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EPISODE · Jul 30, 2025 · 1H 36M

US transit costs and how to tame them

from Volts · host David Roberts

I'm joined by Alon Levy of NYU's Transit Costs Project, whose work documents how expensive it is to build transit in the US relative to the rest of the world. We discuss how countries like Spain and Italy build cheaply by relying on in-house public expertise and standardized designs, while the Anglosphere is captured by a costly ideology of privatization. Levy explains how applying these lessons could make ambitious projects like high-speed rail in the Northeast not just possible but affordable. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jul 30, 2025

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US transit costs and how to tame them

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