How much does it cost to build a shortline railroad? angielski

Rentlar, 8 miesięcy temu

You know, if I had millions lying around I’d want to build or buy a small <10km line in rural buttfuck Saskatchewan and ride train cars around, just for myself and letting people that made it here use it for fun. I haven’t tried estimating how much that would cost.

Have a look at the West Coast Express, opened in 1995 from Vancouver BC to 43 miles out at an estimated cost of 40 to 80 million Canadian dollars, equivalent to 53.4 to 106.8 million of today’s USD. There were musings of it as far back as 1971, but it sounds like design started sometime after 1981 and construction started in 1994, finishing late 1995.

The price tag would include 5 engines and 5 sets of bilevel railcars, leasing tracks for CP and BNSF, building a handful of turnouts and sidings to hold the trains when out of service, build or contracting wash and maintenance facilities, maybe some small track and signalling upgrades along the route, and station facilities in 7 places.

Another example is the Rail Runner Express in New Mexico that runs 96.5 miles from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. The NM Governor Richardson announced it in August 2003. Construction began in October 2005. The first portion of service began in July 2006 and the full line went into service by December 2008. The cost to build the line was about 285 million USD total equivalent to about 438 million USD today. A operational deficit of 10 to 20 million USD annually was reported and criticized, but roads and bridges of that length cost as much to maintain anyway.

scrubbles, 8 miesięcy temu

Very neat, 20-40mil is what I expected, makes sense. Thanks for the detailed reply! When I win the lottery maybe I try it…

safesyrup, 8 miesięcy temu

This hugely depends on many factors. What quality should the rail be? Do you transport freight at 30km/h or pasenger rail at 200 km/h? Is there electification involved? How is the soil along the tracks? How many trains of what type do you need? Do you want electric train protection and signaling? How nice do you want the train stops to be? Does it cross property of private individuals that you need to aquire?

I just want to say that this is not really a question that has an answer since it depends on so many factors. You also have to think about regulations for rail traffic. Building a rail line in your backyard isn‘t neary as expensive as one you use commercially because of safety standards you have to comply with, which is a good thing.

Oh and even if you could specify a project, i still would have no clue since i‘m not a project manager nor civil engineer, just interested in rail and trains :D

veroxii, 8 miesięcy temu

You might find this video about the brightline rail in Florida interesting. They started off as only a short section and the video discusses the costs and funding.

youtu.be/dmpyV4Yf8b0

Immersive_Matthew, 8 miesięcy temu

Is there transit on both ends as one of the challenges with rail in NA is once you arrive at your destination, it can be hard to make that last mile or so transit. It also has to be as fast or faster overall than driving and it has to be cheaper as people will just default to cars again. That has been my experience living in cities around the world.

Lost_My_Mind, 5 miesięcy temu

Not that I have millions of dollars lying around

Guys, he’s lying. He TOTALLY has millions laying around.