Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Construction Time is Too Damn Long

Talking about rail projects that will take a generation
to complete is as silly as talking about flying DeLoreans.
I get that building a new high-speed rail line from DC to Boston would be fairly time consuming, but no one is going to vote for anything that won't be completed until their not-yet-born children have started having children. Talking about projects that won't finish until 2040 is as silly as worrying about the 75 year shortfall in Social Security.

Split the project up in such a way that there are tangible benefits within five years, and sell those alongside the grandiose design for SUPERTRAINS.

1 comment:

BruceMcF said...

A big part of why the Construction time is so damn long is that they dno't aim to begin until over a decade in the future.

Good thing, too, since it gives a chance for the fact to be spread about that with, always difficult but billions less costly, institutional changes, DC to Boston in 4hrs could be accomplished for under $20b. Alon Levy has the details.