North American light rail systems
Modern LRT is reasonably cheap to build, when compared with metro type systems, but in NorthAi??America
transit planners have done the impossible, they have planned LRT to be more expensive than a metro to build.Ai??
Such stupidity should be stopped at once!
From the Globe and Mail.
This maybe of some interest, but the cost per km. of various LRT is completely out of whack and I question the source for these costs. Certainly, any LRT line that operates in a tunnel longer than 1 km. must be considered a metroAi?? and many grade separated light rail systems are indeed considered light-metro.
The basic cost for an elevated SkyTrain line is around $100 million/km to build and any costs for LRT that are higher than this benchmark, should be coincided greatly suspect.
The one interesting cost is the $15/km for the Spadina Line LRT, which is much less than TransLink’s cost estimate of over $100 million/km.
I strongly guess that the reporter and the “Globe” were fed exaggerated cost for LRT from the metro lobby and I think our dear Cardinal Fang would have something to say about this.
Infographic
North American light rail systems
Published Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 8:48PMAi?? EST
