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For NKPgator. <br />I disagree with you that light rail is like cussing. Having spent 7 years on the board of directors of a large transit agency I have an insight to light rail vs heavy (freight and conventional passenger) rail. The railroads will not give up their ROW just because a transit agency wants to tear it up for light rail. After all the BNSF, UP, and others are in business to move freight and need their tracks to operate. What we bought was under utilized or out of service lines going to the center of a town. The metrics of rail service has changed in the last 100 years. No longer is there a rail line up every alley in metropolitan areas to serve warehouses, factories, etc. These have moved to the suburbs and most of the terminal railways have greatly diminished in size (length, not width). What remains is the lines of several independant rail lines that went to down town areas. These remain from before the merger craze in the last 25 years. Thanks to mergers much of this track is redundant as the merged lines are using the best line to get through the town. At one time there were 7 class 1s in Dallas. Now there are two. (There is a third, KCS, however it terminates here and does not cross the town) We managed to purchase the redundant lines for future conversion to light rail. By definition light rail typically only goes 10-15 miles from the center of town. Anything longer would call for commuter (heavy) rail. A transit agency is wise to buy these redundant lines when they are available. Even if your current plans do not call for light rail on a given corridor buy it anyway. Who knows how the transit patterns will change in 10-20 years. You NEVER will get it any cheaper and after it is built on forget reverting it back to rail service. Disused corridors typically go for 1/2 to 1 million per mile and typically are 100 feet wide. This is the optimum width to run a two track light rail system and still have room for a third line to handle any freight that a shortline may develop. Think of the cost to buy a 100 foor strip through any town. NOBODY's treasury is big enough to do this. So do not curse light rail. It is still 4' 8 1/2" wide and employs pobably more sophisticated signalling than a heavy rail line. Yes, the cars do not look like a Harriman coach but a train ride is a train ride. <br /> <br />As to cost to lay a track on an existing ROW figure on 1 million per mile. Forget rehabbing the old line. By this time the ties are rotton and the rail is usually too light to be useful in todays service. Call the junk man and hope he will remove it for tha salvage value. This investment is for a good high speed rail line without any signalling. Figure the same investment per mile for signalling and catenary if you electrify. Our total investment including ROW, trackwork, signalling, catenary, yards and cars averages 45 million per mile. Railroading is not for the faint at heart.
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