Thread: Downtown Subway
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Old Posted Oct 15, 2013, 12:55 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maccoinnich View Post
Here's my best attempt, for the red/blue line section only. From Holladay/13th to Collins Circle, via a likely underground route, is ~3 miles.

University Link in Seattle is $1.9 billion for 3.15 miles, or $0.63 billion a mile.
Central Subway in San Francisco is $1.6 billion for 1.7 miles, or $1 billion a mile.
Second Avenue Subway in NYC is $17 billion for 8.5 miles, or $2 billion a mile.

I doubt a project in Portland would reach the costs of tunneling in Manhattan, but the number of stations required would make it more costly than University Link. So I'm going to guess $1 billion a mile, for $3 billion total.

Much as I'd love to see this done, I think it's obvious why it hasn't happened already.
That is a lot of money for a 3 mile subway line, I would rather see Portland build two new lines for $1.5 billion each, than to have a subway line through downtown. And of course the amount of streetcar lines $3 billion could buy would also be amazing.
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