 | Banana Methane Powered Cars, Pig Poo Power And Other Uses For Biogas | TOD: Australia/New Zealand | The Bullroarer - Monday 24 March 2008 |  |
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Does anyone know why the metro is going to be so expensive? This isn't a beat-up-the-Iemma-government question -- I'd genuinely like to know if there's a good reason for it.
At the prices Shanghai paid for their existing maglev track, $12 billion would buy track a third of the way to Brisbane. The route could go via Rouse Hill if we wanted. Zipping along at close to 400km/h, it would be faster than the metro. By 2017 we can expect petrol at $5-8 per litre and airline fuel costs sky-high (pardon the pun), so obviously maglev is going to be needed if we want to keep Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane as on integrated economy.
On the other hand, suppose we kept the tunnels under Sydney to Rouse Hill as they are planned now. If we used maglev instead of wheels, how much more would that cost?
Well, the piece said a lot of it was going to be underground. That really pumps the price up.
It depends on whether you build it along some place that's already clear - like the middle of a big freeway - or push it through some expensive commercial and residential land already there, which you have to pay for. Plus when you lay down the rail you have to clear out and move all the old water, gas, electricity and communications lines.
But still, $315 million/km is just insane. It's worse even than our road projects.
Perth's built two lines in the past decade, one which had some tunnels was $13 million/km, another which was along largely empty space was $7 million/km.
In general, the public-private partnerships on which infrastructure gets built by states these days blows out the cost by a factor of ten.
Of course there's a chance they're offering this project in the hopes that public outcry over the cost will see it scuttled. That's an old political trick - like if you want to discredit some appointed office, loudly appoint some entirely vile or stupid guy. So if you want to stop people asking for more public transport, offer a ridiculously expensive project to them.
Really the thing to do is to take existing highways, knock out the middle two lanes and whack the rail tracks along there.