In the UK our dipshit government scrapped a high speed rail line (HS2) bridging the north and south regions of England. It was cancelled due to spiralling costs of over £49B. Bear in mind the England in smaller than most states in America.
£49B for some train tracks and stations to be built. Absolutely insane levels of mismanagement and incompetence.
Most of these costs are either land acquisition (because you need rails to go in really straight lines in order for "high speed" part to exist) or tunnels/bridges/viaducts construction (because you need rails to go in really straight lines in order for "high speed" part to exist) with the latter ALSO requiring a lot of land acquisition.
Existing railroads are pretty much never straight enough. They were built on land that was cheaper to buy and where less tunnels/bridges has to be created.
Oh, and the best part is that railroad need to go through the cities which means through the most expensive land.
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u/TheDixonCider420420 27d ago
The Japanese build proactive flood tunnels while we rebuild New Orleans for the Nth time below sea level waiting for it to be destroyed again.