"High-speed rail is working out in Europe about as well as it is here in America—that is, not great.
A new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA)—the E.U.'s spending watchdog—found that the continent's web of high-speed rail lines are "not a network, but an ineffective patchwork" that suffers from chronic cost overruns, delays, and poor performance."High-speed rail infrastructure is expensive, and is becoming more so," reads the report, noting that the average high-speed rail project cost €25 million per kilometer ($29 million) and that "cost overruns…and delays were the norm instead of the exception."
...Of the six currently operating lines examined in the ECA's report, trains were running on average at speeds of 45 percent of each line's design capacity.
...Had these European countries stuck to building or upgrading conventional rail lines, says the ECA, "costs involved could in fact have been far lower, with little or no impact on operations."
In four of the lines looked at in the ECA's report, transportation officials spent over €100 million ($116 million) for every minute of travel time saved..."
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