electricron wrote:It's surprising how cheaply light rail can be implemented in an abandoned rail corridor through a city if you're willing to buy used train sets and build minimum station amenities. Mendoza, Argentina only has a population around 120,000. The light rail corridor initially constructed is only 12 kilometers (8 miles) in length, and they only bought 11 ex-trolleys from San Diego.
I'm not aware how much the entire light rail project costs, but Mendoza only paid San Diego $3.3 Million for the 11 trolleys.
Mendoza as a city may have a population around 120,000, but the metro area is around 1,000,000. This train is being funded by the regional state government, not by the city.
Phase 1 costs for the 12 km light rail line came in under 63 million pesos reportably. I believe the total costs for phase 1 was nearer to 100 million pesos. The 5+ km phase two light rail extension is projected to be 225 million pesos. An Argentina pesos is worth 11 cents US. For a quick approximation, move the decimal point to the left one digit.
Phase 2 costs are higher because they're buying more than twice as many light rail vehicles, refurbishing (rebuilding) the Mendoza Central train station into an office building, building an 1,000 unit apartment complex, repositioning the existing broad gauge freight line in the corridor, and rebuilding around a km of road.
They have purchased 35 light rail vehicles from San Diego. They are Siemens-Duewag U2 light rail vehicles that were delivered to San Diego between 1980 and 1989. They are rated for a maximum speed around 50 mph (80 km/h) if a catenary rigging supported the trolley wire. But Mendoza built a trolley wire overhead without a catenary rigging, with pole spacing around 30 m, which limits maximum speeds to around 40 mph. Most of the vehicles Mendoza bought are from those arriving in San Diego after 1986, so they should be less than 30 years in age.