Rail vs. Roads

From Austin Chronicle, September 12, 2008...

There's an ironic subtext to Capital Metro's Green Line report: Rail transit is being held to a higher standard of investment scrutiny than are roads, which are also wildly expensive. By comparison to the proposed Green Line, there's a $500 million price tag on design and construction for the Texas Department of Transportation's new 6.2-mile Manor Expressway, a toll road in the median of Highway 290 from U.S. 183 to Parmer Lane, scheduled to start construction next year. That's about $80.6 million per mile. At the upper estimate of $192 million, the Green Line would come in at $6.8 million per mile. No submittal of ridership projections was required for that toll road expenditure; annualized costs per passenger mile were not calculated. But it's a safer bet that tolls can pay back construction costs (if not ancillary and opportunity costs) in a way the transit fare-box never will.

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