- more pleasant commutes over greater distances
- reduced housing market pressure near major offices
- reduced noise and air pollution compared to motor vehicles (for the same carrying capacity)
But how is it so expensive?
The only reason why the NYC subway, and the Chicago L are there today is because they were built before all of these processes existed. You could not build anything like them in modern day.
You can not build it in the USA. London is about to open the newly built Elizabeth line, which cuts through the city with 60 miles of tunnels. Modern Metro/Subway infrastructure can be built in densely populated areas like Chicago and NYC. It's a political issue, not an engineering one.
Precisely. Asia is on a roll in this regard.
The Californian track being twice as long, how the heck did it end up costing ten (10!) times as much??
OTOH, building the HSR between Berlin and Munich (~500 km) was also about EUR 10 billion, which I guess makes it a bargain. These things aren't comparable, though.
Anyway, Stuttgart 21 is a highly convoluted project, one that was really pushed hard by politicians. The last bit makes me usually skeptical in itself.
that is a classic megaproject which will be expanding in cost until there is no more expansion is possible and then a bit more.
Lets imagine some numbers - at 100B cost and say $5B/year expenses, it would need $7B/year of tickets for 50 years ROI, ie. it would need $20M/day, which is 100000 passengers/day at $200/ticket, like a 100 trains/day with 1000 riders each.
https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/Resources/resources/...
Thanks to deficit spending they will be paying for it.
The only people getting a gift here are the ones fleecing the government to run up the costs. They get their money now and all our kids and grandkids get the bill.
If you want to ask the size of those benefits, imagine London or New York without their underground/subway systems. It is a big deal and can't just be counted by ticket prices!
Actual growth might not, but as most infra spending is financed with fixed rate bonds, a couple more years of Biden’s 9.6% inflation will take a nice bite out of those costs in future dollars.