Why Building Transit Costs So Much

many urban planners myself included have talked time and time again about the importance of building new Transit infrastructure constructing and improving infrastructure brings jobs economic growth and access to more opportunities for those living around it building new Transit can bring a much needed boost to disadvantaged communities cut off from the rest of their cities it can also be used to alleviate already congested routes on previously built Transit so if building new Transit infrastructure and Transit lines is such a good thing why aren't more agencies doing it well the main reason is the cost building Transit infrastructure in the modern United States costs way more than it does in the rest of the developed world the cost of planning construction is massively inflated leaving agencies to limit the amount of improvements and expansions that they can perform on their systems I'm going to take a look at the two largest metros in the United States both the MTA and CTA to see both of the agency's core construction projects while the MTA and therefore its project is much bigger both of these projects show just how flawed infrastructure Construction in the United States really is let's start Chicago the CTA hosts the second busiest rapid transit system in the United States nicknamed the L the system is famous for its multiple elevated tracks that run above Chicago's busiest Hub the loop the system has eight total Rail lines which are all named by color its busiest line is the red line which runs from the northern edge of the city at Howard down south through the dense north side and then runs Underground through the loop where then it runs South along the median in 1994 until reaching its Terminus at 95th Street being the only train connecting the city's North and South sides the CTA wanted to improve the line by cutting travel times and improving stations they named this decades-long plan the red ahead which hosts three major sub-projects the first is the red purple modernization project which consists of rebuilding and realigning the 100 year old track from Howard to Belmont this project is currently under construction with multiple sections of track being rebuilt and stations closed for upgrading their second project is the now completed Redline South reconstruction project which improved trackage and upgraded stations May making all of them handicap accessible the third and final project is our Focus the red line extension for decades this project has been proposed to connect the far south side of Chicago to the red line the neighborhoods of Roseland and Pullman are both a Transit Dead Zone with no convenient access to the rest of Chicago and therefore its services the extension plan to solve this by extending the red line South through these neighborhoods the current plan is to build an elevated track for 95th Street along I-57 before cutting South to run along Union Pacific's track there will be four new stations including 103rd 111th Michigan Avenue and a new Terminus at 130th the plan also includes a new train yard which a CTA says will improve frequency across the entire line so sounds like a great plan the track alignment won't be too difficult and it'll be beneficial for those living in the lower income communities too bad it's taken 20 years to even start its construction yeah in 20 years the process started in 2006 and still hasn't even started to be built yet and even and when construction does eventually start the CTA says it won't be until 2029 when the extension is open to service but it gets even worse the price tag for this project is currently estimated to be 3.6 billion dollars you heard that right 3.6 billion dollars for four new stations and a rail yard this may seem way over the top for relatively simple extension like this but most projects constructed in the United States take decades to plan and billions of dollars to construct and the red line extension is even the worst perpetrator being built there's a much bigger and much more expensive project being constructed right now ah New York the Big Apple the city it's America's largest city and host's most extensive Transit Network it's right along America's only High-Speed Rail Corridor it's determinous to multiple Rail lines and it's the home of the MTA one of the largest Transit agencies in the world it receives an annual 1.7 billion passengers a year more than the rest of the United States metros combined oh and add the London Tube to that too and yep it still wins mta's system has 26 lines and for over 50 years the agency has been trying to add a 27th the Second Avenue subway is a project currently under construction in New York it plans to construct a new subway line down Eastern Manhattan all the way from Harlem to Wall Street this project is split into four separate phases the first phase was completed in 2017 adding stations from 72nd Street to 96th Street the second phase currently under construction will continue northwards from the first phase construction stations at 106 116th and 125th streets phase 3 will then continue down south along 2nd Avenue from 72nd Street to Houston Street will face forward then bring the line to its Terminus at Hanover Square currently the queue line serves the northern portion of the project along with limited runs from the n and R lines during rush hour in the future once phases 3 and 4 are completed a new line the T will run across the entirety of Second Avenue a Subway along 2nd Avenue has been proposed since the original 2nd Avenue elevated rail was demolished in 1942 and funnily enough the elevated rail was actually demolished in anticipation that the Second Avenue subway would be completed however the newly formed MTA had budget shortfalls that led to the project being scrapped it wasn't until 20 years later when the project would once again be proposed and after New York voted on a budget the construction of the subway began in 1972. however this wouldn't last long as the city would face an economic crisis this crisis along with a huge Exodus of people out of the city led the New York Subway system to see a 40 reduction in passengers crippling the agency's finances the construction saw its completion date moved from 1980 to 2000 and then back again to 1988. it wasn't looking good for the project with wavering finances and lowered public support due to being seen as the rich man Subway the Project's future was in Jeopardy and in 1974 the mayor of New York planned a budget that would reallocate 5.1 billion dollars from the Second Avenue subway to other projects in Queens this effectively slowed construction to a snail's pace and a year later construction was halted indefinitely with a newly constructed tunnels being sealed shut it was safe to say that the project was dead in the water being a small reminder of the ambitious plan in the early 2000s however New York's economy was fully recovered and once again the Second Avenue subway plan was considered and after some votes and funding the project was started with a ribbon cutting in the old tunnels in 2007. complications with construction led to completion date to be pushed back the construction also cost more than what was originally proposed in the budget but after years of complications the first phase of the project was completed in 2017 only costing a measly 5 billion dollars okay so maybe breaking the record for the costly Subway tunnel in the world at the time wasn't a great look but look no farther the MTA got his act together and won't make the same mistake again phase two will be better oh wait never mind it's gonna get worse the cost for phase two is estimated to be around six to seven billion dollars for the same amount of stations as the first phase there's obviously a huge problem here why is New York building a Subway at seven times the average cost compared to the rest of the world and why is an elevated structure over an existing right-of-way in Chicago cost 3.6 billion dollars the Second Avenue subway in New York and the red line extension in Chicago are both similar in a way they're both a new Metro projects which have taken decades to plan and will cost billions of dollars to construct despite being different projects with different circumstances the main issues stay the same let's take a look at the reasons for these outrageous costs in America's largest Transit agencies the designs of stations in Most Metro systems in the United States are far too large and complex the 96th Street Station on the Second Avenue subway is over double the length of the actual trained platform much larger than the global average many rebuilt stations in New York are far too large for the purpose that they serve similarly the red line extension in Chicago seems to have the same problem the stations on this line seem much too intricate for a simple stop I'm all for designing a nice and modern station but there's a point where you need to consider cutting back on the design to save money you can still have a nice looking station while also keeping it simple and effective in its main purpose transporting people a reason I believe these stations are overbuilt is for their presentation when people hear their tax money is going to a project they'd much rather see a large and luxurious station than a small and simple one I think these agencies want to keep their expectations high so they had unnecessary and expensive additions to their stations take Grand Central Madison for example sure it looks gorgeous but I'm not sure it looks gorgeous enough to justify its 11 billion dollar price tag another often overlooked reason for these large stations is a space given to storage and maintenance rooms maintenance rooms in American metros are far larger than their European or Asian counterparts where many of their Stations don't even have their own areas for maintenance the cost of these large stations more than doubled the cost of the Second Avenue subway project as a whole there's also a problem with different parties fighting over the storage and maintenance rooms on the Second Avenue subway is reported that each team working for the MTA wanted their own space whether it was Hydraulics track maintenance or janitorial employees these groups fought to have their own spaces since they're the ones responsible for the maintenance of their own equipment they don't want to maintain the other team's equipment so they argue to have their equipment separated from the others this is why extra storage rooms are often added to Metro stations and speaking of different groups fighting each other let's look at arguably the main reason for the massive cost of these construction projects contractors as stated on ta's website the planning of phase one ended when it awarded its 10th and final contract 10 separate contractors for two miles of track seems like a lot and that's because it is Transit agencies here in America tend to Outsource most of their labor to private contractors which jacks up the price of planning and Construction in the past it wasn't uncommon to see most Transit projects being planned and managed by the agencies themselves and that's exactly what happens in the rest of the world but in the land of the US of Aid most of the planning and oversight of large construction projects are done by other companies which by the way don't do a very good job for the first phase of the subway in New York the MTA had a whopping 124 employees working on the project again there were only 124 people to oversee and plan the billion dollar project there are reports that the construction site was often overstaffed due to the contractors with many of the workers sitting around because there's simply nothing to do contractors don't need to do a good job with overseeing a project besides if it takes longer to build the more money they make and I mean some of these contracts are just ridiculous for example the stations use two escalator contractors there's no reason why two separate companies need to be hired to put in a goddamn escalator these ridiculous costs are a joke compared to other countries construction projects for example Barcelona is building a completely new subway line in their City the 24 station line will cost them around 6.7 billion euros or around 7.3 billion US Dollars can you see the difference it took New York the largest city and the largest economy on the planet five billion dollars to build just three stations well it took Spain to build 24 stations only two billion dollars more than that and Paris is building what they call the Grand Paris Express a massive project building four new lines and extending two with a total of 68 new stations on their Metro now how how much does this project cost a hundred billion 300 billion well it's around 32 billion and that's after the project went over budget people in France were angry with the 32 billion dollar project building four completely new Metro lines for reference 32 billion is around the same estimated cost at the completed Second Avenue subway will have France can build more than quadruple the amount of infrastructure than the United States at the same exact price could you imagine what American cities would look like if we can build Transit projects at the same costs or european counterparts it goes to show you just how inefficient we have become in building modern Transit infrastructure if Transit agencies hired more employees to oversee their projects then they could cut back on the number of contractors needed to be hired using more in-house labor and simplifying the designs of stations will dramatically decrease the costs and time spent on these important Transit projects having more money also means more could be spent on other projects projects in the agency like improving infrastructure and increasing frequency which we've seen from my previous videos Link in the description by the way would boost a ridership which in turn will give a monetary boost to these Transit networks we can use these efforts to cut back on spending and improve transit in the United States as a whole if cities like Paris can build four new lines for 30 billion dollars then I'm sure as hell New York can build a new line for less than that let's make Transit affordable to build again so we don't have to waste billions of dollars to construct clean and Rapid Transit thanks for watching everyone I'll see you all next time [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: UrbanDox

Views: 4,470

Keywords: UrbanDox, Second Avenue Subway, New York, New York City, La, Transit, Trains, Red Line Extension, Cta Red Line, T line, Q line, NYC Subway, NY Subway, Second Avenue Subway Construction, Mta, Mta Construction, commuter rail, Chicago, Infrastructure, 7 Billion Dollars, 130th Street, 95th Street, Tunneling, Tunnel, Septa, Metro, LIRR, Grand Central Madison, Rapid Transit, Subway, Subway Station, Metro Line

Id: XCI9UIWvF34

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023