![]() ![]() In addition to Hong Kong, the MTR Corporation runs individual subway lines in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen in China, two lines in the London Underground, and the entire Melbourne and Stockholm systems. ![]() Worldwide, these numbers are practically unheard of-the next highest urban ratio, Singapore, is a mere 125 percent. Most impressively, the farebox recovery ratio (the percentage of operational costs covered by fares) for the system was 185 percent, the world's highest. In 2012, the MTR produced revenue of 36 billion Hong Kong Dollars (about U.S $5 billion)-turning a profit of $2 billion in the process. Take Hong Kong for example: The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation, which manages the subway and bus systems on Hong Kong Island and, since 2006, in the northern part of Kowloon, is considered the gold standard for transit management worldwide. Is this problem intractable? Not exactly. And New York’s system is not unique: as in other cities, New York struggles to pay existing expenses and must go into debt to pay for upgrades, that is, without raising prices. Capital costs (system expansions, upgrades, and repairs) are an entirely different question, and require more state and federal grants as well as capital market bonds. And even still, ticket-sales still only funds part of the New York City subway system the city still relies on supplementary taxes and government grants to keep trains running, as fares only cover about 45 percent of the day-to-day operating costs. New Yorkers are famous for complaining about the city's subway: despite an ever-increasing rise in fares, service never seems to get any better. Passengers walk out of MTR railway carriage featuring Disney characters in the Sunny Bay station in Hong Kong.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |