Extending Metro to Prince William County would cost $27 Billion

Extending a Metrorail line to Triangle in Prince William County would cost as much as $27 billion, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation estimates as it nears completion of a study of transit options along the U.S. 1 corridor.

The study will not recommend any particular option, but an executive summary released Tuesday says all five options studied are “feasible.” But more detail on the alternatives and analysis needs to be undertaken before a “locally preferred alternative” is selected.

https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/me ... 15295.html

I now live in PW County and as pro transit as I am, I hope this goes no where. Seems like a waste of money for the region when VRE and BRT are already financed for the same corridor, and there’s more pressing WMATA expansions than this.

KTHW wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:13 am I now live in PW County and as pro transit as I am, I hope this goes no where. Seems like a waste of money for the region when VRE and BRT are already financed for the same corridor, and there’s more pressing WMATA expansions than this.

Yup
Gold standard BRT connecting to expanded VRE service, some over the fort Belvoir branch ROW makes a lot more sense than more wmata.

Just going off the article itself, the report had some nuggets, namely the BRT study didn't include dedicated right-of-way and only VRE enhancements that were beyond ones already underway were studied. It also didn't factor in core service improvements to help with such an expansion.

So it's a bit of a flawed study, useful for an indicator to study further with dedicated RoW studies on dedicated lines.

A billion dollars per mile is rather more than the cost of tunnels in the densest urban areas, and about five to ten times the cost of typical surface construction. (The recent BART extension to Berryessa, a very similar project, cost $150m/mile and $230m/mile for its two phases, which included a fair bit of tunneling.) The BRT costs are similarly an order of magnitude away from reality. What an utterly dishonest study.

The EGE wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 11:59 am A billion dollars per mile is rather more than the cost of tunnels in the densest urban areas, and about five to ten times the cost of typical surface construction. (The recent BART extension to Berryessa, a very similar project, cost $150m/mile and $230m/mile for its two phases, which included a fair bit of tunneling.) The BRT costs are similarly an order of magnitude away from reality. What an utterly dishonest study.

Yeah. Reminds me of studies mbta or MTA NYC do with artificial costs, to avoid actually doing any work

The EGE
A billion dollars per mile is rather more than the cost of tunnels in the densest urban areas, and about five to ten times the cost of typical surface construction. (The recent BART extension to Berryessa, a very similar project, cost $150m/mile and $230m/mile for its two phases, which included a fair bit of tunneling.) The BRT costs are similarly an order of magnitude away from reality. What an utterly dishonest study.

The $27 billion price is based on the alignment options in the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Springfield to Quantico Enhanced Public Transportation Feasibility Study. (2.88 MB PDF file) None of alignments follow a direct path from either Springfield - Franconia or Huntington to Triangle. See pages 21 and 22 in the above linked PDF.

This project better go nowhere. There are a lot of areas with much higher density closer to DC that aren't served by any sort of frequent transit at all. Focus on those first.

This project is even more absurd than the Silver Line through Tyson's. What about bus lanes, red light and speed cameras, actual useful streetcars, light rail that isn't corrupted and mismanaged, fare capping, better passes, covered bike parking, TOD, the list goes on, so many other better options to spend $27 BILLION instead of subsidizing suburbia even more

Sand Box John wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 7:35 am The EGE
A billion dollars per mile is rather more than the cost of tunnels in the densest urban areas, and about five to ten times the cost of typical surface construction. (The recent BART extension to Berryessa, a very similar project, cost $150m/mile and $230m/mile for its two phases, which included a fair bit of tunneling.) The BRT costs are similarly an order of magnitude away from reality. What an utterly dishonest study.

The $27 billion price is based on the alignment options in the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Springfield to Quantico Enhanced Public Transportation Feasibility Study. (2.88 MB PDF file) None of alignments follow a direct path from either Springfield - Franconia or Huntington to Triangle. See pages 21 and 22 in the above linked PDF.

The final cost of the Silver Line will be about $6.8 billion for 23.2 miles, or about $290 million per mile. Why on earth would this extension have four times the per-mile cost?

daybeers wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 1:29 pm This project is even more absurd than the Silver Line through Tyson's. What about bus lanes, red light and speed cameras, actual useful streetcars, light rail that isn't corrupted and mismanaged, fare capping, better passes, covered bike parking, TOD, the list goes on, so many other better options to spend $27 BILLION instead of subsidizing suburbia even more

This would be better served with increased vre services at 79 mph
To dedicated BRT for the last miles,
Than metro rail

The EGE
The final cost of the Silver Line will be about $6.8 billion for 23.2 miles, or about $290 million per mile. Why on earth would this extension have four times the per-mile cost?

The alignment of the route to reach the location of the stations will require a combination of surface, elevated and subway. Parts of the length of the alignment do not use existing easements that can easily accommodate a rail transit line. Property and or easements will have to be taken using eminent domain.

At what point does the length of the Silver Line begin to become a problem with Metro's inability to offer skip-stop service?