...To put these numbers in global perspective, New York's Second Avenue Subway will cost roughly eight times more than Tokyo's Koto Waterfront line and 36 times more than Madrid's Metrosurtunnels on a per-kilometer, purchasing power parity (PPP) basis....
---I’m not so sure, though, that labor laws and regulations and the accompanying heavy unionization of public-transportation infrastructure construction aren’t a factor. A Moody’s report last month on the New York, London and Paris transit systems found that New York’s had an operating cost of $4.11 per ride compared with $2.61 in London and $1.93 in Paris. Part of the reason is that New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority operates commuter trains that require higher staffing levels -- but as Smith wrote in another 2012 Bloomberg View piece, those higher staffing requirements are the result more of union rules than of necessity. Another big difference is the cost of health and retirement benefits, which according to Moody’s add up to almost $1 a ride in New York but “are provided primarily by the sovereign governments for the London and Paris systems.”...
...the strength of unions in the public sector and among government contractors, coupled with their weakness everywhere else, may be leading to the perverse result that infrastructure projects that would benefit everybody don’t get built.
- Yes, I’m exaggerating for effect. But the view really is widely shared, although there’s
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