highway (Milwaukee, Greenfield, West Allis, Wauwatosa) for only a few billion. That will never happen again! The next project will be far more costly. The days of $10 million a mile, or even $50 million a mile, Interstate highways, have come and gone.
Interstates like railroads have a huge capital recovery that will take a whole lot of road taxes on tanks of gasoline or diesel fuel. The difference is this: the freeway is already there and has to be maintained. A reconstruct project will save on maintenance costs or piecemeal replacement of failing bridges, which in the end would cost more. Also, safety improvements — highway crashes cost money as well as being tragic.
The commuter railroad in contrast is a new item.
Let’s get past the argument that comuuter rail saves freeway lanes. Yes in Chicago and New York. In places like Raleigh Durham, it won’t. The divergence of traffic is quite small compared to the road traffic that exists. Also, most suburban commuter rail doesn’t really divert traffic, it relocates it. The capital cost, traffic impact, and environmental impact of suburban park-rides are all very high.
Finally, let’s go back to Chicago, which we discussed early this month. All the transit and commuter rail hasn’t diverted any traffic from the Tri-State Tollway, I-294, which is being rebuilt for the second time in thirty years, this time at a cost of more money than exists.
Anyone do the math? I may be way way off, my “quick and dirty” (very quick and very dirty) calculation is $75 per ticket in capital recovery, or $150 per daily round trip.
Please everyone tell me if I’m “on track” or derailed.
Payback and thus recoverable ticket cost is dependent on the payback period. When you buy a $300,000 house the payback amount is determined by interest rate and payback time period, usually 30 years.
Thus for a $3.2 billion project with 18,000 daily riders to payback in one day each ticket would cost $177,777.78. If the payback period is one year that ticket would cost $487.06 per passenger per day. If the payback period was 30 years that ticket would cost $16.23 per passenger per day. If the payback period was 50 years that ticket would cost $9.74
per passenger per day. Just like a mortgage the longer payback time period the more reasonable the recoverable ticket cost per rider per day.