> It's more accurately a common law problem. European states with Napoleonic law appear to avoid the cost spiral.

Germany alone has like 3 major extremely over-budget infrastructure projects I can think of.

> Germany alone has like 3 major extremely over-budget infrastructure projects I can think of

I'm going off cost per mile to build rail and road. Even when European projects go over budget, they still clock in below the U.K.–on average–which clocks in way below the U.S. (The latter gap is best explained by institutional ineptitude.)

Corruption also plays a big part in rising the cost.

> European states with Napoleonic law appear to avoid the cost spiral.

At least not in France. The "SNCF" had to be rescued by the French state three times since it was created in 1937. And it was created because the private companies it replaced were bankrupt. [0] (in French)

Each year the French state gives ~16 Billion Euros to the company [1] (in French)

[0] https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2018/03/19/cinq...

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_nationale_de...

Each and every country loves to complain about their railway services. I bet you're selling the French railways short here. I'd assume you're doing better than UK, and definitely an order of magnitude better than US.

I did not complained, I replied to:

"European states with Napoleonic law appear to avoid the cost spiral."

Do you have any hint of other European states with Napoleonic law that avoided cost spiral?

Right, I misunderstood your comment. I agree that costs have increased in continental Europe too, don't have any numbers.

> It's more accurately a common law problem. European states with Napoleonic law appear to avoid the cost spiral.

Asking out of genuine interest - do you have any ideas as to why this might be?

Could also be that first past the post systems leading to less competent administrations than proportional representation and coalitions. Common law and first past the post seems to go hand in hand.