Why everybody rides a two-wheeler or car in Chennai? Why not we go by Bus? I thought like this once. I decided to go to the office by bus. On the same day, with a blanched face, I decided not to choose the bus once again. With horrific traffic, speedy water lorries (How long will the ‘prosperous’ Tamilnadu run water lorries?), above all, the bus drivers disregard the passengers by not stopping at the bus stops – It is one among the worst.
One day, the chief of Hong Kong’s Metro – Mass Transit Railway (MTR) – was traveling on London’s tube. The journey stuttered like listening to music from a decade old audio cassette. It runs for sometime, then stops, then goes again. The WIFI was intermittent; finally it stopped working. Finally, there was an announcement that said, there was a signal failure. Later Hong Kong’s MTR won the crossrail project for London, which connects East and West.
MTR was known for its efficiency. MTR chief – who leads a train service that runs the trains at 2 minute intervals; who leads a train service which provides uninterrupted WIFI to all its users – might have compared the efficiencies of both systems. Could you imagine? A rail comes in 2 minutes interval. When I missed the first train, the next train arrived immediately. For someone, who waits at Chennai’s local railway station for 20 minutes or 30 minutes, it was a stunning scene. It is something, world train services can not deliver even today. In addition, the number of interchanges reduce the travel time considerably.
One more sequin that dazzle MTR is its earnings. Train companies are making losses. But MTR is making huge profit. But not by running the trains alone. It has a real estate business as well. Malls are built on top of train stations. The shops pay for rental, too. In addition, before building the station MTR used to buy land around the station, to generate revenue. In addition to Hong Kong’s railway, they won a project to run London’s crossrails. They have operations in China, Australia too. They wanted to work on Kuala Lumpur – Singapore metro project too.
In addition to MTR, they have trams and buses too. Passengers used to pull the rople to wield the ‘ding ding‘ bell, which became an important part of Hong Kong’s culture.
One more notable thing – to avoid chaotic traffic like Chennai – Government encourages people to take public transportation and discourages owning private vehicles.
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I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z 2022 with theme Yātum ūrē!
dwaraka 
Living in Lyon, France, I have realised how easy life is when you have the best public transport system in the world. The Metro, Tram and the bus service all run in tandem and are so efficient here. Needless to say then that we don’t need to have a car.
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Well said. A well planned public transport system will transform the place biz friendly. It will improve the physical and mental wellness too. Above all, public transports offer golden time for reading. Thank you for your visit. 🙏
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It is so important to be well connected through public transport. An interesting post!
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That’s exactly how I feel. We, Indians, don’t need to invent anything new. It is enough to implement the best of the world. We did our best in aadhaar based identity systems, UPI based money transfer and Bill Pay systems. We need a similar solution for transportation too. Thank you for your visit and comment. 🙏
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Oh yes, public transport is key to development. In Kerala, something called Krail, a plan to introduce a high-speed rail system is wreaking havoc due to the government’s highhandedness and technical glitches.
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I read about Krail. For a landscape like Kerala, trains are unavoidable. But high speed trains are making losses worldwide. I mentioned about how MTR is making money in this post. It is a lesson to be learnt by train companies. Hope the krail problem settles down and they arrive at a future-proof plan. Thank you for your visit and comment 🙏
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