WRT autowallahs there used to be a time when the Chennai ones were very decent and courteous. I remember regularly taking Auto from Anna nagar to Anna University (I know
) in the early 80's and the guy would always turn on the meter without question. Even though Anna university was essentially in the middle of a jungle back then and a fare back would be really really tough. Sardar Patel road used to be so empty back then you could sit in the middle and have lunch. Hard to believe now. Every street had its own autowallah and you could literally go down the street and call him from his house. Even in Anna nagar. This was a time autowallahs actually owned their vehicles and all. The same 2/3 auto would be at the same street corner every day.
Two things changed.
First in the late 80's there was a huge Petrol price increase. The politicians of the time thought that they would be cute and listening to complaints refused to raise the meter rates, their were several strikes but the rates stayed the same. It was a big deal at the time but we didn't fully understand the consequences. This was the first time the meter started becoming 'optional'. Many Autowallahs went bankrupt, hocked their vehicles, etc. For the first time you started seeing the vehicle day lease begin. The regular Autowallahs could not compete with the day lease guys. For the first time you started seeing lumpens and rural folk show up as Auto drivers.
Second the city changed. Everyone took the bus back then. There was a time everyone got a seat even in peak hour. I remember reading a report back then that the MTC operated 1.400 buses back then. Today with about 6 times more population there are bout 3,000 buses. There should be about 10,000 at least but the MTC is unprofitable and is unable to increase it fleet. Also the roads won't take it. The Autowallahs know this. There is no competition for them. There is a reason you don't hear as many complaints about the Delhi auto guys now. Mumbai always had the Railways system and their taxiwallahs knew it.
The city also grew bigger. A 30 Kmph auto is completely useless now. Back then a Auto trip took a maximum of 10 minutes. I remember going from Parrys corner to Kilpauk thru Purasawalkam in about 12 minutes. This was from one end of the city to the other, in fact this was the entire city back then. Now the same trip would take 45 minutes and you would not even have covered 1/3 the city. This is the essential problem, this is old, slow technology and should be phased out. It can never get faster and as a direct result it keeps getting disproportionately more expensive.
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This also why the Monorail is a joke. Compared to a metro it is a Auto in the sky. What foolishness. The first thing that struck me about the monorail trains I've been on is the poor ride quality. It is all well and dandy to talk about tight corners and increased grades but you simply can not take these at speed w/ passengers. To take even some medium corners the monorail must slow to 15 kmph or so! Fast jogging pace. Steeper grapes often require slowing to 10 kmph!
Because it is monorail, it cannot be banked as easily like metros at curves and the sideways force must be reduced mostly by slowing down. No one mentions this do they. A metro feels like silk compared to a monorail.
People keep claiming mono-rail is cheaper but it has never proved to be so in practice. In Mumbai the 19 km line is costing about 3,000 crore after cost escalations. About 150 Crore a km. A metro would have been 180 Crore per km and its capacity top end is 4 to 5 times higher. The only part of monorail that is cheaper is the viaduct. This is about 20% of the cost of the system.
- The stations all cost the same.
- The carriages all cost same, in fact monorail is more expensive as it has to be light weight hence expensive materials.
- The electric consumption per passenger is more for mono-rail as it is on rubber tires hence more friction.
- The foundations and columns all the cost pretty much the same.
- Maintenance is a lot more as the rubber tires have to be replaced constantly or they can explode in overload conditions. This has happened often.
- What happens in a break down. There you are suspended out there, no way to get down.
I get very tired of this feeder argument. What part of costs the same as Metro and costs more to maintain do people not understand. Also even at its maximum capacity a Metro system barely breaks even. How can a monorail with even 1/2 the capacity, and it is usually 1/4, be anything but a loss making hole. Almost every monorail built has gone bankrupt or served as a cautionary tale.
. They too have become choosy about the routes, and the final fare the trip will generate. 
