A Transit Technology Selection Model

This paper presents an easy-to-use model to assist in technology selection for transit planning. The model computes annual costs for two technologies—currently BRT and LRT—for a system with characteristics specified by the user and from “real-world” operating data. The model computes the annualized capital and operating costs over a wide range of demand; it also calculates location-specific, energy-related emissions for both technologies’ operations. Most importantly, the model allows the user to test the sensitivity of the technology selection result to nearly all inputs. The model is applied to a recent case in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, to verify its functionality. The results show that, economically, these two technologies result in very similar annual costs for “normal” demand levels. As a result, small changes in assumed input values for period of evaluation, interest rates, labor costs, and infrastructure costs can result in a change in recommended technology.