What's the best public transit system you've experienced?

[marmar]

I've traveled a good bit in N. America and Europe, and here's my top 10:


1. Paris - The metro caresses the city like a snug glove, making the buses almost unnecessary (except late at night). Add in the RER to the 'burbs and a few light rail routes....C'est belle.

2. Berlin - U-Bahn, S-Bahn, buses, double-decker buses on the west-east route, trams in the former East Berlin...Impressive.

3. Toronto - No city's different modes of transit - subway, streetcars, light rail and buses - mesh together as well as in Toronto. And it works like a Swiss watch.

4. Amsterdam - I love, love, love the trams! Plus the Dutch train system is excellent, and buses and the metro go where the trams don't.

5. London - The Tube has its problems sometimes, but taken with the extensive bus routes and the Docklands Light Rail, it's pretty good. On the downside, the Tube is on the expensive side.

6. Washington DC - The Metro is a joy to ride and kept in great shape. Good bus routes too, but I'm not crazy about the separate fare systems. (You can't use the all-day Metro pass on the buses, and you have to pay for a metro-to-bus transfer. Such is life.)

7. Frankfurt - All the big German cities seem to have great transportation systems, including Frankfurt. S-bahn suburban trains, the U-Bahn subway in the city, plus trams and buses.

8. Madrid - A great, fast, efficient, extensive Metro. I didn't need to ride a bus.

9. San Francisco - San Franciscans are always complaining about it, but I think MUNI is great and super inexpensive. The trams, underground trams and buses (even with the characters who always seem to board the Haight Ashbury bus) are fine. And BART speeds to the rest of the Bay Area.

10. New York - Great north-south subway service on the west side of Manhattan, but in need of another east side line. Adequate to the outer boroughs. And riding a bus in NYC is nothing but an exercise in frustration - you'd move faster crawling.

[nxylas]

1. I've not traveled as extensively as you

London's is pretty good, and I understand it's got a lot better in the last few years, thanks to Ken Livingstone's pro-public transportation policies. Athens (the one in Greece, not the one in Georgia) has also had a major boost to its transportation system thanks to money from the Olympics.

I once read a magazine article naming Stockholm as the city with the best public transportation in the world. The network is dense, frequent and it's very easy to switch between different modes of transportation, with bus stops actually on the platforms of rail and metro stations.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Tokyo--no contest

A transit system broadly outlined by the heavy rail Yamanote Line (which circles the central city), the Chuo Line (which runs from Tokyo Central Station, intersects the Yamanote, and runs out to the western suburbs), the Sobu Line, which branches off from the Chuo to run to the eastern suburbs, and the Keihin Line, which runs southwest to Yokohama.

Thirteen subway lines intersect these three rail lines at key stations and run pretty far into the suburbs in all directions, sometimes turning into surface trains. Unlike London's Tube, the Tokyo subway is clean, well-lit, and almost always on time.

In addition, there are numerous private rail lines that start in major department stores and run out to the suburbs in all directions. (They were started by the department stores and partly financed by selling the land along the tracks.)

If that system doesn't get you where you're going, there are buses running among every conceivable combination of stations.

As of my last trip (November 2007), the JR (national railroad, which runs the heavy rail lines), the subway, the buses, and the private rail lines had gotten together on a common debit card similar to London's Oyster Card. This eliminates what used to be the one inconvenient part of the system, having to buy new tickets for interline transfers. As with the Oyster Card, you just touch the card to the turnstile pad, and as long as you have money left, you can just walk through.

Every transit geek should treat himself/herself to a trip to Tokyo. (BTW, prices in Tokyo are much lower than those in London, and you can go lower in price without endangering your health or safety.)

[nxylas]

3. I've got to give the London Underground credit for improvement

I've never been to Tokyo, so I can't say that it's as clean as their subways, but it's certainly gotten a lot less filthy these last few years. Travelling by tube is no longer the dispiriting experience it was when I was younger, with its old, dirty trains and mouse-infested stations.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. The London Underground is pretty good, but

I'd take off points for its expense. If you don't use an Oyster Card, a single ride is now £4!

In Tokyo, rides are priced by distance (the turnstile does the calculations), starting at ¥160 (about $1.50) for the shortest distances.

One of the longer rides in the metropolitan area, from Tokyo (Central) Station to the outer suburb of Hachioji takes a little over an hour and costs ¥780.

On my first trip to the UK in 2006, I had a BritRail Pass and rode the Heathrow Express to Paddington to catch the train where I would meet up with my tour group, but the price is outrageous even by British standards: £13 for a 15-minute ride, with first class being even more. On my second trip, I didn't have a BritRail Pass, so I took the Tube.

In contrast, you can ride the 60km between Narita Airport and Tokyo Station for only ¥3,000 ($28.30). There is a commuter route that goes to the northern part of Tokyo for only ¥1,000.

[nxylas]

5. British railways are a good argument against the free-market fundamentalists

Since privatization, prices have skyrocketed, while services have declined. London has escaped the worst of it thanks to Mayor Livingstone having the public support and the political will to stand up to the privateers, and to keep London's transportation system under as much public control as national and EU law allows.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. The pricing on British railways is insane

It's as shifty and unpredictable, exactly like airline pricing.

On my last trip, passport foul-ups caused me to delay my trip to a professional conference in Bath by two days. My plan had been to play in London for two days and then go to Bath, but I ended up arriving at Heathrow on the morning of the conference. Unlike the previous trip, I hadn't bought a BritRail pass, because I wasn't sure that I'd be able to go at all.

If I had bought my ticket to Bath two days in advance, as planned, it would have cost £9.50. Since I had to buy a same-day ticket, it cost £47.00. :wtf:

My advice for travelers to the UK, therefore, is that you should buy a BritRail Pass if you're going to do any inter-city travel. If you're not going to travel a lot (say, just a couple of days out of a long stay), you can buy passes that give you any four days in two months or any eight days in two months.