This page is a summary of the different cost classes we look at in this blog; each class listed below is explored in detail in its own post. Using the 2013 AECOM high-speed rail study as a starting point, numerous additional sources have been used to either confirm or question the reliability of the government study’s numbers. In some cases the AECOM numbers have been confirmed or supported, in others they have been found to be implausibly high, or have not been sufficiently justified. In such cases alternative cost data was sought, ideally from contemporary Australian experience, or failing that, from comparable Western economies (high-wage, well regulated, strict building code).
Tunnels
Cost per bore-kilometre of tunnel:
[table]
Tunnel type,Design speed,OD,Cost per bore-km
High speed single track,300km/h,9.3m,$45m
High speed dual track,300km/h,14.6m,$75m
Medium speed single track,200km/h,7.7m,$36m
Medium speed dual track,200km/h,12.4m,$62m
[/table]
Bridges
Short and generic bridges are costed according to the following table.
[table]
Bridge type,Span (m),unit,Cost (2013 AUD)
Small culvert (single),2.5,Each,$200k
Large culvert (single),10,Each,$500k
Pipe culvert (continuous),1,track-km,$1.25m
Box culvert (continuous),2.5,track-km,$2.5m
Short beam,20,track-km,$15.0m
Long beam,50,track-km,$25.0m
[/table]
Bridges requiring a longer mainspan than 50m will be classed as major bridges, and costed individually using the cost functions (Cost = AeBS) which are presented below. Note that these cost functions give cost per track-metre; multiply by 2 for dual track, and by 1000 for cost per track-kilometre. Also note that multipliers apply for “short” bridges of only a few spans; apply a multiplier of 2.35, 1.67 or 1.15 for bridges comprising only 1, 2 or 3 spans respectively.
[table]
Bridge type,Span range (m),A,B
Short beam,5-80,11725,0.012
Long beam,50-350,19541,0.005
Truss,80-350,25404,0.0038
Deck-arch,100-350,27358,0.0032
Through-arch,150-400,29313,0.0027
Cable-stayed,150-750,42990,0.0012
Suspension,500-2000,58624,0.0007
[/table]
Earthworks
5km of mass-haul is priced into these estimates; any haul over and above this costed at $2 per m3 per km.
- Rural:
- Cut (rock): $31/m3
- Cut (non-rock): $14/m3
- Fill: $16/m3
- Urban:
- Cut (rock): $61/m3
- Cut (non-rock): $21/m3
- Fill: $26/m3
Track
[table]
Item,Design speed,Cost per km
Single track,250km/h,$1.5m
Dual track,250km/h,$2.25m
Dual slab track,400km/h,$3.55m
Low-speed turnout,100km/h,$0.7m
High-speed turnout,200km/h,$1.5m
[/table]
Track upgrade costs are assumed to be 67% (two thirds) that of greenfield construction.
Signalling and Control
We will use a mixture of unit costs and per-kilometre costs:
[table]
Element,Cost,Unit,Frequency
Track crossover,$4m,Each,As needed
Station crossover,$8m,Each,Every station
Balises (transponders),$2000,Per route-km,Entire length
Control Centre building,$25m,Each,At terminal stations
Control Centre equipment,$7m,Each,At terminal stations
Communications cable,$125k,Per route-km,Entire length except tunnel
Wi-fi/radio tower,$800k,Each,10km (average)
[/table]
An expected range of average per-kilometre costs versus design speed should be:
- Less than 120km/h: $150,000/km
- 120-199km/h: $225,000/km
- 200-299km/h: $600,000/km
- 300km/h or greater: $900,000/km
Power
Although power infrastructure is not needed for the Hot Rails strategy, the costs below will be assumed for purposes of comparison. The costs of AECOM13 have been adapted to an average construction cost per-km cost for simplicity, and modified by design speed based on a University of Iowa study.
[table]
Design speed,Single track,Dual track,Additional track
Less than 180km/h,$400k,$600k,$200k
180-250km/k,$1m,$1.5m,$500k
250-350km/h,$2m,$3m,$1m
[/table]
General Civil Works
[table]
Item,Unit,Cost
Gravel road,Lane-km,$50k
Local bitumen road,Lane-km,$250k
Main bitumen road,Lane-km,$500k
Agricultural fence,Linear-km,$15k
Chain link fence,Linear-km,$50k
Security fence,Linear-km,$100k
“Armco” barrier,Linear-km,$150k
Concrete barrier,Linear-km,$350k
Retaining wall,m2,$2500
Drainage,Route-km,$200k
Noise attenuation wall,Linear-km,$4.8m
Level crossing (plain),Each,$180k
Level crossing (lighted),Each,$350k
Level crossing (gated),Each,$700k
Farm underpass,Each,$0.5m
Minor grade separation (simple),Each,$1.25m
Minor grade separation (complex),Each,$2.5m
Major grade separation,Each,$5m
Utilities relocation,Route-km,$125k
Site clearance and minor demolition,Route-km,$125k
[/table]
Stations
[table]
Station type,Description,Upgrade cost
Operational,Currently in use and well maintained,$0.5m
Partly operational,Some buildings in use and mostly well maintained,$1m
Closed,Not in use but suitable buildings still exist,$2.5m
Greenfield,No existing or badly degraded structures only,$10m-$70m
[/table]
Land Acquisition
Generally costed on a case-by-case basis by looking at current real-estate prices on websites such as realestate.com.au, and assuming a 40-metre corridor (4ha/km, 8.8 acres/km). Where houses must be demolished, the entire block must be purchased regardless of size. Compulsory acquisition will be assumed, but no “compensatory uplift” will be applied.
Some typical land values are listed below (determined by casual survey of realestate.com.au and rounded to nearest $250k).
[table]
Land type,Cost/quarter acre,Cost/ha,Cost/km (40m corridor)
Rural low,N/A,$1000,$40k
Rural typical,N/A,$2500,$10k
Rural high,N/A,$5000,$20k
Hobby farm,N/A,$50000,$200k
Lifestyle block,N/A,$250k,$1m
Minor town,$250k,$2.5m,$10m
Major town,$500k,$5m,$20m
Metropolitan fringe,$750K,$7.5m,$30m
Metropolitan suburbs,$1m,$10m,$40m
Metropolitan core,$2.5m,$25m,$100m
[/table]
Hi HR, I saw this costing in the comments of this Canberra Times article – http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-risks-losing-its-character-altogether-former-planning-head-tony-powell-20170515-gw4vvm.html
Is $1153 per centimeter for light rail about right or is this ACT Government inefficiency ?
Best regards, Pablo.
BBAMay 22 2017 at 1:18am
On the ACT Government jobs vacancy site today, there are 11 vacancies advertised that are in the Light Rail project. The combined salaries for these positions is $1.21 million.
I wonder if these salaries and oncosts (super, accommodation, resources, back filling etc) along with other salaries, have been included in the cost?
As of April this year, the tram cost was $1153 per centimetre.
$1153/cm is $115 million per kilometre. ACT light rail is certainly expensive, though perhaps not quite THAT expensive. Estimated construction cost of $780m divided by 12km length makes $65m/km – almost (incredibly) exactly the same unit cost as the Rudd government estimated for high-speed rail (and even that is probably excessive). There is certainly a strong argument that the cost of ACT light rail is far, far too high.
In regard to the costing of the high speed train service between Murray Bridge and Adelaide at an estimated cost of $1.1 billion, I presume that it would include at the very least a certain amount of tunnelling down through the hills and leading into Adelaide.
Question; In regard to minimising bends as well as hills and valleys, would tunnelling (keeping it as straight and level as possible) be a better solution and also cheaper in the operational long turn? EG. Like the London Tube.
can anybody give me a ballpark estimate to the cost of connecting via rails current trail rail map of canada to a underground rail connecting all the cities within canada; I own bitcoin; bitcoin is the future; we have some decent subway stations in toronto and montreal but i want the whole system to be underground and a bullet train or hot rail trail; like you see in europe with speeds of 300km connecting every city we wouldnt need things like planes much i dont think
can anybody give me a ballpark estimate to the cost of connecting
via rails current rail map of canada
to a underground rail connecting all the cities within canada;
I own bitcoin; bitcoin is the future; we have some decent subway stations in toronto and montreal but i want the whole system to be underground and a bullet train or hot rail trail; like you see in europe with speeds of 300km connecting every city
we wouldnt need things like planes much
i dont think
and professional sports league players could travel faster on these trains in a better scenery than being scared in a plane; I hate planes.
Though I am not a athlete I am an Entrepeneur. with big planes.
can anybody give me a ballpark estimate to the cost of connecting
via rails current rail map of canada
to a underground rail connecting all the cities within canada;
I own bitcoin; bitcoin is the future; we have some decent subway stations in toronto and montreal but i want the whole system to be underground and a bullet train or hot rail trail; like you see in europe with speeds of 300km connecting every city
we wouldnt need things like planes much
i dont think
and professional sports league players could travel faster on these trains in a better scenery than being scared in a plane; I hate planes.
Though I am not a athlete I am an Entrepeneur. with big plans.
wow you cant even
edit a comment lol; silly spelling mistakes
didnt space crap out properly
so you could read it first time
Would love to see a cost breakdown in 2023 figures specifically for LRT. Im a Rail Futures Inc member and have independently been working on a scenario for a Hobart Light Rail network. In my current costing I have been using Canberra and Newcastle as a benchmark. My scenarios are for light rail using street wire free, existing disused Main Line corridor and even up to 4.7km of cut cover / TBM tunnelling with 4 given 90m platform sub surface stations
Hi Sean, sounds like an interesting concept you’re working on! The problem with costing LRT in this context is that a very high proportion of the cost is the disruption to existing services. It’s very hard to give a typical “cost per kilometre” for works in a crowded urban environment. Also, underground stations are horrendously expensive – keep your concept surface level if at all possible, especially the stations!
Hi, I am interested to know about the reconstruction of currently non-operational single track northern railway line between Armidale ,NSW and Queensland border near Wallangarra(214 kms). The line is in good shape between Armidale and Deepwater but the next section to Tenterfield and Wallangarra requires more work including the replacement of several bridges. Can anyone give some directions as to how to obtain a cost benefit analysis of this line for passenger and freight train services?
Hi Siri, if you want to perform your own cost-benefit analysis, good resource is the Australian Transport and Planning guidelines at https://www.atap.gov.au/ – it is basically a step-by-step toolbox of how to do such an analysis to Australian standards. For cost estimates, probably the best place to look would be the Inland Rail Alignment Study of 2010, which is a comparable project.
Hi Edwin ,
Where can I read 2013 AECOM high-speed rail study ?
Still available online here: https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2013-04/apo-nid33517.pdf, you can also find the individual chapters and appendices by copying this link into the Wayback Machine: https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/rail/trains/high_speed/
Thanks for this. It is handy. But, I don’t understand the costing for larger bridges – What are A and B? For example what is the difference in cost of a 300 meter single track thru truss compared to a deck-arch?
Truss,80-350,25404,0.0038
Deck-arch,100-350,27358,0.0032
Don’t know how to apply the A & B factors.
Do you have similar information updated to 2023?
Thanks for this. It is handy. I don’t understand the larger bridge table: What is A and B? Is there much difference between a 300 meter thru truss and a deck-arch? How do you compute it using the formula.
Thanks
A and B are coefficients for the cost function. It’s explained in more detail here: https://hotrails.net/2014/09/bridges_and_viaducts/
Apologies for the formatting of the tables. I previously used a plugin that converted CSV to tables, but it is no longer supported. I’ve been meaning to convert all my broken tables to a new format, but haven’t got around to it yet.
Thanks very much. I could not see the formula shown near the table, I thought it was some footnote but didn’t go anywhere when I clicked on it. Now I see how to apply the formula.
Thanks.