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ask_the_fisherman t1_j5igsc2 wrote

Environmental and unions would make this cost prohibative as soon as it was proposed by anyone. The legal fees would be in the high 100s of millions. Then the unions would demand labor cost of 125 per hour or more. You have to add in all the perks with the wages. You are likely talking 5-7 million per mile at a minimum.

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Nexis4Jersey OP t1_j5ilrkt wrote

The Keystone Corridor is already 110mph so upgrading it to 125mph wouldn't be that hard , you just need to smooth out some curves. The rest of the network would be 80-110mph and if we go by proposed or plans underway in nearby states it would cost around 300-400 million for the Susquehanna Network , slightly less for the Lackawanna, although it would be around a billion if you included the Southern Tier and all the SEPTA proposals combined are around 2.5 billion...spread that out over 10yrs and its pretty reasonable.

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boredoflife96 t1_j5krfoq wrote

Considering they are blowing $1.9 billion on the southern beltway roads outside of Pittsburgh, 2.5 billion sounds inexpensive.

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Nexis4Jersey OP t1_j5kyd7e wrote

Most States are very similar , I believe the Full build for New York State which involves building at least 700 miles of dedicated passenger tracks , electrification , new bridges and upgraded stations + 300 miles of secondary track upgrades comes in at 15 billion. But is a drop in the bucket compared to the close to 30 billion in statewide highway and road projects.. Massachusetts has a 10 billion statewide Intercity rail plan but again its less then half of what the road projects cost..

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