Have you ever heard of streetcar suburbs?
I believe
@sixrings has a very dry sense of humour, but yes, many US cities historically had 'streetcar suburbs' as well as 'interurban' ones, Chicago probably being one of the best examples of remnants still functioning.
But in modern terms, nothing in North Am is more illustrative than San Diego's Trolley.
Here's from July 2, 1981 WashPost: (It's grown a long way since then, connecting even more suburban cities into SD downtown and to each other. It's owned by Sandag (San Diego Area Governments)
This city has built a mass transit system without a nickel from the federal government.
Known here as the "Tijuana Trolley," the system is to begin operating in late July, on time and on budget, serving a 16-mile route between downtown San Diego and the Mexican border. Local officials are so pleased that they are talking of building a line that would connect downtown and the city's eastern suburbs.
The $86 million light-rail project was funded by the state gasoline tax, with some help from a .25 percent local sales tax.
It is the first trolley system built in the United States in a generation and the country's cheapest mass transit system, in terms of dollars per mile, in 40 years. It cost only a little more than $5 million for San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system and $43 million for Washington's Metro.
The basic fare is $1, although those using the trolley in the downtown area alone will pay just 25 cents.
The city already owned 14.2 miles of track that once belonged to the San Diego's biggest factories, through its southern suburbs and stopping 200 feet from the Mexican border, provides the bulk of the trolley line.
To complete the line, the transit development board had to install 1.7 miles of traditional track along city streets. An overhead electric wire will provide power.
The two-car trains will make the trip in 33 minutes. The bus takes 77.
The cars, with a starter fleet of 14, were built by Siemens-DuWag of Dusseldorf, at $8000,000 apiece.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...a08-ac3a-6cf16b30b2ef/?utm_term=.2070a51f5dc5
A lot has changed since then, Siemens obviously having set up shop in California.
There's some question as to whether Edmonton predated the SD Trolley. It did in deed, but not necessarily in connecting cities together.
It cost only a little more than $5 million for San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system
Is a typo error. That should be $50M, and Bart has currently gone through the roof:
Bay Area subway and rail costs: Why are they among the highest in the world?
13
The process of designing, bidding, and building mega-projects is a costly one, but it doesn’t have to be this way
By
Andy Bosselman@andybosselman Jun 18, 2018, 11:30am PDT
[...]
To make smarter investments in future construction, Levy agrees with local transportation advocates who have been “
banging their heads against the wall” as they call for transit agencies to coordinate regional planning.
In many countries, including France, Germany, and Switzerland, regional planning organizations are charged with creating well-coordinated network that offers a seamless experience between different transit agencies. They design rail, subways, tram, and buses lines to work together.
In Paris, a single planning organization, the
RATP, dictates routes and spending for new infrastructure. Individual transit agencies operate trains and buses, they do not plan or construct their own expansions.
[...]
https://sf.curbed.com/2018/6/18/17464616/bay-area-subway-train-rail-costs-price-bart-muni
Lessons to be learned!
