4 ms·

The more fingers in the pie, the higher the cost. At least that's my guess. I imagine more expensive labour and tighter regulations also greatly increase cost

• laurentoget 10y ago
  France and Germany both have expensive labour and regulations, yet they have working trains.
  • privong 10y ago
    It's not just the cost of labor and associated regulatory costs. I think a lot of the overhead in the US has to do with such projects often being funded by the federal government, yet implemented by state/county/city governments. Each of those wants to get involved and get a slice of the pie, so to speak...
    • DasIch 10y ago
      You can't seriously think cities in Europe are all rich enough to be able to afford large infrastructure projects? In Germany at least such projects also involve funding from the state, federal government and possibly the EU, usually those funds make up the majority of the money. Without such funds nothing would get done at all.
      • privong 10y ago
        > You can't seriously think cities in Europe are all rich enough to be able to afford large infrastructure projects? No, I don't think that. But I do think it's likely that the various levels of US government like to stake their claim to more autonomy compared to the various levels of government in Europe (particularly at the local level -- I'm sure the EU and national governments love to "get involved").