On 29/06/06 14:16 +0000, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote: > On Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 07:23:07PM +0530, Devdas Bhagat wrote: > > Rishab, could we actually compare based on PPP (or as a fraction of > > income?) as well? At 750 INR for 60 km, it would actually be cheaper to > > drive (or go by bus). > > this depends on whether what we're comparing is service or capital > intensive. for service-intensive sectors, such as health, it makes sense > to compare based on PPP (as with the $ figures i provided in my mail on > healthcare). > > i guess that the cost of rail transport is at least for the first decade > or so capital-intensive. given reasonably free trade, capital costs are > the same worldwide, so purchasing-power is not a useful concept and market > exchange rates provide the best comparison. > Given equal capital costs, we can reduce costs to the consumer by a) Subsidies b) Amortising the fixed costs over a longer timespan
> the delhi metro, which is using pretty new technology, is expensive, and > the only reason tickets could cost much less than in seoul is massive > subsidies and/or much larger passenger volumes. > > (swiss - and european rail in general - transport prices are so high > because one of the attributes valued is frequency of service, which > typically means trains run empty most of the time. with fewer passengers, > each ticket must cost more. ) As I said earlier, two trains run at an interval of 3 minutes in peak hours on the Western line, and 6 minutes otherwise. Central line frequencies are similar. The CIA world factbook indicates that Switzerland has a population of ~ 7.8 million. Mumbai city proper has 12.5 (officially), the metropolitan region serviced by local trains is ~ 18.5 (or is the city proper now 18.5)? Mumbai's trains carry around 6 million people every day, a figure which I first find referenced around 2002. http://doesmumbaimatter.blogspot.com/2006/06/crush-hour.html http://www.bombayfirst.org/citymag/vol2no1/reflections.htm http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSARREGTOPTRANSPORT/Resources/UrbanTransportSectorStrategyNote.pdf Devdas Bhagat
