That may be so. I believe you. It just boggles the mind when, as somewhere in the article mentions that estimated costs are ~$260 million per mile.
And as you say, automation in track maintenance, repair and re-laying is highly automated and few people are needed, at least out on the tracks to do it. I’ve sat and watched them for years - amazing, replacing ties, rails and grinding and leveling in one pass of a couple-three ‘machine trains’. But, somebody has to ‘load the magazine’ so to speak.
I’d say a good portion of the $260 million will be going somewhere it doesn’t need to be.
No doubt Ol’Jer Brown and his cronies have in mind men lifting pickaxes and others turning jack, but that’s not what’s going to happen ~ there will, of course, be lawyers ~ thousands of lawyers!