TRANSIT PROBLEMS DEEPEN INEQUALITY: Whether you raise prices or cut services, deeper inequality is one of the first results. Berlin’s BVG and New York’s MTA are considering raising ticket prices, while Washington D.C.’s MTA has warned it may have to make $200 million worth of cuts to services, a move New York already made. That leaves authorities stuck between choices like raising fares, cutting services, or declaring bankruptcy. While you might think that low interest rates would make now a great time for transit authorities to borrow money, their credit ratings are facing downgrades, pushing up the cost of borrowing. And if there’s one thing riders hate more than expensive transit, it’s delayed or infrequent service. Systems like New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) face a similar problem, one compounded by a failure to sufficiently invest in modern infrastructure in recent decades. The International Association of Public Transport (UITP), based in Brussels, estimates that European mass transit agencies will collectively face a $45 billion fare shortfall in 2020 alone, leaving them “ literally fighting to survive,” according to a group of European transit CEOs. Lack of transit revenue often compounds those deficits. states could be out of pocket $434 billion in the three years between 20 if there’s no additional federal stimulus, Moody’s Analytics reports. But state and local governments also can’t subsidize transit if they’re broke. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TRANSIT AUTHORITIES LOCKED IN A DEATH SPIRAL: Big cities - the engines of global GDP - can’t fully recover without fully functioning transit. In Washington D.C., Toronto and New York’s MetroNorth systems, ridership is down 80 percent, as users revert to cars or stay home. While a majority of Americans told Morning Consult they have favorable views of public transit (64 percent) and passenger rail (65 percent), an increase from pre-pandemic levels, they’ve yet to vote with their feet. North American systems are faring the worst, thanks to the high rate of car ownership in the region and the fact that many schools and offices remain closed. Seoul metro ridership never fell by more than a third and construction to extend 11 of the network’s 23 lines continues.Įuropean capitals rank in the middle, with most recording around half their usual riders before the latest round of lockdowns. Stuart Green, a spokesperson for the Toronto Transit Commission, said his agency has had to add buses because of a surge in riders.Īmong train services, those in Shenzhen, China and Taipei, Taiwan were the first to bounce back to more than 80 percent of usual ridership by May. HOW BAD ARE THE RIDERSHIP LOSSES? Buses are doing much better than trains, partly thanks to the ability of riders to control the ventilation (windows). That trend risks stalling if transit systems drown in mounting pandemic-related financial losses, starved of riders and money. The great shift to city living has been among the biggest social structural changes of the last century: the majority of people worldwide now live in cities and towns. Seoul’s network has 728 stations, dwarfing New York City’s 472. When Global Translations first visited Beijing in 2003, during this century’s first pandemic (SARS), you could ride two and half subway lines. Transit systems also symbolize the vaulting progress of new and returning powers. Few today can imagine New York without the subway, Paris without the metro, or London without the Tube or its iconic red double-decker buses. Iconic transport maps of the world’s big cities are not only examples of great design (check out New York’s new live subway map), they also chart power, ambition and identity. GLOBAL TRANSIT SYSTEMS FACE A COVID RECKONING Listen to our deep dive into the topic on this week’s Global Translations podcast episode.Īnd see how we mapped the various (and often competing) national vaccine efforts here. Developing the vaccine is hard, but so is manufacturing billions of pharmaceutical-grade glass vials, rubber stoppers and packages, then keeping the vaccines cold - a particular challenge while distributing them across developing countries. NATIONAL NAVEL-GAZING: The next vaccine challenge is nationalism, explains Luiza Savage.
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