Submitted by Sean Harley, Aug 9, 2007 08:46

I lived in Tokyo for two years and never once experienced subway stoppages like this despite the annual pounding by taiphoons. The key difference in performance and cleanliness between the two systems can be attributed partly to age, the Tokyo system is 50 years old, and partly to bureacratic ineffeciency.

The good news is that you don't need to privatize the whole system to fix this problem. Tokyo has both government-owned lines and privately-owned lines. The government owned ones are driven by competition and comparison to make improvement and do maintenance.

Governor Spitzer's comments regarding his commitment to expand the system despite these problems sadly reflects the nature of bureaucracies to measure progress by growth alone. Instead of expanding the MTA's kingdom, the governor should lead a partial privatization of the system. Just as charter schools are demonstrating in the educational realm, a return to having some private subway lines would spur system-wide improvements in transportation for all New Yorkers.

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