The problem is that costs for building the same transit infrastructure in America are ten or even fifty times higher than in Europe or Japan. Part of the diffe

The problem is that costs for building the same transit infrastructure in America are ten or even fifty times higher than in Europe or Japan. Part of the difference is inefficient procurement policies letting contracts to very high cost bidders with corrupt hand tailored RFQs and hiring expensive labor from well-connected limited pools. Part of it is active local democracy of communities that have been trained by the freeway boom to see infrastructure as a disaster for places that get it. Part of it is a very slow environmental review bureaucracy. Part of it is buy-American policies even when none of the top countries in some industries are American. But the main problem is that transit is built and run in America as a way to spread political influence for committees that distribute pork and a fun indulgence for influential people who won't ride it. In Europe and Japan, middle class voters expect transit to work and the politicians and bureaucrats who build it intend to ride it themselves. BART to SFO cost almost $2 billion. A good connection to CalTrain would have cost under $200 million. Heck, for under $1 billion you could also have connected CalTrain and BART at Embarcadero or Montgomery with a lower total trip time for most passengers. I don't know what BART to San Jose will cost, but you could have really high quality BRT down El Camino with similar benefits in just a year with the money BART will spend on engineering studies over the next three decades planning the San Jose train. But the authorities enjoy being involved in a big splash white elephant project more than building good transit. A very good and short brief: http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/ http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-ra... More: http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/cost-concerns-reasonable-and-otherwise/ http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/cost-... http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephensmith/2011/12/07/washington-post-only-idiots-think-infrastructure-spending-is-wasteful-and-americans-are-idiots/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephensmith/2011/12/07/washingt...