In fact, most of the cost of train construction is not labor (except in the US). That's why the Egypt, China and India (low labor costs) aren't significantly cheaper than Spain or Korea (high labor costs).

https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comp...

If only I thought of this - then I might have cited a Spanish construction project in the very comment you replied to, so that no one could cluelessly bring up labor costs.

In any case, even if your claim were true, there is an easy solution. Import Indians to get the job done. The goal is fixing our crumbling infrastructure rather than union featherbedding, right?

To be fair, he mentioned Barcelona, which is not too different from America hopefully.

I'm going to see if I can google what a Swiss equivalent costs (pretty certain the Swiss should be more expensive than American workers).

Edit: the only metro in Switzerland is in Lausanne, and it cost SFr590 million ($472 million) for about 6 km (3.7 miles) and 14 stations.

Construction is probably much easier, but the American one still has some pretty brutal cost overruns.