Saturday, May 31, 2014

Cost-Benefit Analysis

All of this brings us to The Big Question: Is It Worth It? As shown below, the answer is yes.

The charts show the cost-benefit breakdown of the proposed regional high-speed rail corridors. Constructing 110 mph routes by upgrading existing track, locomotives, and rail cars provides clear benefits for each corridor. For each $1 spent on the Texas corridor, $5.70 of benefits are returned. The St. Louis-Chicago route alone yields a cost:benefit ratio of 1:5.2.

See previous posts for descriptions and calculations. of routes, costs, and benefits.


Corridor
Track Length
Annualized Construction Costs (per mile)
Total Annualized Construction Costs
Total Net Rider Benefits
Return
Texas
260
0.227
59.1
337.6
5.7
Florida
385
0.227
87.5
120.9
1.4
Southeast
490
0.397
194.5
500.7
2.6
Great Lakes
320
0.177
56.6
118.6
2.1
Midwest
892
0.108
96.5
299.9
3.1
 



Corridor
Track Length
Annualized Construction Costs (per mile)
Total Annualized Construction Costs
Total Net Rider Benefits
Return
STL-CHI
284
0.108
30.7
159.2
5.2



All numbers in millions of dollars
Annualized costs equals total costs divided over 20 year period
Total net rider benefits equals cost savings plus time savings minus operating costs multiplied by number of passengers