$3.5 Billion per Mile for NYC Train Track Extension

Because people are not frugal with other people’s money, government spending is characteristically inefficient — and rarely more so than in Bill de Blasio’s New York City. A Long Island Rail Road extension project is estimated to cost almost $3.5 billion for each new mile of track:

That staggering $3.5 billion price tag is seven times higher than the average cost in the rest of the world.

Here’s one way they run up such outlandish costs for the East Side Access project:

An accountant discovered in 2010 that 200 individuals working on the 3.5-mile-long tunnel connecting the two railroads had essentially no reason to be on the job.

Eventually they were fired, but no one seems to know how long they were getting paid $1,000 per day, apparently to do nothing.

An internal report by the consulting firm Arup concluded that underground construction in New York “employs approximately four times the number of personnel as in similar jobs in Asia, Australia, or Europe.”

On the positive side, New York’s profligacy with taxpayer money is highly lucrative for those with connections.

East Side Access is barely breaking new ground when it comes to waste:

In early 2017, Manhattan residents saw the completion of phase one of the infamous Second Avenue Subway on the Upper East Side. The price tag was $4.4 billion, or $2.5 billion per mile.

It might be cheaper to extend the subway with solid gold rails, but with someone other than de Blasio et al. in charge.

On a tip from Bodhisattva.