An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
nytimes.com
An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#2One of the things that makes this station more interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/nyregion/trouble-with-diag...
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#3Got to ride this yesterday, and I've seen a lot of NYC Subway stops. This one is amazing. Comes at a price though for sure.
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#410 years to build a rail station! For comparison, 10 years ago the metro system in Shanghai was barely useful and now it is one of the worlds largest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Metro#/media/File:SHM...
We don't build like that in America anymore. Partly because it is more expensive (safety standards and such). Partly because population growth hasn't demanded it. But those things not withstanding, 10 years and a billion dollars for a one station extension is unambitious to say the least. And don't even get me started on the cluster-fudge that is BART / muni / AC / whatever.
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#5This article is a bit clueless. The state has more than adequately provided the MTA with money. The place where the state failed is providing sufficient oversight to make sure the MTA isn't wasting it.
Paris spent 1.3B euro on the 14 line, which has 9 stations. The MTA spent 2.4B on a single stop on the 7 line. MTA construction costs drastically exceed worldwide norms - the MTA spends $1B/kilometer.
http://www.systra.com/IMG/pdf/metro_meteor_en.pdf
https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comp...
Apparently the only project outside NYC to cost more than $1B/KM is London's Crossrail. Even the Jubilee line extension is only $0.45B/km, and that's pretty pricey.
https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r...
tl;dr; Funding is adequate, costs are simply out of control.
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#6A little more background on the funding arrangement: http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-subway-station-opens-on-nycs...
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#7This article is a bit clueless. The state has more than adequately provided the MTA with money. The place where the state failed is providing sufficient oversight to make sure the MTA isn't wasting it. Paris spent 1.3B euro on the 14 line, which has 9 stations. The MTA spent 2.4B on a single stop on the 7 line. MTA construction costs drastically exceed worldwide norms - the MTA spends $1B/kilometer. http://www.systra…
Why are costs so much higher in NY though?
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#8This article is a bit clueless. The state has more than adequately provided the MTA with money. The place where the state failed is providing sufficient oversight to make sure the MTA isn't wasting it. Paris spent 1.3B euro on the 14 line, which has 9 stations. The MTA spent 2.4B on a single stop on the 7 line. MTA construction costs drastically exceed worldwide norms - the MTA spends $1B/kilometer. http://www.systra…
Why are costs so much higher in NY though?
Based on comparisons to London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, we can rule out (market) wages and density.
@MarketUrbanism suggests exceedingly unproductive construction techniques requiring 4x the amount of workers in the rest of the world (caused by union capture of local politics) play a role.
https://twitter.com/MarketUrbanism/status/639445006084886529
https://twitter.com/MarketUrbanism/status/639445006084886529
https://twitter.com/MarketUrbanism/status/639265131885686784
http://www.jacobssf.com/images/uploads/09_Thapa_Caldecott_RE...
Apparently the MTA also spends money to avoid having to cooperate with NJ:
https://twitter.com/MarketUrbanism/status/638356461538684928
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#9This article is a bit clueless. The state has more than adequately provided the MTA with money. The place where the state failed is providing sufficient oversight to make sure the MTA isn't wasting it. Paris spent 1.3B euro on the 14 line, which has 9 stations. The MTA spent 2.4B on a single stop on the 7 line. MTA construction costs drastically exceed worldwide norms - the MTA spends $1B/kilometer. http://www.systra…
Why are costs so much higher in NY though?
Costs are higher throughout the entire US for infrastructure projects. The US routinely pays an order of magnitude more per mile for similarly scoped projects compared to countries like Spain.
The root cause appears to be in the unique way projects are bid on in the US, where details need to be laid out in excruciating detail ahead of time and then any unplanned changes are cause for cost padding.
Re: An Unusual Subway Stop in New York
#1010 years to build a rail station! For comparison, 10 years ago the metro system in Shanghai was barely useful and now it is one of the worlds largest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Metro#/media/File:SHM... We don't build like that in America anymore. Partly because it is more expensive (safety standards and such). Partly because population growth hasn't demanded it. But those things not withstanding, 10 year…
That is a very impressing thing about China.