[Reader-list] India better at subways than New York? It's true

[Shivam Vij]

  India better at subways than New York? It's true

  By Jeremy Carl
  [NY Daily News | 27 November 2004]
  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/256727p-219891c.html


When I moved to New Delhi, India's chaotic capital, I scarcely expected
to find a model for urban transit from which New York could learn.
But New Delhi's Metro Rail is just that: a great new system that makes
me reflect sadly on the glacial progress of New York's long-delayed
Second Ave. subway and the continuing public wars between the mayor and
transit officials.

New York is talking - again - about starting work on the 8-mile Second
Ave. line. It's budgeted at $17 billion and scheduled to take up to 16
years to complete. Given the MTA's history, the time and cost estimates
are undoubtedly low.

Meanwhile, India, a developing country with a per-capita income
approximately 1/13th of America's, is building a 21st-century system at
a fraction of that cost.

New Delhi started from scratch in 1998 and now has 13 miles of rail
line up and running. The system is due to grow to 40 miles by next
June, as workers complete their jobs three years ahead of schedule. The
cost of all this: $2.3 billion, a mere fraction of the Second Ave.
estimate. And the city plans to expand the network to 150 miles by
2021, about the time the Second Ave. subway might be ready.

How has New Delhi done it? Obviously, wages are phenomenally lower than
they are in New York. But that still doesn't begin to explain the cost
differences. And it certainly does not explain the difference in time
lines.

New Delhi's team is kept on schedule through the leadership of a
71-year-old engineer, E. Sreedharan, who is a legend in India for his
ability to finish complex projects ahead of time and under budget.

That's a lesson for New York: Leadership matters, and New York's
can't-do bureaucrats are in desperate need of some.

In contrast to Delhi's count-every-minute attitude, New York officials
have talked about a Second Ave. subway since the 1920s and actually
began building some sections more than 30 years ago. But the project
has plodded along, a victim of bureaucratic inertia, construction
kickbacks, intransigent unions and fund diversions.

By 1972, there had been at least four formal project delays. That's
when the city's Transit Authority put out a brochure titled, "The Line
That Almost Never Was." It still isn't.

New Delhi's experience shows that world-class public transport can come
to one of the world's largest cities - even one in a low-income,
developing country - ahead of schedule and under budget.

If New Delhi can do it, why can't New York?

Carl is a visiting fellow working on transportation policy at the
Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi.

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