Whats your public transport like?

Every morning I wait at this bus stop

sometimes the bus comes, or some times I take my car

or the train

The trams & buses around here are brilliant. It should be noted that I am a Brit currently residing in Germany. The trains can be a bit iffy, but no where near as bad as UK. The buses appear to have a radio transmitter that changes the traffic lights in their favour.

By far the best is here in Hong Kong. Thailand is the worst. UK is damn right crap. Italy is OK but the underground was dirty and smelly. US was quite good.

What’s this public transport stuff,? sounds like a figment of someone’s warped imagination:) Joking really, ours is not that bad apart from the usual problem. Supposed to run every 15 minutes but at times you wait 45 minutes without a bus then three turn up together racing each other to get the passengers.
Or the other favourite-the one that sees you waiting at the busstop but accelerates as it goes past instead of stopping(especially early morning ones) and the bus company talks about doing away with that early bus because it doesn’t pay, of course it doesn’t because it never stops

Here in Buenos Aires public transportation is, lets say, decent.
Subway is quite good, though the capacity of the transfer stations, the busiests ones, has been outmaxed some 20 years ago. Rebuilding them to fit the current and future needs is costly and quite complex (most of the tunnels and stations date back to 1940’s) and isn’t gonna happen any time soon.
Suburban and commuter trains are very good on some routes, and suck on others. Half of the routes are equipped with modern electric cars, while the other half still runs on noisy and slow diesel engines. Worst thing is on the older cars the doors are not automatic, and saddly to often pickpocketers or hooligans throw victims from the trian while trying to rob them.
Buses! Jeez, Buenos Aires is a megacity with about 12 million people (city + suburbs), and there are over 1100 bus lines. 15 years ago most of the buses where based on Mercedes 1114 truck chasis. But the industry has catched up, and now most of the buses are modern, low clearence, air suspension vehicles. About 1/10 run on compressed natural gas already, instead of diesel, which hardly even produces combustion smoke and noise.

As for taxis, they buzz around like a beehive (coincidentally, taxis are yellow and black!!), and are in many cases the cheapest transport means from point to point. For example, two people riding bus + subway spend at least 4 $ (about 1.5 dollars), while a taxi ride, door to door, may cost 5 $ !!

King Jester

mine…fully air conditioned….payment is automatic……tv……

Santiago is small city of 150 000 inhabitants, and I live in the centre, so I usually walk. Buses are new yellow ones, quite effective and relatively priced. Problem……too much private cars and jams make buses to get late.

Was outstanding in Paris area (crowded though) , very poor here.

Here in Guernsey the bus service is, generally, very good. Recently a new fleet of buses has been bought and they are very comfortable and modern compared to the old ones. They are near enough on time though my only complain is that the buses are far too big for the roads plus their colours. But still prefer the use of a car or my own two feet 😉

I used to think local public transportation was bad… and then I spend a year in London. Oh my…

Now I only think public transport in The Netherlands is bad during rush hours. Overcrowded and delays. Outside rush hours public transportation is really quite good!

CRAP

Originally posted by danohagan
Give me 130bhp, leather seats, climate control and a fine set of CDs any day!

Show me where you can get any of those for a decent price these days!
When rush hour means actually sitting in a traffic jam something is going to have to give – and since the boys with their big toys aren’t going to give in gracefully then they could find that a tax on excessive engine size or unutilised carring capacity might make them think again. Didn’t Japan have such a problem that big cities were proposing to charge hugh tolls on those who didn’t have a specifically allocated space at each end of their journey to work? And they are taxing cars by the amount of space it takes up – thats why you get those weird top heavy-looking little cars chugging around (tax on engine size as well!).
Tell me it won’t happen here – and mean it! 🙁

Haven’t used a bus in years, but have to use trains when I’m working in London. As stated by Snapper they are full of the kind of vermin who can’t afford cars and who spend their dole money on ciggies, betting and booze.

Public transport is slow, dirty and outrageously priced. Give me 130bhp, leather seats, climate control and a fine set of CDs any day!

I’m lucky, I either use a motorbike, a car or (if I am going to have a drink) a taxi. Busses suck and so do trains by all accounts.

It’s shít – excuse the language.

One thing that really stresses me out is public transport. I have to use it 6 out of 7 days a week and its most of the time, running very late, or not running at all, following a cancellation.

I used to use trains all the time but have since started to use buses as I hoped their service would be more reliable. Not really the case though. Although I’ve not used a train for about 2 months now, I’m starting to dread it. Buses are never on time, not even on a Sunday morning when there is no traffic on the roads!

Ours has the occasional tendency to explode. It’s an adventure everytime you walk out the front door.

Ours is a bit pants.

Dreadful. It’s full of scummy people who can’t afford cars.

LOL u got trams havent been on one for years i love riding the trams in Melbourne!!!

Couldn’t tell you what it’s like in Melbourne, i haven’t used public transport in over thirty years