High-speed rail board completes environmental clearance in northern California

Re:High-speed rail board completes environmental clearance i... by antognini on Saturday August 20, 2022 @01:03AM (#32529234)

To be honest I think the debates over the route miss the main issue, namely why the project is so expensive. If we could bring costs down to Spanish levels (not a country that is known for its frugality!), we could build both a direct SF-LA route and a route that hits the Central Valley cities, along with spurs to San Diego and Sacramento, and still save more than $40 billion over what the current SF-LA line is expected to cost.

Instead the debates get reduced to "we should build this no matter what the cost" and "we should cancel the project entirely." There doesn't seem to be much interest in digging into why the costs of the project are so out of line with other countries. (Which, to be fair, is a hard question to answer).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:High-speed rail board completes environmental clearance i... by sjsamson on Saturday August 20, 2022 @07:01AM (#32531047)

Fully on agree on trying to get costs down to Spanish-levels and other developed world costs, and building everywhere while saving money.

But the reasons for the dysfunction are pretty straight forward: there is group of engineering consultancies and construction firms (Parsons, Bechtel, HNTB, AECOM, and other non-household names) that have captured the system and profit handsomely from the status quo. All those billions of taxpayer money is going somewhere, and it's their bank accounts.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:High-speed rail board completes environmental clearance i... by sofixa on Saturday August 20, 2022 @03:42AM (#32530093)

Such a project's costs are highly location specific - labour costs, geography, regulatory environment, existing infrastructure to adapt to/connect to/work around, etc. However, it usually gets better over time with experience.

[ Parent | on HN ]