A rough estimate for a Courthouse to Stockyards Street Car System, Turn-key - 2.9 miles @ $19,400,000-21,900,000/mile = $56,260,000 - 63,510,000 Cost.
...Will Fort Worth be happy with a single track operation along North Main Street? I'm thinking since North Main is not a one-way street, it will probably require double track operations north of the County Courthouse. So that cost for 2.9 miles needs to be recalculated into costs for almost 6 miles.....
BTW, I used the Courthouse as a starting pointing because it is an easily recognized landmark. Using the M&O Tunnel as the starting point only adds .10 miles to my 2.9 miles, so that the distance between Downtown and the Stockyards is actually of a range of 3.0 - 3.3 miles. My preference is not to use North Main Street for crossing the river.
ER, over time, we've engaged in some spirited debates which have been great opportunities for me to improve my understanding or have a confirmation of my opinions about transit issues; and also during our back & forth I have come to believe that you may have some professional expertise in the transit industry. So, I have a friendly request of you during the next when you have an opportunity to take a short walking tour of a stretch of road in Downtown Fort Worth; here is your assignment, weather permitting -
Begin your tour at the intersection of Taylor Street and Second Street (T2). Here you will be standing above the decommissioned M&O Subway Tunnel. Now walk north along Taylor Street towards the Trinity River; your walk will cover a gradient peaked at T2 and bottomed at the banks of the river. This is the cost savings solution of using the decommissioned tunnel to connect Downtown to points north and west.
The first thing you realize is that using North Main Street Bridge is not the path of least resistance to the Stockyards; the M&O Tunnel is.
The option that I continue to prefer to connect the Stockyards and point north with a fixed rail system is to build a bridge crossing the river and crossing beneath the North Street Bridge. From the crossing, the fixed rail system would route along North Commerce Street and bridge over North Side Drive and continue the route into the Stockyards, Exchange Street @ Niles. This route is virtually undeveloped and currently has ample room for double tracking.
If you have the time, begin a second walking tour. Begin again at T2. It is easy to envision model Taylor Street to the DART/Bryan Street Transit Corridor. If you end your walk at Lancaster Avenue using a Taylor-Texas-Jennings Route (TTJ), you will see the existing pathway in a tunnel beneath the rail tracks into the southern and eastern sectors of Fort Worth. Along the TTJ route, once again there is ample room for double tracks if Taylor Street is designated a fixed rail/bus corridor.
If Trinity Metro or the City are not opening themselves up to more than a North Main Street route, then they have blinders on. The actual cost of the Downtown to Stockyards train is not as formidable as contemplated. A restorative use of the existing infrastructure (tunnels) has the real possibility of making the cost of either route very feasible.