First post...this is a great website!  As a native of Cleveland I am very happy to see such active discussion of what's going on around the city.

 

I've always had an interest in resurrecting Cleveland's streetcar service and one day decided to research just how much it would cost.  The figures of $20-30mm per mile thrown around in Cincinnati streetcar discussions just seem absolutely ridiculous.  Well, here's something I came across --

 

http://www.lr55-rail-road-system.co.uk/

 

This type of rail system, called LR55, was developed in the UK to solve some traditional in-street roadbed problems and reduce construction cost and time.  It has been used in Sheffield since 1996 without significant failures and by now other cities as well. 

 

The track, encased in concrete and polyurethane, can be laid in existing roadbeds without significant excavation at a rate of as fast as 1500ft/week.  For a little more information, check out the minutes of a meeting regarding the implementation in the town of Bath (they're from 1998, so the money figures may not be as accurate).

 

http://www.tramdev.clara.net/TfB.htm

 

The notable line in here is this:

"3.5 Km track in the centre of Manchester cost £14M to install, with LR55 that should reduce to £5M."

 

£5M for 3.5 km works out to be roughly $3.7 million per mile (in 1998 dollars and exch. rate).

 

A far cry from those astronomical numbers proposed.

 

I'm curious to see if anyone has seriously discussed the accurate pricing of streetcar systems?  It seems that there is truly a dearth of accountants involved in local government and transit authorities....

Welcome to the forum.  Nice first post!

 

This method is really interesting.  While I don't know a ton about rail construction this seems like a great method for light rail and streetcar systems.  Oh the possible developments this could bring to cash strapped transit agencies. 

No kidding .. wonder if RTA knows about this.

Take a look here at the itemized cost estimate for the Cincinnati Streetcar, the actual cost of the track itself is only about 4.1 million per mile in 2007 dollars.

 

the $25 million a mile includes 6 modern streetcars, the maintenance facility, the electrical systems, stops, engineering, and contingencies.  All of these numbers are inflated to 2010 costs.

 

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/city/downloads/city_pdf17777.pdf

Also Portland has perfected a method for laying a city block of streetcar rail per week.  This means interruption to storefront businesses is minimal and very brief.  Most of Portland's city blocks are 200ft. long whereas most of Cincinnati's are 400ft., so it will take a little longer here but not necessarily two weeks per block.   

 

This is very significant because interruptions to storefront businesses is a very serious matter.  Cut-and-cover subway construction can mean a street is torn up for 18-24 months and the city must basically pay off existing businesses to make up for lost business.  So streetcar track laying is really no more an interruption than periodic utility work.   

 

Light rail takes longer per block because many more utilities need to be relocated.  In some cases the entire street has to be dug up, curb-to-curb, to lay track in just one lane.  This can take more than a month and costs much more than modern streetcar track construction.