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Subways of the world, to scale

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Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#31
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't trust a Houstonian to interpret SF transit! MUNI light rail, subways, and buses handle most shorter trips within SF -- so Metrorail is more comparable to a mix of MUNI plus BART. (It's possible for visitors to the bay area, or even residents of outlying suburbs, to almost completely overlook MUNI trains. I know when I lived in Berkeley, and took BART into SF, I had no appreciation of all the places MUNI went, e…

He said he's lived in both SF and DC, if you had bothered to read past the first sentence you'd know this..

I certainly did read the whole thing, hoping to find some acknowledgement of MUNI. (He finally gets to it in the separate comments page.)

He doesn't detail his living experience for SF, but for DC, it's one summer. As I noted, you can be a bay area resident for years and easily overlook SF MUNI, if you're not in the city proper and mostly ride BART.

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#32
It's not quite obvious what the point here is. Many of the cities listed (at least Amsterdam, Munich and Paris) have lightrail lines which can be used seamlessly from the subway. In the case of Amsterdam, the lightrail lines are what you'd actually use to move within the city.

On the larger scale, you get Paris' RER lines or Hamburg's S-Bahn and, for most European cities also a comprehensive train network that makes it possible to commute from larger cities that are as far away as 100km (e.g., from Maastricht, Den Haag or other Dutch cities to Amsterdam) - probably also for the (relatively large) Cologne/Düsseldorf area, which comprises as many people as Berlin, but has many local governments instead of one.

Not sure how to visualize this, though. (Ideally, you'd provide maps based on (i) actual scale, (ii) commute time, and (iii) commute cost.

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#33
post #29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, i was quite unimpressed by the London metro last time i visited. London is quite famous for its underground but due to it's age it seems to be extremely overcrowded. My experience on a weekend trip has been that the train did only stop every two stations because of so many people and it was just overcrowded. On the other hand this made me realize how good the Berlin system actually is.

London Underground trains always stop at every stop[1]. [1] actually not always, but with very rare exception. {EDIT: I'm getting downvoted so I think I misunderstood what you were saying. On rereading again I now think you were saying "unusually due to overcrowding the trains were missing out every other station". Previously, I thought you meant "unusually due to overcrowding the trains stopped as frequently as ever…

Well, out of two days i've visited London i had the pleasure to walk one station (and because of the elevator being overrun by people, i took the stairs.. the thing i've learned was that the London underground can be quite deep in the ground, it felt like kilometers :P ).

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#34
post #29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, i was quite unimpressed by the London metro last time i visited. London is quite famous for its underground but due to it's age it seems to be extremely overcrowded. My experience on a weekend trip has been that the train did only stop every two stations because of so many people and it was just overcrowded. On the other hand this made me realize how good the Berlin system actually is.

London Underground trains always stop at every stop[1]. [1] actually not always, but with very rare exception. {EDIT: I'm getting downvoted so I think I misunderstood what you were saying. On rereading again I now think you were saying "unusually due to overcrowding the trains were missing out every other station". Previously, I thought you meant "unusually due to overcrowding the trains stopped as frequently as ever…

Underground trains do (almost) always stop at every station on the line. I wonder whether the issue in this case was due to weekend closures - there are very often lines and stations which are closed at the weekend, either for maintenance or because they're mainly used by commuters.

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#35
post #33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London Underground trains always stop at every stop[1]. [1] actually not always, but with very rare exception. {EDIT: I'm getting downvoted so I think I misunderstood what you were saying. On rereading again I now think you were saying "unusually due to overcrowding the trains were missing out every other station". Previously, I thought you meant "unusually due to overcrowding the trains stopped as frequently as ever…

Well, out of two days i've visited London i had the pleasure to walk one station (and because of the elevator being overrun by people, i took the stairs.. the thing i've learned was that the London underground can be quite deep in the ground, it felt like kilometers :P ).

Taking the stairs is a mistake you only make once :)

There's a very strongly worded sign at Covent Garden station, telling people that it really is faster to wait for a lift. But I often see tourists making their way up the stairs.

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#37
post #33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London Underground trains always stop at every stop[1]. [1] actually not always, but with very rare exception. {EDIT: I'm getting downvoted so I think I misunderstood what you were saying. On rereading again I now think you were saying "unusually due to overcrowding the trains were missing out every other station". Previously, I thought you meant "unusually due to overcrowding the trains stopped as frequently as ever…

Well, out of two days i've visited London i had the pleasure to walk one station (and because of the elevator being overrun by people, i took the stairs.. the thing i've learned was that the London underground can be quite deep in the ground, it felt like kilometers :P ).

[deleted]

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#38
post #33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London Underground trains always stop at every stop[1]. [1] actually not always, but with very rare exception. {EDIT: I'm getting downvoted so I think I misunderstood what you were saying. On rereading again I now think you were saying "unusually due to overcrowding the trains were missing out every other station". Previously, I thought you meant "unusually due to overcrowding the trains stopped as frequently as ever…

Well, out of two days i've visited London i had the pleasure to walk one station (and because of the elevator being overrun by people, i took the stairs.. the thing i've learned was that the London underground can be quite deep in the ground, it felt like kilometers :P ).

I completely misunderstood what you were saying. Please see my edit.

Re: Subways of the world, to scale

#39
post #25
post #22

Interesting, I always thought London had the biggest underground network. As far as I know Glasgow is missing. Which city, do you think, has the best one? I've only been on the underground in London, Glasgow and Munich. And to me, London seems the best, you really don't need a car there (well at least in the centre).

Actually, i was quite unimpressed by the London metro last time i visited. London is quite famous for its underground but due to it's age it seems to be extremely overcrowded. My experience on a weekend trip has been that the train did only stop every two stations because of so many people and it was just overcrowded. On the other hand this made me realize how good the Berlin system actually is.

The other important thing to realise about London:

Use the buses. Really.

In most American cities, the bus network is just grim. In London, it's something everyone uses the whole time, so it has a budget, it's (relatively) clean, and it gets maintained. Very different deal.

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