Didn’t find much of anything on maintenance or operation. These particular pages seem not bad in terms of estimating costs (and are fairly consistent with the bulk of what I’ve read).
A newspaper editorial discussing the future of rail near minneapolis. “Northstar would cost $3.7 million per mile, an exclusive busway, $10 million per mile and adding lanes to Highway 10, $12 million per mile” It also has an interesting bit on return on investment. But it’s very much a pro-rail political statement
http://www.abcnewspapers.com/2003/april/24ed.html
Examines the costs of building a bridge across long island sound, and, for a highway with 6 lanes (3 each way) and shoulders, they estimate $100m/mile (or about $16.6m/mile/lane). Trestle bridge estimates were twice that per mile, and suspension bridge 2.5 times as much per mile. Going back to
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/LI-sound-3/
Discusses the cost of streetcar programs that were constructed in various places, including the cost of cars. $2m/mile for the no-frills system built in Kenosha Wisconsin with refurbished street cars. $30m/mile in sf, including, apparently, alot of expensive and purely decorative features. But that’s street car stuff, and not light rail. It basically says that projects asking more than $10m/mile for street cars or $20m/mile for light rail ought not be funded. Note this is a pro-rail site.
http://www.heritagetrolley.org/artcileBringBackStreetcars7.htm
PERTS stands for Personal Electric Rapid Transport System. By which it means putting your car on a maglev frame, in essence.
http://www.crts.vt.edu/perts_fs.htm
http://www.crts.vt.edu/benefits.htm
i think one of the other big considerations is that it’s much cheaper to rebuild one mile of highway every year than it is to replace a bridge every five years.
the number of landslides along highway one is mind boggling.