(It should be noted that 1) I am a liberal, 2) I initially posted my dream ideas without fiscal considerations in comments on Erik B’s blog, and 3) I acknowledged that the posts from 5views had far more research into genuine problems than I had in my own blog)

Inflation is not a steady thing. We can average it, but it’s never grown in a linear fashion. To treat it as a linear process is, frankly, idiotic. You can’t look at the current economy and tell me that it will carry on in one way or the other. It will proceed towards inflation or not depending upon the government elected (and I don’t care if you’re D or R… there are some Rs that will speed up inflation and some Ds that will slow it down). The point is that we can’t predict that. I do think that a lot of your numbers add up to an extension of the rail being, at least potentially, fiscally irresponsible. But I don’t think you have the genuine wherewithall to accurately factor in what inflation will really be like.

That said, $7.28 per boarding over the first 25 years seems like a good number. I guessed around $5.00.

Regarding the last two figures:

Replacing aging equipment should be taken care of in the annual budget through depreciation (in theory).

Second, obviously increasing capacity would dramatically increase the cost and spike the cost/boarding. Sending the Link down 6th and to TCC would certainly do that, although of course capacity would be dramatically higher too. Also if the Link expanded that far, it would be restructured to have a fare associated with it that would drive up annual costs but also annual revenue. So much to think about!

Thanks for the numbers.