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London's Tube "best in Europe" 
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ProfessorF wrote:
For the cost per mile, it really should be the best in Europe, as it's certainly the most expensive.


Fact of the day:
The shortest tube journey you can make is Covent Garden to Leicester Square, at a cost of £4 per 250m, taking 45 seconds platform to platform.


Ah yes, but (using last August's prices), £5.50 for an all day central London (zone 1?) pass is exceedingly good value!


Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:35 pm
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The best I've ever used is the Paris Metro - cheaper & quicker than the tube.

How did they decide on the tube being number one?

*edit

Sorry - should have read the link before posting!

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Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:36 am
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Hmm, having used the tube in London and the underground systems in Frankfurt am Main, München (Munich) and Hamburg, I'm surprised.

The London Underground was always crowded and smelly and people jostling. having to queue up to get through the gates etc. and the seats always felt dirty.

The Frankfurt was clean and modern and very well maintained, cheap.

Munich was much the same. Even the older carriages were clean and didn't smell.

Probably the biggest thing I prefer about the German system is that the tickets are done on an honour system. There are no gates in and out of the underground, just large open doors to let people in and out quickly. There are ticket machines on the side of the corridors, where travellers can buy tickets. Once you have bought the ticket, you stamp it, which gives a date and station stamp (so you could buy 20 day tickets at one time, then stamp them when you actually use them).

Nobody checks you on or off of the train, nobody checks your ticket in the station. There are ticket inspectors on random trains, and if you are caught without a ticket, it is a €50 fine and a criminal record (if it is taken to court)...

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Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:28 am
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big_D wrote:
Hmm, having used the tube in London and the underground systems in Frankfurt am Main, München (Munich) and Hamburg, I'm surprised.

The London Underground was always crowded and smelly and people jostling. having to queue up to get through the gates etc. and the seats always felt dirty.

The Frankfurt was clean and modern and very well maintained, cheap.

Munich was much the same. Even the older carriages were clean and didn't smell.

Probably the biggest thing I prefer about the German system is that the tickets are done on an honour system. There are no gates in and out of the underground, just large open doors to let people in and out quickly. There are ticket machines on the side of the corridors, where travellers can buy tickets. Once you have bought the ticket, you stamp it, which gives a date and station stamp (so you could buy 20 day tickets at one time, then stamp them when you actually use them).

Nobody checks you on or off of the train, nobody checks your ticket in the station. There are ticket inspectors on random trains, and if you are caught without a ticket, it is a €50 fine and a criminal record (if it is taken to court)...



And if that was done here in London then no one would pay :)

Also we need the gates as it regulates the flow of people onto the platforms – without them they would get dangerously overcrowded at rush hour at the big mainline stations.

I have just looked up on Google on the Frankfurt u-Bahn
They have passenger numbers of around £75 million a year
Victoria Station (just one of the big 7 main commuter stations) has around 88 million a year

So its a total different scale of operation

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Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:22 am
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I was there a couple of weeks ago, I may not have visited every station, but certainly all the "main" (by which I mean "touristy") ones, in almost every one I would say, the platforms were quite clean and bright, the signs were well-maintained, the trains themselves we pretty clean, I wasn't afraid to sit down anywhere, the upholstery was quite clean and fresh looking, the floors were clean and there was minimal graffiti. The escalators all worked, so did the platform signage, the buskers were pretty entertaining (especially the guy playing "stairway to heaven" everytime we went through that station) there weren't huge queues for the ticket barriers and the staff were even helpful when my Misters ticket went all floopy.

Can't complain really, when I lived in Wilts, our local town bus system couldn't claim that kind of quality.

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Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:37 am
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