Better title: "why are US urban rail projects so costly?"
The subject is way more niche than "transit". A big part of it is economies of scale. Europe, and other developed parts of the world also built a lot more urban passenger rail per mile.
Now compare the cost of US freight rail - something the US does build and operate at scale - and it's much more competitive. Costs are often under $1M a mile, depending on factors like load, ground leveling, etc.
Countries are better at the types of transit they build the most, and the US doesn't use a lot of urban light rail.
I buy this. Even from a pure equipment allocation standpoint it would be more difficult for a particular state or region to spin up a job, let alone somewhere that has literally no existing rail infra to speak of.
In the article, they mention that Italy has something like a SWAT team of rail planning and designing consultants at the national level that swoop in on local projects and offer guidance. That’s just not something you get to unless you have a preponderance of rail projects under your belt.
Hearing about an Italian SWAT team for rail development just makes me think: "hire them."
I wonder if it would be cheaper to just hire all of the talent, and then just buy Italian rail components if they are available and work. That is essentially what the tech industry in the US does now anyway.
I guess certain "Buy American" protections get in the way of that, for good and bad reasons; but it's annoying that one solution is basically touching the third rail (sorry couldn't resist the train joke) in the country. Hire or import talent from abroad and learn from them, America's whole industrial history is basically a loop of that over time.
Rail is particularly expensive to build in the US because of the lack of living experience and economies of scale, but all construction projects from roads to housing are more expensive in the US than in other comparable nations.
The subject is way more niche than "transit". A big part of it is economies of scale. Europe, and other developed parts of the world also built a lot more urban passenger rail per mile.
Now compare the cost of US freight rail - something the US does build and operate at scale - and it's much more competitive. Costs are often under $1M a mile, depending on factors like load, ground leveling, etc.
Countries are better at the types of transit they build the most, and the US doesn't use a lot of urban light rail.