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[quote user="schlimm"] <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bullet-train-costs-0428-20110427,0,3868843.story">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bullet-train-costs-0428-20110427,0,3868843.story</a> Very expensive, but for "only" $8.9 bil. more, almost a 50% increase in speed. [/quote] Neither the site referenced nor the Midwest High Speed Rail webpage says whether the cost estimates for the mid-west high speed rail project includes the cost of financing.  Most estimates for HSR rail projects do not include financing.  In many instances the proponents don't appear to have thought about the issue and, therefore, don't know where they will get the money or under what terms it can be obtained.  This has been true for the California High Speed Rail Project. The U.S. Treasury Department's 30 year bond rate (April 28th) is 4.75%.  Assuming this rate could be obtained for the mid-west HSR project and further assuming that the financing is locked-in up front, the costs of the project including financing would be $156.4 billion to $139.7 billion or a spread of $16.6 billion.   The actual interest rate probably would be a weighted average of the rates from multiple sources. Getting a rate as low as the Treasury's long bond rate would be a challenge.  Moreover, it is unlikely that all of the financing would be organized up front.  Therefore, the actual rates, depending on when the bonds are sold, could be significantly higher than the historically low rates that exist today.
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