I've been wrapped around the axle on the concept of the Nevada Railways system for a few days now, so I thought I'd post an update with some news, my assumptive cost numbers, and a couple scenarios.
There's a bunch here, so it's all after the cut.
The news: I have sent mail to Washoe RTC's planning body regarding this topic. I have asked them to place the blog content here on the record as public comment as well as asking them a few questions about RTC's attitude toward commuter rail and approach. I'll give that a few days, until then, a few other items.
Cost
Missing in the introduction were cost figures. Here's what I'm figuring for the numbers on this project. These numbers come from fairly extensive research but not professional consultation.
| Item | Cost ($) |
| Rolling stock | 4 - 8 million |
| Track | 4 million |
| Facilities | 1.5 million |
| Union Pacific | unknown |
| Total Known Costs | 13.5 million |
Questions you might have immediately: Why the huge range of cost in rolling stock? The answer: It is a complicated formula. Look to spend anywhere between 1 and 2 million dollars on each locomotive and its passenger cars. The variations in cost depend on regulations and who is operating the service. New rolling stock with clean engines might be required to qualify for federal funding, this would drive up the cost. Used rolling stock would cost less, but may introduce plenty of trouble not otherwise foreseen. Finally, leasing the rolling stock might be the way to go as Phase 1 would be a 5-year demo project.
Track: I am going to go out on a limb and say that $1M a mile would be a lot to pay to run the courtesy track which would be used to separate commuter from freight rail outside the McCarran ring. I am also going to go out on a limb and say that no more than 4 miles of that would be required -- probably more like 1 or 2 miles. However, I'm not sure of the rail conditions getting into Fernley these days so there may be some work needing to be done to the existing tracks to make it feasible.
Facilities: I think 1.5 million is a lot for what would be required. Fernley has an old train station, TRIC could put something together on the cheap, and Reno and Sparks already have train stations -- though some money would have to be spent getting a NV Railways presence setup in those stations.
The biggest variable is UPRR. I have no idea how much it costs to run trains on their tracks, and I am also missing some data: How many trains per day in Reno-Sparks and on what schedule? There are some unknowns to consider, if you have any data please add to comments or email me.
I suggested to the RTC that the project could likely be assembled for considerably less than 40 million. I'm interested to see what they have to say.
Scenarios
I will leave you with two scenarios.
1 Getting to work and back
My hypothetical customer of NV Railways lives in Fernley and works near Meadow Wood Mall. Getting to work using a mix of personal car and public transit is 1:10 minutes based on the following desired scheduling:
Leave Fernley @ :20
Arrive Reno @ :00
Depart CitCenter @ :10
Arrive Meadow Wood Mail @ :30
These numbers are conservatively optimistic. They involve getting to the Fernley station by car or bicycle -- it would be great if Lyon would investigate some bus service for Fernley but more important would be a shuttle service operated out at TRIC to get people to jobs. Parking should be easy at the Fernley station.
From 7 am to 7:30 pm the #1 route in Reno runs 10 minute headways and it is a 20 minute trip to Meadow Wood Mall. The reverse of this scenario should deliver the person back to Fernley via public transportation in 1:10.
2 Dinner
My hypothetical customer is visiting downtown Reno and has heard about a great restaurant that has opened in downtown Fernley, of all places. The hotel concierge has made reservations for dinner and arranged tickets for the guest and his party.
They will depart Reno @ 6:20 and arrive in Fernley at 7:00. A short walk from the train station is the restaurant. The restaurant knows the customer was delivered by train and will make sure the party makes it out in time to catch the train back to Reno.
My proposal is to run 1 train an hour from 6 am to as late in the evening as possible. If the last train leaves each city at 10 pm weeknights and midnight on weekends, all kinds of opportunities open up.
One thing that might stick out in red for you after reading all this: 40 minutes Reno <--> Fernley? Again, further study required. It's in the realm of possibility.
That's it for now. Meanwhile, worth checking out is Washoe RTC's Short Range Transit Plan (2005 - 2009). Highly recommended reading.
[...]I applaud the effort,thank[...]
Posted by: Alex Bell | October 28, 2007 at 01:30 AM