Cross-Corridor Comparison of Operating Costs for High-Speed Ground Transportation

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s commercial feasibility study (CFS) of high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) included a detailed estimate of operating and maintenance (O&M) costs for eight HSGT technologies across nine intercity corridors in the United States. The number of cases examined in detail provides a wealth of information that can support general conclusions about HSGT O&M costs under the normative assumptions of the CFS. These conclusions are expressed primarily in terms of six parameters: the nominal maximum authorized speed of the technology; revenue seat-miles; revenue seat-hours; corridor passenger traffic density; specific trip length; and corridor length. The total O&M unit costs per passenger-mile estimated for the CFS are related to these parameters: It is concluded that most of the variation among operating and maintenance cost estimates can be explained by a set of four descriptive parameters in conjunction with a choice of technology option; for a given corridor length and amount of transportation provided, the total O&M costs for other than maintenance of way increase only modestly with higher speeds and more advanced technologies; maintenance of way costs exhibit economies of scale but can vary widely among corridors, depending on the ownership and operating arrangement for the corridor, the lowest unit-cost option for a corridor is strongly determined by traffic density and by the potential for market growth with increased operating speeds; the importance of specific trip length relative to passenger traffic density increases with density; and generalizations drawn from CFS results in terms of corridor length or density alone do not necessarily apply to other corridors, particularly when one or more of the other four parameters differ.