Delhi Subway
By ranabose10
@ranabose10 (10)
December 8, 2011 8:50am CST
I'm a big fan of public transportation, especially of trains and other things that go on rails.As such, I was completely blown away by the Delhi subway - it's probably one of the more modern underground systems in the world.Naturally, at least for me, it'll never compare to the beauty of the Moscow Metro or the complexity or awesomeness of the New York subway or London Underground.
The one word that always came to mind when I was in the Delhi subway was "dichotomy",probably the most overused word in my freshman "cultures-ideas-and-values" class. Yet it was perfectly applicable to the Delhi Subway: there may be crumbling buildings,dirt, poverty and destitution above ground, especially in the Chowry Bazaar/Chandni Chowk stations in the center of town, while down below you have perfectly modern trains running on schedule in immaculately clean stations.Another funny moment was that everyone coming into the station had to go through a metal detector and a bag search to prevent terrorism. I wonder how well that'd scale during rush hour in New York, or even Delhi for that matter.
Riding the subway in Delhi is also incredibly cheap - it's only 8 rupees to go from Rajiv Chowk (center of Connaught Place) to Chandni Chowk (near the Red Fort in the center of Old Delhi). Highly recommend the experience!
1 person likes this
2 responses
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
9 Dec 11
I hope to visit Delhi one day in the future. I am glad that it has a good subway train service. In the past I like using subway train service but now I have a disabled on I can only use it if it is wheelchair accessible. We traveled to Vancouver last year. There we came out of the airport and got on a monorail type train. We got off in the center and got on a wheelchair accessible bus to North Vancouver. I traveled to Cape Town with my disabled son when he was 20 months old. On that trip I was pregnant with my daughter. I liked the trains from Cape Town's Central Station to Simonstown. They were suburban trains with many local people on them. Years ago in Paris I enjoyed going on the metro trains. I have been on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transport which was very enjoyable, quick and easy. Countless times I have been on London Underground in my home country. Now I have a son in a wheelchair not all stations or lines would be accessible.
@dodoguy (1292)
• Australia
9 Dec 11
Hi ranabose10,
It sounds like you get around a bit.
Hopefully in the near future other local urban metrics will catch up with the quality of the Delhi subway.
I have difficulty just trying to imagine so many people living in India. Here in Australia, there's less than 1/50th of the people in India, and more than twice the land area.
I saw the subway in Washington DC about 20 years ago, and it was really something to see. Completely unmanned and automated. I suppose there were train drivers, but no ticket sellers or anything like that.
I'd expect the Delhi subway would probably outclass whatever subways exist here in Australia. There's a subway in Melbourne, but outside the CBD it just reverts back to normal above-ground rail links.