I often think the London transport system gets a worse rap than it deserves. You mention New York’s unlimited day ticket at $8 – an off peak (i.e. buy it after 9.30am) travel card for zones 1-2 in London is £5.60. Not exactly a massive difference…

That said, when I say London transport gets a worse rap than deserved, I really mean from regular commuters like myself – during the week the service is actually quite reliable. Weekends though (and Bank Holidays especially) it’s a joke. As a Londoner I get irritated with tourists milling about on the tube, but to be fair London transport does not make it easy for tourists at all. Aside from the weekend closures, everything is gear towards using an Oyster card, which requires a £3 deposit – an extra expenditure that makes sense for a Londoner, but is an extra burden for tourists. It can all be pretty confusing too I imagine.

That said, I was in Berlin recently – maybe I’m just a bit dumb, but the public transport system completely baffled me!

Report this comment

I would heartily invite you to try the Tokyo subway system in rush hour. I used to live and work in Japan and feel confident enough to recommend that you take a deep gulp of breath at each station whilst the man in the white gloves squeezes that last person onto the train. When you arrive, you can breath out, assuming you’re still breathing of course.
Because of the close proximity of bodies, there’s a good chance that some perv will have a rummage and there’s precious little you can do whilst the packed bodies keep you in one position for the next three minutes.
And should you have brought any luggage with you, well heaven help you, you’ll be lucky to see it again as it’s ripped from your grasp by a sea of people.

But, at least the people are polite.

Report this comment

I do agree with Ian – it is not that bad – especially if you know what you are doing and are fully conversant with the bus/tube/overground combo’s that will get you where you need to be. For visitors and tourists thought it is awlful and indicative of a strain of bloody minded British contempt for one of our biggest earners as a country.

Worst in the world though – you have to be joking! I can give you any muber of over-crowded third worl capitals or massive US cities where there is absolutely no public transport at all which all leave London for dust.

Report this comment

I think any subway system is confusing for tourists.

I have used Paris (smelly, massive, crowed and confusing) London (showing it’s age, crowed at pick times and under performs outside of main working hours.) Budapest (small and busy) New York (scary and confusing but cheap) Berlin (confusing) Singapore (very clean but to stuck to rules).

Bad public transport = none of them. There to many places with no public transport or it feels that way.

Report this comment

The Buenos Aires subway system is pretty bad. Often doesn’t work even during the slightest rain, constant repairs, and during the summer – kills you. The bus system is much better and that runs usually all night .

Report this comment

London’s public transport is a dream compared to Los Angeles, where the public transportation system is almost non-existent. Every try to get around in Rome? I’ll take London, with all it’s faults, thank you!

Report this comment

The New York Subway may have only been $8 for the day but did you look around you? Ghetto. New York has to have one of the most embarrassingly dilapidated subway systems in the world. I can’t think of the New York Subway without thinking of monotonous stations that all look exactly the same full of pools of stagnant water, peeling paint, dripping ceilings, rats, and a lingering stench of piss.

Report this comment

This is a no brainer. Sydney. Hands down. No one can compete. It’s old, it’s expensive, it always runs late, it’s filthy dirty and it’s dangerous, it’s chaos personified. After 13 years of the socialists neglecting it. I have just been on Buenos Aires, London, Sao Paulo, Cairo, New York, Bangkok and Tokyo within the last few months. You guys don’t know how lucky you are. Try Sydney and you’ll never complain again. ( Sorry, don’t try Sydney, I would be embarrassed )

Report this comment

Got to argue the toss with – LA’s public transport is brilliant! $5 a day all you can eat for metro and rapid buses and underground trains. All tourist sites, studios, schools, malls, sporting centres, cultural centres and commercial centres covered including the airport and beach. Frequency is great – well policed with generally helpful drivers making transfers, if required, a doddle.

Agree with though – any public transport is better than none – in most places anyway!!

Report this comment

Sorry – the list doesn’t like grammatical marks – I was disagreeing with “ro” and agreeing with “Nick” – be good …

Report this comment

I was just about to vote for Los Angeles having the absolute worst public transit system of any large city on the planet, and I had to chuckle when I read AD’s comment.

Since it takes about a day to travel the 16 km from the ocean at the West end of the massive sprawl called LA to downtown, which is roughly at the eastern edge of the metro area, in buses which are at the mercy of LA’s insufferable traffic congestion, you can understand why the day pass is only $5: it is worthless.

LA’s public transport system is so horribly inadequate for the demands that its populace and its massive geography place upon it that it is part and parcel the domain of the destitute, those who are so desperately poor that they must rely on this worthless transit system.

This is how pathetic LA’s public transit system is. It takes longer to travel 40 miles from Santa Monica at the beach to Pasadena in the east than it does to take a train from Brussels to Paris, a train from London to Oxford, a train from London to Paris, a subway from central London to any terminus outside London.

Let there be no mistake. The Los Angeles public transit system is the worst on the planet. How else can one explain why people gladly pay loans, petrol, maintenance and insurance costs to be stuck in traffic on streets so full of potholes that they look like the surface of the moon?

It’s because the public transit system is that bad!!!

Report this comment

Hi! I’ve travelled in over 175 countries on public transport (no, seriously – check out my website)… and the worst?

Not Guinea.
Not Congo.
Afghanistan doesn’t come close, neither does Iraq or Ethiopia.

Britain is pretty damn awful, I have to admit…

But…

The VERY WORST??

The GREYHOUND BUSES in the USA.

Honestly, I would rather spend a week crammed into a minibus with several goats driving down the wrong side of a motorway during the wet season in Nigeria than get on one of those abominations ever again. Dirty, overpriced, understaffed, late, uncomfortable and the staff treat you like a cross between a naughty school-child and something they’ve just scraped off their shoe.

The coaches in Latin America on the other hand are SUPERB – hosted, big seats, great films to watch (I got Leon, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Babel and Amelie – seriously!!

And the coaches in Turkey have FREE WiFi access!

Report this comment