old MBTA annual reports

Ooh, been looking for these.

GLX, projected to open in 1972, at a cost of $20 million, and to serve 32,300 riders!!!

Now it's later this decade, $1.3 billion, and about the same number of riders.

Sigh.
 
A quick look at the inflation calculator says in 2014 dollars, it would be roughly 110 million dollars. It is now 13 times that cost.

This does remind me of the ballooning cost to build anything these days. I just have to keep asking variations all boiling to "why can't we do now what we do back then?" All the explainations of we need to build nicers stations or some compliance or some NIMBY just doesn't satisfy. Simple because those factors still exist some form back then and when it is now costing 13 times more now and lacking ability to see the "costs" of building more cheaply, those answers doesn't seem enough.
 
I bet they probably were provisioning for asphalt strips instead of 8" platforms with fare gates, a mezzanine, and elevators. Also I think 2.9 miles is shorter than the current GLX, which I believe is about 4.5 route miles?

Also according to wikipedia, the projection for the new GLX is 52,500. My bad. It is high quality ROW and if Somerville follows thru on density plans, then great.

I'm guessing you used BLS inflation calculator to get 110m? I would be a bit wary of comparing infrastructure costs across decades like that. That's based on the CPI which is drawn from measuring the price of a basket of consumer goods. Building a subway is not really like buying a bottle of milk.

But your point does stand. Costs are out of control, and I don't know why.
 
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