California's high-speed rail has spent $126 billion and laid zero miles of track. HS2, the UK's high-speed rail project has been under construction since before the iPhone 6. Meanwhile SpaceX is launching rockets for a fraction of the cost of a NASA coffee break. The problem isn't that we can't build things. It's who's holding the shovel.
In this episode, Clive and Mark go transatlantic on the great infrastructure disaster of our time. Two countries. Two doomed rail projects. One disease: public sector procurement. Plus what California's housing crisis, Britain's planning paralysis, and the NASA vs SpaceX numbers tell us about incentives, accountability — and why nobody ever gets fired for a cost overrun.
They just get a committee.
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