British public transport is awful...

I swear for the price you pay, and the sheer lack of quality of transport, British public transport must be some of the worst in Europe. Since most of the branch lines have been dismantled, the train network in this country leaves a lot to be desired, and is rubbish compared to France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Only the major towns are linked, and still even some major towns aren't on the network - this would be unthinkable in many countries. And also the rolling stock is absolutely ancient, we're using trains that many European countries scrapped years ago - so trains in the UK still have the doors you have to lean out the window and open from the outside, it's absurd.

Sadly, the bus system doesn't exactly fill in the blanks the railways miss either, coverage in rural areas is appauling to the extent many rural areas are completely inaccessable by public transport in their entirety - in Europe pretty much every settlement has some sort of bus service with the nearest town. In the UK it seems the bus service suffers from the same problems as the trains, you can get around town on them, and they link to the next town, but rural areas remain often completely unserved.

America is often critisized for its poor public transport, but I'd say British public transport is no better than American public transport. Public transports fairly good in London, as it is quite good in New York, but outside the major cities its patchy, irregular and not particularly extensive. Where American public transport redeems itself is despite not being particularly good, its cheap.

British public transport, despite being crap, still charges you an arm and a leg for crap, unextensive not particularly relyable service.

Reply 1

paddy

14

Don't get me started on TFL.

Reply 2

username234673

17

Arriva are the most useless ***** on this planet.

Reply 3

Who2004uk

1

"so trains in the UK still have the doors you have to lean out the window and open from the outside, it's absurd."

What are you talking about?

Anyway, the tube is **** hot

Reply 4

thunder_chunky

19

mikeyd85

Arriva are the most useless ***** on this planet.

I will well and truly second that.
I use Arriva bus service and have been for the last year and three months or so.

They are just about competent at the best of times, but the amount of times they have ****** up or been useless is endless.

Even in good weather they are like that, so can you imagine what it was like when the snow and ice came?

Reply 5

NW86

12

It's a disgrace, a train has to 45mins late I believe for you to be able to claim part of the ticket cost back as a refund. IN Japan the most highly used train line in the world the Tokaido Shinkansen (with 4.5 billion cumulative passengers recorded by March 2007) had an average delay of 0.3 minutes for the whole of 2006!

Reply 6

Student2806

17

ak56

And also the rolling stock is absolutely ancient, we're using trains that many European countries scrapped years ago - so trains in the UK still have the doors you have to lean out the window and open from the outside, it's absurd.

The HSTs (with slam-doors) on the ECML are some of the smoothest around to travel on. I'd take them every time over some of the new ones (Voyagers) with engines underneath each carriage, causing them to vibrate all the time they're moving. Travelling on a Voyager is like sitting on a machine machine :colonhash:

New doesn't mean better. I'd rather travel on a spacious, comfortable old train with door handles than an uncomfortable, cramped new one with automatic doors.

Reply 7

username234673

17

thunder_chunky

Even in good weather they are like that, so can you imagine what it was like when the snow and ice came?

Buses late / not coming at all, and an information line with completely useless staff with even more useless information, if you could get though in the first place.

"Some buses are running up to 1 hour late" they told me.
"I've been here for 1h 30min" I told them.

Useless. I wrote tom complain, but have heard nothing back from them. If I had the choice, I'd never use their service again.

Reply 8

paddy

14

Who2004uk

"so trains in the UK still have the doors you have to lean out the window and open from the outside, it's absurd."

What are you talking about?

Anyway, the tube is sh*t hot

The tube is ****ing ridiculous.

The Northern Line (aka the most popular line) is due to be shut down on the weekend for 20 MONTHS.

Reply 9

*Sparkle*

17

I totally agree with you, when I moved to uni one of my friends who lives in this tiny village were going on about how amazing the buses were in our uni town and how she's never seen anything like them. Where I'm there (from London) complaining about how awful they are, how you have to wait ten minutes for a bus and all that.

I do <3 living in London means I've survived my whole life without a car, but that really isn't possible anywhere else in the country from what I've gathered.

Reply 10

psychocustard

18

Student2806

The HSTs (with slam-doors) on the ECML are some of the smoothest around to travel on. I'd take them every time over some of the new ones (Voyagers) with engines underneath each carriage, causing them to vibrate all the time they're moving. Travelling on a Voyager is like sitting on a machine machine :colonhash:

New doesn't mean better.

Pfft, have you not thought that travelling on a Voyager could be a treat for the females in the carriage? :tongue:

erve:

I never used to mind public transport, until I left college and had to start paying for the bus again. £6 for 9 miles travel is ridiculous. I think I'm one of the few people who actually likes TfL, just because compared to the transport here, it's a HELL of a lot cheaper.

Can't say I've ever had a problem with the trains though, and I consistently travel to London for £7 a time, so I've no issue with the price, either.

Reply 11

Jelkin

17

I agree. I live in Sweden and the public transport here is amazing. A fifty minute train to Copenhagen costs me less than a tenner and the buses are cheap, frequent and reliable.

Reply 12

kljmaq

Arriva buses in Luton are ****. The price seems to go up every month, seats and floors are never cleaned, they're just ****. I walk to college now instead.

Reply 13

thunder_chunky

19

mikeyd85

Buses late / not coming at all, and an information line with completely useless staff with even more useless information, if you could get though in the first place.

"Some buses are running up to 1 hour late" they told me.
"I've been here for 1h 30min" I told them.

Useless. I wrote tom complain, but have heard nothing back from them. If I had the choice, I'd never use their service again.

I was waiting for about an hour and a half in the snow for a bus. It wasn't a sheltered stop either. One bus stopped and asked if I wanted to be dropped off at the next station as it was on her way. I said "No thanks I'm waiting for a certain bus."
She then told me good luck as her bus had just been canceled and so had many others. So I stood there and wondered if my bus had been canceled.

Finally after waiting for an hour and 20 minutes at least I said "**** this" and started walking up to the nearest train station. I get half way and my ******* bus drives by.

I rang up a week later and all they had to say was "I'm sorry but we had no control over the weather and the traffic it caused."

You know that's happened to me in normal weather too.

There used to be something on the website saying if a bus was more than 5 minutes early or more than 10 minutes late the next journey for you would be free.

I have got a few free journeys but lately I've called trying to get more free travel vouchers for very late buses and all I have gotten in return is a pathetic letter of apology.

Reply 14

Who2004uk

1

paddy

The tube is ****ing ridiculous.

The Northern Line (aka the most popular line) is due to be shut down on the weekend for 20 MONTHS.

In what ways is it ridiculous really? You never have to wait more than 5 mins for a tube, it doesn't rain in the tube, it is reliable etc. What exactly do you expect?

Oh and I'd like to see a source on the quite profound statement of the Northern line closing on weekends for 20 months.... Nothing is even close to be confirmed.

Reply 15

username196545

19

paddy

Don't get me started on TFL.

I can't even get to my uni on Sunday without taking like 90 minutes ffs.

Reply 16

thunder_chunky

19

paddy

The tube is ****ing ridiculous.

The Northern Line (aka the most popular line) is due to be shut down on the weekend for 20 MONTHS.

Shut down completely or only at weekends and such like?

Reply 17

Liquidus Zeromus

17

I agree completely, we have an under-invested and massively cut service. Motorways have typically been expanded and given alot of attention, whereas the railways in particular face neglect. We don't have enough services, at all. There are too many cars on the road, and too few trains and rail lines. Rail is the most efficient and convenient form of inter-city public transport, and we ought to extend it to more areas and cut prices. We should of course start by re-opening most of the railway lines closed by the beeching axe in the 1960s. Then we should scrap rail franchising and have companies justify their current pricing. I'm not sure how bad it actually is in terms of price though, I don't have a railcard.

Reply 18

username196545

19

Who2004uk

In what ways is it ridiculous really? You never have to wait more than 5 mins for a tube, it doesn't rain in the tube, it is reliable etc. What exactly do you expect?

Oh and I'd like to see a source on the quite profound statement on the Northern line closing on weekends for 20 months.... Nothing is even close to be confirmed.