Which cities' transport systems do you admire?

strassenwolf

I see Berlin has been mentioned a few times on this thread.

In terms of coverage of the city, it's certainly up there.

In my opinion, Berlin has done very well to assemble a very decent transport service, considering its size and because it was divided for such a long time during the post-war development of its transport system(s).

However, in my experience, some of the ticket machines, are painfully slow.

dermo88

Singapore

Hong Kong

Both of which are superb, and good value for money.

London would be good, but it needs to be half the price, although its not so bad since Sterling devalued.

Cologne is neat, and in fact, most German cities are.

Dublin would be better had the 1980's railplan gone ahead, but that went up in a recession that makes this one look like a boom. Integrated ticketing is a long way off.

Urban nightmares include Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, San Jose Costa Rica, all of which are conurbations, and all of which I have direct experience of.

cor

Zurich for it's excellent timekeeping, and the underground in London is great.

A Dub in Glasgo

Glasgow for the trains, they also bulldoze 2 motorways through the city!

For those complaining about London, get yourselves an Oyster card

Irish and Proud

Metrobest wrote: »

To be fair, there are also bad sides to public transport in Amsterdam. The trams are notoriously slow and unreliable - don´t count on making that 9am meeting. The luas puts Amsterdam to shame when it comes to trams.

...yes, have used the Luas Green Line many a time - to me, it is the way public transport should be - not only can Ireland learn from it, so too can other countries. First of all, it is fast, frequent and reliable (ok - that's nothing new), but more importantly it seems well used in both directions at any time I've been on it. I also like its ease of access (no cumbersome walkways to gain access) and relatively simple ticketing system. Was on the Red Line once - not as good as the Green Line, but pretty good none the less!

Regards!

Irish and Proud

strassenwolf wrote: »

I see Berlin has been mentioned a few times on this thread.

In terms of coverage of the city, it's certainly up there.

In my opinion, Berlin has done very well to assemble a very decent transport service, considering its size and because it was divided for such a long time during the post-war development of its transport system(s).

However, in my experience, some of the ticket machines, are painfully slow.

hmmm, that's surprising! Find the ticket machines in Dublin pretty fast!

Regards!

Tiesto

Nuernberg by a mile.
For a city of 500,000 people, the U Bahn, Strassenbahn and Bus service is simply amazing!!!

Irish and Proud

Zoney wrote: »

We did level large amounts of our own cities when they started falling apart (or became inconvenient). Also plenty of our suburbs are post-war. So sorry, but that argument doesn't cut it for me.

Agreed! Much of Dublin is post war and very little provision for transport infrastructure was put aside. The roads are way too narrow - many main radials are only 3 lanes - they should be 3 lanes each way - one for buses at all times (increasing to 2 lanes at peak times).

Zoney wrote: »

Similarly we have a Dublin Port Tunnel at great expense and engineering effort yet apart from rail and bus, we still only have two separate single-line tram systems.

Since the collapse of the Malahide Rail Viaduct, the DPT is a God send for me. This particular motorway is probably the only urban motorway in Europe that actually works - it's anti-car, hence it rarely snarls up, is fast and efficient. In short, the DPT is effectively a freight and public transport route - very few cars!

BTW, (please don't lynch me) I've been through College Green a couple of times on the bus - it seems to be working (pity the 101X buses don't). OK, it's controversial (as is this post I guess! ), but traffic there seems to be moving now - all the way from Wilton Terrace that is - the problem new seems to centre around the IFSC and Busaras.

Regards!

Irish and Proud

cor wrote: »

Zurich for it's excellent timekeeping, and the underground in London is great.

Tried a couple of Bus Routes in Cork City - from my experience, you could set your watch by them - excellent!!! Pity about the traffic, but I suppose it wasn't all that bad. Much of Cork is not very pedestrian friendly though - mind you, I found the people there very friendly, and their sense of pride (when Cork was playing Kerry) was amazing - many businesses (even the Mahon Shopping Centre) were awash in the Cork colours - Kent Station was no exception either!

Regards!

netwhizkid

For me it has to be Prague, so far has the best, Munich is also very but I didn't do enough exploring due to the sub-zero temperatures to test it out. I beleive Moscow has the worlds best but very little people have been there and had to guts to venture on the public system without a bodyguard!

Maldini2706

Barcelona's transport system is perfect. The city is massive compared to Dublin, but pretty much everywhere in the city is at most 30 minutes away from anywhere else. The metro runs exactly on time and all the carriages are clean. They also have a tram system similar to the LUAS and a bus service, but both act as additions to the Metro rather than replacements.

Lennoxschips

I lived in Amsterdam for 17 years and it was 8 km from where I lived to Leidseplein (the nightlife centre of the town). There was a direct tram line (no. 5) to Leidseplein. Bike beat the tram hands down every time, deffo the preferred mode of transport. And if it was raining, the bus beat the tram too. Bus was generally more comfortable and cleaner too.

The metro in Amsterdam is OK, if you are going from certain areas to certain areas, but by no means useful to get around all of the city. They are currently building a new line which is making headlines for turning into a cost overrun nightmare. It's a bored tunnel under loads of historical buildings. It's the first bored tunnel in Amsterdam, because Amsterdam is a bog where you shouldn't be building a bored tunnel. This metro could cause serious damage to old buildings. For example, they will bore it THROUGH the foundations of 19th century Centraal Station. Madness. And the route mostly duplicates the existing metro, which makes it all the more stupid.

As was mentioned earlier, they are introducing an electronic integrated ticketing service, which is turning out to be a bit of a disaster as well. You have to remember to "end" your journey when you get off the bus or tram... people in a hurry forget. One handy thing is that you can link the card up to your bank account, so that you never have to worry about not having a Strippenkaart. I was always running out of those things.

Copenhagen metro is a total ripoff.

NMoore

Tokyo's subway & train systems are amazing. They live up to the hyper-efficient hype! And it's not just tokyo, the train system is incredible across the whole country. You can time your journey literally to the minute. Singapore and Hong kong also have great subways - clean, fast, easy to understand. Durians ( big smelly fruit) are banned on Singapore's subway.
London buses are also great. (unless you're cycling, in which case they are evil menaces!) Alright, they may be late, they are definietly crowded, but they go everywhere, regularly, and all through the night!

Plumpynutt

deccurley wrote: »

New York City. I Know the MTA has it's detractors but for a city as huge as NYC to provide all it's communities with an all-in-one 24/7 transport system is great, on such a scale. No matter where you are in the 5 boroughs you're never far from a subway station or a bus route and that you can get from anywhere to anywhere else in the city for $2 represents great value. It has some stations that could do with a bit of a cleanup and it also represents a bit of a problem as regards vagrants and people begging in the subways, but overall I reckon it represents mass transit at it's best.

this. and also Lisbon.

L1011

Brighton, for being the size of Cork but having a well working bus system with at-stop real time information, 24 hour routes, centrally located interchange points, cheap tickets, etc, etc.

Their ticketing system could do with being dragged in to 1994 or so though - they've the same Wayfarer cash tickets as we use although the driver uses a manual, open coin rack; but their prepaid tickets are scratchcards over which you stick a peel-off plastic seal...

paddy cork

for value , milan one day ticket 3 euro metro, bus ,tram ,including bus in from linate airport

dfx-

cor wrote: »

Zurich for it's excellent timekeeping, and the underground in London is great.

Definitely Zurich

murphaph

paddy cork wrote: »

for value , milan one day ticket 3 euro metro, bus ,tram ,including bus in from linate airport

That must be the only cheap thing in Milan!

DWCommuter

Douglas on the Isle of Man.

Judgement Day

DWCommuter wrote: »

Douglas on the Isle of Man.

You are kidding I hope? Douglas is a disaster area. Clapped out horse trams fighting for road space with massive amounts of private and commercial vehicles and no longer reaching the Sea Terminal a la Rosslare Europort; the bus station was demolished some years ago and not replaced; the Manx Electric railway is virtually derelict with the permanent way so bad the trams regularly leave the track; the steam railway is a ghost of itself squeezed in between Tescos, an enormous bus depot and the Customs Service carpark, but to be fair the buses are clean and frequent. The horse tram is also a handy way to do a pub crawl of the promenade but taken overall Douglas is a mish mash of semi-defunct transport systems presided over by the IoM government who have their heads so far up their asses ........as Winston Churchill said a County Council behaving like a sovereign state...Sorry Mods perhaps you should move this to Ranting and Raving but with only Pat Kenny's 'Frontline' on TV is it any wonder?

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

You are kidding I hope? Douglas is a disaster area. Clapped out horse trams fighting for road space with massive amounts of private and commercial vehicles and no longer reaching the Sea Terminal a la Rosslare Europort; the bus station was demolished some years ago and not replaced; the Manx Electric railway is virtually derelict with the permanent way so bad the trams regularly leave the track; the steam railway is a ghost of itself squeezed in between Tescos, an enormous bus depot and the Customs Service carpark, but to be fair the buses are clean and frequent. The horse tram is also a handy way to do a pub crawl of the promenade but taken overall Douglas is a mish mash of semi-defunct transport systems presided over by the IoM government who have their heads so far up their asses ........as Winston Churchill said a County Council behaving like a sovereign state...Sorry Mods perhaps you should move this to Ranting and Raving but with only Pat Kenny's 'Frontline' on TV is it any wonder?

I know. Reminds me of home.

Calina

I've lived in Paris, London, Brussels, Munich and Dublin. I occasionally use the system in Frankfurt.

From the point of view of living there, Brussels had the system that worked most effectively, followed by Paris. Everything was integrated. Everything. Munich had a comprehensive system with an overly complex ticket pricing solution which I hope has changed since I lived there some time ago now. I think complex ticketing is a bad idea. London has improved somewhat since I lived there but I'd rate it fourth behind Brussels, Paris and Munich. I find the Frankfurt system not exactly straightforward to work out.

Dublin has a number of issues which were foisted on us by ideological idiocy and political laziness. Integrated ticketing is a must but because of the diversity of companies now plying their trade in localish transport in the Dublin area it's going to be even harder to implement. As a user, I see no real evidence of public transport for Dublin being looked at in anything other than a piecemeal manner. I may be wrong of course...

ciaran76

Perth Australia- A Free Transit Zone (FTZ) operates within the City of Perth boundaries. You can travel on any Transperth bus within the boundary limits for free ! Real time bus information too which was great.
When your train arrive at a station you be sure that a bus would be there ready for you and every bus that brough you to a station was for the next train.

Also London and Paris as already mentioned by others on here.

murphaph

Calina wrote: »

Munich had a comprehensive system with an overly complex ticket pricing solution which I hope has changed since I lived there some time ago now.

Yeah it's a straightforward zonal system now.

AlekSmart

As a user, I see no real evidence of public transport for Dublin being looked at in anything other than a piecemeal manner. I may be wrong of course...

Calina,you are NOT wrong....sadly you are VERY correct.
The single greatest improvement in Dublin would be a fully integrated Electronic ticketing system.
We are NOWHERE near to that.....and will not be for at least another Two years...all this in spite of a vast amount of money ALREADY spent and nothing to show for it.

The last hope of success here was the DUBLIN Transport Authority...which,sadly now has been hi-jacked by Noel Dempsey and turned into a National something or other Authority covering Taxi`s,Hackney`s,Buses,Coaches,Trams,Trains,Aircraft and perhaps Submarines too.

In Public Transport terms we need DIRECT European supervision and we need it quickly,as we are yet again,about to pee it up against the wall !!!

gjim

Zürich is an interesting case.

Personally I found a bit confusing at first - the maps are not great. There is quite a degree of variation in the S-Bahn frequencies; some of the lines are quite infrequent. And it took a while to get the ticketing (the language barrier doesn't help).

Everything else is impressive.

The entire system (including buses, heavy rail, trams) is barrier free. It requires policing but the pay-off is huge in terms of efficiency and the simplicity of station/stop design.

At least 10 different operators run the various modes many or most of them are private operators. However everything is under the ZVV brand and the same ticket covers every mode (including boats!) so this is completely hidden from the users. Some of the operators also own the infrastructure.

It's a zonal system but the zones are very big which makes pricing simple.

The backbone of the system is heavy rail/S-Bahn. The timetables are mostly clockface. Most are double-deckers which means generally you can get a seat at all times - even during rush hour. There are at least 10 different lines but many share track for sections of their runs.

There is a dense network of trams in the city complemented by trollybuses and regular buses. In the latter case, because of the ticketing system, they use articulated buses to great effect.

You may also use the water taxis, a little funicular and cable cars - all under the same (non-electronic!) ticket.

The interesting aspect of the system is that all this good stuff is pretty recent and that perhaps there is a lesson here for Dublin. Their first commuter rail line only predates the DART by 15 years; it was a single line which coincidentally hugged the edge of the lake. However things have accelerated since then. They completed their interconnector about 20 years ago. (They are now building a second one.) Integrated ticketing (and the single ZVV brand) has only been around since the 90s. Apparently before the 90s or 80s, Zurich was considered to cater for and to be reliant on the car much more than public transport. So it is possible to transform a city in terms of public transport relatively quickly. Also interestingly, they actually rejected a plan (through referendum) to build two metro lines in favour of expanding the heavy rail and tram systems on the basis of cost and benefit.

rcdk1

MOH wrote: »

Stockholm - 24 hour underground system, longest I waited was 10 minutes at 3am (usually a max of 2 mins any other time), plus reasonable prices and sensible ticket options and promotions. Even on the airport express, which wasn't cheap, they were offering 2-for-1 deals.

Not quite 24hr, it closes for a few hours in the early morning but definitely one of the best metros I've been on. Also the metro is, like most of Stockholm, very safe when compared to cities of a similar size.

mysterious

Thank sweet FCUK it's not a choice of Irish cities.:D


Hmmm... Amsterdam,, Paris

TestTransmission

Melbourne ,great transport system

angel01

London. It works so well on such a big city and how I wish I lived there