Crikey, numbers like that bring perspective to the old "Why doesn't the US have Japan's mass transit system, yet?" Because just building Japan's total of tracks would cost $3.4 trillion... and we'd have built barely enough track to cover California or New England to service levels comparable with Japan.
I wondered roughly how that compared to highway costs, and I found that it's about four times as much. One thing I found was that while this article claims $700million/mile for the LA Red Line, the MTA reports that $4.5billion was spent for the 17.4 miles, giving a cost of $259million/mile.
project $million/mile persons/day
LA Red Line 259 [1] 140943 [1]
MARTA heavy rail (estimate) 200
I-64 highway 53.5 [2] 140000 [3]
American Maglev (estimate) 20
I wondered roughly how that compared to highway costs, and I found that it's about four times as much
That would imply that the US has several trillion dollars invested in its highway system, correct? Does that number pass the smell test to you?
Wiki reports that our ~45,000 mile interstate highway system cost about 425 billion, or a hair under $10 million a mile, in 2006 dollars. That's under a twentieth of what the LA transit folks are quoting. (I think they're doing creative accounting by reclassifying part of construction as operating expenses, which is a frequent trick in this field, but I've got nothing to back that up.)
What are the continued operating costs, though, from both the government and users? When I lived in Toronto I could have an all-access unlimited subway pass for $100 a month, that's $1200 a year.
If I commuted by car I would've personally paid a hell of a lot more for the privilege. The up-front cost of the infrastructure is not the only consideration...
Last time I ran the numbers the US highway system costs around 3$/gallon of gas used on the highway system. So, double your gas costs, then add all the other costs and you can approximate the "net" cost of your commute.
Crikey, numbers like that bring perspective to the old "Why doesn't the US have Japan's mass transit system, yet?" Because just building Japan's total of tracks would cost $3.4 trillion... and we'd have built barely enough track to cover California or New England to service levels comparable with Japan.