Norfolk's light rail costs

This story is from December 2008 when the price of the project increased 25% to $288 million. The overpasses and stations they're building for this are probably what gave it such a big price tag.

For Richmond I envision a barebones system more like Portland's. No bridges and much simpler station platforms will keep the price down. A 12 inch deep track pad will prevent having to move utilities around and will be much quicker to build. I wonder if there will be cost savings in buying streetcars from the new company in Oregon as opposed to a European manufacture like HRT's Siemens vehicles. The S70 is designed with a max speed of 55mph which is obviously extreme overkill for the streets of Richmond. With a minimum turn radius of 25m I'm not sure it would work here either.