01154772

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2143-07

http://scholar.google.com...Wang&publication_year=2010

Detailed comparative analyses of New York City subways and four Southeast Asian transit systems revealed that Hong Kong’s subways are profitable because of high asset productivity resulting from a strategic “prudent commercial” design for high utilization and traffic density. Hong Kong subways also have a land-grant financing framework, a relatively high degree of commercial freedom, and relatively low overhead costs and asset replacement needs. Conversely, Singapore and Taipei, Taiwan, subways are operated by concessioned carriers (akin to New York’s historic Interborough Rapid Transit and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit) and are not profitable when government-provided initial capital construction funds are accounted for at typical government bond interest rates. Infrastructure ownership was separated to attract investors and allow government-controlled carriers to function as quasi-private entities. Network design choices with consequences for density and use explain the higher productivity in Asia. New York’s system was not designed for maximum capital and operating cost efficiency or productivity but to provide high coverage and service levels at lower traffic densities in a socially conscious and inclusive approach, whereas the Taiwan and Singapore governments made design decisions and chose governance structures that enabled higher productivity. Asian systems operate more reliably than New York’s 100-year-old subway because of modern design parameters, advanced technology, and different legal frameworks and management processes. State-of-good-repair issues that plagued 1970s New York have yet to surface in Asia. Direct comparisons in performance, profitability, and productivity should be avoided unless care is taken to analyze effects of governance, social contexts, design criteria, and reasons for their differences. Nonetheless, comparisons and benchmarking can yield valuable insights for operations improvement under prevailing local constraints.

01220095

10-0487

English

pp 48-58

2010

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309142908

Print

Figures (1) ; Photos (6) ; References (29) ; Tables (2)

Alternatives analysis; Productivity; Profitability; Subways

System performance

Hong Kong (China); Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); New York (New York); Singapore; Southeast Asia; Taipei (Taiwan)

Administration and Management; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 25 2010 10:15AM

• Anxiety-Based Formulation to Estimate Generalized Cost of Transit Travel Time
• Bikesharing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia: Past, Present, and Future
• Calculators to Estimate Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Public Transit Vehicles
• Comparing Public Transport Connectivity Measures of Major New Zealand Cities
• Defining a Primary Market and Estimating Demand for Major Bicycle-Sharing Program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Development of a Data-Processing Framework for Transit Performance Analysis
• Features That Affect Variability of Travel Time on Bus Rapid Transit Systems
• Global Positioning System Integrated with Personalized Real-Time Transit Information from Automatic Vehicle Location
• Identifying Causes of Performance Issues in Bus Schedule Adherence with Automatic Vehicle Location and Passenger Count Data
• Impact of Carsharing on Household Vehicle Holdings: Results from North American Shared-Use Vehicle Survey
• Influence of Platform Height, Door Width, and Fare Collection on Bus Dwell Time: Laboratory Evidence for Santiago de Chile
• Levels of Overcrowding in Bus System of Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Mitigating Excessive Idling of Transit Buses
• More Comfort, Shorter Travel Time, or Low Fares? Comparing Rail Transit Preferences of Commuters, Holiday and Leisure Travelers, Business Travelers, and Shoppers in Switzerland
• Public Transit Network Connectivity: Spatial-Based Performance Indicators
• Reliability Improvement in Short Headway Transit Services: Schedule- and Headway-Based Holding Strategies
• San Francisco to Silicon Valley, California, Instant Ridesharing with Transfer Hub
• Service Reliability Measurement Using Automated Fare Card Data: Application to the London Underground
• Transit Referenda and Funding Options: Bonds Versus Taxes
• What Determines Soft Costs in Major Public Transit Fixed Guideway Projects? Examining Four Decades of Experience