London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
You do know the improvements in public transport are an integral part of Daniel Levy's master plan?tommers said:
london has the best public transport in the world, still!
- Thread starter bluestreak
- Start date
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
tommers said:bizarrely, I agree with LC.
People just like to moan, I reckon.
me too, word for word. funny old world innit. though i don't think it's improved that much. but not got worse!
tommers
Currently in investor / advisor mode.
bluestreak said:
I like oyster cards, and I like the fact that bus fares are 90p and I like the jubilee line.
And I like the congestion charge.
And I like having more buses.
And I like that, even if large sections of the tube line are shut for long periods, things are getting fixed that needed fixing.
Then again that's probably cos I cycle and don't use it every day.
London_Calling said:
Yep, London - and equally, I don't understand how anyone can use the London Underground on a regular basis, have tried using the underground in another city (or at least the ones I've tried: Hong Kong, Toronto, Berlin, Budapest, Brussels, Paris, and probably a few more I've forgotten), and still think the Tube's better in any way except historical interest!
Maybe it's a difference in lines - I reckon the Jubilee Line's usually pretty good, the Piccadilly, East London, Bakerloo, and Metropolitan Lines are adequate, and the Central, Victoria, Circle, and District Lines are pretty terrible. I find the Northern Line's the worst of the lot by a long ways - it was so crap it managed someone who planned to suicide bomb it but had to give up and get the bus instead!
Yeah, even I as someone who looks on London's public transport with awe ('cos I compare it with Bristol's 
) know that the Northern Line's shit.
It's an age thing. Britain was the first industrialised country in the world which means we got everything first. As a result it is now all knackered, clapped out and bloody hard to repair unlike all the countries that built this stuff later.
) know that the Northern Line's shit.It's an age thing. Britain was the first industrialised country in the world which means we got everything first. As a result it is now all knackered, clapped out and bloody hard to repair unlike all the countries that built this stuff later.
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
Yossarian said:
How many people live in those places compared to London?
The Tube's rail network must be longer than any other, older and used by more people. I don'y think it's fair to judge by your personal comfort.
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
DrRingDing said:
Alright, the metro in Paris shifts more people but still not significantly better than the Tube.
Plenty of people in Hong Kong, Berlin and Paris, and the other cities I've mentioned aren't exactly backwaters either!
Yes, the Tube has a lot of stations. Yes, a lot of people use it, and yes, it's very old - do any of those things make it the best in the world? I think some of those things, particularly the 'old' bit, contribute to it being the worst I've ever used! How could anyone expect a Metro network built in 1863 to be more efficient than one built in 1983?
Yes, the Tube has a lot of stations. Yes, a lot of people use it, and yes, it's very old - do any of those things make it the best in the world? I think some of those things, particularly the 'old' bit, contribute to it being the worst I've ever used! How could anyone expect a Metro network built in 1863 to be more efficient than one built in 1983?
Yossarian said:
you can't. the suburban rail networks in sydney, melbourne and perth are all way more reliable and more pleasant to use than london but they're practically brand new and in practically brand new cities compared to london.
but at least london has one. bristol's suburban railways are a complete joke when the tiniest investment could see them thrive.
tommers said:I also think London Transport has improved loads in the past 15 years.
People just like to moan, I reckon.
Madness
It's people not complaining enough that leads us to not getting modern transport in the UK.
With UK people traveling more and more, they're less and less likely to be hoodwinked that London has an acceptable transport system.
In any less-repressed country, the Victoria line would be a burnt out post-riot shell if it regularly pulled the stunt of no trains on a Monday morning during rush hour.
PieEye said:
Not true now you can get the temporary oyster card...
DrRingDing said:
i lived in paris and the metro never got as packed as the tube, not even as fifth as packed, even in the rush hours (although there doesn't seem to be a proper rush hour in paris).
Hong Kong on the other hand...
rich! said:
Yes. And you just pay a 3 quid deposit if you haven't got the means to pay online. I think it's a good system.
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
RenegadeDog said:
I like the tube being packed. I enjoy the juxtaposition of cold, impersonal londoners suddenly wedged inbetween peoples' armpits.
From one extreme of 'don't even look at me' to completely dropping all notions of 'personal space'.
Very interesting.
I suppose the tourists in the survey were only in London for a couple of weeks or less. They would have been going to well known tourist destinations which are well served by tubes and buses. They would not necessarily have to travel during the rush hour. They would not have to make the same journey every day in maximum crowds. Being on holiday they would be prepared to spend a bit of money to enjoy themselves.
Getting to work and back every day on time through the rush hour is a different prospect and would lead to different experiences. I have never had to commute in London to work but on a few occasions over the years have had to go in to London for a course starting at 9:00 am. On nearly every one of these days I found that the main line train into Euston was delayed or cancelled or I had to change my route on the tube because of problems. The tube part of the journey was horrific, hot and sweaty and standing room only and it made me wonder how people coped with doing it every day.
On weekends if I go into London for pleasure there are major cancellations, not just on Sunday when you expect it for maintenance but also on Saturdays. The Circle and Northern lines especially have been unreliable in the last two years.
Getting to work and back every day on time through the rush hour is a different prospect and would lead to different experiences. I have never had to commute in London to work but on a few occasions over the years have had to go in to London for a course starting at 9:00 am. On nearly every one of these days I found that the main line train into Euston was delayed or cancelled or I had to change my route on the tube because of problems. The tube part of the journey was horrific, hot and sweaty and standing room only and it made me wonder how people coped with doing it every day.
On weekends if I go into London for pleasure there are major cancellations, not just on Sunday when you expect it for maintenance but also on Saturdays. The Circle and Northern lines especially have been unreliable in the last two years.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
Singapore's pretty impressive except that you normally have to wait around 6 or 7 minutes for the tube which to a Londoner is a long time.
We got thrown off a bus the other day as well for going past our stop
We got thrown off a bus the other day as well for going past our stop
DrRingDing said:
I agree. I'm merely pointing out that the tube carries a substantially higher volume of people than the metro, and does a pretty good job of it, but why they can't figure out a way to air-condition it is beyond me.
The air in the tubes is constantly changing because the trains push the air in front of them and while simultaneously pulling air behind them down the air inlets to the tunnels. They can't put individual air conditioning in the trains themselves because the doors all open every two minutes or so. Effectively it is air conditioned (well changed) but not cooled unfortunately.
scifisam
deleted
bluestreak said:
Same here.
Berlin's public transport system isn't exactly perfect either - the subway doesn't stretch out nearly as far as London's, many of the stations are really dirty, and there are delays same as there are here. I guess it's good if it runs all night, but it didn't when I lived there ten years ago.
Paris's system is good. For a tiny area of Paris.
Rome has a surprisingly good system during the day, but I don't know about night-times.
I have no idea about the other systems mentioned on this thread as being superior to London, but I do have an image in my head of Tokyo commuters being stuffed onto the train by people employed specially to do that task!
Thora
Differently Ethical
The u-bahn doesn't go that far out, but the s-bahn does (all the way to Wannsee and Potsdam) and the coverage with trams in the east is really good. The stations are pretty clean ime, and the only trains I've ever noticed real delays on are the RER trains.scifisam said:
I think it’s also worth remembering if we’re talking about the tourist perspective, that London public transport is iconic in a way that no other public transport system is.
-The tube map
-London Taxis
-Routemaster buses
-the roundel symbol
-“Mind the Gap!”
What other city in the world are you as likely to return home from with a transport-based souvenir? (I’m going to ignore the model of a HK tram which is sat on my desk )
For the visitor or observant Londoner it’s full of surprises - in a few minutes you can be transported from Baker Street tube which is so evocative of a by-gone age it always make me expect that the next train to arrive is going to be steam powered…to Westminster, where you’d be forgiven for expecting to be embarking on interplanetary travel rather than two stops down the Jubilee. All this history and modernity somehow combined into one network which somehow just about works most of the time.
Add to that the buses, with the few Routemasters still representing surely one of THE most iconic forms of transport ever; taxi drivers setting the world to rights; the DLR where kids and big-kids can pretend to drive the train; beautiful examples of architecture from every modern era in the tube stations…
I’ll take Tokyo or HK for sheer efficiency, but London’s got soul, baby
-The tube map
-London Taxis
-Routemaster buses
-the roundel symbol
-“Mind the Gap!”
What other city in the world are you as likely to return home from with a transport-based souvenir? (I’m going to ignore the model of a HK tram which is sat on my desk
)For the visitor or observant Londoner it’s full of surprises - in a few minutes you can be transported from Baker Street tube which is so evocative of a by-gone age it always make me expect that the next train to arrive is going to be steam powered…to Westminster, where you’d be forgiven for expecting to be embarking on interplanetary travel rather than two stops down the Jubilee. All this history and modernity somehow combined into one network which somehow just about works most of the time.
Add to that the buses, with the few Routemasters still representing surely one of THE most iconic forms of transport ever; taxi drivers setting the world to rights; the DLR where kids and big-kids can pretend to drive the train; beautiful examples of architecture from every modern era in the tube stations…
I’ll take Tokyo or HK for sheer efficiency, but London’s got soul, baby
I would hardly call the area covered by the Metro 'tiny'. Paris is a much smaller city than London, and the metro covers an area which, in my estimation, is about the same size as the whole of zone one and two in London. For that I remember paying a mere 26 quid a month (for the 'Carte Orange')...
Also, it was very affordable to live within that zone in paris, so there was no need to live somewhere further out...
Also, it was very affordable to live within that zone in paris, so there was no need to live somewhere further out...
RenegadeDog said:
But London is 6 Zones! (not counting the really silly ones, somewhere in North West Outer Space). So haven't you just proved the point?
I have to use the metro once a month (mainly Line 4, always Saturday daytime), and it's always rammed, from Gare du Nord right down to Porte d'Orleans. Off peak, and rammed.
Yep, that is good. And I think there's some kind of mandatory subsidy thing - your employers have to pay your travel pass (can't quite remember the exact detail).
And as for Paris traffic... London is a joy in comparison.
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