Metro Rail and the City

There is overwhelming evidence to show that capital-intensive metro rail systems serve only a small proportion of the total trips in cities in developing countries such as India. Public-private partnerships have not been very successful, and the Delhi Metro, which is considered to be the most successful project despite falling far short of its projected number of users, enjoys numerous tax benefits not offered to the bus system, which carries at least five times more trips. Metro projects around the country are planned and implemented in isolation without any concern for feeder trips and other modes of transport. In short, the current regime seems to be biased towards the magnitude of capital required for construction of a metro system, rather than the magnitude of its benefits.