People who live and work in modern urban environments are likely to rely heavily on underground public transportation to get around. Gridlocked roads have made underground transportation appealing for travelers and city planners for decades. In fact, this is why during the 20th century so much of mass transit rail system expansions in densely populated areas were placed underground rather than on elevated tracks as the most efficient and effective way to increase capacity for fast, efficient, safe transportation.
In a recent Alcatel-Lucent (News 
- Alert) TrackTalk e-zine article, “Going Underground,” Stuva CEO Roland Leucker said the prevailing philosophy of urban planners during the 20th century was that people should live aboveground and travel underground. This strategy continues today as augmented by the use of aboveground light rail.
Leuker starts with the compelling value proposition that, “Underground transport, particularly rail which has higher capacity than individual vehicles, is the most effective way to move thousands of people very quickly.” He noted that underground travel traditionally worked best in relatively small and densely populated urban areas. However, horizontal urban sprawl in places like Sao Paulo and Tokyo meant older tunnels could not handle the capacity needs. This is why in recent history aboveground transportation has been the fallback for service capacity expansion and for service extension... Read More
