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Old 03-25-2010, 12:32 PM
 
Location: South Texas
810 posts, read 1,424,904 times
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Ground broken on Denton transit station, commuter rail platform | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News
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Old 03-25-2010, 12:48 PM
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Location: Ohio
17,107 posts, read 38,096,265 times
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The simple answer is cost-per-mile. The city and state don't have millions of dollars lying around just waiting to pay for rail systems.

I Googled "commuter rail cost per mile" and got back results about commuter rail systems in other cities that had cost as much as $75 million per mile.

Assuming the worst case scenario... three miles of commuter rail at $75 million per mile would cost more than the city paid to build the Alamodome. Is it worth it?
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Old 03-25-2010, 01:55 PM
 
Location: San Antonio-Westover Hills
6,884 posts, read 20,399,779 times
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It would be great for San Antonio to have rail. Not sure how well street-level would do, though. Dallas is pretty flat.

The rail would need to be elevated in places, with service initially from Downtown to tourist locations like the Missions, Sea World, Fiesta Texas, AT&T Center, etc...followed by inner commuter links such as Alamo Heights, Fort Sam, BAMC, The Med Center, Bandera/Babcock, then linking suburbs and outer 'burbs: Stone Oak, Helotes, Schertz, Lackland, South, Brooks, Converse/Universal City.

Eh, those are just my uneducated thoughts, I really don't know enough about the city to say but it sounds good in my head!
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Old 03-25-2010, 02:10 PM
RGJ
 
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downtown to Sea World would cost more than it cost to build Sea World
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Old 03-25-2010, 02:47 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowie View Post
Assuming the worst case scenario... three miles of commuter rail at $75 million per mile would cost more than the city paid to build the Alamodome. Is it worth it?
There's your answer,
the media and people put a huge emphasis on the cost
but don't say a word about how much money it will generate and how many jobs is going to create.
Add to that, saving money by not having to expand the highways (less cars on the road)

What's funny, is that there seems to be 1000s of railroad tracks criss-crossing the whole city.
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Old 03-25-2010, 03:04 PM
RGJ
 
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Actually, I think there's been some discussion in the past on using RR lines. It would be pretty cool to repair the local RR lines and hook up a couple of modern day trains to run straight from downtown to the NW, NE, SW areas of town. (Sorry, SE, but you're already almost at downtown) But I highly doubt those railroads are gonna give up, or lease, those lines for nothing.
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Old 03-25-2010, 05:10 PM
 
Location: South Texas
810 posts, read 1,424,904 times
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So this city doesn’t have the $? Why not? Wait…I think I know the answer.
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Old 03-25-2010, 06:53 PM
 
Location: Charleston, SC
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Just build an effective downtown and near downtown system like Portland has, and the demand will show up for other areas on its own. Seriously, check out what they have down there. It's awesome.
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Old 03-25-2010, 07:34 PM
 
Location: New Braunfels, TX
7,130 posts, read 11,827,375 times
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The issue is one of cost per rider mile. Let's say you put in a rail from Seaworld to downtown. How many folks are going to ride it day in, day out? The city is too spread out, without enough high-density housing/employment centers to justify the kind of expense involved. Just look at the bus lines - by and large, they're underutilized - do you REALLY think light rail would fair any better, with an even MORE restrictive routing??
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Old 03-25-2010, 07:34 PM
 
12,918 posts, read 16,854,254 times
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I'd rather they increased the bus service. Fortunately, I own a car and it takes 20 minutes to get to work.

I live on a fairly active bus route, though, but it would still take me 90 minutes to get to work by bus, and it wouldn't even arrive early enough to get me there on time.
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