Why the High-Speed Rail Subsidy Could Approach $1,000 Per Passenger

Let’s strip this down to first principles and run the numbers.

1) Start with the real capital cost

The headline budget is often cited as around $90 billion.

But large infrastructure projects—especially rail projects—consistently run over budget. A conservative multiplier is about 1.7×.

$90B × 1.7 ≈ $153 billion

Round it: $150 billion total cost

2) Financing the project

Assume:

Interest rate: 3.4%

Amortization: 20 years

Annu…