Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCalKid
How could it possibly cost $117 billion to shave just one hour off the entire 438 mile corridor??? They should be able to build an entirely new HSR line with a dedicated ROW for that! This will result in a train that averages just 73 MPH (6 hours over 438 miles). California High Speed Rail, for all it's problems, is building an entirely new line of similar length (including land acquisition) through major cities for the same cost, and it will average nearly twice the speed.
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I am not defending the high cost of building infrastructure but this is the most densely populated region of the country and has some of the most expensive labor costs. Some of the infrastructure is more than one hundred years old.
The Gateway tunnel, alone, is $15B - $20B. Replacing the 148 year-old Baltimore & Potomac tunnel is estimated to cost another $4B.
If we ignore investing in infrastructure for a half century, we are going end up paying for it at some point.