[sustran] Re: Negative thoughts on metro

J.H. Crawford joel at xs4all.nl
Tue Mar 14 05:01:43 JST 2000


Paula Negron Poblete said:

>Concerning J.H. Crawford's questions about Mexico city's metro, I have
>some answers. First of all, the cost. A ride costs  about 0.15 USD (1.5
>pesos), which is too low to allow to cover operating and adminnistrative
>costs (this costs are subsidized approximatively in 20%); 

Does this mean that full costs are $0.15 x 1.2 = $0.18 ?
Would just $0.18 per ride be sufficient to cover full costs? 
If so, that's well below the $1/ride that's been mentioned. 
Admittedly, this is a low-cost labor market, so operating 
costs are compartively low.

>but to rise
>this cost can be difficult, because a lot of people have a very low
>salary. In 1995, around 79% of the population of the Federal District
>(that's the main city) had an income between 1 and 3 minimums salaries
>(approx. 350 USD per month). 

That's understandable, given the very low wages of many people.
It's a wealth-distribution issue, because the subsidy money 
is already coming from somewhere.

>Another problems concerns the aportaion of
>the metro in total travelling; even if the metro allows to move a lot of
>people, many of traveling made by metro are connected to another mean of
>transport, primary the microbuses. 

Thus a case of Integrated Public Transport. The metro is the part needed 
to tie together the high-density nodes. Minibuses (or other low-capital-cost 
transport) feed the metro. This may be a near-optimum solution. I'm know
the problem is pollution, but if the private car were removed from the
streets of Mexico City, then pollution would fall and congestion would 
largely disappear.

>This situation makes that even if the
>metro carries more than 4 million people every day, the microbuses carry
>more than 16 million people! This is because the poorest people live in
>the periphery of the city, where there is no metro, so they have to use
>the microbuses.

Rail is not a suitable solution in low-density areas. I'm familiar with
the Indonesian Bemo, which provides excellent service in the less-densely
settled areas of Java and Bali. It's a similar solution, although it's
often very crowded by North American standards. Cheap, flexible, effective.

Thanks for the info on the fare.

Regards,



                                  ###

J.H. Crawford                                                 Carfree Cities
postmaster at carfree.com                                http://www.carfree.com



More information about the Sustran-discuss mailing list