The Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council has hired you (as a team or individual
consultant) to develop a new transit plan for the regional metropolitan area under projected conditions for the
year 2050. The Council wishes to maximize accessibility, especially for low-income residents who are not well
served by the current system, and to provide other community benefits for the regional population through an
enhanced transit system, while minimizing negative impacts and staying within (but making full use of) a $3
billion budget for the metro rail expansion in Erie and Niagara counties of Western New York. All proposed
plans must be designed based on the Council’s assumption that the regional population will double by the year
- Each team or consultant will set their own expectation as to whether the general geographic distribution
of this population growth would be concentrated primarily in the city of Buffalo, clustered among suburbs such
as Amherst, or distributed evenly (proportionate to the current population) throughout the region.
Each proposed plan must take into account a special interest of the Council that is relevant to future usage of
the metro rail system. These special interests are as follows:
The Buffalo Bills wish to move from the stadium in Orchard Park to a location in downtown Buffalo closer to
where the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bisons play. The plan should propose a specific location for the new
stadium in Buffalo and ensure that the new metro rail system is accessible to the stadium. Stadium costs are
NOT part of the rail budget.
Each team or consultant will select one of these special interest scenarios to address in their proposal. The
Council wishes to promote sustainable public transit use through greater intermodality, and as such wants each
proposal to examine the potential for complementary bike paths and bus routes that intersect with the metro
rail system at key terminals. The proposed plan should consider service availability and frequency as
components of accessibility for the proposed transit system. The plan should also consider other factors
relevant to developing a metro rail system that will best serve the Buffalo metro area population, given the realworld issues that may arise with its implementation.
The budget for the metro rail expansion is $3 billion. Each team should seek to make full use of the budget
without exceeding it. Determine the total cost of the proposed light rail plan based on the following
assumptions:
new light rail costs $75 million/mile underground and $20 million/mile above ground.
each new terminal stop costs $25 million underground and $10 million above ground.
Your proposed plan should be described in a single document that reviews real-world issues, justifies your
plan, outlines costs and benefits, includes a map of the proposed light rail configuration, and provides an
itemized cost table for your stations and tracks (see Table 1 below for an example as part of an underground
subway line). Note that the budget is to be applied solely to the cost of the rail expansion. Other cost
considerations may be discussed but should not be deducted from the budget.
Sample Solution