1/26/2005 » Photos, Tech

Believe it!

When the New Delhi metro opened its very first underground route last month, I was so there. And judging by the Japanese guy banging away on his laptop, I wasn’t the only train tourist on their run.

Extra-wide cars, fully automated driverless trains, all-electronic fare gates with magnetic farecards and cool magnetic tokens, overhead electric wires that are safer than a third rail, floor-through layout so you can walk from one end to the other without opening doors, concrete blocks instead of inefficient individual railroad ties, straight tracks with no infernal squealing: this subway system has the finest in Indian, err, South Korean tech. The tracks are as suspiciously vacuum-clean as London’s, at least until the paan-wallahs get to them.

The above-ground routes are already in heavy use at a very reasonable 10 rupees per ride. In contrast, with only a few stops open, the underground routes still have a new, Disneyland monorail feel. The underground portion feels and sounds like the D.C. metro. It’s faster and wider than Boston’s, newer and more luxurious than New York’s. I timed the stops; it runs at a decent clip, just a tad slower than New York’s.

Its graphic design was clearly lifted from the London tube. They went with rails rather than rubber tires like the French (who have all kinds of weird, Brazil-like indigenous tech, like crisscrossing people transporter tubes and upside-down luggage carousels at the old De Gaulle terminal).

It even has those newfangled auntie traps called ‘escalators.’ My female cousin had to grab many an auntie by the arm and drag her onto the first step, both at the metro and at new malls throughout the country. If the salwar kameez caught or the nerve failed, a security guard would usually materialize and patiently stop the escalator so she could get on.

Update: Check out the Delhi metro discussion group.