Access to capacity: Public transport in urban India has miles to go

It has been pointed out that metro train networks are expensive and not ideal unless commuting distances are long

Where you are in India determines your ability to access public transport.

 

The median urban population share with easy access to low-capacity public transport is 20 percentage points higher for the top five states and union territories compared to the bottom five. The gap widens to more than 40 percentage points for high-capacity public transport, according to data from the government’s Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (2022-23).

 

Low-capacity public transport includes cars, buses and taxis and access is considered based on availability within a distance of 500 metre. High-capacity public transport includes trains, metros and ferries, with access based on availability within a distance of 1 kilometre.

 

Access to low-capacity public transport is 93.7 per cent nationwide. High-capacity public transport access is 41.6 per cent. This means that a majority of India’s urban population does not live within a kilometre of high-capacity public transport. The use of private vehicles tends to go up when public transport is absent. Indeed, a number of states with limited high-capacity public transportation have high car ownership as seen below.   

Cost considerations may play a role in the availability of high-capacity public transport.

 

While metro train networks have been built in several cities, it has been pointed out that they are expensive and not ideal unless commuting distances are long. A metro network can cost 30 times as much as a city bus system to set up, and ten times as much to operate.   

Finding the money for more public transport projects, whether bus or metro systems or others, means private sector partnerships may be crucial. India trails many other major economies in access to public transport. Around 93.3 per cent of Germany’s urban population had convenient access to public transport, based on the latest available United Nations statistics. It was 38.8 per cent in India at the time of the study. This puts the country at the bottom among large economies as well as emerging market peers.   

There are other benefits. The United Nations says shifting from cars to public transportation can cut yearly carbon emissions by more than 2 tonnes per individual.