Just before year end, the New York Times dropped a bombshell report on what they term “the most expensive mile of subway on earth.”
An extensive investigation by the Times finally starts to get at the heart of why construction costs on the New York subway are vastly higher than anywhere else in the world.
The inescapable conclusion is that a major culprit is industrial scale cronyism (or featherbedding, or corruption, or whatever you want to call it) infecting nearly every aspect of the system: employees, contractors, and consultants:
Here are some further highlighted excerpts.
Massive overstaffing driving by union contracts:
Contractors with incentives to drive up costs, with zero cost containment:
Lack of competition in bidding:
Massive overhead and soft costs:
The long-rumored “Parsons Brinckerhoff tax” and the revolving door:
Definitely click through to read the whole thing, which should be a strong contender for Pulitzer Prize this year.
This piece appeared at NewGeography
______________________
Aaron M. Renn is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in NewGeography