[sustran] Re: Perceived railmarket in Asia + BRT in Europe

[Jonathan E. D. Richmond]

Developing countries like India can less afford the luxury
of squandering scarce resources on projects which will benefit the few.

It is very easy for you to say that "we deserve the same as others," but
you need to look at who the "we" is. Low income residents generally
benefit most from a well-managed bus system. Often the issue isn't even a
need for BRT, but a requirement for a sanely-managed regular bus service
that is operated according to industry good practices, is reliable, safe
and clean. Once that has been achieved, BRT can be added to that.

Those who call for costly metro rail are often the ones being elitist
unless they want to pay for it out of their own pocket, which is
never the case.

Resources are scarce. In India, they are less abundant than in the
developed world. Spend them wisely to benefit as many people as possible.

 --Jonathan






On Thu, 9 Feb 2006, Jain Alok wrote:

> " The problem is that the DMRC and its various domestic and foreign
> corporate backers are actually killing politically much more cost
> effective BRT proposals.  Per capita incomes in India remain under $500
> a year, annual per passenger capital and operating subsidies are several
> times the per capita income(it is impossible to know for sure as the
> books of the DMRC are a state secret it seems) is hard to justify in
> this economic context.  "
>
> I'm afraid this argument for justifying BRT for Delhi is elitist at the
> least. Are we trying to say that relatively poorer countries should
> build BRT whereas the richer countries can have Metro? I think any
> operating mode, as Eric points out, has its own merit and should be
> planned accordingly. In my opinion, Delhi should have both BRT and Metro
> depending on the corridor.
>
> Alok Jain
>
>
>
>
>
> "KCRC - Better connections; better services"
>
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-----
Jonathan Richmond
Visiting Scholar
Department of Urban Planning and Design
Graduate School of Design
Harvard University
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e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
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