3 ms·

The foresight came from the invisible hand of capitalism. Remember the NYC subway started as two competing private companies. They each strived to offer the b

by T-hawk 13y ago

The foresight came from the invisible hand of capitalism. Remember the NYC subway started as two competing private companies. They each strived to offer the best service to compete with each other, which included building tracks for express service. By contrast, modern-day government civil works projects serve political purposes first and foremost, with quality of service coming in somewhere lower on the list of considerations. Everybody's going to vote for a politician who brings transit to their neighborhood or business; nobody's going to flip that vote because the trains are slow.

rayiner 13y ago
No, the foresight came from the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners, organized pursuant to statute, which specified the route and the design of the IRT Subway (what is now the 1/2/3 and 4/5/6) and bid out the contracts for its construction and operation. The construction was paid for by the city, which issued bonds to finance the construction. The Manhattan BRT lines were also built under such contracts. The lines were leased out to the IRT and the BRT (both of which were in large part formed for the purpose of executing these contracts) for operation at a contractually fixed fare. So not quite the invisible hand. Today we'd call it a public private partnership, if we were feeling charitable, or maybe government-sponsored duopoly if we weren't. The closest modern analogy is probably the U.S. defense sector. The BRT and IRT were "competing" in the same way that Lockheed and Boeing "compete." The government figures out what to build, while private companies figure out how to build it, and the government foots the bill. I personally think it's an incredibly effective structure, but then again I think there is a place for oligopolies that are quasi-extensions of the government.

3 ms·

The foresight came from the invisible hand of capitalism. Remember the NYC subway started as two competing private companies. They each strived to offer the b

by T-hawk 13y ago

rayiner 13y ago
No, the foresight came from the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners, organized pursuant to statute, which specified the route and the design of the IRT Subway (what is now the 1/2/3 and 4/5/6) and bid out the contracts for its construction and operation. The construction was paid for by the city, which issued bonds to finance the construction. The Manhattan BRT lines were also built under such contracts. The lines were leased out to the IRT and the BRT (both of which were in large part formed for the purpose of executing these contracts) for operation at a contractually fixed fare. So not quite the invisible hand. Today we'd call it a public private partnership, if we were feeling charitable, or maybe government-sponsored duopoly if we weren't. The closest modern analogy is probably the U.S. defense sector. The BRT and IRT were "competing" in the same way that Lockheed and Boeing "compete." The government figures out what to build, while private companies figure out how to build it, and the government foots the bill. I personally think it's an incredibly effective structure, but then again I think there is a place for oligopolies that are quasi-extensions of the government.