• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    6 months ago

    12 billion dollars for a train line hundreds of miles long and possibly rebuilding some bridges is pretty cheep. And it isn’t like casinos waste a lot of water to run compared to other economic activities.

    And, honestly, Las Vegas isn’t that unsustainable except for the heat and we already have ways of dealing with it.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Yeah, in my area, we were quoted ~$1B for a train line extension of like 10-20 miles, on largely existing track. And that’s wasn’t high speed rail, but light rail.

      Trains are expensive. Roads are expensive ($1.5-7.7M/mile according to this site). These costs also don’t include ongoing maintenance.

      Trains usually cost more in the short term, and cost less longer term. So $12B today is expensive, but it also means we don’t need expensive expansions to i-15 and can easily increase people moved by increasing the frequency of train runs.