A Broadway Tram – Under $5 Million Per Kilometre To Build!
What is the cost for light rail?
In Budapest, Hungary, aAi?? 1Ai??7Ai??km extension of Budapest tram Route 1, will cost HF8Ai??6bn.
Wow! 8.6 billion Hungarian Florints to build?
But wait, HUF 8.6 billion, converts to CAD $7,690,959!
What is more, the 1.7 km extension is costing CAD $4,524,093 per kilometre to build.
I know, that the headline is a little misleading and of course the cost does not include trams or land acquisition, but it does include track and OHE,Ai??(over head equipment) but not substations.
So when TransLink beats the drum, claiming LRT is very expensive to build, with costs of the Surrey LRT now exceeding CAD $100 million/km to build and too expensive for Broadway, TransLink should be reminded that in Budapest, new tramway construction and OHEAi?? is under $5 million/km and on Broadway OHE is already in place!
$5 million/km is a great base cost to start planning for light rail.
It is time to remind, not only the mayor of Vancouver and Surrey of this, but the Mayor’s Council on Transit, TransLink, Premier Horgan and the Minister for Transportation, that modern LRT can be built a lot cheaper than TransLink claims!
Budapest, Hungary: Work begins on Budapest tram extension
Work begins on Budapest tram extension
Metro Report. 14 Nov 2017
HUNGARY: Work has started on a 1Ai??7Ai??km extension of Budapest tram Route 1. The western extension from Etele A?t/FehAi??rvA?ri A?t to KelenfAi??ld railway station will include two intermediate stations. Interchange with metro line M4 will be provided at BikA?s Park and KelenfAi??ld.
The HF8Ai??6bn project is 98Ai??5% financed by EU funds, with the remainder coming from Budapest municipality. Revenue services are planned to start in early 2019.
Smart looking tram by CAF, on the tram line costing $600 million per km less than the planned subway line along Broadway, it looks similar to the Flexity 2 tram by Bombardier. Very long optically guided electric-buses carrying 300 passengers are coined “trackless trams”. They don’t require exorbitantly expensive steel and concrete infrastructure.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/andrew-knack-edmonton-trackless-trains-city-hall-1.4405763
Conventional trams guided by steel rails and trackless trams guided by image processing target drivers who commute at about the same speed as passengers taking conventional trams and trackless trams on city streets. Trackless trams go further and can zip along at 100 kph on freeways. They’re the future of public transport and are the practical alternative for drivers on freeways.
http://www.cpbcon.com.au/news-and-media/news/cpb-contractors-wins-gold-coast-light-rail-stage-2/
Planners at TransLink over the last couple of decades have spent $billions on LIM trains traveling 40 kph on pricey viaducts and in expensive subways. Drivers on freeways haven’t switched to the LIM trains traveling 40 kph. Drivers on freeways have continued to drive at 100 kph on freeways. Road congestion on the freeways has worsened. Perhaps drivers are enthusiastic for Tesla roadsters going from zero to 60 mph (~100 kph) in 1.9 seconds for fast commutes on freeways, instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctx4YBEdOxo
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Maybe drivers don’t want to pay “decongestion charges” to pour concrete for viaducts and subways which haven’t alleviated road congestion on the freeways in the past and won’t in the future. Possibly drivers weren’t kidding when they said so in the plebiscite which cost $12 million in 2015.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/transit-referendum-voters-say-no-to-new-metro-vancouver-tax-transit-improvements-1.3134857
“Please take 10 minutes to provide your input! We will use what we hear through the engagement process to help develop potential decongestion charging scenarios. You and fellow Metro Vancouverites will be invited to evaluate those potential scenarios.”
https://www.itstimemv.ca/have-your-say.html
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Can do. Here it is one more time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLcE9wIrjQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PncrXf7FFts
Oh, Eric, those crappy Chinese buses again. All the technology for that “Bus” was stolen ( oops, acquired) by the company promoting it, from European bus manufacturers who build guided bus systems. Unlike the European promoters, the Chinese can legally make it look more like a LRV because Chinese safety rules don’t make them add rear view mirrors and other obvious safety equipment that make it look like a bus. Just like the European guidance technology, the Chinese guidance technology doesn’t function well in snow, overly icy or very cold weather. The kind of weather Edmonton is famous for.