The Case for the Subway
The major issue with any plan to fix the subway is that MTA can no longer build cost-effectively. This was highlighted by the NYT just last week: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...</a><p>It costs them $1.5B-$3.5B per mile of track in NYC, while other global cities do it for a tenth of the cost.<p>One glaring example of mismanagement of funds:<p><i>The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part of a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting the historic station to the Long Island Rail Road. But the accountant could only identify about 700 jobs that needed to be done, according to three project supervisors. Officials could not find any reason for the other 200 people to be there.</i><p>If they can’t get the costs down to the same range as the countries whose systems they envy, how can they compete?