2 ms·

In 2012, Amtrak estimated that it would cost $150 billion to upgrade the Northeast Corridor for legitimate high speed rail. Almost $330 million per mile for a r

In 2012, Amtrak estimated that it would cost $150 billion to upgrade the Northeast Corridor for legitimate high speed rail. Almost $330 million per mile for a right of way that they already own. I'm sure that would be $250 billion today because why the hell not? At prices like that, of course we'll never see a mile of new track ever laid again. We've decided that the whole thing is a grift, thrown our hands up and given up. Somehow the French can dig under central Paris for the same price that we can lay some rail on a plot of land that we already own.

jcranmer 5y ago
> Almost $330 million per mile for a right of way that they already own. Actually, no. That proposal included entirely new tunnels and city-center stations in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and an entirely new ROW that went from NYC out Long Island, a Long Island Sound crossing to New Haven, new ROW up to Springfield, and then east into Boston, rather than reusing any of the BOS-NYC right-of-way. All of which are expensive and relatively low value (although the CT corridor does need entirely new ROW suitable for HSR, the cost of building such a ROW largely parallel to the existing one--including the taking of expensive property in CT--is likely cheaper than building the Long Island Sound crossing by itself). In a way, I think this is an example of where a large part of American cost disease comes from--projects are designed on the basis of large, flashy megaprojects rather than looking for how to make multiple small, incremental improvements that can be done on the cheap. For example, you could probably squeeze a half an hour or so out of BOS-NYC train time simply by fixing dispatching issues on the New Rochelle-New Haven stretch, which would require very little construction (turning Rye into a flying junction would be the biggest piece I could imagine)--$10s of millions at worst.

jcranmer 5y ago

> Almost $330 million per mile for a right of way that they already own. Actually, no. That proposal included entirely new tunnels and city-center stations in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and an entirely new ROW that went from NYC out Long Island, a Long Island Sound crossing to New Haven, new ROW up to Springfield, and then east into Boston, rather than reusing any of the BOS-NYC right-of-way. All of which are expensive and relatively low value (although the CT corridor does need entirely new ROW suitable for HSR, the cost of building such a ROW largely parallel to the existing one--including the taking of expensive property in CT--is likely cheaper than building the Long Island Sound crossing by itself). In a way, I think this is an example of where a large part of American cost disease comes from--projects are designed on the basis of large, flashy megaprojects rather than looking for how to make multiple small, incremental improvements that can be done on the cheap. For example, you could probably squeeze a half an hour or so out of BOS-NYC train time simply by fixing dispatching issues on the New Rochelle-New Haven stretch, which would require very little construction (turning Rye into a flying junction would be the biggest piece I could imagine)--$10s of millions at worst.