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America’s Transit Exceptionalism

The rest of the world is building subways like crazy. The U.S. has pretty much given up.

Three quarters of global metro systems, from Sapporo to Santiago, operate “endless” open gangway trains that increase capacity onboard and allow passengers to spread out. Rome, Athens, Montreal, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paolo, Lagos, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Doha, Shanghai, Bangkok — these diverse cities are unified in their bet that transit is theway of the future. The city’s exceedingly modest transit expansion plans — a 1 mile extension of the Second Avenue Subway and a light rail line connecting Brooklyn and Queens — are effectively on hold following Governor Kathy Hochul’s cancellation of congestion pricing.

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