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Originally Posted by Spocket
Jared and Mister F,
Those are all good points and they address some of my concerns.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with the idea exactly except that I can't figure out what in the world makes this thing cost $25 billion dollars ?
For that kind of cash, is it worth it ? That's really what I'm getting at here. Three, four, even five billion bucks...well, okay I suppose. I don't understand why it would have to cost even that much but okay, that's not really all that significant in the big scheme. But $25 billion ? Why would this cost that much ?
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No idea how the costs break down, although based on other systems, I'm not terribly surprised at the cost.
In terms of "worth it", again, it needs to be compared to the alternatives. $25 billion is a big-ass amount of money, but imagine (I'm just throwing this number out there) if upgrading the highways and airports cost $40 billion. Would it still be "too expensive"?
Of course, the difference is that high speed rail can have its costs put forth in one complete package, since it's essentially one project. Road and airport upgrades, on the other hand, would be many smaller projects, not one massive one (at least not to the same scale as HSR), and hence you wouldn't get the "OMFG, look at all that money!!1" kind of reaction, even if the total cost of all these projects was greater.
ssiguy, I used to be of the same mind. But the difference is, if you dont spend it on HSR, the money isnt going to local transit, it would be going to airport expansion and highway expansion. Unless you are suggestion that essentially no intercity upgrades (rail, road or airport) should happen, you're always going to have costs that could otherwise be devoted to local transit.
Think of it not as "instead of building this LRT network...", but rather "instead of building this massive new airport..."
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On another note, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost just to do some basic signaling upgrades, track purchases etc. that would allow Via to run trains at, say 175km/h consistently, and without delays from freight trains?