Just for fun, a thought experiment, how much theoretically does it cost to build a commuter rail service? I’ve lived in a city that has thousands of cars commute to a close by city every day, about 30 miles away. It kills me that there is not an obvious commuter line between them.
There are (I believe) UP tracks there. Not that I have millions of dollars lying around but it did get me thinking, how much really does it cost? For fun, of course, ballparks.
Say end to end, about 30 miles. About 25 off that could be on the existing spur that is there, and then say 5 total to tie the ends to potential stations. Then the cost to build 2 terminal stations and say 2 small ones for towns on the way. Then say a single consist similar to the Coaster trains to just ping pong back and forth.
This to me is the “cheap” option to kickstart some transit in cities, but they always seem to think it’s impossible. But how much really is a project like that?
Is there transit on both ends as one of the challenges with rail in NA is once you arrive at your destination, it can be hard to make that last mile or so transit. It also has to be as fast or faster overall than driving and it has to be cheaper as people will just default to cars again. That has been my experience living in cities around the world.