Why not pave the tracks and run buses instead of trains?
A busway along the NWP corridor wouldn’t be cheaper than SMART and it certainly couldn’t offer the same environmental benefits of the proposed passenger rail project. Busways generally are built in short, urban corridors with closely spaced stations. Recent projects in Pittsburgh, PA, and Los Angeles have cost well over $20 million per mile, compared to SMART’s estimated cost of $7.7 million per mile. Because buses don’t offer the same on-board amenities as trains and because busways can’t offer the same travel speeds as trains, fewer riders will use them. Dedicated bus corridors are also not as safe as rail corridors. And finally, paving the tracks for buses isn’t currently legal in the SMART corridor, where state legislation requires SMART to provide safe and efficient passenger rail service in conjunction with the North Coast Railroad Authority’s proposed freight rail service north of the Highway 37 turnoff. For a detailed examination of this issue, see White Paper No.
