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How has London Transport been voted best one out of all of them?

plum

Posted by plum about 1 year ago
Last active about 1 year ago 37 responses

Wonders will never cease – apparently our huge, rickety and highly unreliable public transport system has been voted by ‘world travellers’ as the best in the world for the second year running, no less! I can’t imagine the sample was the best cross-section that could possibly have been achieved, given that it represents the outcome of a reader poll on a holiday website, but still. Also, I’m not sure taxis count as public transport but we’ll let that one pass.

Are they quite mad? Or do we actually have very little to complain about compared to other cities? Who would you vote for as having the best transport system?

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37 responses

Ian

I can’t say I’m particularly well travelled, but how many other cities have a tube station in the airport that can take you straight into the heart of things? I expect some tourists are basing much of their opinion on that simple fact alone.

Posted about 1 year ago by Ian

Morals

Compared to the New York subway the Tube is fucking awesome. You can go up and down town and ACROSS as well. Try doing that in Manhattan….

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

agox

From a traveller’s perspective it probably IS very good – there’s the Piccadilly Line link as mentioned above, plus remember that tourists are likely to take the tube at non-peak times, meandering happily from place to place rather than trying to get to a specific place at a specific time every single working day. They don’t really see the systemic flaws that we do

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

wenttomow

maybe it also has to do with the amount of tourists we get in London and therefore a percentage thing.

But saying that, the Paris Metro is great and i’m sure they also have their fair share of tourists.

Posted about 1 year ago by wenttomow

esotericbadger

S’true. The Tube / trains do have the fantastic advantage that they go pretty much everywhere in London, which very other few mass transits do. Most have an East West / North South axis and that’s pretty much it, whereas the Tube does a lot of filling in and where it doesn’t, buses do.

Travelling on weekdays between the rush hours is also relatively pleasant.

So – err… hurrah for TfL!

Posted about 1 year ago by esotericbadger

flippypremium

They think our underground system is ‘quaint’. Solely because it’s older than their mum.

Posted about 1 year ago by flippy

purpaboo

I vote for Glasgow – one tube, doughnut shaped.

Posted about 1 year ago by purpaboo

cobo04premium online

I agree with Morals – the NY system not good, I had a work client come across from NY on his first trip to the UK, I took him back to Heathrow on the tube, he praised the London tube as the cleanest and most efficient of any underground system he’d been on.

So yep – hurrah for TfL (never thought I’d say that!!).

As for the Glasgow tube – yeah, okay but doesn’t go almost everywhere like the London system. Then it is Glasgow and would you really want to go everywhere?? No offence to Glasgow, I have lived there and used the system (Shettleston/Garrowhill to Central for those who know the system). If you thought Saturday night on the London tube was an experience, use the Glasgow system on a Saturday night for a real experience.

Posted about 1 year ago by cobo04

ladyruskin

Have you been to New York?? Their public transport system is pretty poor IMO, although it IS open all night… It has improved over the years, but on my last visit it still felt decidely unsafe on the subway (and that was during the day!) and the fact that station entrances were flooded with puddles and/or vomit didn’t help much either…

Public transport in London has improved in the 10 years I have been here, tube stations are generally nice and clean, there are many more buses and with the advent of the Oyster card, I am sure it must no longer be at/near the top of the list when it comes to cost of travel. Just roll on pay-as-you-go on the train lines is all I can say.

Rush hour is not much of a pleasure, but perhaps the government need to look at encouraging more businesses to establish themselves outside of London, thus reducing the volume of people travelling in to our beloved city during the week.

Posted about 1 year ago by ladyruskin

Morals

Perhaps TfL could ban tourists from using the tube at peak times….... ;o)

Posted about 1 year ago by Morals

ellie

I was speaking to a couple of colleagues from Bangalore about this last night. They were laughing at Londoner’s even having the nerve to complain and bigged up our transport system no end. Then again they were comparing it to their horrific sounding road system. Told me that using their horns constantly is a normal part of the process to try and get by, we told them that would cause no end of road rage over here.

I think it’s the utter drudgery of the tubes in rush hour that finishes me off. Nearly an hour across London, and I still can’t get over how people virtually push you out of the way to stand in front to get on first. Must learn to not take it personally. But agree, tube line coverage is great.

Posted about 1 year ago by ellie

pottytimepremium online

About an hour… There’s a whole thread about that, isn’t there?

Posted about 1 year ago by pottytime

plum

Oh now look I made a post, went away for a bit and the bugger’s been approved with a different title. What I actually meant for it to say was the neutral, yet informative, ‘London Transport has been voted the best one out of all of them’, not the more negative sounding version that has appeared. We’ll gloss over the fact that it doesn’t even make sense. Tchah.

For the record I think we probably don’t have that much to complain about it’s just that we don’t really think about it when it works well so we remember the bad experiences all the more clearly. I stand by the huge and rickety though. Which probably explains the unreliable.

Posted about 1 year ago by plum

erica

Sorry this is slightly off-topic, but can I just add:

St John’s Wood is the only tube station without any of the letters in ‘mackerel’.

who would have thought??

Posted about 1 year ago by erica

iSleepDiagonal

I can’t say I’m particularly well travelled, but how many other cities have a tube station in the airport that can take you straight into the heart of things?

Vienna, in 15 minutes

Posted about 1 year ago by iSleepDiagonal

iSleepDiagonal

I vote for Glasgow – one tube, doughnut shaped

ring or filled?

Posted about 1 year ago by iSleepDiagonal

devilskitchen
I vote for Glasgow – one tube, doughnut shaped.

Ah, the Clockwork Orange. Obviously designed for the smaller Glaswegian…

Posted about 1 year ago by devilskitchen

mafalda_quino

I can’t say I’m particularly well travelled, but how many other cities have a tube station in the airport that can take you straight into the heart of things?

Barcelona, 25 mins, although technically it starts off as a train. Oh and Athens. It’s also so clean and fancy, I almost felt underdressed when I first used it.

Posted about 1 year ago by mafalda_quino

agox

What I love about the Barcelona Metro is the soothing classical music they pipe through. Oh – and the aircon. It seems like a wondrous marvel after the sweaty old Tube in midsummer

Posted about 1 year ago by agox

PrincessBride

It is quite easy to get around London on public transport, so maybe that’s what they mean. Pretty much anywhere touristy is on the tube, and I believe that tourists can even understand London buses these days too.

Oh, and you can get from Atlanta airport straight into the city on the underground too. If you happened to want to go there. And in Boston too.

Posted about 1 year ago by PrincessBride