We know that the real cost of LRT lines is not $40M/km, yet must subway projects be $300+M/km? Of course not. Subways do not need to be 100% underground, which would save billions of dollars should such reasonable design be built into a subway scheme as large as Transfer City. The two subway projects each have massive contingency components, adding almost $1B combined between the two of them...final project cost breakdowns for the Transfer City lines have not been released (partially because they haven't finalized how much will need to be grade separated) so we don't know if 25% contingency costs have been added, which would automatically raise the bare minimum LRT cost to $50M/km and alter your precious ratios.
Dude,... that "massive contingency components" is almost 1 Billion dollar on the Yonge Subway extension alone! Actually about $881 million in "contingency components". 75% on "contingency" on the Yonge Subway extension.
When it opened, the 6.4 km (including tail track) 5 station Sheppard subway line costed just under $1.0 billion in 2002 (factor in inflation and that works out to $1.1 billion in 2008 dollars & thus $171.9 million/km in 2008 dollars).
The $2.4 billion (2008 dollars) 6.8 km 6 station Yonge subway extension cost more than DOUBLE the Sheppard subway line on a per km basis ($352.9 million/km in 2008 dollars). For the Yonge Subway extension from Finch to Richmond Hill Centre here's the final Project Cost Estimates (2008 dollars)
$650 million Stations and Area Facilities
.......($5 million Finch Improvements)
......($70 million Cummer/Drewry)
.....($195 million Steeles)
......($70 million Clark)
......($65 million Royal Orchard)
......($85 million Langstaff/Longbridge)
.....($160 million Richmond Hill Centre)
$600 million Tunnels, Special Structures and Operating Systems
$240 million Subway Trains
$110 million Storage and Maintenance Facilities for Subway Trains
$675 million Engineering and Other Costs
$125 million Property
---------------------------------------
$2,400 million $2.4 BILLION total
This $2.4 Billion proposal includes $350-million for rolling stock and maintenance facilities. On Sheppard, these were paid for from one or more separate project budgets. Ok,... so let's factor out the $350-million for rolling stock and maintenance facilities ($240 million Subway Trains + $110 million Storage and Maintenance Facilities for Subway Trains),.. that'll put the Yonge Subway extension at $2.05 Billion or $301.47 million/km versus the $171.9 million/km (in 2008 dollars) for the Sheppard subway line. Ok,... so Yonge subway extension is now 75% higher than Sheppard Subway line on a per km basis. Why??? Are we considering the higher cost of Yonge Street frontage vs Sheppard Avenue frontage when we dig tunnels underground???
75% on a subway extension,... that's a heck of a lot of "contingency components"! The Yonge Subway extension includes about $881 million in "contingency components". ($2.05 Billion - (6.8 km * $171.9 million/km))
Seriously,... Why is the 6.8 km 6 station Yonge Subway extension from Finch to Richmond Hill Centre is projected to cost significantly more than the cost of the 6.4 km 5 station Sheppard subway line completed just 6 years ago.
- Both uses the same construction techniques - tunnel boring machine for the tunnels and Cut and Cover at subway stations
- Both of them had to deal with the Don River East,... both choose to build a bridge over it. Sheppard line has $15 million enclosed subway bridge just east of Leslie station.
- Yonge Subway extension includes a mega underground 26 bay bus terminal at Steeles,... Sheppard line has a very large underground bus terminal at Don Mills.
- Yonge Subway extension includes a large Union Station of the North terminal at Richmond Hill Centre,... but the GO station and Bus terminals are already there today and are quite new so they don't need to be built.
- The most challenging part of building the Sheppard Subway line was placing the new East-West Sheppard Subway station directly on top of the existing North-South Sheppard Subway station on the Yonge Line,... all without distrupting service while passengers were still using Sheppard station on the Yonge Line! At the intersection of Yonge and Sheppard, during construction the whole intersection was just a big hole in the ground!,... right on top of the Yonge Subway line,... they had to build a temporary roadway for Yonge beside this huge hole,... and another temporary roadway for Sheppard too! There is absolutely nothing on the proposed Yonge subway extension that even comes close to the kind of complexity at the Sheppard-Yonge Subway station.
Whether you look at the Yonge Subway Extension as $2.4 Billion ($352.9 million/km in 2008 dollars) or without the $350 million for rolling stock and maintenance facilities ($301.47 million/km in 2008 dollars),... that still places the proposed Yonge subway extension as amongst the most expensive in the world on a per km basis! And that's WITHOUT including all the conditional "speculative costs" Toronto & TTC are now adding which can bring the final projected cost of the Yonge Subway Extension to $4-5 Billion,... and that's not including budget overruns!!! The $2.63 billion 8.6 km 6 station Spadina Subway Extension ($305.8 million/km) isn't much better either. Only Jubilee line extension of the London Tube (20 years ago) was more expensive and that works out to about just under $400 million per km (2008). And that extension crossed the Thames River 4 times, tunnel under historic London and all 11 stations were designed by high profile architects! Wiki Jubilee Line Extension & wiki through each 11 stations,.. our subway extension doesn't include stations looking anything like Canada Water, Canary Wharf & Stratford station.
http://mic-ro.com/metro/phototour.html?city=london
Wait a minute,... if you're spending $2.63 billion for the 8.6 km 6 station Spadina Subway Extension you better do it right (and like you've got money to burn!) and spend $8-15 million on each station to have some of those high profile UK architects who helped make the London Tube's Jubilee Line Extension such a huge bottomless money pit design your subway station too!
"In anticipation of the extension of the Spadina subway north from Downsview, the TTC has hired a gaggle of globe-trotting architects to design six new stations.",... "Among them are two leading U.K. practitioners, Will Alsop and Norman Foster, both of whom have worked in Toronto. Alsop, of course, is the author of the celebrated "flying tabletop" at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Foster's only local project is the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building.",... "Alsop has worked on the London Underground, as has Foster, whose firm designed the enormous stop at Canary Wharf." (Some say you can fit the entire Olympia & York Canary Wharf office tower inside the Canary Wharf subway station!) Will Alsop designed the North Greenwich station on the Jubilee line.
http://www.thestar.com/article/538111
$8-15 million just to design subway station for low density areas full of cookie cutter houses! Why don't they just reuse some of the blue prints from some of the 69 stations that's in the system already.