NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world

Re:NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world by jpatokal on Monday January 02, 2017 @01:17AM (#13299424)

Yeah, no, the US is definitely an outlier, building virtually any public infrastructure costs way more than it should. Tokyo can still build underground subway lines at 1/8th the cost:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-i...

The answer why is complex, but the two big factors seem to be red tape, specifically that standards are overengineered and it takes forever to get approvals, and lack of experience and existing construction infrastructure, so instead of having a well-greased machine like Singapore's that churns out line after line in rapid succession, you need to ramp up and ramp down for every single project.

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Re:NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world by achamayou on Monday January 02, 2017 @03:17AM (#13299780)

What the article refers to is a cost estimate for the Koto Waterfront line, which hasn't been approved at this point, let alone started construction. Whether it will be built on budget is anyone's guess.

The route would also be in a relatively recently built area, so it's not hard to imagine why it would be cheaper to plan and execute that a route under Manhattan.

I don't know very much about NYC, but the comparison does not seem fair.

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Re:NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world by jpatokal on Monday January 02, 2017 @04:52AM (#13300184)

Tokyo's newest subway the Fukutoshin line, spanning some of Tokyo's most congested areas (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro), cost around $250m/km, so still around 1/4 of the NYC cost.

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Re:NYC's brand new subway is the most expensive in the world by cmurf on Monday January 02, 2017 @11:25AM (#13302027)

Where is this cost going? Manhattan has much harder soil and the new subway required an extensive dewatering and water proofing projects.

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