When the first Light Rail was built in Seattle, the costs per mile was (and still is) outrageous as you indicate. It was not the actual construction costs that were the cause though. Every single municipality that LR passed through saw it as a chance to choke the goose that laid the golden egg. My favorite example because I dealt with them was Tukwila, they announced they would fight LR in court for decades unless money was handed over to the city for "infrastructure improvements." Light rail rehabilitated the Tukwila Fire Department to the tune of a little over 14 million dollars. Later they had to cough up even more. It is how life works now. It might be wrong, but it is the way things are. An interesting side note, Tukwila initially demanded a hyrail equipped ladder truck, something that has never been designed or even thought of. The "feasibility study itself was 1.1M. No apparatus company would even begin to design one for less that 40 million since the design costs and liability cost would be so extravagant. Later, they finally agreed to drop the demand. My crews climbed up and down stairs to do their work on the Tukwila Station. when TFD showed up the first time the demanded a manlift so they could get to the platform level to "inspect." At that time there was nothing to inspect except a lot of fresh concrete. Every person working the length of the project has stories like these.