Because the agents will be sitting on the floor with no booths to protect them.

(Not seriously, and I'm not sure if this is the joke Thtguy1289_NY intended)

Even if the money gets thrown out, congestion pricing means that drivers suffer as much for their being on the road as everyone else does. So long as drivers stay insulated while everyone else receives their poison, noise, and occasional grievous bodily injury, they'll just keep driving whether they need to or not.

IIRC escalators are a "buy American" problem. It doesn't make economic sense to build escalators completely in the US, so anyone with a choice imports the key equipment and this goes very smoothly. There isn't enough market for all-American escalators to sustain true factories. But government projects are legally required to source everything domestically, so parts get made in one-off metal shops. Then, when repairs are needed, everything's nonstandard and replacement parts can't just be ordered.

I don't think that's included in this number. We'll know how much that cost when we learn how long it takes to pay off the bonds.