Informed but opinionated commentary and analysis on urban transportation topics from the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

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TRANSIT MODE CHOICE IN JAPAN, Part 2 (Monorail 12)

From the Cabalmaster:

This installment continues with the Japanese criteria for building monorails and other fixed-guideway transport facilities.

"Transport gap" is the term used to describe traffic-density levels too high for efficient bus operation, but too low to justify conventional rail. These traffic levels are considered the domain of medium-duty systems such as monorail, AGT and LRT. (G. Bouladon, "The Transport Gaps," Science Journal, April 1967. G. Bouladon, "Transport," Science Journal, October 1967).

"Monorail" is defined as traveling along a single guideway, on rubber tires, either straddling the guideway or suspended from it.

Its advantages over conventional rail include: less land requirement, and ability to negotiate steeper grades and sharper curves, making construction within the alignment of existing roads more practical.

Recent monorail specifications include:

--Construction cost: $50-100 million per mile for infrastructure; $40-90 million per mile for equipment and rolling stock.

--Schedule speed: 19 mph.

--Maximum capacity: 26,000 pass/hr per direction. This is based on 6-car trains, 2-minute headways, and 95 passengers per vehicle, about 6.1 passengers per meter of vehicle length.

[A similar service level, with identical vehicles, in most U.S. or Canadian urban corridors would carry no more than 17,000 - 20,000 passengers per hour per direction.]

--Average annual operating cost for monorail is estimated at $3 million per route-mi. Thus, a monorail line would need to attract 6,500 passengers per route-mi per day, each paying an average fare of $1.25, in order to cover operating costs.

Comparative figures for subways:

---Construction cost: $340-400 million per mile, or $270-280 million for small-profile subways.

---Schedule speed: 20 mph, or 21 mph for small-profile subways [probably owing to faster acceleration].

---Maximum capacity: 64,000 pass/hr per direction. This is based on 10-car trains, 2-minute headways, and 214 passengers per vehicle, about 10.7 passengers per meter of vehicle length.

[A similar service level, with similar vehihcles, in most U.S. or Canadian corridors would carry no more than 24,000 - 30,000 passengers per hour per direction -- assuming the existence of sufficient demand).

---Maximum capacity for a small-profile subway is 35,000 pass/hr per direction, based on 8-car trains, and 146 passengers per vehicle, about 8.9 meters per meter of vehicle length (or 16,000 - 20,000 pass/hr per direction in most U.S. or Canadian corridors).

---Average annual operating cost: $9 million per route-mile, requiring 19,700 passengers per route-mi per day, each paying an average fare of $1.25, to cover operating costs.

Comparative figures for "Automated Guideway Transit" or AGT:

---Construction cost: $50-130 million per mile for infrastructure; $40-90 million per mile for equipment and rolling stock.

---Schedule speed: 17 mph.

---Maximum capacity: 18,000 pass/hr per direction. This is based on 6-car trains, 2-minute headways, and 98 passengers per vehicle, about 11.5 passengers per meter of vehicle length (or 6,000 - 8,000 pass/hr per direction in most U.S. or Canadian corridors).

---Average annual operating cost: $3 million per route-mile, requiring 7,000 passengers per route-mi per day, each paying an average fare of $1.25, to cover operating costs.

Comparative figures for "LRT:"

---Construction cost: $44 million per mile.

---Schedule speed: 12-16 mph.

---Maximum capacity: 14,000 pass/hr per direction. This is based on two-car trains (or single articulated cars), 2-minute headways, and 225 passengers per vehicle, about 8.9 passengers per meter of vehicle length (or 6,000 - 8,000 pass/hr per direction in most U.S. or Canadian corridors).

---Average annual operating cost: $1.5 million per route-mile, requiring 3,400 passengers per route-mi per day, each paying an average fare of $1.25, to cover operating costs.

In Japan, "LRT" refers essentially to high-performance streetcar lines, operating on tracks built in roads but separated from other traffic.


posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 8/21/2002 10:40:00 PM