Improving decision-making for major urban rail projects

This paper considers how ‘metros’ – projects that carry a mass ridership rapidly should be developed to deliver predictable success. These projects are particularly important because large cities that are not poor often turn to metros as the centre-piece of their sustainable development and because of their high opportunity cost. Yet often they do not deliver success and then confidence is undermined. The author, having spent his career developing metro projects in Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bogotá, Lahore, Budapest, China, London and Nottingham, became convinced that this was a major problem. Research was undertaken to identify what could be done to improve things – not theoretically but practically. This paper summarises the findings of the author’s PhD thesis of the same title. The research was based on case studies of nine newly-opened metros in Asia and the UK. An understanding was developed that appeared to explain the causes of poor success. Practical approaches were developed and a change agenda formulated that could improve success. This agenda appears to provide a resource for effecting improvements that is richer and more comprehensive than previous approaches.