If you want to see integrated development, take a trip to any or all of the major Japanese cities. All functional, well designed - some of them are actually marvellous - something we can only dream of ever achieving here. 2 or 3 levels of rail stations, with a complex of 9 retail highrises. There was one building where the escalators for 9 or 10 floors were totally linear.
A lot of the property next to the stations is owned by the train operator. It seems crazy that we build trains and then hand away the added value to speculators instead of using that money to fund improvements.
The big difference is that all the train operators in Japan are also all privately owned and profitable to boot. Our transport are all government owned & we know they'd lose money on a lemonade stand.
@belindacardoso3274 I don't think you understand. The train operators aren't profitable because they are private. They are profitable because they own the land surrounding the stations.
If you want to see integrated development, take a trip to any or all of the major Japanese cities. All functional, well designed - some of them are actually marvellous - something we can only dream of ever achieving here. 2 or 3 levels of rail stations, with a complex of 9 retail highrises. There was one building where the escalators for 9 or 10 floors were totally linear.
A lot of the property next to the stations is owned by the train operator. It seems crazy that we build trains and then hand away the added value to speculators instead of using that money to fund improvements.
The big difference is that all the train operators in Japan are also all privately owned and profitable to boot. Our transport are all government owned & we know they'd lose money on a lemonade stand.
@belindacardoso3274 I don't think you understand. The train operators aren't profitable because they are private. They are profitable because they own the land surrounding the stations.