Why do Londoners hate The Tube?
Mar 6th, 2003, 01:20 PM
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Why do Londoners hate The Tube?
When in London I've heard and read about how people hate taking The Tube. I can't imagine driving in London and wonder why anyone wouldn't like the convenience(IMO) of using the underground. I would love to hear any comments.
Mar 6th, 2003, 02:30 PM
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As an American here I can say---<BR><BR>The tube is a very old system, with many lines quite deep underground. Frequently have very long walk up down many staircases when changing line. Not so much in most other countries.<BR><BR>Have to smell other people's smell. Europeans are a bit more unwashed then Americans.<BR><BR>Mad rush and shoving to get on and off.<BR><BR>Can be stuffy and warm in the winter as well as the summer.
Mar 6th, 2003, 04:14 PM
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I'm with NYGirl! At least London has SOME means of publc tranpsort..it may not be perfect and if I had to live with it every day of my life i might complain...but for us from the smaller US cities and towns it is pure heaven!
Mar 6th, 2003, 05:17 PM
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Having had to take the Tube to work for 2 years, I have heard (and have made) a few complaints. It is fabulous in off-peak hours but try taking it at 9:00 on a summer's morning. Often, I would have to wait for four or five trains to go by before I could cram myself on, and then try to prevent myself from passing out from the heat. There are numerous breakdowns and stoppages and I was late to work at least once a week. And don't forget the Tube strikes! If you don't live in an area accessible by train, it can take several hours to get anywhere. <BR><BR>That said, the Tube is a great system and, more often than not, pretty efficient. Wonder what the subway riders in, say, Japan or Hong Kong think about their commute?
Mar 7th, 2003, 12:50 AM
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Londoners like to moan about a lot of things in general
<BR><BR>Why do Londoners hate the tube?<BR><BR>1. It is overcrowded at peak times<BR>2. It can be unreliable with tubes breaking down in claustrophobic tunnels <BR>3. There are questions over safety with the recent Central Line (or as our American friends may put it "the red line"
derailment<BR>4. The air quality at deep underground stations such as on the Northern "black" line has worried health and safety investigators<BR>5. The cost of travel is enormous compared to similar European networks<BR>6. The unions are becoming more militant meaning strikes are more regular (another series of strikes is threatened soon). Their concerns over safety and part privatisation may be justified but that's no benefit to the travelling public..<BR>7. The recent congestion charge for cars in Central London has pushed more people onto the tube at peak times <BR>8. There is no air conditioning meaning it is unbearably hot in summer and unbearably hot in winter too when you have winter clothes on with nowhere to put them<BR><BR>and yet...<BR><BR>Londoners are proud of the iconography of the tube such as the tube map (a genuine work of art) and the station signs. On a personal note in the centre of Kampala, Uganda they have a building with a lot of underground station signs on it which shows how much of a worldwide impact the tube has had.<BR><BR>Londoners feel it is the quickest way to get from A to B and also can easily understand the geography (unlike buses where you often are sticking your head out of the window in a mild panic thinking when is it my stop)<BR><BR>So in a way the tube is a perfect microcosm for London as a whole - old, dirty, unreliable but it somehow muddles through<BR>
<BR><BR>Why do Londoners hate the tube?<BR><BR>1. It is overcrowded at peak times<BR>2. It can be unreliable with tubes breaking down in claustrophobic tunnels <BR>3. There are questions over safety with the recent Central Line (or as our American friends may put it "the red line" derailment<BR>4. The air quality at deep underground stations such as on the Northern "black" line has worried health and safety investigators<BR>5. The cost of travel is enormous compared to similar European networks<BR>6. The unions are becoming more militant meaning strikes are more regular (another series of strikes is threatened soon). Their concerns over safety and part privatisation may be justified but that's no benefit to the travelling public..<BR>7. The recent congestion charge for cars in Central London has pushed more people onto the tube at peak times <BR>8. There is no air conditioning meaning it is unbearably hot in summer and unbearably hot in winter too when you have winter clothes on with nowhere to put them<BR><BR>and yet...<BR><BR>Londoners are proud of the iconography of the tube such as the tube map (a genuine work of art) and the station signs. On a personal note in the centre of Kampala, Uganda they have a building with a lot of underground station signs on it which shows how much of a worldwide impact the tube has had.<BR><BR>Londoners feel it is the quickest way to get from A to B and also can easily understand the geography (unlike buses where you often are sticking your head out of the window in a mild panic thinking when is it my stop)<BR><BR>So in a way the tube is a perfect microcosm for London as a whole - old, dirty, unreliable but it somehow muddles through<BR>
Mar 7th, 2003, 05:37 AM
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Marilyn, I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. It never ceases to amaze me how SF cannot run five subway lines efficiently (and effectively) yet Paris and London can manage many many lines. And how many years did it take BART to reach the airport??<BR>Sorry, didn't mean to vent - but really most Bay Area transportation is horrible in comparison to London's and Europe.
Mar 8th, 2003, 09:17 AM
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Here's a multiple choice answer.<BR><BR>Mind the Gap means:<BR><BR>A) The trendy fashion police are at hand and if you are inappropriately dressed you must go to the nearest Gap and buy new clothes if they tell you to.<BR><BR>B) Your fly is undone.<BR><BR>C) There is a space between the car and the platform. If you are not careful you could step into it.
Mar 8th, 2003, 09:36 AM
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Mind the gap. During one of the spats with France, French thugs imported the dreadful Gappe bats to cause havoc in the underground system. Over time the French Gappe was altered to the more English Gap. So, beware of the bats when you here "mind the gap"
Mar 8th, 2003, 12:20 PM
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As a recent "escapee" from London - moved back to the sanity of Edinburgh - I hated the Tube, mainly because I had to take it every day to go to work whether I liked it or not!<BR><BR>Most Londoners don't appreciate what they have in terms of public transport, though. If the rail or Tube network was replicated in, say, Central Scotland it could make a real difference.
Mar 8th, 2003, 11:59 PM
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I agree with all of the Londoner replies. Sometimes the tube can be quick and efficient, and often it is the best way to get somewhere, but it is also all of the above during rush hour: over-crowded, can't always get on, over heated, and unreliable. <BR><BR>I'm sure if you live in a place where public transit is not as good you would be thankful, but isn't it true of all local citizens that people take things for granted? It's human nature. Furthermore, I do appreciate the London buses-they can get overcrowded as well, and I sure wish they'd use the transfer system like they do in NYC, but I'll choose it over the tube anyday. I think in general, tourists and locals always have different opinions of the same city.
Mar 9th, 2003, 02:47 AM
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I agree with Keith. Londoners don't realise how good their public transport network actually is. The London congestion charge has been seen as a success, but then again London commuters have a choice. Most other cities don't. If (or when) congestion charges were set for my working city of Cardiff, then I have no real alternative to get to my place of work. There are no buses, and certainly no metro. Just one train per hour.<BR>A few points that made me laugh by previous posters. <BR>msjenny - A little stereotyping here about the great unwashed Europeans? Are all Americans fragrant?<BR>Ira - Londers would love to only be stuck for 45 mins in traffic! After driving in extensively over the States last summer (if Los Angeles is the worst for traffic?), I can conclude that even the remotest motorways in Britain are busier than in the USA. Traffic in the UK is fast approaching gridlock. My daily journey of 19 miles can easily take 1hour 15 due to the traffic - and then I don't get a parking place at the end of it!<BR>
Mar 9th, 2003, 03:13 AM
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AR, I also was amused about the remark about the great European unwashed.<BR>Of course the topic is a great one for flames, but I honestly think that many Americans lead very insulated lives. I've lived there and like everyone else, I travelled to work by car and only once travelled by public transport when the car got stuck in the snow one time. I shopped in shopping malls in the nice part of town and the working class Americans I met were people working in the service industry, that is the respectable folk with jobs.<BR>However, I know many American public librarians and believe me, the average reading room in a public library in a poorer part of town does not smell very sweetly and I imagine that the public transport can get a bit niffy too These librarians have to deal with the lower end of society and they do a wonderful job especially with the children.<BR>One thing about London is that everyone uses public transport and I rather approve of that. If the articulate educated folk don't like something then it's more likely to be rectified.
