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From wtte28.com:
Ohio governor says rail project needs $250M
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says the state could restore passenger rail service with $250 million in federal stimulus money. The governor also estimates it would cost $10 million a year to operate the service, less than 1 percent of Ohio’s $7.6 billion, two-year transportation budget. Strickland says the plan would create up to 6,000 construction jobs and other service-related jobs at train stations.
Walker, In addition to the $8 billion available from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act there is an additional $1.3 billion available from the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, so there is a total of $9.3 billion.
KMShay: The best study to date on the project is this
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Rail/Programs/passenger/Pages/OhioHubOverview.aspx
It is woefully inadequate and the stats are old. Ohio just commissioned a new study from Woodside Consultants that is due by August.
“Didn’t Nashville build a 20-30 mile commuter rail system on 40-50 million using used rolling stock?”
900 rides a day are taken on that line. Assuming most users purchase a round trip, only 450 people a day actually use the line. Coulda done better.
The ridership of the Nashville Music City Star may seem low, but it was built as a very limited suburban commuter. It runs from the burbs into downtown twice in the morning, and then runs from downtown to the burbs twice in the evening. Weekdays only. That’s a total of 10 round-trips per week that this line makes.
The train has a seating capacity of 750 passengers, which means that the maximum ridership it can handle is around 3000 rides per day. (Or 1500 round-trip riders per day.)
So I’d say that an average of 900 rides per day on that particular system isn’t a bad average.
Still, I don’t think it’s good model either for a suburban Columbus Light Rail line, or for the 3C Corridor unless we’re really looking to do things in a very limited capacity on a very shoestring budget.
They are predicting an initial ridership of the 3C route to be 1,400 riders a day.
“Still, I don’t think it’s good model either for a suburban Columbus Light Rail line, or for the 3C Corridor unless we’re really looking to do things in a very limited capacity on a very shoestring budget.”
It may not be a perfect model, but I do wonder if there are ways to either bring Columbus’ light rail costs down OR create a broader starter line that has more appeal. I think one of the big things driving costs is that jog down High and the vehicles to make that work. Granted there are issues with keeping that particular line on the separate rail grade. Of course we just need to see support to move things a fraction of an inch forward to get to the studies and the real answers. Not the speculation.
In other news, I am glad to see the 3C moving forward.