Top all-time · #1991
Alon Levy
Personal blog · pedestrianobservations.wordpress.comeconomicspolitics
Alon Levy writes Pedestrian Observations, a personal blog at pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com about economics and politics. Since 2012, 40 different Hacker News readers have linked it 79 times, most often “US Rail Construction Costs”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
For Walkability and Good Transit, and Against Boondoggles and Pollution
Most-linked posts?
- US Rail Construction Costs10 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2015-03-31
- /2013/06/03/comparative-subway-construction-costs-revised/5 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2015-10-19
- A skeptical response to Musk's hyperloop5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-08-14
- HyperLoop: Loopy ideas are fine if you're an entreprenuer4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-08-13
- /category/transportation/construction-costs/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-03-24
- A Theory of Urban Zoning and Local Decision-Making2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-08-22
What Hacker News says?
Even in the Northeast, Amtrak's improvement plans are incredibly wasteful: http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/north...
Comment linking /2012/07/10/northeast-corridor-hsr-90-cheaper/
on “Hyperloop”Submitted A skeptical response to Musk's hyperloop as a story · 171 points
HN discussionThose Crossrail numbers give $0.2B/mile, including a lot of miles of track that aren't tunnels. After digging a bit I found this, which is a good summary: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... It seems that $1B/__km__ (not mile, you're right) is sadly par for the course in the US, and Crossrail passes that threshold too. Projects elsewhere are below that threshold though.
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “The Boring Company [video]”Submitted Hyperloop Freight is a Joke as a story · 114 points
HN discussion> The US has an extremely inefficient government fiscally. I saw this old blog post recently, supporting your assertion: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... Basically, underground rail construction in US costs much more per kilometer than in other countries, and people in the comment section claim that the same holds true for other types of infrastructure construction, like bridges and hi…
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “Amazon Dash Button”Submitted New York’s Subway Frequency Guidelines Are the Wrong Approach as a story · 77 points
HN discussionHere's a subway line in South Korea that was built for $100 million / km. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE87IPJqW4M Granted, it's not the most fair comparison, but the cost of subway construction in NY is abomination. https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r...
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)”Submitted Why Costs Matter as a story · 27 points
HN discussionTo get the same transit in the US, we'd need to spend 5-10x what Europeans/Asians/anyone else in the world spends. https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comp... In the US, public spending is generally a way to funnel money to cronies of the inner party (e.g. transit worker unions, construction unions, politically connected consultants). Various other interest groups - mainly NIMBY homeowners - will…
Comment linking /2013/06/03/comparative-subway-construction-costs-revised/
on “Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles”Submitted US Rail Construction Costs as a story · 9 points
HN discussionLabor conditions are actually not a major factor. Hardhats are pretty cheap. American construction costs are unique in the world. No other country is even in the same ballpark - this includes wealthy countries (Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy) with plenty of safety rules. Delhi's construction costs are typical, they are not exceptionally low. https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comp... https:/…
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “India has launched a 648MW solar power plant”Submitted Public Transit Unions as a story · 5 points
HN discussionLighting 3 billion on fire is still pretty bad no?!? I started having doubts about this project when I found out technicals were skeptical, but when the bombshell dropped that it would have cost half if SNCF built it on the I-5 corridor[1] I decided there's no way I could continue to support it. It's just a device for politicians to bring pork to their districts, and anyway at this point it seems doubtful that it wi…
Comment linking /2012/07/11/the-cahsr-sncf-bombshell/
on “Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August”Submitted HyperLoop: Loopy ideas are fine if you're an entreprenuer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttps://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/quic... $250 million for a water tunnel that goes 3km. It's simpler than a hyper loop tunnel. Also I'm not sure Crossrail is a good counter example. That's a 30 billion dollar project to go 73 miles. Saying the TBM cost $20 million is like quoting the cost of a truck without including the price of the driver or diesel fuel.
Comment linking /2012/04/20/quick-note-how-much-tunnels-really-cost/
on “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition”Submitted Loopy Ideas Are Fine, If You’re an Entrepreneur as a story · 4 points
HN discussionWe are talking at cross points. My, and I believe others, issue with the source you posted is that after stating that the actual central-valley land is cheap, it ignores the rights-of-way costs, which is where many believe a lot of the cost savings really are. It's hard to be definitive with the sources I've seen so far, because while they are all happy to post numbers for costs, few seem willing to break those down…
Comment linking /2012/03/13/table-of-train-weights/
on “Hyperloop is making progress”Submitted New York’s Subway Frequency Guidelines Are the Wrong Approach as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttp://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/loopy... Musk's viaduct costs, for instance, were 1/10th those of California's HSR. His premise is that he can decimate the HSR cost. Obviously that is a comparison that is relevant for LA-SF, but potentially not for Houston-Austin. Which I acknowledged upthread. As did the "many competent engineers" in this piece.
Comment linking /2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-are-fine-if-youre-an-entrepreneur/
on “Hyperloop is making progress”Submitted Excuses for High Construction Costs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSome write-ups and musings on this: [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-i... [2] http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/06/how-much-bang-... [3] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... [4] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comp... [5] http://theweek.com/articles/449646/why-expensive-build-bridg...
Comment linking /2013/06/03/comparative-subway-construction-costs-revised/
on “High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it”Submitted The Magic Train Triangle: Infrastructure-Timetable-Rolling Stock (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe Hyperloop, if it were possible, would have about three times the current capacity of the Acela. At an 80min round trip running 20hr a day that's 15 trips per pod per day. So we have 40x28x15 = 16,800 daily round trips. The Acela holds 360 people per train with 16 round trips per day. That's 360x16 = 5,760 daily round trips. A high-speed system with dedicated track could run more often, and you could use longer t…
Comment linking /2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-are-fine-if-youre-an-entrepreneur/
on “Hyperloop: Not so fast”Submitted I Almost Worked for Hyperloop One as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe FRA puts out a lot of stupid safety regulations that don't apply in Europe and which make high speed rail much more difficult. US trains have to be built like tanks in the theory that this will help them survive collisions with freight trains. The fast accelerating French trains can't be used on US rail without special permits. https://bikeeastbay.org/rail/fra.html And for various reasons rail construction in th…
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Becomes Reality as Agreements Secured in California”Submitted Amtrak Defrauds the Public on Gateway Benefits as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSadly, none of the stuff I've seen on Hyperloop addresses the civil engineering problems brought up by Alon Levy and others ( https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/loop... ). In short: - The Hyperloop paper doesn't mention how trains would cross San Francisco Bay, or include a cost estimate for doing so. A new bridge? A new tunnel? Both would add greatly to the $6 billion cost estimate. - That $6 b…
Comment linking /2013/08/13/loopy-ideas-are-fine-if-youre-an-entrepreneur/
on “Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Becomes Reality as Agreements Secured in California”Submitted A Theory of Urban Zoning and Local Decision-Making as a story · 1 points
HN discussionA couple factors (not exclusive): - Greater local control over government decision making. This cuts both ways, but there are a couple specific ways it makes transit projects hard to push through. First, it inserts lots of veto points into the process, which a determined minority can use to block the project. If the benefits are diffuse (a more transit accessible city), but the perceived costs are concentrated (they…
Comment linking /2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/
on “Where San Francisco Wants New Subway Lines”Submitted Plan B for High-Speed Rail as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
