Public transport is a farce in the UK and now it's offical

[The PIT]

Need I say more at least my feet work.

[Kastuvas]

You said it mate, I am taking a bloody bus everyday to college and i said to myself that when i get a car im not gonna take the damn bus for 10 years at least.

Everyday you have to fight to get on the bus once you get on it you are sqweezed like Mocarela cheez, and you have to lissen to swearing driver because he cant see a mirror. Because a bus is so full the driver deasnt stop at half the bustops, frustrated people are swearing on the driver and spitting on the windows, some dorks press emergency door open button while the bus is moving then people screaming STOP!!!! CLOSE THE DOOR !!! while almost falling of the bus.
Once some guy sneesed so hard that his boogies flew across 4 seats and the guy who received it nearly beaten crap out of him.
One time someone left a can of bear at the back of the bus where the engine behind the seats and when the bus was breaking the damn bear spiled on to my jacket, i was stincking like hell for a whole day.
I could write three pages of that kind personal anekdotes.
And Ken Livingston is encouraging people to leave their cars at home ant take the bus hahah makes me lough.

[Dr Mordrid]

The problem with mass transit in the US is that in order for it to be done across municipal boundaries it almost has to be public corporation, another word for a govt. agency with little or no accoutability.

As such it's bound to;

1. run a deficit in order to keep the fares low enough that anyone will use it

2. need taxpayer subsidies, most often hidden deep in the tax code and applied to all regardless of their use or non-use of the system

3. deliver poor quality service

4. be prone to strikes and other work stoppages

5. be more expensive than advertised in the approval process

6. be a target for criminals

A great example of how lousy our mass transit planners are is the Detroit People Mover. It was originally planned to be a regional system, but inter-government arguing and budget cuts limited it to a single circle circumnavigating the downtown area. As such the rider count is so low as to make it a financial disaster.

Then there was the PHYSICAL design. They put it so close to some buildings that when one was imploded it took out a whole section of track, shutting down the system for months.

Duhhh......

I'm sure some areas of Europe feel they have a good system, but I always wondered about the level of subsidies they require.

Dr. Mordrid

[The PIT]

In the early 80's Sheffield had one of the best Bus services in the country. Yes it was subsidised but it ran on time was frequant the bus time tables didn't alter the bus stops didn't move the busses didn't miss. Neither did you get clouds of blue fumes suffocating you.
Then along came Maggie and privatised it and it's been shit since.
It's cheaper and quicker to go by car if it's raining and if it's not raining only slightly slower to walk.

[Sasq]

Swing past and check out Tokyo's rail system.

The train is on time - exceptions are heavy snow, very vary rare mechanical failure or a suicide.

But then again when some trainstations here have 3 million commuters walking through them a day they need to be on the ball. (it also makes money )

Dan

[The PIT]

Huh try Trains from leeds most of them have been canceled or get canceled. They also reckon they won't be able to finnish the station mods.

[Sasq]

Don't get me wrong, in my home town in Oz, the public system is broken. Its just the contrast of being here where it is more convenient to catch a train then to drive to get just about anywhere that really makes me understand how bad the public transport in Adelaide is/was.

Dan

[Chris Blake]

I was forced to take a train from Derby to Chesterfield the other day. I got down to the station at 0755 to catch the 0807 train.

My girlfriend had done this journey a few weeks before that she'd told me the fare was £6 - £7 return, not bad I thought. Only thing was my girlfriend travelled in the afternoon not the morning. They charged me £10.80 because it was before 0930.

Then the bloody thing turned up 25 minutes late.

"Midland Mainline would like to apologise for the delay"

[DentyCracker]

You English guys. You should come out here for a month then you'd go back to the UK singing the praises of your transport system. LOL. I was in London at the beginning of this month and found it extremely easy to get around without spending too much money. Yes there are problems with the system but believe me it is not so bad as you think.

[The PIT]

Well our numb nuts council has decided to knock down our small central bus station and have a completly decentalised one. They still haven't realised why we've lost many of the major sporting venues and why business don't come to sheffield. They look at our complete lack of a reliable bus service packed roads and think they're better off elsewhere.

[Wombat]

Some places have good transportation in the US. NY and DC come to mind.

[RichL]

I dunno about you lot ooop North, but I've had to use the Trains/Tube around central London a fair bit recently (off-peak hours I must add)
I had to travel from one of my firms offices in Romford (East London) to an office in Puntey (South West London) via our branch outside Liverpool Street so I could pickup a laptop and router.
For £4.90 I travelled all the way there and back (including going back to Liverpool St for a cable when I realised I hadnt got it just as the tube left Aldgate )

The biggest complaint I had was that the Train companies dont have Tube maps inside their stations, and vice versa.

NB - For those of you unfamiliar with the London Underground it comprises a number of differently named services (aka 'lines') that run in many cases via the same stations. At several of the major Rail stations you can step off the train and onto the tube.
Sounds simple? Almost.
The tricky thing is that interchanging tube lines sometimes involves travelling some distance up and down escalators and moving walkways.

So when I found myself in Waterloo station with signs pointing to two different underground services in two different directions, and not being too sure which was the best one to catch to get to my destination (which involved another change of service), it suddenly dawned on me why you so often get a map of the London Underground printed in the back of your diary.

[Chris Blake]

On the occasions when I have to go to London I've found Public Transport (once you're in London) to be pretty good.

It's getting to London cheaply and on-time that's the bother. Last time I went down was about 2 months ago. The train was late and, as previous train had been cancelled, very crowded.

£96 this cost, bargain!

[The PIT]

Last time I was in London I had to wait thirty minutes for the tube.
Another time in Birmingham at 4.30 in the afternoon my mate was disgusted to discover he had to wait an hour plus for the next train to leeds. In the end he caught the same train as I did to sheffield and then caught the slow train to Leeds from there.

[DentyCracker]

4.90 for a one day Zone 1-6 travel pass. I had to travel from Whitechapel to Harrow and Manor House on a fairly regular basis when I was in London. You get to know which stations you don't need to even go up or downstairs but simply cross the platform to get your connection. Yes, you must have your tube maps, although I simply used the one in whitechapel to plan my journeys. (of course it helped that I was staying one minute's walk away from whitechapel tube station)