Comment on What technological mega project is practical to build today?
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 1 year agoThere are ways. Maybe bring our number of aircraft carriers down to only 3x the rest of the world combined instead of 5x, just as an example.
Buelldozer@lemmy.today 1 year ago
I did the math on what a single coast to coast least possible distance link from D.C. to San Francisco would cost and it came out to 100 Billion dollars. It would connect no cities other than SF and DC unless they happen to fall directly on the rail line.
US Aircraft carriers cost around 10 Billion each (I’m averaging a bit here) and we only have 11 so we’d have to get rid of ALL of them to pay for a single coast to coast high speed rail link. Trying to connect “Every City in North America” would require cutting the entire military budget in half (all of it) and spending that on rail construction for probably at least the next 50 years straight and potentially a lot more.
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You’re only counting the build cost though, they cost anywhere from $1-2 billion a year to operate depending on which article you read. Considering an aircraft carrier’s service life is usually around 40 years, that’s quite a savings just from removing a single carrier group from the fleet. That would pay for anywhere from 50-80% of your estimate right there. I’m not discounting the 40-50 years of rail maintenance, but you would hope rail service could at least come close to breaking even by selling tickets. There’s no profit coming out of an aircraft carrier group, unless you’re the one selling them the supplies.