Quote:
Originally Posted by GlassCity
Seattle has 6 kilometres of streetcar and it cost it $190 million to implement it. That's enough to pay for much more than 6 kilometres of bus service at the same headways.
Or if you had a streetcar line replace a bus route, what are you paying for? A different vehicle to do the same thing? That money could have been invested into higher frequency on the bus, which increases ridership (and actually helps mobility) more than vehicle type.
Streetcars might be cheaper as vehicles when you already have the tracks in the ground, but to build entirely new lines is definitely more expensive and makes the explicit decision/judgment that vehicle is more important than service.
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Streetcars have high capital costs upfront but over time a bus system, at the same length, costs more money due to bus replacements, maintenance and labour.
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