[cwhiz]

Call it whatever you like. The MTA spends $17 billion per year.

And we get rickety subway service and piss stained stations that make you feel as if you’ve traveled in time back to the 80s.

How much does Germany spend per year on rail?

[titzer]

I don't know which city would be most comparable to New York, but Germany recently announced 120+ a billion dollar investment in upgrading rail infrastructure nationwide[1].

The high-speed rail connnection between Berlin and Munich cost 10 billion Euro. Even then, it was criticized for being over budget. It travels at 200km/h+ and is over 600km long. I think that project is completely infeasible in the US, at any price. It seems like a bargain to me.

Of course, high-speed long-haul lines are a different thing than subways. I lived in Munich for several years and I can say firsthand, subways are magical. As an American, it's embarrassing we cannot dig holes. It's not because money.

[1] https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/infrastructure/...

[cwhiz]

That’s $125 billion over a decade. Less per year than the MTA spends on a single city.

You said it’s not a spending problem, but it sure seems like a spending problem, no?