Subway provides a greater capacity than LRT, but a major advantage of LRT is that its capacity is high enough for most every outer corridor within the GTA for today and for well beyond the foreseeable future. Furthermore, the capacity of one Subway line can be exceeded with two parallel LRT lines with numerous advantages:

• a single rapid transit line requires funnelling all users to the single line; while feeder bus routes would be ideal, the reality is that many new users will drive to this single line and will require parking; stations must be built with giant parking facilities
• when a service disruption occurs, the entire corridor served by a single line are effected and have little or no alternative
• single lines involve single point-to-point operation; few, if any, opportunities exist for route interlining that can provide service that provides more convenient travel options for users with a reduced need to transfer in order to reach one's destination

As will be shown here, the construction cost of LRT is so significantly lower than Subway construction that it is not only possible to build one parallel line for the same cost, it is possible to build TWO, and in some cases, THREE parallel lines.

Imagine this comparison the York Region corridor around Yonge Street:

1. One single rapid transit line down Yonge Street
2. A rapid transit line on Leslie/Don Mills, one on Yonge, and a third on Bathurst or Dufferin

In case 1, everyone must get to Yonge. Those close enough could walk, or they would take a feeder bus. Those west of Bathurst or east of Bayview will be more likely to drive and need parking. When an incident occurs on this line, EVERYONE from this corridor is stuck.

In case 2, it might sound as if three times the stations spread over the three lines will each require parking facilities that are only a third of the facilities needed for the single Yonge line. However, with more stations spread over a wider catchment area, far more people are in a position to walk or use a feeder bus service to reach the rapid transit line, so the total parking requirements may be lower. It is possible that the parking requirements would be the same because the multiple lines will attract even more riders over a wider area. This means that for the same amount of money, far more people will reap the benefits of this investment in public transit.

Just how real is this 3-for-1 idea? Let us look a the sort of costs for building Subway and LRT lines. Please note: since the primary purpose of this site is to show the benefits of LRT, to avoid the accusation of taking the best of LRT costs and comparing them to the worst of Subway costs, we will try to do the exact opposite. In coming up with these figures, every allowance and benefit of doubt has been given to Subway figures, while attempting to be as critical as possible with LRT figures.

Many have the belief that Subways are expensive simply because the are underground.

It is true that building underground is more expensive than building at grade. Also, building an elevated structure tends to cost somewhere between the two.

However, it is not just the underground issue that makes Subway more expensive - it is the whole infrastructure around a Subway that makes it more expensive. The ROW must be completely isolated. This means it requires more real estate to build, and must be totally fenced or walled in to prevent any public access.

Station infrastructure is more costly. Think about what costs more: a station that must have stairs, escalators, and elevators to go up or down to a level to be able to cross tracks, or a station that allows crossing the tracks on foot?

When tunnels and other structures are built for Subway, they are more costly due to the larger loading gauge (height and width clearances for vehicles).

As you will see, the cost range for building LRT underground is about the same as for building Subway at grade.

The loading gauge of an LRV is reduced not only by the narrower dimension, but articulated design allows the longer vehicle to negociate tighter curves. A tunnel for an LRT line is less costly than a tunnel for Subway. Since LRTs may be tunnelled, this site uses a lower-case spelling of subway when referring to general tunnelling, and capitalizes the word with referring to a Heavy Rail Rapid transit system. An LRT subway is nowhere near the cost of an HRT subway (a "full Subway").

Another added cost for Subway is that it requires a complex signalling infrastructure compared to LRT. The benefit is that Subway can make use of Automatic Train Control (ATC) because it already needs this signalling infrastructure. This is where the capacity of Subway rises above LRT, but unless it is really needed, it is a huge unjustifiable added cost.

Underground: $200 million to $250 million per kilometre
At grade: $150 million to $200 million per kilometre

...plus the cost of vehicles.

Since Toronto has recent examples of constructed and proposed Subway construction, it is easy to find reasonably recent figures. Despite this, the estimates stated above are LOWER than the estimated costs outlined here. Only the construction of the Sheppard line, taking inflation into mind, falls within the range above at $172 million per kilometre.

Spadina-York Extension: $266.5 million per kilometre, vehicles and yard improvements excluded

The extension from Downsview station to a station in the Vaughan Corporate Centre (VCC) in the Highway 7 and Jane Street area is budgeted at approximately $2.5 billion. As this extension is 8.6 km, that makes the cost per kilometre about $291 million.

This figure includes the purchase of 36 subway cars and improvements to Wilson Yard. The amount for these were $108 million and $85 million respectively in 2005 dollars according to the Environmental Assessment on the extension to Steeles. This comes to $207.8 million in 2008 dollars. Removing this from the $2.5 billion project budget leaves $2.2922 billion, or a per kilometre cost of $266.5 million.

Acknowledgements: special thanks to Karl Junkin for pointing out previous errors in this breakdown.

Sheppard Subway: $172.5 million per kilometre, no vehicles - stations limited to four cars

This line opened on November 24, 2004 at a cost of just under $1 billion to construct. Factoring in inflation, this is about $1.1 billion in 2008 dollars.

It involved four new stations, some utility relocation for a fifth station, new connecting tracks with the Yonge line, and the construction of the interchange station at Yonge above the existing station on the Yonge line. The line is 5.5 km in length, but involves new track length that is effectively 6.4 km.

Using that full length, today's cost per kilometre is $172.5 million. No new vehicles were part of this cost, and there was no need for any new storage facilities. Even at this cost, cuts were made that result in only completing a portion of the stations to serve four-car trains that carry about 43,000 passengers per day (the Scarborough RT carries about 42,390 passengers per day).

Sheppard Extension Proposal: $247.5 million per kilometre

In March of 2003, the TTC issued a report that outlined the costs of extending the Sheppard line from Don Mills to Scarborough Town Centre. This extension would have added 7 stations over a distance of 8 km for an estimated cost of $1.75 billion, or about $218.75 per kilometre. Factoring in inflation, this is about $247.5 million per kilometre for the whole line.

This extension would have opened in three stages:

1. Don Mills to Victoria Park: 2 km with two stations for $470 million ($265.9 million / km in 2008 dollars)
2. Victoria Park to Agincourt (GO Station): 3.7 km with three stations for $730 million ($223.2 million / km in 2008 dollars)
3. Agincourt to STC: 2.3 km with two stations for $550 million ($270.6 million / km in 2008 dollars)

It was not stated in the report if any of these costs included the purchase of new vehicles, so it likely does not.

Bloor West Extension Proposal: $270 million per kilometre

One other proposal from a few years ago was to extend the Bloor-Danforth Subway line beyond Kipling. This was to involve a 3.7 km extension to the Queensway/West Mall area for a cost of about $1 billion. This translates to $270 million per kilometre.

A further extension of 1.5 km from there to Dixie in Mississauga would have cost another $500 million, for another $333 million per kilometre!

All of these extensions would have been at grade, making them extremely expensive. As the date of this proposal was not confirmed, no inflationary adjustment has been made to these figures.

Underground: $130 million to $160 million per kilometre
At grade: $30 million to $50 million per kilometre

...including the cost of vehicles.

As Toronto has not embraced LRT construction until the release of the Transit City plan, it is necessary to look at other cities. The summary for each example has had annually compounded inflation added to the actual cost at a rate of 2.5% to make a fair comparison with 2008 dollars. All costs quoted were converted to Canadian dollars using an approximate exchange rate in effect when the line was completed (stated in each case).

Transit City Proposal

$42.6 million per kilometre above ground, vehicles included
$142.8 million per kilometre tunnelled, vehicles included

Note: this section is being updated to reflect changes to the plan since March 21, 2007. The scope, distance, and costs of the Sheppard East, Eglinton Crosstown, and Finch West lines have significantly changed since the first proposal and will be reflected here. The remaining lines are for later consideration and will have cost estimates adjusted for inflation since that time.

From the proposal outlined on March 21, 2007 it was estimated that the following would be the costs for each line, including vehicles:

• Don Mills: $675 million for 17.6 km, or $38.4 million per kilometre
• Eglinton Crosstown: $2280 million for 30.8 km, or $74 million per kilometre
• Etobicoke-Finch West: $835 million for 17.9 km, or $46.7 million per kilometre
• Jane: $630 million for 16.5 km, or $38.2 million per kilometre
• Scarborough Malvern: $630 million for 15.0 km, or $42 million per kilometre
• Sheppard East: $555 million for 13.6 km, or $40.8 million per kilometre
• Waterfront West: $540 million for 11.0 km, or $49.1 million per kilometre

The Eglinton Crosstown line will have about one third of its route underground, and this accounts for its greater per kilometre cost. Taking the average for all the other lines, we get a cost of just under $42.6 million per kilometre. If we use this figure as the cost per kilometre for 20 km of the Eglinton Crosstown route, the remaining 10 km will cost about $142.8 million per kilometre for the underground portion.

Practically all the surface construction proposed for Transit City involves embedding tracks in concrete. This construction method pushes LRT costs to its high end but allows the ROW to be used for bus operation and emergency vehicles.

Denver's T-REX project: $37.6 million per kilometre, 34 new vehicles included

The whole T-REX project involved new LRT construction in the south-east portion of the city plus freeway expansion. The costs of the LRT construction was US$879 million for 30.4 km of new lines and 13 new stations. Added to this was US$91.8 million for 34 new LRVs. This made the total cost US$970.80 - adding in 2.5% for inflation since this line opened at the end of 2006, then adding 15% for the exchange rate in effect at the time, this cost in Canadian dollars is about $1.144 billion.

That makes the per kilometre cost only $37.6 million, and that includes vehicles!

Added to this, a significant amount of this new construction had elevated structures to take the line over main roads, and all but one of the new stations has parking facilities, with several of the stations having a multi-level parking garage.

This entire extension was built with ballasted tie construction, which helps keep the cost down.

St. Louis: $32.4 million per kilometre, vehicles included

The initial construction in St. Louis cost US$465 for 27.4 km of line with 17 stations, including 31 vehicles. Most of this line is at grade, with 2.4 km elevated near the airport and the downtown section was built through an existing railway tunnel. The line crosses the Mississippi River using an already existing bridge. This fully opened in 1994, making the inflation-adjusted cost in Canadian dollars about $887 million (35% exchange rate).

That makes the per kilometre cost only $32.4 million.

St. Louis St. Clair County extension to College: $18.7 million per kilometre, assumes no vehicles included

This 28.1 km extension added 8 stations in 2001 for a cost of US$339.2 million. The inflation-adjusted cost in Canadian dollars was about $524.2 million (30% exchange rate). St. Louis received 24 LRVs between 2000 and 2001, though it is not clear that their cost was included in the figure provided here.

That makes the per kilometre cost only $18.7 million.

This contributes to the low cost of construction.

St. Louis St. Clair County extension to Shiloh-Scott: $19.6 million per kilometre, no vehicles included

This 5.6 km extension added 1 station in 2003 for a cost of US$75 million. The inflation-adjusted cost in Canadian dollars was about $110.3 million (30% exchange rate).

That makes the per kilometre cost only $19.6 million. It should be noted that much of this line is in fairly rural territory where ballasted tie construction is used for the track. This likely contributes to the low cost of construction.

St. Louis Cross-County extension: $41.7 million, no vehicles included

This 13 km branch line added 9 stations in 2006 for a cost of US$430 million. Portions of this line are elevated, almost 2 km is tunnelled and the rest is in a fenced ROW. The inflation-adjusted cost in Canadian dollars was about $542.2 million (20% exchange rate).

That makes the per kilometre cost $41.7 million.

Minneapolis Hiawatha Line: $48.7 million, 24 vehicles included

This 19.2 km line has 17 stations including one in a tunnelled section at the airport. Fully opened at the end of 2004, the total cost of US$715.3 million included 24 LRVs and a servicing facility. The inflation-adjusted cost in Canadian dollars was about $935.7 million (20% exchange rate).

That makes the per kilometre cost $48.7 million.

Edmonton initial line: $19.8 million per kilometre, 14 vehicles included

Opening in 1978, Edmonton's LRT was 6.9 km in length from Central to Belvedere, a total of 5 stations with two underground. The cost of constructing the line, including 14 LRVs was $64.9 million. Adjusting this cost for inflation, the cost would be $136.3 million, or $19.8 million per kilometre.

While Central station is underground, the line comes to the surface a short distance from this station and runs in its own ROW with mostly ballasted tie construction.

Edmonton Grandin extension: $147.1 million per kilometre, underground, no vehicles included

Opening in 1989, this 800 metre, one station extension was completely underground. Underground stations in Edmonton are built to handle 5-car trains, but Edmonton's LRVs are 25 metres long, so this compares to a 4-car length when 30 metre cars are considered. The cost of constructing the extension was $67.1 million. Adjusting this cost for inflation, the cost would be about $117.7 million, or $147.1 million per kilometre.

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This page last updated March 23, 2010