The subway is the fastest way to get around New York City, a fact that’s noted more than a few times in Tony Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” a bland retread of the 1974 heist flick of the same name. The subway system is the city’s circulatory system and so long as the trains keep running, the city remains alive. Messing with something so important by, say, hijacking a subway car full of people would typically invite a sense of urgency, but everyone in “Pelham,” from the city employees tasked with saving the day down to the hijackers themselves, move along as though it’s no big thing. It’s a fine attitude to have when dealing with a crisis, maybe, but it’s the kiss of death for what should be a taut summer thriller.

It’s a fitting project, then, for director Tony Scott, who most likely regards being described as “all flash and no substance” as a wicked compliment. “Pelham” tries to sex up the relatively un-sexy world of municipal transportation management, pitting train dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) against a train hijacker known only as Ryder (John Travolta). Stuck behind a desk in a high-tech command center, Garber is the only city employee Ryder will talk to during the hostage situation, which Ryder hopes to parlay into a $10 million ransom within the hour.

But as the pair wait for the New York bureaucratic machine to crank out the ransom money, “Pelham” slows to a crawl. The opportunity was ripe for some tense exchanges between Washington and Travolta, but since neither actor’s character is more than a sketch, their rapport never gets as deep or intense as it should. Brian Helgeland’s script goes to great lengths to give the two men some sort of common ground, saddling Garber with a subplot about taking bribes from a train manufacturer. It’s an unnecessary detail that detracts from the character and adds nothing but dead weight to what should be a lean script.

There’s a lot of dead weight that keeps “Pelham” from achieving the briskness it deserves. James Gandolfini is always great to watch on screen, but his turn as the city’s fussy, exasperated mayor is pointless, though amusing enough. John Turturro and Luis Guzman are also among the supporting cast, but they’re shuffled on and off screen so quickly that they barely stand out. All eyes should be on Washington and Travolta, but Scott continually shifts focus, darting from minor characters to overwrought chase scenes and so on, short circuiting any sort of real tension.

Part of the problem also may be Travolta, who’s just not all that great at being a bad guy. He’s more agitated than evil, and his facial hair, ugly neck tattoo and penchant for ending every sentence with “motherfucker” just don’t add up to any real menace. Later in “Pelham,” it’s revealed that Ryder is a disgraced Wall Street fund manager. While it’s tempting to think this is a sly commentary on our times (one can just picture Bernard Madoff stepping out of the clink with a self-made prison tattoo and an army of thugs), it really just makes Ryder all the more vanilla of a villain.

But that mild malevolence is matched well with Garber’s reluctant heroism, and as long as Washington remains behind his desk directing trains and negotiating with hijackers, his character is confident and strong. The film’s third act pushes him into the unlikely role of an action hero, commandeering cars, skulking down subway tunnels and packing heat, and it’s a change just as unbelievable as Ryder’s half-hearted villainy.

Lost somewhere in “Pelham” is an interesting story about the stultifying power and inefficiency of big city government. There’s a great moment late in the movie, when, after an attempt to get the ransom money from Brooklyn to Midtown ends in series of car accidents, the mayor asks his flunkies why they didn’t just use a helicopter to transport the cash. At this point, it’s not a question of whether Denzel Washington can save the day, but whether the city will get out of its own way long enough to prevent further disasters.

But in the end, ex-Wall Street goons and civil servants just don’t make for compelling players in life-or-death hostage dramas, even when they’re pushed to the brink and wrapped up in red tape. Scott tries mightily, but his usual overwrought, flashy camera work and an arbitrary sense of pacing don’t make “Pelham” as thrilling a ride as it should be.