MTA Purple Line on existing former B&O right of way now costing 9.5 Billion???

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I assume that just like the movie Indepence Day that the project is a front for Alien reserch and a backdoor to fund CIA pet projects. I have rode the Cresent bike trail many times in the 1990s and a single track light rail with passing sidings could have worked just fine and have been built for under 100 million dollers. But for 9 Billion MDOT could have bought the Burlington Northern and CSX railroad

[BEAUSABRE]

The problem is you think the object of the exercise is to transport passengers. Silly, lad. It's to line the pockets of the unions, contractors, consultants (out on the Left Coast, they've had to hire consultants to keep track of the consultants. I'm not making this up) and, doubtless, the politicians. That's the reason the New York City Second Avenue Subway is costing something like two and a half billion a mile.Even the New York Times, hardly an advocate of fiscal prudence, is appalled at the cost

"The New York Times dubbed the nearly completed East Side Access project in an article on costly labor and wasted resources the “Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth.” At $3.5 billion per mile, and the first phase of the Second Avenue at $2.5 billion per mile, are some of the costliest per-mile projects in the world."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html

 

[BaltACD]

Virtually any 'big' project in a metropolitian area will have half to two thirds of the total expenses in the project will end up being spent on handling and relocation of the various utilities that we 'don't see' when we look at the project.  Sewer (sanitary and storm water), Water, Steam, land lines, cable tv lines and on and on - utilities both above and below ground level.  And that doesn't include the need for bridges or tunnels along the route.  The cheap part of the project is the rail structure and the equipment to run on  the rails.

[Warren J]

I think a large part of the cost overrun of the Purple Line may be attributed to land acquisition and construction of the line from Silver Spring to New Carrollton and not the ROW of the Capital Crescent which is not as heavy a cost (except near the Bethesda terminal for tunnel widening).  Everything east of Silver Spring must be built from scratch on property that is not previously ROW; this includes fly-overs and ground level roadbed in more urbanized areas.  This plus the NIMBY stance of many neighborhoods has driven costs way up.