What is public transport like in your area?

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dol422
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What is public transport like in your area?

Post by dol422 »

To be honest, public transport is alright for me. It gets me to where I want to go. I live in a mid-sized town so buses are the main mode of transport. We do have a train station here, although I hardly every use that as I rarely go out of town (I do like trains a lot, though). I'd imagine in the bigger cities like London public transport would be messy, and it would take a while to get from A to B. This is pure speculation as I have never been there so I wouldn't know. It is a two-minute walk to my local bus stop, which runs once every hour (last year we underwent bus timetable changes). Before they changed, it would take my 40 minutes to get into town, now it takes 20. I would eventually like to have a car, but would prefer to use public transport for reasons I cannot explain, other than it would be quicker, and I can leave my home to go wherever I like without waiting an hour for the bus.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Gwyd »

Hello, I live in London. Public transport is great. Sure, it's a bit of a tangle in places, but it does the job well. I really live in the suburbs, but getting to/from the city centre from here only takes 20-30 minutes. Not only that, but the ticketing is integrated and easy: you don't have to think about it when you have an oyster/contactless card.
My local station is a 10 minute walk, and the local bus stop is about 2 minutes and I can be anywhere in London is less than 45 minutes: I love it.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Pyoro »

Munich here. Availability is pretty good, but the fare system needs some update to the 21st century - ie, "prepaid cards" that automatically deduct whatever the route you took cost instead of trying to figure out whether you need a ticket that covers stations, rings, zones; that's for back and forth or separate, whether it's worth to get a day ticket (and for which zone etc). Also, I guess subway reliability could be a bit better. Never had issues with the buses; don't really for trams.

Bit of a joke though that compared to ie Tokyo, x-times as larger and more busy and, hey, Japanese instead of easy German ... I still have a tougher time figuring it out over here (and I'm not surprised tourists are frequently completely lost or buy the wrong tickets - seriously, there's one that allows you to travel 4 stations. But not 4 subways stations, that's only 2, plus 2 per tram or bus. But you could go 4 by tram. Or bus. That's just ... too complex for something like this ^^; ).
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by GarryG »

The bus services where recently changed to what they reckon is a improved service.

Before I could get the one bus from where I live all the way into the city of Newcastle or I could get off the bus at Cardiff and catch a train the rest of the way.

Now this improved service .. it takes 2 buses to get to the city.

And if I want to get the train takes 2 buses, a train and another bus.

How's that for a better service.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by flp »

I am ambivalent regarding our public transport in the area i live here in germany.

The good thing is, that they improved the commuter train service over the last years with own tracks and a new station that i use daily, on the other hand, in april 2017 they introduced a 15 minutes schedule (before: every 30 min), but it is not a real 15 minutes schedule, it is a crippeld wannabe 15 min schedule. In reality, a train arrives for example at minute 30, the next at minute 40 and then the next at 00 minute. And they call this "15 minutes schedule".
The now additional train at x:40 doesn't help me, because it arrives at main station, at that the same time the other train i use leaves the station, so i had to wait 20 minutes for the next train... senseless.

Another thing i am annoyed of is that no one cares about the house roles or the terms of carriage. Smoking in train stations and on tracks is not allowed since 11 years, but no one cares. Or peolpe listening to music so loud that you can hear that in 4 seat rows distance.

The lack of ticket inspectors leads to the situation, that your ticket is controlled maybe once every two or three weeks which is ridiculous and helpes fare dodgers a lot.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Chrill »

Well I live in Stockholm. We have 100 metro stations, with ridership of about 900,000 journeys per day (in a city of 1.6 million people). So it's pretty neat for such a "small" city.

It's fairly expensive but you get what you pay for, with trains running through the night and buses too.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Dave »

Gwyd wrote:Hello, I live in London.
Same
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Train<In>Vain »

Dave wrote:
Gwyd wrote:Hello, I live in London.
Same
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Gwyd »

Indeed, would you care to expand on your experience of public transport there?
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Pilot »

So, I live in Manchester. The buses to the part of Manchester where I live are shockingly bad. Other than the Rochdale - Royton - Oldham - Ashton bus, which supposedly comes every 10 mins (it doesn't), the bus that I have to get into the city centre is every 30 minutes, except, it isn't, because it is never on time, which makes it difficult when trying to get to meetings. My nearest bus stop is about 30 seconds from my house too, which I guess is pretty decent.

Transport in the City Centre itself however, is pretty decent, what with the Metrolink tram system (which I could get myself if I walked 30 mins, but it takes longer and is also more expensive than the bus), which is usually extremely busy most of the day. Longer distance travel is pretty decent too, however, generally overcrowded (unsurprisingly in the UK). We do however have the dreaded Pacer's in Manchester, which I personally don't mind.

As for the public transport in London, I've never found it that difficult to use personally.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by YNM »

I guess I'll just quote myself.
YNM wrote:I mainly use motorcycles on my own. My further (intercity) travels are either using small "travel" minibusses or trains, there's regular busses but haven't use one. The farthest I've driven a motorcycle is only 20 km (12 mi), so distances outside that would need something else unless I want it. I do walk but it's a mountainous place ! I end up not using bikes because it's a terrible thing getting it up hills compared to walking.

Public transport where I live in is served largely by share taxis/ paratransits (yes I know what they refer for but I got no better comparison). Whilst in the past city I live in they are well known to be terribly slow and highly unpredictable, because of different driver attitudes and traffic condition here (and probably the shorther distance I have to cover in them) sometimes it's not different than using other car-based things (taxis or something like Uber which I haven't use yet). There's city busses but they're mainly from big terminals to other big terminals which is nowhere near or along where I live. The other thing is motorcycle taxis - they're not really public transport though. In the past conurbation I live in there's commuter trains and they're very useful and quite predictable, lately becoming quite frequent that it's close to just-turn-up service. Busses (sometimes with dedicated busways) are also available but tracking the lines and routes they serve get out of hands quickly ! Hence why I don't use them.

I do drive cars, but I don't have access to it for most of now. Have driven intercity on it though.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Redirect Left »

I currently live in Wakefield, which is a minor city in West Yorkshire, in northern England.

It's well serviced by both buses and trains, as well as taxis that appear to run on unicorn farts judging on the absurd cost of them.

There are two rail stations in the centre, Wakefield Westgate & Wakefield Kirkgate. Kirkgate is in a fairly run down area, and only sees around 0.6M passengers per year, whereas Westgate is generally the more convenient and much nicer station, and also has a much higher usage of around 2.5M per year.
There are trains frequently to the capital at Westgate, and infrequently at Kirkgate. Both stations have local stopping services, Kirkgate especially, but I personally just go to Westgate and into Leeds or Huddersfield for stopping services, rather than walk to Kirkgate and put up with that scrapyard. Westgate also has regular services to the north of England and into Scotland.

Wakefield Kirkgate has previous been visited by the Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis, who called it '"the worst medium-large station in Britain' - then proceeded to do nothing to rectify anything, nice secretary for nothing there.

The buses are fairly frequent, and go to all the major places you want to go, plus all the minor places you don't want to go, which is why typically bus journeys around here take about 50% longer than necessary. Apparently in West Yorkshire, the good of many, does not outweigh the good of the few, or the 1 in some cases. You of course still pay for the scenic route. The bus station is fairly poor, but you can get buses to places quite far afield such as Doncaster & Barnsley. There is a free bus (cleverly named FreeCityBus) between Wakefield Kirkgate, Westgate, the bus station and a few other parts of minor interest, however the route does a lot of backtracking to get from A to B.

Overall, I cannot recommend the public transport here, unless it is your only choice. This is mostly due to the ridiculous pricing of the bus, rail & taxis around here, and the large amount of services that are delayed, and buses that just don't feel like turning up some days.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by acs121 »

Chrill wrote:Well I live in Stockholm. We have 100 metro stations, with ridership of about 900,000 journeys per day (in a city of 1.6 million people). So it's pretty neat for such a "small" city.

It's fairly expensive but you get what you pay for, with trains running through the night and buses too.
Stockholm's not a town this small, but for a city of this size it's big.
Honestly transport in Paris is quite deceiving compared to some other towns. Just try to not be late when going to work ! Metros always have a problem, buses are very slow, and in suburbs, you have tramways - which is luckily very fast, but we don't have any tram running through Paris - Londoners too, you're going to say.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Pilot »

acs121 wrote:Honestly transport in Paris is quite deceiving compared to some other towns. Just try to not be late when going to work ! Metros always have a problem
I have a somewhat limited experience with the Paris Metro (mostly Line 4), as well as the RER myself. I must say, I was quite impressed by it.

Even on a strike day, they managed to run a decent service, and they also had free travel, due to air pollution I believe (16th December 2016). They got me to the airport on time, albeit to the wrong terminal and I had to get the CDGVAL to the correct one, but even so, can't really complain too much. Better than most services here in the UK when strike action is taking place.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by acs121 »

Pilot wrote:
acs121 wrote:Honestly transport in Paris is quite deceiving compared to some other towns. Just try to not be late when going to work ! Metros always have a problem
I have a somewhat limited experience with the Paris Metro (mostly Line 4), as well as the RER myself. I must say, I was quite impressed by it.

Even on a strike day, they managed to run a decent service, and they also had free travel, due to air pollution I believe (16th December 2016). They got me to the airport on time, albeit to the wrong terminal and I had to get the CDGVAL to the correct one, but even so, can't really complain too much. Better than most services here in the UK when strike action is taking place.
Wasn't a very big strike this day. I go to Nangis (precisely here) and not talking about the Metro trains are very slow. I think i complined too much on the Metro of course, but the RER (equivalent to S-Bahns) gives very bad service in some areas. If stations like Neuilly-Porte Maillot or Dourdan were to be in a OpenTTD game, their rating would be Very Poor or Poor.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Dave »

Gwyd wrote:Indeed, would you care to expand on your experience of public transport there?
No, specifically to spite Train in Vain.

(Does one need to explain public transport in London? It’s very googlable)
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by kamnet »

I currently live in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The public bus system here is pretty good, very affordable and mostly reliable. I do have a few buses that give some problems, mostly with being on-time. But the city is very walkable, so if there is one bus that I don't like there's another I can walk to within a matter of minutes.

There is a tram system, but it isn't terribly useful or reliable. It was mostly built as a tourist circulator in the downtown entertainment and dining district, people can park some distance away from the three stadiums on the Ohio River and make a stop off at one of many trendy restaurants, bars and pubs. But the trams have had some mechanical problems this year, they're only two years old. The city has been withholding payments to the manufacturer until the system has proven to be more reliable. But the daily operating costs are starting to irk some people, as the system isn't bringing in enough revenue to cover operations. Many people want to see the streetcars expanded so that more working class people can commute between home and work, but the costs are difficult and the city has many steep inclines that the tram simply won't be able to overcome. It would be a very disconnected network. There is also talk of still wanting to build a regional tram or commuter rail network between Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati and Cincinnati-Lexington, but just talk for the last several years.

No trains, because America is dumb. There are two quite capable airports in the region that work well. Of course there are taxis and ride share services, they're a bit expensive but not usually exorbitant, and you can usually get one within a few minutes at any time of the day or night. Although a few weeks ago I did bitterly complain when a heavy rain storm hit the city in the evening, the bus I was waiting on was unexpectedly cancelled for the day, and what would normally be a $6 ride home was surging to $36 because drivers did not want to get out into the horrible weather, creating a huge shortage. I spent four hours in wet, soggy clothes until the storm passed, I caught a cold, and then somehow ended up with a staph infection internally that has plagued me for the last few weeks. I was not happy.

There is both Greyhound and MegaBus USA service. Prices to major cities in the region (Indianapolis, Dayton, Columbus, Louisville and Lexington) are not bad, you can typically catch a one-way fare for $5-$15 on Greyhound, $1-10 on Megabus with direct non-stop routes around 2 hours.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by YNM »

Dave wrote:(Does one need to explain public transport in London? It’s very googlable)
Perhaps you could help explain what happens behind those cordoned off areas to the south of Camden ?
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Dave »

26fh0c.jpg
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On a serious note, anything that reduces vehicular movements in Zone 1 is a good thing, so I'd happily have them tear all the roads up.
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Re: What is public transport like in your area?

Post by Gwyd »

Dave wrote:
26fh0c.jpg
What part of London are you even from? South London isn't that bad... Saying that, I don't live there.
EDIT: Always read the bio... I can now fairly say the south of London isn't that bad, because I'm south of you
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