Columbus’ line is 13 miles. At the same cost per mile, it would be $910 Million. But Phoenix’s line is almost entirely on streets, so I would expect it to cost more for things like street reconstruction, utility relocation, and traffic signal modifications.

Charlotte’s 9.6 mile line cost about $463 Million, or $48 Million per mile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LYNX_Rapid_Transit_Services

At that cost, our 13 miles would be $624 Million. Charlotte’s line is largely along existing freight tracks like ours. I think it’s more similar to Columbus’ proposal than Phoenix’s line, so $600 to $700 Million is probably in the right ballpark for Columbus.

It seems with transit projects, it’s easier to find ways to cut costs and still have a good system. Using available frieght tracks and used rolling stock has been a successful model for some cities and may very well be the model to use as the Columbus system expands.

I think COTA needs to work hard to make the case why rail is complementary to our current system. If they can do that, I think there would be better public support.

BTW, someone wrote into the Online Web Only LTE today that, based on Phoenix’s start up cost for light rail, we could expect to spend $1 bil +. Take it for what it’s worth, as I don’t know how accurate those figures are.

Along those lines, it’s worth pointing out that only once did the public have the chance to fund a regional rail system. It 1999, there were two COTA ballot issues and the one that failed was to be used to start a rail system. Unfortunately most people didn’t know it was on the ballot and, in fact, the ballot language never used the word “rail”. Every other COTA rail proposal was nixed before it ever reached the ballot box despite the response COTA was receiving at public meetings.

and so it begins.

Mayor Coleman was not a buffoon for trying this approach. And I’d be annoyed too if I were him since it’s an application of common sense.

Press Release:

All Aboard Ohio is calling on Ohio’s Congressional Delegation to support a
list of “Shovel Ready” federal stimulus projects identified last week by
the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation & Infrastructure
Committee. In that list was $30.25 billion worth of highway and bridge
projects, $12 billion for transit and nearly $5 billion for passenger rail.

This week the House Appropriations Committee kept the funding levels intact
for highways, but reduced transit to $8.9 billion and eviscerated passenger
rail funding to just $1.1 billion.

“There are some really great stimulus projects in Ohio that could begin to
create the kind of interconnected transportation system that is needed to
reduce our travel costs, boost development in our historic cities and towns,
increase our energy efficiency, reduce our carbon emissions and compete
better with the rest of the world,” said All Aboard Ohio Interim Executive
Director Ken Prendergast. “That is the kind of change we can believe in. I
hope Congress does too.”

A stimulus project list appears at the bottom of this press statement. Note
that some of the projects are actually for federally required planning and
environmental review so that those rail projects can become “shovel
ready” for a long-term federal stimulus.

“Unfortunately, it seems that repeated utterances of ‘Roads-n-Bridges’
have become a programmed response as the best way to boost jobs,”
Prendergast added. “It’s not. Our nation became overdependent on driving
during the 100 years when America was the world’s biggest producer of oil.
Now we are as dependent on imported oil as Europe, Japan and China. But
while those nations are rebuilding their economies around trains and transit
as well as walkable town centers, America is in danger of driving itself
into an economic and environmental dead end.”

China is spending $88 billion on rail projects this year. European countries
are shifting their infrastructure budgets from a dominance of
“Roads-n-Bridges” to being in balance with “Trains and Transit.”
India will invest $30 billion on rail in 2009. Saudi Arabia, Algeria,
Vietnam, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey and other nations are or will soon invest
billions to build high-speed rail. Meanwhile America plans to spend more for
short-lived benefits and less to invest in Trains and Transit that will
transform a resource-constrained America for the coming century and beyond.

“We ask everyone in Ohio to please contact their Congressperson today,”
Prendergast said. “America can do what is easy or it can do what is best
for its economy over the long term. Either way, decisions made in Congress
in the next few weeks will likely set a direction for this nation that will
last for decades.”

______________________

Here’s a partial list of Ohio “Trains and Transit” projects, submitted
for federal stimulus program funding:

+ North Corridor Light Rail construction within Franklin County: $200
million; requested by the City of Columbus.

+ Downtown Streetcar system: up to $185 million; requested by the City of
Cincinnati.

+ Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (3-C) Corridor intercity passenger
rail service (Phase One): $100 million; requested by the Ohio Department of
Transportation and the City of Cleveland.

+ Ohio Hub System passenger rail preliminary engineering and environmental
impact studies: $100 million; requested by the Ohio Department of
Transportation and the City of Cleveland.

+ Rehabilitation of Rapid Transit rail stations, tracks, bridges, electrical
substations, and construction of a new East Side Transit Center near CSU:
$62.9 million; requested by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
and portions requested by the City of Cleveland.

+ Extend Euclid Corridor-type bus rapid transit service along Buckeye Road,
East 55th Street and Clifton Boulevard: $50 million; requested by the City
of Cleveland.

+ Ohio Hub – Tier One Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement: $15
million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

+ Phase II Lorain County Transportation Center (LCT/Greyhound bus, Amtrak
trains), City of Elyria: $3.2 million; requested by the Ohio Department of
Transportation and the Lorain County Commissioners.

+ Future Phase of Amtrak Planning and Engineering Design: $2.5 million;
requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

I didn’t even know what to think of TOP’s streetcar article. I think we’d be better served if the local media just did their job, went out and did the research to challenge the claims of why the rail project is being proposed-investment and job creation-and provide facts. Seems to be too much sensationalism when too little is known.

Send a reporter down to Phoenix for a week or out to Portland to see light rail in action and talk to those citizens. Show us the process there and how it worked out over the long run. Look at the claims for and against when first proposed vs. after built.