NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darym Woods.

In cities around the US, there are big plans for new public transit, California's dreaming

of high-speed rail, Austin's planning for a light rail system, and Seattle is extending

its bus and train lines.

And there is one thing that American public transit projects like these have in common,

super high construction costs.

And not just a little bit more expensive.

As an example, one recent subway project in Manhattan was 10 times more expensive than

in countries like Sweden or Italy.

So the other day I went to that really pricey subway project, 96th Street Station on

Second Avenue, to figure out what was behind these soaring price tags.

I waited for New York University professor Erica Goldman at the subway station.

Erica and his co-authors recently released a big report comparing different countries'

approaches to building transit.

Erica's saying, Eric arrived of course by subway.

We're going to have a great time touring, I guess, what, this must be like the sustained

chapel for urbanists.

Yeah, something like that.

How much does the station roughly cost?

$837 million.

All right, well let's figure out why it's so expensive.

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