How can we bring down transit costs?
A comparative study
Understanding the drivers of transit construction costs in Canada: A comparative study. By Jedwin Mok, Balthazar Crane, Marco Chitti, and Amer Shalaby. Mok and Crane are with Metrolinx (formerly known as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority); Chitti is a co-author of the Transit Costs Project and a postdoc at McGill; Shalaby is a professor of civil engineering at U of T.
Why are construction costs for major transit projects in Canada so much higher than in countries such as Italy and Spain? The report identifies a number of key issues:
Overbuilding and overdesign. Low-cost jurisdictions reduce overbuilding in a number of ways. “Our study finds that planners looking to reduce hard costs should aim to be creative and forward-thinking with alignments (preserving and re-using existing rights-of-way), make cost-effective design choices (smaller stations and shallower tunnelling), and maximize the standardization of technologies and components.”
The study specifically notes that when tunnelling is required, low-cost jurisdictions use lower-cost methods such as cut-and-cover even if they’re more disruptive. In Vancouver, the Canada Line (which was relatively low-cost) used cut-and-cover. In contrast, the Broadway Subway used tunnel-boring machines, a factor contributing to increased costs and therefore reduced scope (ending at Arbutus instead of UBC).
Lack of knowledge retention. Canadian agencies typically rely on external consultants, leading to higher costs, instead of building up in-house expertise.
Risk management. Canadian projects often use large contingency buffers, which add to total project cost. “Excessively large contingencies can lead to ‘budget laxism,’ where the incentive to control costs over a project life cycle is low and money, having been allocated, is unnecessarily spent.” Low-cost jurisdictions typically use smaller contingencies.
More
How to better control the spiralling construction costs of Canada's public transit projects. Kenneth Chan, Daily Hive.
The Transit Costs Project. A database of subway and light rail projects.
How Big Things Get Done (2023), by Bent Flygbjerg and Dan Gardner. Why do megaprojects succeed or fail?
