[sustran] Re: Recent public transport costs studies?

[Carlosfelipe Pardo]

Paul,

The BRT planning guide has summary tables of these costs in Chapter 2. You
can download it from
http://www.itdp.org/index.php/microsite/brt_planning_guide/ . However, all
these costs are always debatable, since there are some versions which
include the entire right of way and others just the station and trunk lines.
A typical misunderstanding with, for example, BRT costs from Bogotá, is that
they even include land acquisition costs and expropriation of phase 2 (plus
mixed traffic lanes), which have increased km costs up to 15 million USD
(but have been as low as 4 million in other trunk lines), and these costs
are compared with just the station and trunk lines or roadway needed for an
LRT, which would have a similar cost but is of course an incoherent and
biased comparison (Todd's comments about what to include are also very
relevant here). The same is done with many other comparisons of BRT vs LRT
vs metro etc etc, and some consultants (and even academics!) are happy to
provide loose statements such as "if you have more than 8 million people in
your city, you MUST have a metro"... which is highly debatable as well (??)

These issues have stirred very heated discussions in various cases, and I
guess this will also be the case as soon as I hit the "send" button (here we
go... yay!).

Best regards,

Carlos.

2009/9/16 Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory <edelman at greenidea.eu>

> Hi Paul,
>
> We can assume that you are telling the inquisitor that this is the
> wrong/just part of the question? ;-)
>
> In other words what about vehicle acquisition costs, running costs,
> energy supply, complementary infrastructure, increase in tax revenue
> because of rise in property values (not that that is good thing) or
> stimulated retail, decrease in emissions/road fatalities....
>
> I wish I had some funny quote from a dead man or woman which would sum
> this up in a nutshell...
>
> - T
>
>
> Paul Barter wrote:
> >
> > I have been asked off-list for some quick data. The question is "What
> > are the comparative costs per km (or mile) of recent heavy rail, light
> > rail, and BRT systems in Asia."
> >
> > Does anyone know where to turn for a quick answer, preferably with a
> > table of
> > projects giving data?
> >
> > I should know but have not been keeping track of this.
> >
> > Replies to the list are OK, since this is likely to be of general
> > interest.
> >
> > Paul
> >
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> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
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