(The following report appeared on the Charleston Post and Courier website on July 8.)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Would a commuter train from Charleston to Summerville cost $46 million, or something closer to $146 million?
“That’s the sort of thing we are trying to figure out,” said Jennifer Humphreys, a senior transportation analyst with Wilbur Smith Associates who is leading the region’s third study of commuter rail.
Train supporters are confident money can be found for the proposed rail project, but the price tag is a fast-moving target.
Creating a 22-mile commuter rail service for Charleston, North Charleston and Summerville would certainly cost more than the $46 million estimate cited in a 2006 Wilbur Smith study.
The more detailed study now under way should produce a better cost estimate by August, along with an estimate of the cost of rail to Moncks Corner.
“If you can do it under $10 million a mile, you’re doing well,” said David
Carol, a former Amtrak official in charge of Charlotte’s Northeast Corridor rail plan, which will cost an estimated $9 million per mile.
Rail supporters are quick to point out it can cost $40 million to widen a single mile of highway. Through that lens, the cost of a train to Summerville looks small, compared to the $300 million the state plans to spend widening just over 8 miles of Interstate 26.
Rail opponents typically compare the cost of trains to the cost of public buses. In that light, the train project looks like a big expense, costing at least several times the entire annual budget of the Charleston Area Regional Transit System.
$46 million not enough
The $46 million estimate is certain to grow because it did not include the cost of track rights, which could be millions of dollars.
As in Albuquerque, Nashville and Charlotte — the three cities used as examples in the 2006 study — Charleston commuter rail would use existing freight tracks, which sounds cheap and simple but is usually not.
Using a freight line often requires upgrades to rail crossings and the track itself, in addition to buying the right-of-way or negotiating an agreement with the owner to use the track.
“You can’t just buy trains and put them on the track,” Humphreys said.
Charlotte, for example, agreed to pay Norfolk Southern $21 million for the right to use a section of track for 50 years, and agreed to pay for extensive track upgrades.
“Getting track access from Norfolk Southern is a complex challenge,” Carol said. “The line we are upgrading for commuter rail is a short line that only sees one (freight) train a day, and it’s in poor condition.”
The proposed Charleston/Summerville commuter rail would operate on Norfolk Southern tracks, but there’s no estimate of the cost of track rights. CSX Corp. owns the track to Moncks Corner.
“We need to have a proposal with sufficient detail,” Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said. “We have room for additional traffic, but we don’t know how much they would need.”
Also missing from the $46 million estimate was money needed to acquire property in Summerville for a train station, and land in downtown Charleston where part of the rail line sits beneath a privately owned business.
Ongoing costs
Once you build a commuter rail service, there are substantial annual operating costs. Just like the bus system operated by CARTA, commuter rail lines lose money on every passenger.
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“It is a very expensive use of public money, but that’s not to say it’s a poor use of public money,” Carol said.
Nashville and Albuquerque are talking about new taxes to pay for their train expenses, while Charlotte already has a half-cent sales tax in place.
“You have to make it work politically,” said Chris Blewett, Albuquerque’s Rail Runner Project Manager. “We’ve done a lot of polling, and this (train) has a lot of support, around 75 percent, and those are numbers that are hard to argue with.”
“The need for this, and the benefit, is so obvious that it puts the operating expense in the category of things you just solve,” said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, who chairs the regional Council of Governments rail committee.
The 2006 rail study for Charleston/Summerville estimated that the train system would need $1.4 million more each year than what riders would pay in fares. Planners said the train could attract more than 1,600 round-trip passengers every day.
Humphreys called the ridership projections conservative, but those estimates suggest a Charleston train would attract four times the current ridership in Nashville, and 60 percent more passengers than Albuquerque’s train.
Despite the financial hurdles, commuter rail service is being created in cities across the nation, and train supporters and regional planners believe it’s possible to do the same in Charleston. “It will be about political will; public and political will,” Humphreys said.