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Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut
AFAIK most train construction protests in Europe have environmental concerns or think the money could be spent elsewhere... as opposed to North Americans who often just hate trains near their houses altogether.
Once again, the Cascadia HSR alone is $26-42 billion, and that's from the experts who want it. 350 km at North American prices would start at $31.5B, and we'd attempt to water it down to $15-20B.
There's already competition for our subway contracts... and cost savings there are usually in the form of cut 'n cover or less station escalators or smaller platforms. It's safe to say that BC has probably bled the turnip as dry as it can be for now.
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The $11 B estimate in this proposal is not for high-speed rail but for rail with a design speed of less than 200 kph (most of it at 160 kph). The reason why HSR is so much more expensive is every aspect needed to accommodate vehicles going at 350 kph is more expensive. Your turning radius is more than 4x greater, necessitating more tunnels and viaducts. The tunnel entrances have to be designed differently to deal with the boom effect, etc.
The high-speed rail component in Project Nexus is only for the Canadian portion of the line and does not include the portion built south of the border.
In terms of finding savings, I do not know how deep it will go but my sense is that we are far from where we could be. We don't do detailed design in-house and we don't do itemized tendering and only recently have we started splitting up projects.
It also doesn't help when every cost item is hidden behind a veil of secrecy.
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