MOVING  BEYOND  COST  EVALUATING  LRT  AND  BRT  OPTIONS  FOR  AUSTRALIAN  AND  NZ  CITIES  

Sco%  Mar)n    

¡ Capital costs differences between Light Rail Transit (LRT) & Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) less than expected

¡ Transit performance and productivity are important! Many LRT & BRT systems are underperformers

¡ Other factors also matter in selection of LRT & BRT, particularly the transport policy environment

Why  you  should  stay  

¡ More than $7 billion spent on road-based PT in Australian and NZ cities since 1987

¡ Over $5 billion spent on LRT & BRT projects between 2000 and 2010 alone  

Why  is  this  research  important?  

¡ Over $4.5 billion of new or expanded LRT projects are underway or proposed for Australian cities

¡ New LRT systems committed for construction in Australian cities include:

The  2010s  –  the  decade  of  Light  Rail?  

Gold  Coast  

Canberra  

Sydney  

Perth  

Newcastle  

¡ Medium-capacity, public transport solutions for cities

¡ Deliverable at affordable price points

¡ With a range of urban transport & land-use benefits

Why  choose  LRT  or  BRT?  

¡ Capacity between 4,000 & 24,000 spaces per hour

¡ Operates on separated Rights-of-Way (ROW), reduced interaction with other road traffic

¡ Stop spacing 300-600 metres in CBDs: more widely spaced elsewhere

¡ ITS gives signal priority, network monitoring & passenger information

Defining  LRT  &  BRT  

¡ This definition excludes most of Melbourne’s street tramway system  

Defining  LRT  &  BRT  

¡ And many street bus systems ‘improved’ with bus priority treatments  

Defining  LRT  &  BRT  

¡ 28 LRT & BRT projects were selected for the reference set

¡ Per-kilometre capital costs range from $450M/km (high) to $5.8M/km (low)

A  ‘reference  set’  of  project  costs  

Project  Name Length  (km) Sta)ons/Stops Completed Cost  ($M) Cost  $M                        

(2013) Cost  per  km  $M  

(2013) Eastern  Busway  Stage  1  (Buranda-­‐Coorparoo) 1.1 4 2011 $465.0 $494.9 $449.9

Inner  Northern  Busway  (KG  Square  -­‐  Roma  St) 1.3 2 2008 $333.0 $395.1 $316.1

Northern  Busway  Stage  2  (Herston  -­‐  Windsor) 1.2 1 2009 $198.0 $225.7 $188.1

Boggo  Road  Busway  (UQ  Lakes-­‐Buranda) 1.5 2 2009 $226.0 $257.6 $171.7

Northern  Busway  Stage  3  (Windsor-­‐Kedron) 3.0 2 2012 $444.0 $453.6 $151.2

Gold  Coast  Light  Rail 13.0 16 2014 $1,296.0 $1,296.0 $99.7

Northern  Busway  Stage  1  (Roma  St  -­‐  Herston) 2.8 3 2005 $148.4 $218.2 $77.9 South-­‐East  Busway 16.5 11 2001 $660.0 $1,097.2 $66.5 Sydney  Inner  West  Light  Rail  Extension 5.6 9 2014 $214.0 $214.0 $38.2 Auckland  Northern  Busway 8.7 5 2008 $256.2 $295.5 $34.0 Sydney  Light  Rail   3.6 10 1997 $65.0 $118.8 $33.0 M2  Motorway  Busway 7.0 2.0 1997 $110.0 $201.1 $28.7 North  West  Transitway   24.0 30 2007 $524.0 $672.0 $28.0 Port  Road  Tram  extension 2.8 4 2010 $53.0 $53.0 $18.9 Liverpool-­‐Parrama%a  Transitway 30.0 31 2003 $346.0 $532.8 $17.8 Adelaide  O-­‐Bahn 12.0 3 1989 $98.0 $197.6 $16.5 Box  Hill  tram  extension 2.2 5 2003 $28.0 $35.2 $16.0 Adelaide  CBD  tram  extension 2.1 5 2008 $31.0 $33.6 $16.0 Vermont  South  tram  extension 3.0 5 2005 $30.5 $36.5 $12.2 Kwinana  Freeway  Bus  Transitway 5.9 1 2002 $44.2 $67.0 $11.4 Plenty  Road  Tram  Extension  Stage  4  (McLeans  Road  -­‐  McKimmies  Road) 2.1 4 1995 $12.6 $23.0 $11.0

Docklands  Drive  tram  extension 1.0 5 2005 $7.5 $9.0 $9.0 Sydney  Light  Rail  Extension 3.6 4 2000 $20.0 $32.3 $9.0 Plenty  Road  Tram  Extension  Stage  3  (La  Trobe  University  -­‐  McLeans  Road) 3.2 7 1987 $10.8 $27.9 $8.7

Airport  West  Tram  Extension   1.2 3 1992 $4.5 $9.1 $7.6 St  Kilda  Light  Rail   4.2 8 1987 $27.9 $27.9 $6.6 East  Burwood  Tram   2.0 4 1993 $6.5 $12.8 $6.4 Port  Melbourne  Light  Rail 2.8 6 1987 $16.3 $16.3 $5.8

  TOTAL  ALL  PROJECTS $7,053.6  

¡  Gold Coast - $1.3B for a new-build LRT system

¡  Brisbane – Over $3.1B on 28.6 km BRT network

¡  Sydney - $1.2B for western Sydney BRT & $365M for LRT conversion

¡ Melbourne - $198M for 22 km of LRT extensions/conversions over 20 years

Or  puUng  it  another  way…  

¡ For 18 key LRT & BRT projects, use public timetables to develop productive capacity values for:

¡  Average operating speeds

¡  Peak direction passenger spaces per hour

¡ Use capital cost data with productive capacity data to develop a productivity measure for all 18 projects

Defining  performance  measures  

Findings  

Finding  #1  –  Capital  costs  

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

Hass-Klau et al (2003) Zhang (2009) Luke (2006) Hess, Taylor & Yoh (2005)

Martin (2013)

Cos

t per

mile

/kilo

met

re

(in M

illio

ns o

f USD

, AU

D o

r GB

P)

Difference between per-kilometre BRT & LRT capital costs (based on US, UK, European & ANZ meta-analyses)

BRT LRT

LRT in US, UK & Europe costs around 2.6 times more than BRT

In Australia & NZ, LRT costs around 1.7 times more than BRT

Finding  #2  –  Transit  performance  maXers!  

 

§  3 high performing BRT projects moving 2500-5000 pph

§  7 well performing LRT & BRT projects moving 2000-3800 pph

§  8 under performing LRT & BRT projects moving under 2000 pph

 

Finding  #3  –  So  does  transit  produc[vity!  

AOB  

SEB  INB1  

INB2  

BNB2  BNB2  

ANB  

LPB  

RHB  BPB  

M2B  

BRB  

BEB1  

ADL  

SKL  

PML  

SYL  

GCL  

$1  

$10  

$100  

$1,000  

0   50   100   150   200   250   300   350   400   450  

Capital  cost  p

er  km  (2

013  A$

 Millions)  

Produc[ve  capacity  (offered  spaces  x  average  opera[ng  speed)  '000s  

Street  transit  Semirapid  transit  

Rapid  transit  

 

§  6 highly productive LRT & BRT projects with capital costs between $7M & $317M per km

§  12 less productive projects costing between $6M and $450M per km

 

Finding  #4  –  Are  all  the  good  corridors  built  out?  

¡ The answers seems to be ‘yes’

¡ Lack of good corridors have real impacts

¡ Opportunities from ‘recycling’ existing corridors?

¡ Political, ideological & economic imperatives

¡ What are the ‘peer cities’ doing?

¡ Land use policy & planning environment

¡ Prevailing road management policies & plans

¡ Integration of new systems with existing PT network

¡ Preferred selection & evaluation methods

Finding  #5  –  Don’t  ignore  policy  factors!  

¡ Evaluating LRT & BRT projects against capital cost & performance data provides valuable insights

¡ Are LRT & BRT projects in Australian & NZ cities operating below their productive capacity?

¡ Is upgrading existing tram & bus systems to improve performance better than building LRT or BRT?

Conclusions  

Ques[ons?