Transport in London is shit

*maybe not if you use the northern line

And the Hammersmith&Shittyline.

It's surely more balanced to compare London with Tokyo, New York, Paris etc rather than Basildon, Letchworth, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Transport in London is LOTS better than transport in New York.

Basically, transport in London is far from shit.

*maybe not if you use the northern line

That's been my primary line for about 4 years now and I'm not complaining, it's fine.

International competitiveness studies highlight the expense of transport, crumbling infrastructure, and historic lack of investment as a negative factor in London's economic position.

Not, of course, that it's the government's responsibility nowadays.

That said, anyone who lives in London who DOESN'T buy a monthly travel card is either an asylum seeker or mad.

Public public public money money money is what is needs.

but i only really use buses and not even daily -- i reckon so far i am up on the deal by some way though given the fierceness w.which they are policin the bendies now this will probbly have to change :(

I still have trouble understanding why/how Virgin charge £75 return to Manchester (with other return options reaching over £400) when you can fly several times the distance for half the price. And why does it take twice as long coming back? Can trains not tilt southbound?

we all know you arrived here just a few days ago from Kabul. the game's up, sonny chief.

I don't know about the tube, but the rail companies apparently make over £100m profit a year in London, and the cost for providing staff is estimated to be between £2m to £4m a year.

I don't find them comfortable in the slightest. They seem much harder than the seats on most other buses * and, into the bargain, the poor suspension on those vehicles gives a very bumpy ride in my experience.

* the notable exceptions to this that I've found are a few of the buses used on the 341 route which have purple seats with ridiculously thin upholstery; but these are not to be confused with some others on the same route which also have purple seats but which are wonderfully comfortable.

Very true. Resolving as I did about 4 years ago not to travel on it any more was one of the best decisions I have ever made, in a number of ways.

Is this actually true? I'd always thought received wisdom said the exact opposite.

Public transport in London is good, but wasn't really designed to serve a city that's growing this fast - seems to be where all the problems stem from.

Oak - are you the person I think you are? Something rings familiar here.

*maybe not if you use the northern line

kings cross - south wimbledon, last thursday, circa midnight = 100 minutes

but yeah, mostly its good. 24 hour tubes would be nice.

outside london you can, you know, walk or cycle places.

you can do those things inside london too, you know.

Eh? How many people do you reckon they employ?

i cant see train travel getting much cheaper as a result of competition from air travel. maybe we should read my friends dissertation about rail/air competition for business travel between leeds and london. isnt the problem partly that franchising to an extent creates kinda flabby uncompetitive practice, where profits can be made in relative safety from predatory activity, if there isnt strong enough contractual arrnagements or tight enough regulation on the performance of the franchisee?

eg "we award you this contract but will continue to allow you to increase fares/reduce penalties for poor performance, and you can do this for the next 10 years" as opposed to "you have a guaranteed revenue stream for the next 10 years but oyu must ensure to do X Y Z and not do P Q and S"?

i dont really know anything about this anyways.

i guess in a sense i dont really compare london to other cities in europe so that gives me a warped sense of how good transport is in comparison to other UK CITIES (dear sirz, outside of london there are population sizes larger than Basildon, Letchworth, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy). but then again what other european cities are comparable? how does paris do? it might be hyperbole but what euro cities are comparable in terms of geograpohic spread, density of developemnt, population etc etc?

moscow was pretty awesome but they run everything on vodka there, or something. actually it was sort of shit outside the metro, but it depends what your criteria for "good public transport" are

When it comes to the 'after midnight' bit, in London that usually means walking through the rain then freezing at a bus stop for half an hour then sitting on a very slow nightbus full of nutters, or paying twenty-five quid to a random ex-convict with a 'taxi' who'll drive you home (eventually, after getting lost) while spouting reactionary nonsense at you the whole way. In New York there seem to be five yellow taxis waiting for you immediately at any time, they don't cost much, and with the grid system they don't get lost.

again, its hard not to laugh when you are subject to the whims of a properly deregulated market outside of london. First Groups bus fares went up 4 times in a year in s yorks, now its 1.50 a single on first buses. still 1.20/30 in london?

as for tube fares, what is expensive about a 2.50 tube fare? in comparison to previous prices? or are you assessing the cost of labour, infrastructure, distance travelled etc etc and concluding that it is overpriced?

-- ambrose (ambrosewhit...), February 14th, 2006.

what's expensive is, it's expensive! let someone else do the math. but yes 'distance travelled' being about 2-3 miles, it does seem out of proportion.

still 1.20/30 in london?

It's now £1.50. Considering that, what 4 years ago(?), local journeys were 70p, I'd say that is somewhat above the rate of inflation.

another factor to consider might be the *vast fucking profits* made by the operator too?

often it coincides with a 'hail and ride' section

ah yeah, the W4 is totally a "hail and ride" section, though there are specific (albeit unmarked) spots where the bus will stop, like the top of our road - it won't just stop if you wave at it/ring the bell outside your house. We are definitely not a "well-to-do suburb", tho.

if a stop serves more than one bus route then surely you always have to flag it to get on, otherwise it would be assumed you're waiting for a different bus.

Dinging the bell is one of the pleasures of bus travel.

Which tells you all you need to know about bus travel.

dinging the bell, sitting on the top deck and looking out, saying cheers to the driver when you get off (front door exit only) (make sure to catch their eye in the rear view mirror), rating the people sitting across or next to you...

bus is the most fun way to travel (if you're not in a hurry) imo. You get to look out the window! You get to stay out late!!

It's certainly miles better than the tube! Unfortunately I am in a hurry when I'm on a bus and not knowing if it'll take any time between 12 minutes to an hour to get to my work in the morning is a bit stressful.

Old-style Routemaster rope bell-pulls were the best, shame about the non-existent pushchair/wheelchair access mind but you could always have fun timing your rise to the feet / bell-pull combo. Yes I am old btw.

last night's Secrets of The London Undergound about West Ashfield station was fascinating, especially the custom signage, route mas etc

(route maps)

( pics here https://www.londonreconnections.com/2010/west-ashfield-part-1-models-great-and-small/ )

London Overground: New names for its six lines revealed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68296483

My line will now be there Weaver line. OK I guess. Maroon not my favourite colour. Lioness line" would have driven me nuts so glad I don't live in Watford.

New Overground line names: an exercise in turd-polishing from a Mayor seeking re-election.

Lioness line in honour of Women's World Cup losers.

I'm going to call it the Lionessless Lion

Gonna poll...

i'm pretty glad they've got names, "major delays on the overground" is of 0 use. The names themselves, eh. I'm on Windrush though, which is great.

Guys we've reached a new low (high?) in ridiculous station announcements:

"This is a special announcement. Football's coming home."

oh jesus

The jokes write themselves

Limebike have changed their bike unlocking noise to a commentator shouting "GOOAAAAAL" over a roaring crowd, it's both scary and annoying. Definitely a great idea to increase the chance of hearing a man scream while you walk through London.

The woman across from me at work keeps singing it's coming home but to the wrong tune. I am going crazy.

u+k: which tune is she singing it to?

iiiit's coming home, ba ba ba! good times never felt so good!

i'm amazed that i've not heard that cursed song once during this whole tournament, please don't jinx me now

― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Wednesday, 10 July 2024 22:18 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Felt charitable toward Eng after a nice perf in their SF.

This was a mistake

Never again.

Do the Spaniards have an equivalent song?

They haven't had to wait nearly 60 years to win a major trophy unlike the English.

u+k: which tune is she singing it to?

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, July 12, 2024 9:25 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nothing recognizable which is the weirdest part.

took elizabeth line for the first time on saturday.

farringdon to shepherds bush market. there's a direct train but i used the elizabeth line because it was new, farringdon to paddington. and then had to change to h&c line which seemed to involve walking from one corner of paddington to the diagonally opposite corner, above ground. is there a better way?

(was nice to see the real trains in PAD station proper, mostly GWR 80x class, but...)

You could always just stay on the h&c from Farringdon to SBM?

but new line!

yeah, anything i gained by it being fast from farringdon to paddington (just two intermediate stops, TCR, bond street) was lost during the interchange, at least the way i did it. all the signs did seem to suggest that i needed to tap out from elizabeth line to get to any of the other lines, as if that bit is entirely separate.

saturday night felt odd anyway, like i'd forgotten how to use the tube. used to go to the betsey quite frequently before lockdown but had to look up the route...

I took it Heathrow to Paddington last week as well, really nice experience & first time too.

Weirdly, the Piccadilly Line route to Heathrow is better for reaching Terminal 2 quickly than the Elizabeth Line - I took the latter a few weeks ago and noticed how much closer the Heathrow tube station exit is to the terminals.

Also it's about twice as expensive! I think TCR-->Heathrow cost me £13 last time I was in town? Outbloodyrageous, although possibly makes up for all the fares I dodged back in the 80s when you could get away with it.

for here for visibility, because the other thread is 11 years old

ATTENTION ILX LONDON BUS/TRANSPORT GEEKS: request for input/help!

Had a bus driver drive off from the stop just outside my work, when he could easily have let me on.

However the next stop is quite close and there was a bit of traffic, so I was able to catch the bus up... and he did the same again, despite me tapping, then hammering on the window.

Unfortunately for the cunt, the stop after that, though it's a bit of a jog is usually pretty busy, so I was able to reach the stop on time and join the back of the queue. So I was able to get on the bus and give the driver a hearty greeting of, "Awright, cunt?"

A heartwarming tale

I was crossing Holloway Road once clad in a Cardiacs t-shirt, and a bus driver idling his vehicle at the lights started waffling on to me about how great they are. You can't escape these people! He probably posts on here. Anyway they're not all miserable sociopaths, although I admit that around 90% of them probably are.

Love the utter contempt London bus drivers show for anyone who doesn't regularly take a London bus and tries to get off at the front instead of the middle.

The moral of my story is that if you're a bus driver and determined to act like an ignorant cunt then don't do it at rush hour in a route where the bus stops are within walking distance.

If I’m approaching a bus that would otherwise be about to depart, strategically placing myself in the bus lane and giving the driver a happy li’l wave as I walk slowly towards him is usually a winning strategy, capped off by ‘thanks for waiting!’ Particularly effective when catching southbound buses at Angel.

I got a strip torn off me once by a driver for walking in the bus lane. Honestly I think some of these guys would have no qualms about ploughing into you and breaking a bone or two but stopping short of death.

Never been yelled at for this. Usually hauling a ton of shopping whenever I need to use the bus lane trick.

If you're behind the bus you can simply roll under the wheels

I was crossing Holloway Road once clad in a Cardiacs t-shirt, and a bus driver idling his vehicle at the lights started waffling on to me about how great they are. You can't escape these people! He probably posts on here. Anyway they're not all miserable sociopaths, although I admit that around 90% of them probably are.

― unboxing helena (Matt #2), Thursday, 30 January 2025 17:57 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

WE'RE VERY NICE ACTUALLY

Yeah I’m very familiar with the bus stops at the Angel and the southbound one right by the station is so busy with traffic always I would never risk walking in front of the bus - there’s so many trying to move on that they can’t risk sudden stopping.

London buses increasingly getting like the Parisian metro, literally three seconds to leave the bus before the doors get shut again.

If I'm walking my daughter down the stairs to the exit on a double decker, bus driver always closes the exit doors two seconds before we reach them, never fails.