How much does this plan cost?

We at TST have assembled a Technical Advisory Committee of experts from around the country who believe that Tucson is a city which is perfect for Light Rail. They have advised us on the costs for the various elements of our plan and believe them to be fiscally conservative and economically sound.

Costs come in two varieties: capital costs which are the one-time investment in the nuts and bolts of a system, and operating costs, which are what it takes to operate and maintain the system.

Here are the estimated one-time capital costs for our plan in Tucson:

Light Rail Rapid Transit, including everything needed to operate: vehicles, track, overhead wire, stations, Park-n-Ride lots, maintenance facilities, fare collection equipment, and everything else: Approximately $35 million per mile, giving our 13-mile starter route a total capital cost of about $455 million

BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) will cost about $8 million for 20 additional buses and about $20 million for Park-n-Ride lots

Bus System Expansion will cost $54 million for 86 additional buses (for a total of 260 in the system).

Commuter Rail for 2 lines (Marana to Raytheon; Downtown to Tech Park / Rita Ranch) will cost about $150 million

VanTran Expansion will cost $17 million for additional accessible vehicles

Here are the estimated yearly operating costs for our plan in Tucson:

Light Rail Rapid Transit: $4m per year (after beginning operation in 2008

BRT (Bus Rapid Transit): $4m per year (reducing to $1 million per year after Light Rail line begins operation in 2008)

Bus Expansion: $12m per year

Commuter Rail: $2m per year

VanTran: $3.5m per year

Here is the total amount required from local funding to put the entire plan into operation:

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) currently offers up to an 80% match for capital costs of local transit projects. However, in order to gain more favor from the FTA and move our proposal higher in the queue than other cities, we conservatively propose asking only for a 60% local match for our plan.

That leaves us in Tucson to come up with 40% of the capital costs and all of the operating costs for this plan. And that figures to be about $36 million per year over 20 years.

How do we pay for this? There are a number of reasonable and proven options...