4 ms·
> Our next big rail project, ST3, will install 62 miles of rail over 20+ years at a cost of over $50 billion. Good basis for comparison. Because you see, for a
by ocschwar 9y ago
> Our next big rail project, ST3, will install 62 miles of rail over 20+ years at a cost of over $50 billion.
Good basis for comparison. Because you see, for a typical freeway, a billion per mile is the cost.
And that's just installation.
Add in the cost to maintain the roads, and they lose to tracks hands down. Tracks don't need to be resurfaced. And track beds don't need a resurfacing just to get inspected.
(You're also missing the added cost for the overhead wiring if you're going to compare against electrified rail.
- CamperBob2 9y agoGood basis for comparison. Because you see, for a typical freeway, a billion per mile is the cost. Where do you get that? Obviously we got more than 500 miles of freeway for the $500B (inflation-adjusted) that the Eisenhower Interstate System cost us. We got about 50,000 miles, which works out to $10M/mile. So something seems to have made both highway and rail construction cost ludicrous amounts of money, if you're right about the $1B/mile figure. I don't think you are, though -- that amount is what I've heard cited for the most expensive mile of highway in the country, which supposedly is the stretch of I-90 that crosses Mercer Island. I'd have to throw a [Citation Needed] flag on the billion-dollar-per-mile figure, in the general case. If we're really spending that much on roads these days, somebody needs to figure out where all that money is going.