The Decade's Top Hits

Yonah Freemark
March 11th, 2010 | 16 Comments

» The 2000s may have seen the most investment in North American transit ever, with new light rail and metro lines opening from New Jersey to California.

I reviewed the biggest transit projects completed in the United States and Canada between 2000 and 2009 on the Infrastructurist a few days ago, but I thought it would be useful to provide a bit more information about how I compiled the data and give readers a glance at all of the major transit projects I can identify.

I determined the comparative costs of the project by factoring in inflation (both of the U.S. and Canadian dollars, separately). All project costs are noted in 2009 U.S. dollars. I did not include projects which began construction during the 2000s but which are planned to finish after 2009. I also did not include airport or private people movers in the top ten; if I had, New York’s AirTrain JFK line that opened in 2003 would have been number three, at a price of $2.23 billion in 2009 dollars.

The success of the most expensive projects in attracting their foreseen number of riders has been something of a mixed bag, with some projects, like San Juan’s Metro, falling far below expectations, and others, like Phoenix’s Metro Rail, doing quite well so far.

In terms of cost per mile, perhaps the most relevant way to compare various transit projects, eight out of the ten most expensive were metro rail, with an exception for the Boston Silver Line busway, at $315 million/mile, and the Newark light rail extension at $223 million/mile. New York’s IND 63rd Street connector, at the equivalent of $2.6 billion per mile, was by far the most expensive — though that cost is roughly in line with that of the Second Avenue Subway currently under construction.

During the 2000s, the top ten places (and their suburbs) for overall transit investments were:

1. Los Angeles – $4.15 b
2. Seattle – $3.84 b
3. Vancouver – $2.86 b
4. San Juan – $2.63 b
5. San Francisco – $2.43 b
6. Northern New Jersey – $2.20 b
7. Washington – $1.92 b
8. Phoenix – $1.88 b
9. New York City – $1.36 b
10. Philadelphia – $1.31 b

Los Angeles hopes to spend $14 billion on transit by 2020; if it does so, it will surely be in the lead once again for urban transit spending in the United States during the 2010s, followed closely by New York City, Denver, Houston, and Dallas. Each has a panoply of expensive new transit corridors on tap.

Public Transit Capital Projects (Table is sortable)

Place Project Tech Cost '09 (m US$) Length (mi) Cost/ Mile (m US$) Rider/ day (k) Rider/ mile (k) Cost/ rider- mile Date San Juan Tren Urbano Metro Rail 2630 10.7 246 39 3.6 730 2004 Seattle Central Link Light Rail 2400 15.6 154 16 1.0 2400 2009 New Jersey (Northern) Hudson-Bergen Light Rail 2200 20.6 107 38 1.8 1222 2006 Vancouver Canada Line Metro Rail 2000 11.8 169 93 7.9 253 2009 Los Angeles Red Line Phase 3 Metro Rail 1880 3.0 627 2000 San Francisco BART to SFO Metro Rail 1730 8.7 199 2003 Phoenix Metro Rail Light Rail 1410 20.0 71 34 1.7 829 2008 Seattle Sounder (South/North) Commuter Rail 1390 82.0 17 10 0.1 13900 2000/ 2003 Philadelphia Market-Frankford Metro Rail 1310 12.9 102 179 13.9 94 2009 New Jersey (Central) River Line Diesel Light Rail 1260 34.0 37 9 0.3 4200 2004 Washington Branch Ave Extension Metro Rail 1100 6.5 169 2001 Toronto Sheppard Rapid Transit Metro Rail 1080 3.4 318 46 13.5 80 2002 Los Angeles Gold Line to Pasadena Light Rail 1010 13.7 74 24 1.8 561 2003 Denver T-Rex Light Rail 943 19.1 49 2006 Los Angeles Eastside Gold Line Light Rail 900 6.0 150 13 2.2 409 2009 Vancouver Millennium Line Advanced Rapid Transit 861 12.6 68 80 6.3 137 2002 Minneapolis Hiawatha Line Light Rail 819 12.0 68 32 2.7 303 2004 New York City IND 63rd St Connector Metro Rail 788 0.3 2627 2001 Montréal Laval Metro Extension Metro Rail 731 3.2 228 60 18.8 39 2007 San Francisco T-Third St Light Rail 696 5.6 124 2007 Washington Largo Blue Line Extension Metro Rail 695 3.2 217 2004 Dallas Red Line Parker Rd Extension Light Rail 622 12.5 50 2002 Salt Lake City FrontRunner Commuter Rail 614 44.0 14 5 0.1 6140 2008 Atlanta MARTA North Extension Metro Rail 582 1.9 306 2000 Portland Green Line and Transit Mall Light Rail 575 8.3 69 17 2.0 288 2009 New York City Manhattan Bridge Reconstruction Metro Rail 573 2.1 273 2004 Chicago Blue Line Douglas Reconstruction Metro Rail 531 11.2 47 29 2.6 204 2005 Chicago Brown Line Reconstruction Metro Rail 530 11.4 46 98 8.6 62 2009 San Jose Tasman East/ Capitol Extension Light Rail 496 8.3 60 2004 Charlotte South Corridor Light Rail 483 9.6 50 20 2.1 230 2007 Oceanside/ Escondido Sprinter Diesel Light Rail 479 22.0 22 8 0.4 1198 2008 San Diego Mission Valley East Light Rail 477 5.9 81 2005 Boston Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit 473 1.5 315 11 7.3 65 2002/ 2004 St. Louis Cross-County Extension Light Rail 461 7.5 61 2006 Pittsburgh Overbrook Reconstruction Light Rail 442 10.7 41 2004 St. Louis St. Clair County Extension Light Rail 414 17.4 24 2001 Las Vegas Monorail Monorail 405 3.9 104 23 5.9 69 2004 New Mexico Rail Runner Express Commuter Rail 396 97.0 4 5 0.1 3960 2006/ 2008 San Jose Vasona Extension Light Rail 379 6.8 56 2005 Houston MetroRail Light Rail 371 7.5 49 40 5.3 70 2004 Portland Yellow Line Light Rail 366 5.8 63 2004 Los Angeles Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit 359 14.0 26 21 1.5 239 2005 Minneapolis Northstar Commuter Rail 265 40.0 7 2 0.1 2650 2009 Boston Greenbush Line Commuter Rail 263 18.0 15 2007 Sacramento South Line Light Rail 261 6.3 41 2003 Salt Lake City University Line and Extension Light Rail 234 7.3 32 2001/ 2003 Newark Light Rail Extension Light Rail 223 1.0 223 2006 Denver Southwest Corridor Light Rail 222 8.7 26 2000 Edmonton South Line Extensions Light Rail 222 1.8 123 2006/ 2009 New Jersey (Northern) Meadowlands Rail Line Commuter Rail 213 2.3 93 2009 New Orleans Canal St Line Streetcar 180 5.5 33 2004 Calgary Northeast Line Extension Light Rail 176 1.7 104 2007 Cleveland Euclid Corridor Bus Rapid Transit 169 6.8 25 2008 Portland Westside Express Diesel Light Rail 166 14.7 11 1 0.1 1660 2009 Baltimore Light Rail Double Tracking Light Rail 161 9.4 17 35 3.7 44 2006 Portland Airport Red Line Extension Light Rail 153 5.5 28 2001 Washington New York Ave Station Metro Rail 126 2004 Calgary Northwest Line Extensions Light Rail 109 2003/ 2009 Miami Palmetto Extension Metro Rail 103 1.4 74 2003 Portland Streetcar and Extensions Streetcar 96 3.9 25 12 3.1 31 2001/ 2005/ 2007 Tacoma Link Light Rail 94 1.6 59 4 2.5 38 2003 St. Louis Shiloh-Scott Extension Light Rail 88 3.5 25 2003 Dallas Blue Line Garland Extension Light Rail 67 3.1 22 2001/ 2002 Memphis MATA Extension Streetcar 64 2.0 32 2004 Denver Central Platte Valley Corridor Light Rail 58 1.8 32 2002 Seattle South Lake Union Streetcar Streetcar 53 1.3 41 1 0.8 66 2007 New Orleans St. Charles Line Reconstruction Streetcar 47 6.3 7 2008 Calgary South Line Extension Light Rail 47 2004 Nashville Music City Star Commuter Rail 44 32.0 1 1 0 2006 Tampa TECO Line Streetcar 38 2.3 17 1 0.4 95 2002 Little Rock River Rail and Extensions Streetcar 31 3.4 9 1 0.3 103 2004/ 2007 Eugene Green Line Bus Rapid Transit 26 4.0 7 2007 Ottawa O-Train Diesel Light Rail 24 5.0 5 10 2.0 12 2001 San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Streetcar 11 1.5 7 2003 Kenosha Streetcar Streetcar 5 2.0 3 2000

Airport/Private Transit Capital Projects (Table is sortable)

Place Project Technology Cost '09 (millions in US$) Length (mi) Cost/Mile (million US$) Date New York City AirTrain JFK Advanced Rapid Transit 2230 8.1 275 2003 Atlanta ATL SkyTrain People Mover 626 1.5 417 2009 Newark AirTrain Newark Monorail 509 1.1 463 2001 San Francisco AirTrain SFO Advanced Rapid Transit 506 6.0 84 2003 Dallas DFW Skylink People Mover 251 4.8 52 2005 Detroit ExpressTram Tire-based People Mover 82 0.7 117 2002 Minneapolis Airport Trams (2 lines) People Mover 71 0.7 101 2001/ 2004 Portland Aerial Tram Aerial Tramway 61 0.6 102 2006 Indianapolis Clarial Health People Mover People Mover 51 1.4 36 2003 Toronto LINK Train Cable-based People Mover 43 0.9 48 2006

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By Yonah Freemark on March 11th, 2010 | Listed: General | 16 Comments

• Davsot

  11 March 2010 at 05:26 · Reply

  San Juan was left out of the list of top 10 places. …

  Only 16 stations of the planned 36 were built. And there were stations planned in the historic downtown district, you know, the few districts that weren’t designed á la Tyson’s Corner.

  For its length and technology, Tren Urbano costs are in line with the rest of the US. If only Puerto Rico’s government had finished the system…

  • Yonah Freemark

    11 March 2010 at 06:10 · Reply

    Sorry, I made a mistake! San Juan’s up there right now.

• Charles D

  11 March 2010 at 08:47 · Reply

  It might be helpful to add in a chart showing the most expensive highway projects and airport projects of the last decade as a comparison. For some reason, we are always “wasting” money on “expensive” transit projects but you can’t seem to drive more than 20 miles without entering a highway construction zone. Until we own up to the fact that there is no such thing as a profitable public transportation modality and that the government has spent billions more on the automobile and the airplane than on rail, we aren’t likely to make much progress.

• Herbie

  11 March 2010 at 10:06 · Reply

  Not that I want to see St. Louis bumped up in the rankings, but a Missouri State Auditor’s report on the Cross County Extension says the final estimated cost was $686 million which is far above the $465 million you have listed.

• Tom West

  11 March 2010 at 10:24 · Reply

  Any chance you include daily passengers per dollar in your tables? (Passenger-miles/$ would be even better, but much harder to find out.)

• John

  11 March 2010 at 11:46 · Reply

  I second @Tom West… pretty please? It gives transit a really bad name if most transit projects are boondoggles, and I want to know what was and what wasn’t one.

  @Charles D, it might actually not be that bad if you look at highway cost per user or per passenger mile. I don’t think highways are particularly wasteful by these metrics. It’s just that they’re bad policy because they promote a car-dependent society. I think Canada is the perfect counter-example, because socially they are very similar to the states. The two big differences between the states and Canada as far as lifestyle subsidies are a) rebates on mortgage payments and b) federal money to within-city highways. The results are plain to see: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/NorthAmericanPublicTransport.png

  • BruceMcF

    12 March 2010 at 19:23 · Reply

    It makes a big difference if you look at lump sum capital cost versus annualized capital cost. Lump sum deflates the economic cost of less durable infrastructure and inflates the capital cost of more durable infrastructure.

• DBX

  11 March 2010 at 14:12 · Reply

  You’re missing Chicago’s Douglas/54th-Cermak Blue Line reconstruction — a far more thorough project than the recent Brown Line scheme — which took place from 2002 to 2005.

  However, even with this included in Chicago transit, the sad fact is that it does not even get Chicago, the third largest metropolitan area in the country, into the top ten list for total investment. Which says something about the pitiable state of things here in Illinois, where no-one is even talking about a balanced budget even though we’re constitutionally required to have one, and where the latest infrastructure plan is more skewed towards roads than the last one.

• Kelsey

  11 March 2010 at 17:20 · Reply

  Do you have an estimate for the total amount of planned light rail projects in the US? I saw the list but a bunch don’t have numbers on them and I’m trying to get a feel for the size of the “proposed” market… thanks!

• Chetan

  11 March 2010 at 18:30 · Reply

  It’s not a matter of “if” any more, just a matter of when. We will have a move transit oriented America.

• Ted King

  11 March 2010 at 19:04 · Reply

  Lead graphic (FULL SIZE)

  • Woody

    11 March 2010 at 23:08 · Reply

    Well, now, THAT was a public service announcement if I ever saw one! Thanks.

• Brandi

  12 March 2010 at 12:15 · Reply

  Wow didn’t know Yonah did the graphics for the infrastructurist too. Talk about a graphic god! This decade did seem to have a few good hits, let’s hope for a lot more next decade! Also how did the Boston Silver Line cost so much? I thought that wasn’t even real BRT.

  • Nathanael

    13 March 2010 at 15:33 · Reply

    The Silver Lie dug bus tunnels in very difficult areas, with lots of underpinning, waterproofing, avoiding existing foundations, etc.

    And it was basically a big waste. :-(

• Adam Krom

  14 March 2010 at 14:49 · Reply

  I believe that the River Line was a DBOM project — design build operate maintain. I think that roughly ten years of operating expenses were capitalized into the project cost. If that is true, then you would need to back those costs out to compare to projects where operating costs are not included in the cost estimate.

  • David Alexander

    14 March 2010 at 16:59 · Reply

    The same is also true of HBLR. IIRC, both projects underwent the the DBOM process primarily to speed up their funding and thus expedite the construction of the line, hence why HBLR went from MOS-1 to MOS-2 within six years of operation. I believe NJT essentially borrowed against future monies placed into the Transportation Trust Fund which is used by the state of New Jersey to pay for varying transport projects.

    BTW, according to the FTA, the as-built capital costs for MOS I was $869.7M and MOS II was $886.5M.

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