The NYU Marron Transportation and Land-Use program team presents an overview of their Transit Costs Project and a deeper examination of their newest cases in Istanbul, Rome, Naples, Milan, and Turin, led by Elif Ensari and Marco Chitti and are moderated by The Atlantic staff writer Jerusalem Demsas. This webinar is a follow up to their first webinar on the Green Line Extension in Massachusetts and is an opportunity to examine how to build lower cost projects and what lessons there are for American transit agencies, policymakers, advocates, and citizens pushing for new projects.

Istanbul has been building new transit lines at a rapid rate over the last 35 years. In the process of building or managing the construction of more than 300 kms of rapid rail, officials and contractors have learned how to optimize tunneling operations, improve station designs, cultivate productive working relationships between the public and private sectors, integrate technology, and develop a robust local construction market. In Rome, Naples, Milan, and Turin, we see how high-level reforms requiring greater transparency filtered down to transit projects and transformed project delivery and management. In the process of curbing corruption and mismanagement, the case details how reference prices for unique transit related construction activities, high-quality public sector design and management, and cutting edge technology have reduced capital costs. In both Turkey and Italy, politics has been central to keeping costs low and the project pipeline flowing.