Sunday, September 19, 2010

LRT Has Fewer Drivers –BUT- -

There is no question whatsoever that LRT requires fewer drivers, however, the other maintenance personnel such as electrical distribution, rail, computer people result in more employees at rates of pay 30 to 35% higher.  Both Edmonton and Calgary have 11% more employees than Ottawa’s bus rapid transit.  As a result, the operating costs of labour for LRT is double that of Bus Rapid Transit.  This is confirmed by the operating statistics from the City of Pittsburg where they have both LRT and BRT and the operating costs for LRT (tram cars) is double that of BRT (buses).

3 comments:

  1. Designate Albert for two way BRT with dedicated trunk lines, eliminate the express buses, roll on roll off raised platform access and platform based ticketing.

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  3. Scrutiny of operating budgets shows that personnel and energy costs form a small part of the total costs. Maintenance accounts for about 2/3 of the operating cost of a LRT system, at least it does in Calgary. In addition the initial capital cost, which municipalities tend to ignore, adds considerably to the cost of transportation using LRT. One needs large average loads to justify LRT, but politicians like sexy transportation more than economical transportation so they appeal to senior levels of government for funding of that which they cannot afford.

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