The cost of building and operating a new high speed rail line

What is the total cost of building, maintaining and operating a new high speed rail (HSR) line? Trying to answer this question is the main objective of this paper. To address it we will make an extensive use a database containing information about 166 actual HSR projects in 20 countries is analysed in detail. This database provides a rough guide about the typical cost structure of any HSR project and suggests tentative estimates for some representative unit values of those costs. This information, together with some additional values gathered from other sources allow us to perform a simple simulation exercise capable not only of providing an answer to the initial question, but also of offering insights on the relevance of some elements in determining the total costs of a HSR line