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I've never seen an adequate explanation for why the 5 miles of the Second Avenue Subway cost $19 billion. I've seen blame placed on the cost of stations, 3 in p
by jmyeet 3y ago
I've never seen an adequate explanation for why the 5 miles of the Second Avenue Subway cost $19 billion. I've seen blame placed on the cost of stations, 3 in particular. But these collectively amount to less than $2 billion.
By comparison, Crossrail in the UK cost a similar amount with a truly massive amount of new track, new tunnels and new stations. London is a reasonable comparison to NYC. London may even be worse given the age of the cities and the whole thing being full of ruins going back to Roman Britain.
This article mentions layers of consultants. Honestly, I think we'd be better off if the government was never allowed to spend another dollar on McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc. They're just an exercise in wealth extraction from the government, providing negative value.
- bobthepanda 3y agoThey did not cost $19B. That projection was the 2007 cost for building it from Harlem to the tip of Downtown. Phase I ended up costing around $4.4B.
- singhrac 3y agoThe linked blog is written by a transit expert who writes extensively on costs, including this report: https://pedestrianobservations.com/2022/10/24/the-transit-costs-project-conclusion-is-out/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/2022/10/24/the-transit-co.... I'm not an expert, though, so if you read that and found it to be inadequate/incorrect, I'd be curious to hear why.
- xnx 3y ago"How excessive staffing, little competition, generous contracts and archaic rules dramatically inflate capital costs for transit in New York." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...