[fzeindl]

It is mostly within budget, estimated in 2005 were 5.5 billion €, total cost as of today are 5.9 billion €, the difference being largely attributed to the pandemic and later addition of sections.

[franciscop]

Sure, I'm just pointing out that this article doesn't follow the HN Guidelines, so I was confused at not seeing any mention of the budget within the article:

> "Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important."

> "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize"

[fzeindl]

Agreed, it was just important to me to point it out, since staying within such a massive budget on such a long timeline is a rare achievement.

[oniony]

To contrast, HS2 here in the UK has cost £40 billion (€45 billion) to date with a further £25 billion (€28 billion) allocated, for a largely superterranean route of 230km.

[stephen_g]

As badly as HS2 has been run, apart from the tunnel length (where HS2 has not too much more than this project) these projects are night and day different. Not just that HS2 Phase 1a/1b is almost double the length and significantly higher design speed (360km/h vs 250km/h), but they are in a different league in terms of civil engineering from the info I can see - this seems to have less than 80 structures (overpasses, bridges, underpasses etc.) whereas HS2 has 175 bridges and 52 viaducts, and some of those are massive (including the longest railway viaduct in the UK).

[zzbn00]

Would be interesting to read how the Austrian project was contracted out? It seems in the UK the big construction companies have got very good in extracting a lot of money from customers, wonder if things were different in Austria with this project.

[neerajk]

In contrast, the 2nd Ave Subway extension here in NY cost $4.5 billion for 2.9 km

[monster_truck]

7x longer for 11x the cost seems pretty good all things considered.

Always thought it seemed like a waste to not also dig out a bunch of storage while we're down there. I'm sure there are good reasons we don't

[chasd00]

> It is mostly within budget, estimated in 2005 were 5.5 billion €, total cost as of today are 5.9 billion €

That’s incredible! The project managers and contractors should collaborate on a book about how they did it. Heh staying on budget should be the norm and not the exception but irl a 20 year large infra project coming in that close is something to celebrate and learn from.

[gbil]

Is inflation included? Otherwise 5,5 billion in 2005 is >8billion in 2025.

[flawn]

Probably, else the sum wouldn't have worked out the way it did, if we are talking about 5.9€ million as of today.

[hopelite]

Started in 1998, apparently without a budget, which came 7 years later, and was completed within…mostly…budget, but not really since it was 7% over budget.

Which also begs the question; why is a railway project page on HN at all, regardless of anything else?

[hopelite]

Is anyone going to explain what justifies the down votes or is this just Reddit tier mobbing now?