Submitted by nowaysingh t3_ysa2bf in Futurology
YaAbsolyutnoNikto t1_iw2if6u wrote
Reply to comment by Surur in What will be future like next 5 years, 10 or 15 years. by nowaysingh
Dude, did you even read the title of the article you posted? “Why It's So Expensive to Build Urban Rail in the U.S.”
You’re comparing the inflated US figures to those of the industry. The US is simply the most car centric place in the entire free world. It’s not a good representative of the cost of roads vs public transport. The article itself says it.
Also, I’m not American. So, if I’d accept to play that unfair game, I have no reason to. It doesn’t affect me at all.
Also, of course cities and countries will consider the negative externalities and the effect on tax revenues… what do you think their job is? Urban planners, economists, politicians, etc. just sit around approving random projects all day? It’s literally what a bunch of people are hired to do. Industrial economists in particular: that’s their entire job (analysing externalities).
Believe it or not, but companies and governments take years to approve projects for a reason (sometimes inefficiencies, yes, but also because there’s a bunch of stuff to consider).
Surur t1_iw2iu5u wrote
> Also, I’m not American.
So you think this is a uniquely US problem? In UK they are about to cancel HS2 high speed rail because cost spiralled to more than £100 billion
Tell me which country you are in, and I will look up your local figures.
> Also, of course cities and countries will consider the negative externalities and the effect on tax revenues… what do you think their job is?
No, they look at their budget, and what they have to spend now lol. You live in a fantasy world, especially when it comes to developing economies.
So you are in Portugal:
> In February 2009, the government of Portugal announced plans to build a high-speed rail line from Lisbon to Madrid; this plan was cancelled in March 2012 amidst a bailout programme of financial assistance to the Portuguese Republic.[1] The project was valued at €7.8 billion and the government had claimed it would create 100,000 jobs.[2] The line would link to Spain's Southwest Corridor.
Lol
In Portugal the government spends more than 200,000 Euro per mile on rail track per year.
In Portugal the government spends around 70,000 Euro per km on roads.
> In some other countries (i.e. Austria, Croatia, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Japan) the infrastructure costs are significantly above € 40,000 per kilometre road network. In Portugal and Croatia, the large-scale investment programmes in the 1990s and the first decade of this century largely explains the high cost levels
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