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Originally Posted by VivaLFuego
Yeah....$40-50 mil is way low....costs to procure the vehicles alone will probably be close to that much. The bridge would probably be another $50-100 million (since the old one has to be removed). Station facilities would likely run in the ballpark of $10 mil each for the easy ones, anything requiring excavation or significant utility relocation could be more. Then there's integration with the existing traffic control (signal) systems. Upgrades to maintenance facilities to deal with the new vehicles. Systemwide signage (don't scoff, this is expensive....several million $). Plus, much of the construction has to take place without interuption to the local surroundings....such mitigation factors (for noise, dust, and traffic impacts) will be expensive in their own right, not to mention make the project schedule longer and therefore more expensive. Including overhead costs for architectural services and construction management, I don't see how the thing could possibly come in under $200mil. Likely it would cost in the $300m range for BRT. LRT would be more because of the power delivery infrastructure and signalling costs; would probably require a new substation and of course higher-voltage utility lines.
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New vehicles? What's wrong with the buses we have? Just pull buses from the cross-Loop routes that are being replaced by the Transitway, and give them a different paint scheme.
As for stations - why are caissons or even major foundations required to build a simple platform? Obviously, several of the platforms will need stairs and elevators up to the upper streets, and the platforms will have to be separated into paid/unpaid areas - so some turnstiles and fences. In the West Loop and Streeterville portions of the route, only Curitiba-style waiting pods are needed.
Can you please explain to me why Cincinnati is able to build 4 miles of new streetcar track, overhead wire, purchase 8 streetcars, build 18 stations, a maintenance facility, and install the TSP systems on stoplights all for $88 million? How is a basic BRT line on an already-existing right-of-way more expensive than building a streetcar? Something really isn't clicking here, if the Cincinnati price is accurate.
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Originally Posted by spyguy
Barrington, other suburbs oppose railroad's plan
Nov. 12, 2007
By Bob Tita
Far northwest suburban towns are lining up to oppose Canadian National Railway Co.’s purchase of a lightly used rail line to relieve train traffic congestion in Chicago and close-in suburbs.
The suburban route is key to the railroad’s plan to abandon tracks along the city’s lakefront and in the South Loop, where freight trains have long been seen by Mayor Richard M. Daley and developers as an impediment to further gentrification.
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I've never been more embarassed to live in Barrington. The traffic problems we have are a result of a poorly-planned road system, not freight trains. If CN can avoid running trains between 6-9am and 5-7pm, there will be very little impact. Everybody here is eager to point the finger at people from other towns, and at outside corporations for all of Barrington's problems.
If I had known about the meeting in advance, I would most assuredly have gone and voiced my opinion.
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I'll be even happier if they can run trains just as quickly through the construction zones at Damen & Irving Park as they consistently maintained through the Montrose construction. My fingers are crossed.
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