The Greater Triangle Commuter Rail Feasibility study included this table regarding costs:
-
Is there any breakdown of the allocation of these costs? EG, how much will be spent on parking structures, double tracking, platforms, vehicles, station headhouses/waiting rooms, ancillary streetscape improvements, etc.
-
It is quite shocking to me that there is no difference in capital cost between the 40 train-per-day 8-2-8-2 and 20 train-per-day 5-1-5-1 options, and a shockingly small difference with the 3-1-3-0. Since it seems like capital costs do not increase much as service increases, could we go even past 40 trains per day without a lot more capital cost? (Dallas’s TRE runs about 60; A 30-minute, all-day schedule would be about 70; Denver’s A-line runs 144(!!)) Have you looked at options? (I read a discussion about a possible “12-8-12-8” pattern, which would be 80 trains per day, here, lifted from a discussion GoTriangle had with the DCHC MPO this year.)
-
I’m curious to hear more about how, and to what degree, this service will interact with, and share tracks/platforms with, freight, Amtrak, and future high-speed trains. Is the light midday/late evening schedule (8-2-8-2 and 5-1-5-1) required in order to avoid interference with freight? Have you had discussions with Amtrak and Norfolk-Southern to talk about timetables and determine how this will work?