Major projects all seem to have the same problem. A huge cost overrun. On average this is according to a recent study more than 30%. This not only counts for major rail projects, but also for other megaprojects (all seems to have the same problems). Urban rail projects even more about 45% average. Bent Flyvbjerg did some nice studies about them and wrote a book about them:
Megaprojects and risk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the Netherlands most is financed by the federal government, will lower governments pay the rest. In case of a recent subway project: North/South Line which is under construction, the federal government is paying about 1,1 billion euro, and the city government originally 300 million euro but with the risk. Building started in 2003 and is now planned to open in 2015 (while 2011 was the original date). Costs for the city of Amsterdam has increased from 300 million to 900 million euro. The line itself is seen as very important for Amsterdam, because it not only connects new locations, but also solves the problem that the main station in Amsterdam reached it's capacity (railwise --> Amsterdam Zuid will be the 2nd main station in Amsterdam in the future), it runs along the most important local transport corridor, it connects many of the most important area's with each other or connects them with 1 transfer and it connects 1 part of Amsterdam to the rest of the city (Amsterdam North).
-------------------------------
thanks for the links.
that's coming close to what i am concerned about,
aside of other risk factors i wrote about in prior posts on the theme.
Mike
(30)
(578)
