While working on these previous Delhi Metro posts, I began to wonder how the metro compared with other systems around the world, and found a few pretty interesting resources that I thought I should share.
It turns out that a whole lot of cities (far more than I had previously thought, for example who knew Tehran had such an extensive system!) have some sort of metro system, and there are cities with systems growing much more rapidly than Delhi's (see Beijing and Shanghai), and with much more "modern" - or at least more glitzy - infrastructure (apart from those two Chinese examples also see Madrid). Not that this necessarily reflects badly on Delhi Metro - maybe it's just that their objectives are different to those of other systems.
All these expanding systems have matched or will soon match, and in some cases will soon supersede (in length and ridership) the existing "superstars" of metro systems such as the Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, Seoul and Mexico City systems.
Apart from the pages on individual metro systems linked to above, wikipedia also has some interesting lists such as:
List of metro systems and Metro systems by annual passenger rides.
Treehugger also has some fun stuff, such as slideshows of The world's 7 greatest subways, The world's most impressive subway maps, and subway systems from around the world drawn at the same scale (including Delhi Metro!).
And I couldn't not include this great slideshow of the World's best alternative subway maps!
There are a ton of other resources available online (and offline), but these are what I came across in the past few days!
Was on the DMRC website last weekend and was disappointed on the maps they have on line. it really sucks to see a cheap SOI map of Delhi with the metro lines and station names stuck on the map and scanned. If you know anyone in DMRC, please let them know that I will create a map for them pro-bono.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I know - the Delhi metro people do many things with a "no frills" policy, I think. Not sure if that's intentional or not! Maybe they need to hire an ad agency.
ReplyDeleteA few more points I would like to add
ReplyDelete(1) In Newyork the Metro Train started in 1869 (it was elevated). The first underground metro started in 1904.
(2) In paris the (underground) metro started in year 1900.
(3) Russia developed its metro network in 1930s.
We are clearly more than a century behind the developed countries. And even today we can not boast DMRC network as technological innovation, because most of the technology has been bought from Europe and Japan. What is even funnier is the fact that Indian Media projects DMRC as the greatest thing of 21st century in world, and keeps on publishing stories about India being one of the largest GDPs (in TOP 5) in world (which is just because of our very large population). If we look at GDP/Capita, then we are ranked 138th (in 2009) in world. Our govt, our leaders, our media wants us to remain frogs in a well. But thanks to the internet revolution, people are waking up to the realities.