How Delhi Metro Can Curtail Crowding

On January 4, a picture of crowding in the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station went viral on Twitter. It was assumed that the reason would be the Delhi government odd-even road rationing policy, that had been implemented recently. The opponents of the policy posed the crowding as an argument against the government; the supporters on the contrary claimed the metro station in question was always crowded. Later, it turned out that the picture that went viral was actually an old picture carried in national daily Hindustan Times in 2014.

While a wrong picture was used to depict the situation, it is undeniable that many metro stations in Delhi are unbearably crowded during peak hours. Heavy crowding at times injures passenger, especially the elderly, children and the physically vulnerable.

Being a transit station, crowding at Rajiv Chowk during peak hours is inevitable. But, this is true of many other services, too. For example, more people are likely to visit restaurants or shopping malls at certain hours of the day. But, we do not find these places comparably crowded. The reason is that the price of services go up when there are more people bidding for it. There are, certainly, exceptions to this rule. But, generally, prices are highly dependent on demand and supply, eliminating long queues.

While the Delhi metro can eliminate crowding by raising the price of their services, for a low-income country such as India, this may not be feasible. Here are a few possible ways in which the Delhi metro can reduce crowding in transit stations and inside metro trains:

The Delhi metro can reduce the crowding inside metro trains by raising the length of metro trains. Reducing the crowding inside trains would reduce crowding in the transit stations, too, because there would be less people waiting to board a train in the metro stations. But, this would lead to certain other difficulties. For example, passengers will have to move from one train car to another to exist the trains, when it stops at transit stations. Moreover, when there is a need for more trains running through the tracks at peak hours, increasing the length of metro trains will leave less space for other vehicles. 

The Delhi metro can run double decker trains. This, of course, may take a long time, and would require great investment. 

The Delhi metro can extend the metro lines by building under and above ground. This, again, may take a long time and would require huge investment. But, Delhi is the second most populous city in the world where population is quickly growing. So, such investment seems to be necessary. Moreover, it is impossible to lower crowding in metro stations without either extending metro lines or by raising the travel cost. Even if the traveling charges are raised, it would still be the case that Delhi is underserved by public transportation networks. 

Urban planners often focus on extending the metro lines to the periphery and suburbs. But, they do not focus enough on increasing the frequency of the services, the capacity of the transit stations and the speed of train travel. Increasing the intensity in all these aspects is important, especially in transit stations like Rajiv Chowk. The Delhi metro can increase the capacity of transit stations by building underground and above ground, with more exist and entry points, reducing the crowding. 

One way to significantly reduce crowding could be privatising the Delhi metro, or at least allowing greater public-private partnership. Private players will be able to innovate and increase the reach of metro services, like how telecom players did. Private players will also be in a much better position to assess which metro route would be profitable and which would not be. Currently, off peak hours, many metro routes in Delhi are unable to cover the costs.