News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence. Parent comment

Re:Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence by jfim on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @03:23AM (#25428195)
A large investment is quite an understatement. At say, ten million USD per kilometre (a low estimate compared to actual costs borne by France for building the TGV [0]), and a bird's eye distance of 3966 kilometres between LA and NYC [1], that's almost 400 billion dollars, or about 60% of the non-defense discretionary budget of the US for a single year. Keep in mind that's a very generous cost per kilometre; California's HSR projected costs are north of 60 million USD per kilometre.

And that's for a single pair of cities, with no cost overruns, no tunnels, straight line distance. It also excludes things like stations, rolling stock, and maintenance.

It's not impossible to build, but having high speed rail throughout the US is an investment that would be a multiple of the costs of building the entire interstate highway system.

Mind you, I'd love it if that were to happen, riding high speed rail is much more pleasant than flying. Speaking as someone who has gone across the continent a few times on Amtrak and enjoyed riding high speed trains in Asia and Europe, it's just hard to see it happening. Recent US infrastructure projects have had massive cost overruns, and there is a seemingly low political appetite for building large infrastructure compared to the 20th century.

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/764486/cost-construction...

[1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+between+los+a...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence by mrpopo on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @05:46AM (#25429008)
> that's almost 400 billion dollars

Great, that's about 2 thirds of the yearly US defense budget! You have the workforce, the discipline, and as a bonus the defense industry can be repurposed for building rails and trains. Once the transition is achieved, you can build such a line every year at no added cost to the taxpayer.

(I know, that's completely unrealistic... it shows the priorities of the US government...)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence by emteycz on Friday December 18, 2020 @04:56AM (#25465551)
You know, it's not that long ago people feared nuclear attack daily. I think Americans are projecting their priorities through the budget, not the government.
[ Parent | on HN ]