politically strong regions, internal expertise, lighter review/approval process, sane procurement processes, and simple designs

Good reference costs per mile for subways in different places Worth noting these are basically all tunneling it seems, not cut and cover

Governance structure is helpful: lots of power and taxation rests at the regional level (like states), and they have state capacity to deliver. So regional politicians will campaign on delivering this for the region, win, and actually do it (and people like it). The costs and benefits are less diffuse or diluted by being part of a much larger whole

Also review processes are way faster. A politician can promise a bunch of new stuff and deliver it 3.5 years later in time for the next election

They got informational (not consultative) community input. Even acted on it! For minor things like where the entrances and exits are. Nothing that increased costs

Environmental review is way more chill in Spain Example: 19 pages vs 17k in England

As part of building the high-speed railway HS2, the British built a kilometer-long tunnel to protect bats, at a cost of more than £100 million, despite there being no evidence that bats were at risk from the trains.

Ran tunneling machines 24/7 instead of half time like most places (bc people complain about noise)

Significant root cause for nyc's costs: decentralized power. Different entities approving vs paying, so demands for random expensive stuff had to be met lest they risk not getting approved

Spain focuses on function, not flair Stations simple, templated, and replicable Crews even got good at constructing the same thing many times