[Novacek]

Originally Posted by nixcity

True, far from massively successful....

Well, then let's look at those 22, shall we?

1) is the MTA long island. 182 years old. 320 miles long. In those years it's had innumerable expansions, revisions, and electrification. I don't even want to hazard a guess as to how many billions of dollars such a system represents.
2) NJ Transit rail. Only 33 years old, but this one is 530 miles. Again, I don't want to hazard a guess as to the whole system's cost.
Anyway, CapMetro isn't even in the league as the capital expenditures of those systems, and having ridership less than #1 doesn't mean it's "pretty damn horrible"

So let's jump down the list to something more like peers. Not even out of the top 10.

7) Caltrain. 29 years old. 77 miles. Just the most recent project (that I could find) 2 years ago was $155M. http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplan...eparation.html
There's got to be hundreds of millions (at least) in capital projects over those 3 decades. http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplan...l_Program.html

8)Metrolink 24 years old. 388 miles long. $450M just to purchase the track in 1990 (over $800M in today's dollars). To say nothing of the actual construction cost, vehicles, and projects since then.

9) MARC train 32 years old (though passenger service was on that line long before). 187 miles. I couldn't find cumulative capital costs for this one, but they just spent #37M just _overhauling_ (not buying) some vehicles. https://mta.maryland.gov/marc-train-...evel-rail-cars

10)UTA frontrunner. 8 years old (probably the closest peer in age). 88 miles. Cost $611M , just for the first 44 miles. http://beta.deseretnews.com/article/...er.html?pg=all

The expansion was $850M http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?...-rail.html.csp

So slightly older than the red line, gets about 6 times the riders, cost 12 times as much.

11) VRE 24 years old. 90 miles long. I couldn't find original capital costs, but they just (in 2015) spent $35M adding a single station.
And at this point, we're down to about 4 times the ridership of the red line.

12) tri rail. 29 years old. 200 miles. $75 Million in 1989 ($145M in today's dollars) and another $84M in 2000. Some other projects in those 3 decades as well.

13) sounder 16 years old. 83 miles long. $368M expansion. $185 million for track rights. I couldn't find original construction costs or vehicle costs.

14) South shore line. 113 years old. 90 miles long. I'm not going to try and dig into what's been spent on it over a century.

15) TRE 20 years old. Only 34 miles (so probably our closest peer in length). But now we're down to less than 3 times the red lines ridership.

Expanded in length at least twice. Looks to have cost at least $250M so far https://www.azta.org/images/uploads/..._(Blaydes).pdf

16) Coaster 21 years old. 41 miles long. I can't find original costs, but they spent $32M 2008-3013 https://web.archive.org/web/20131105...ick-Facts1.pdf

And at this point, we're into systems (like Coaster) that have basically the same ridership as the red line. With most of them being much older, longer, and much more expensive.


So yes, for the red line's age* and original cheap construction, it's been amazingly successful.

*transit-supporting density at stations is only now really starting up. MLK station, Plaza Saltillo, Crestview, Highland.