The cost of the Triangle's proposed commuter rail
project has soared, Here's a review

Published: Oct 3, 2005 - Modified: Oct 6, 2005 10:10 AM - Rising costs for rail

For many reasons, the cost of the Triangle's proposed commuter rail project has soared since it was first considered in the early 1990s. Here's a review:
1994
Triangle Fixed Guideway Study recommends diesel-driven regional rail transit. It can be built more quickly and cheaply -- using the N.C. Railroad corridor -- than busways or electric-powered light rail. Costs depend on whether the TTA builds a separate track or shares existing track with freight and Amtrak trains. Start-up date: 2000. Cost for shared track, 28 miles: $88 million
Cost for separate track, 28 miles: $196 million
1995
The Triangle Transit Authority announces two-phase project.
Phase I cost, 35 miles: $150 million
Phase II cost: $247 million
Service to Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
1998
TTA Preliminary Engineering Study agrees with 1997 decision that sharing tracks with Norfolk Southern freight trains from Raleigh to Durham won't be feasible.
To keep costs low, the TTA depends on cheap access to the N.C. Railroad corridor, use of old CSX trackbed from downtown to North Raleigh and a maximum 15-foot separation from other tracks.
Cost, 35 miles: $250 million
2000
New TTA plans incorporate railroad demands including 25-foot separation between tracks, heavier railcars that meet federal locomotive crash standards and allowance for path of proposed new future track that could carry interstate trains at speeds of up to 90 mph.
The TTA also adopts federal recommendation for twin tracks instead of a single track with passing sidings.
Cost, 35 miles: $622 million in 2000 dollars.
But under a new policy that's still followed, federal officials insisted that the cost reflect interest expense and inflation increases to represent future-year spending, raising the cost to: $755 million
2002 Total cost, 35 miles: $813 million
2003 Total cost, 35 miles: $844 million
2004
The TTA reduces the project scope from 35 miles to 28 miles, with 12 stations instead of 16.
Reasons cited include sharp increases in steel and concrete prices, weak revenues from local rental car tax and the federal government's decision no longer to allow a financing mechanism that would have provided $29 million toward project costs.
Total cost, 28 miles: $694 million
September 2005
The TTA cites further increases in steel, concrete, labor, fuel and other construction costs. Attributes $24 million in cost increases since 2003 to railroads' demands for more retaining walls, more expensive construction methods, bridge improvements and other items.
TTA cost reductions include trimming railcar order from 24 self-propelled diesel cars that would operate in pairs to 14 cars to operate alone ($19 million), shorter station platforms and cheaper station canopies ($6 million), reduced landscaping and irrigation ($1 million).
Total cost, 28 miles: $759 million
BRUCE SICELOFF