Watching videos of Tapei’s new Neihu MRT Line, I’m again fascinated by the way other cities manage to build functional (in the case of Taipei, outstanding) transit systems in a relative blink of an eye while here in Canada we continue to debate extensions to our subway lines for decades at a time.
Taipei’s new Neihu line is the seventh(!) line to be inaugurated since the system’s opening in 1996. This collection of news clips on the event is worth watching to appreciate the scale and quality of the system’s addition, but also to sample the garish graphic-yness of Taiwanese new and arch an eyebrow quizzically at the steak and beer contest that seems such a natural fit at the event.
In contrast, here in Toronto the last addition to the subway system was in 2002 when the ambitious five-station Sheppard subway was completed out at the edges of the system. And that after nearly two decades since the last expansion in a city of relentless growth and grinding traffic. Montreal’s story is similar if less extreme.
There are lots of arguments for why this is. Sadly none of them actually stand up to much scrutiny.