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Given how much more NYC pays in taxes than it gets back from the federal gov't and how much less many midwestern states pay than they get back (and how much more the latter tends to be the case for rural areas), it seems pretty unlikely that rural midwesterners are subsidizing the NYC subway.

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I actually meant MTA workers in midwest subways (of which there should be none), but your reversal makes sense given how my snark could parse. Basically, I was just disappointed that the article clickbaited me into reading about costs that really are local and specialized. Felt like "America's costs are out of control! Let's look at a an unusual and globally unique city to show how!"

Hah! It makes so much more sense now...

FWIW, I do think the US as a whole should be concerned with (subway) infrastructure that's crucial to the basic functioning of cities that are the biggest drivers of its economy. (NYC simply has too many people to move to rely on surface traffic.)

And I think the neglect of the subways is representative of the general neglect of important infrastructure. Though some of the causes of high maintenance/repair/expansion costs differ, others are exactly the same.

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