Comment by exidy
6 days ago
Singapore started building MRTs in 1982 and essentially never stopped. However "just build another line" is a bit glib when you're dealing with a city state of 6 million people on an island roughly 40km x 20km. There is a huge opportunity cost if land is misused or underused.
Well, at least we are putting our trains either on Pylons or underground. But you are right about opportunity costs nevertheless.
Also to add: building a high capacity line (say with 2x the capacity of the Circle Line) doesn't take 2x the land. There are obvious economies of scale.
Building two lower capacity lines has some diseconomies of scale, as the opportunity costs of the land use mount.