Transit Projects' Costs Follow-Up

Seattlest loves transit. So we love the insight the Simpsons writers have into the transit projects. In Seth's article about the monorail's burgeoning expenses, you can find info on the Simpsons' monorail episode, part of which is that ingenious song, the Monorail Song, that includes this line:

Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!

Indeed the mob has spoken. But still, I can't wait for the summer of 2009 when I can ride from Crown Hill (north Ballard) to Alki just like the Jetsons. I like this promise, found on the monorail website, regarding travel time:

The estimated time to travel the entire Green Line is about 30 minutes; will travel from Ballard to Westlake in 11 minutes and from West Seattle to Pioneer Square in 12 minutes; Average speed will be 20-30 mph with top speed of 50 mph in some locations.

Bus travel along the same route takes closer to an hour in the best of traffic conditions.

Looking further at at the funding details, you find that 14 miles of monorail only costs $114 million per mile:

The estimate to build the Green Line is $1.29 billion (in 2002 dollars), and all capital costs - project costs plus financing costs, agency costs, project reserves, a construction escalator to account for construction over time, and a planning allowance - total $1.6 billion (in year of expenditure dollars).

To put that in perspective, Sound Transit's Link Light Rail's Initial Segment, 14 miles of light rail from Tukwila to downtown Seattle, will cost $2.2 billion ($157 million per mile). PS. Thanks to the Initial Segment, the bus tunnel will be closed for two years starting this September.

After learning the details of the financial costs associated with these transit projects, Seattlest recommends getting into the transportation construction industry.