Last I checked, 30 years treasuries were in the neighborhood of 1.5%, and not 0.25%. More importantly, the reason all those stupid ways are employed is that th

Last I checked, 30 years treasuries were in the neighborhood of 1.5%, and not 0.25%. More importantly, the reason all those stupid ways are employed is that then the private companies running it have incentive to keep the costs down. Just compare it with recent California's high speed rail project, which was direct development paid for by the state, like you suggest. The most recent cost estimate was $100B, or $250M per mile.