Costs and Benefits of Green Tramway Tracks

Abstract In recent decades, green tramway tracks have still more often been installed in many cities as an alternative to standard rails placed on concrete sleepers or grooved rails since the vegetated tracks are beneficial to urban dwellers. In this article, we summarize and compare the benefits of grass and low-maintenance tramway tracks and link them with their investment and maintenance costs in two Czech cities. We conclude that grass surfaces offer a slightly higher rainwater retention capacity, while the rest of the benefits are similar for grass and low-maintenance surfaces. The investment costs are also similar, however, the maintenance costs are 30× higher for grass surfaces than for the low-maintenance ones.