Is public transport really that bad?
This entry was posted on January 10, 2008
All I ever seem to hear about recently is how rubbish the public transport is in England. In some ways I agree, but in a lot of ways I disagree. I agree that it’s rubbish where I live, because I’m out in the countryside and there are minimal buses and minimal trains. I’m fortunate enough to live near the main London / Birmingham line. If it weren’t for that, I think I’d be stuck here!
Not once in my lifetime can I remember a train being late. The longest I think I’ve had to wait after the due arrival time was about five minutes. I don’t think that’s too unacceptable. Buses out in the country tend to run a bit later than planned, but they’re frequently on time as well. As for in the cities (I can only talk about Birmingham and London) the buses are so frequent it’s scary.
Prices aren’t too ridiculous either. £5.70 will get you use of the tube and buses all day in London. £15 will get me to London and back (a two-and-a-half hour round trip), and £1.40 will get me from central Birmingham to the sticks and back again.
Of course, there are some factors that probably skew my perception of public transport. I only ever travel off-peak or at weekends. Travelling at peak times will shoot the price skywards, and I can’t afford that. I’m willing to wait an hour if it means I’ll save pounds.
What are your experiences with public transport? Any horror stories? Maybe I’m just being naive, but I don’t think public transport is really that bad.
20 lovely people have commented
Oh wow, that’s horrible! I’ve only been on a train that packed after the Pussycat Dolls show when we were all trying to get back into central Birmingham.
It takes over 40 minutes, at a cost of something like £3 to get a bus from where we (Karl and I) live, to his place of work which is about a mile and a half up the road. It’s up a steep hill, but I could still walk it in about 20-25 minutes with a cost of BIG FAT ZERO.
Yes, public transport sucks.
Sometimes the trains where I live don’t turn up or run very late. This is pretty horrendous especially since I used to rely on them to get to and from university. Now I get lifts - cheaper for me and much more convenient. Not to mention reliable.
And Jem, the buses where I live are exactly the same (it takes nearly two hours to do a journey that would normally be done in ten/fifteen minutes by car). Except they charge three times as much cause we live in the south :/
I like public transport. I mean, it’s the cheapest way of getting around. Cabs are getting really expensive in my country (Singapore)! And apparently Singapore has one of the best public transport systems in the world so well, I am not complain. But then again, public transport prices are hiking as well..
I like public transport as well 
If you coordinate your journey well, you can get to and from anywhere very easily.
Although it’s like this evil village wants to keep people in at night because there are no buses after eleven o’clock! 
Well, due to my college arrangements, I’m perminently on a bus.
They’re not too bad sometimes, however, more often than not both on the way to and from- they’re at least 10 minutes late. The prices are also extremely high, being it a £5.70 from my house to destination 10 miles away.
But the trains are reliable, cheap and clean.
I haven’t used public transport that often (excluding when I’m in Hong Kong), but from those rare experiences they’ve been good. I don’t mind waiting a little while longer but in general the timing is good and the number of public transport is sufficient.
I think it depends where you are though.
Usually, trains are only 5-10 minutes late. It’s when they get cancelled for reasons such as “the driver is sick and we can’t afford to replace him” (yes I’ve really had that excuse before) and you have to wait over an hour for the next. That sucks.
But, yea, the prices for short trawls aren’t bad, and certainly for a single person. A return from Nottingham to Hull is £30+, which is about how much it would cost to use the car. However, for two people it’s not worth it.
For short trips, the train is cheaper than buses and quicker. Unfortunately, we are plagued with very low quality short-haul trains (Central Trains being a prime example).
Still, I’m using the train more-and-more because of just how bad it’s now got on the roads - quite how I ever survive a long journey in the car I’ll never know. Driving has got quite appalling, mainly due to their being no traffic police to stop you from being like that. I’m getting political now I know, but bad and dangerous road behaviour isn’t caught on a speed camera (unless you’re speeding).
There are always delays on the york - derby trains - usually ten or twenty minutes and they always say it’s due to technical failure… makes me feel safe!
The buses in york are very good, but I rarely use them. To walk anywhere is only 20 - 40minutes (town / someones house) if it’s dark I pay a taxi.
Derby is a lot worse though. I don’t live very far out of town, yet the buses only run once and hour - and that is it. STUPID! Taxis seem to cost so much more then in york, and never feel as safe…
So I have a mixed view really.
Well I’m not British and have no experience of British public transportation, but I can speak for Quebec, or rather the city of Montreal. It sucks.
First, the subway is old and filthy. On the green line (lines are called by color names), many stations have rusty pipes with water dropping from them showing.
Second, in winter, it becomes a mess. Buses become very late and get very full.
Third, since they added stations in Laval (a city just north of Montreal) leading to Montreal, the subway is full (during rush hour) by the time it reaches the fifth station on the island of Montreal. If you take the subway in the morning rush hour, you are certain to be standing unless you are boarding at one of the first few stations.
The company in charge of the subways and buses refuses to add more subways during rush hour, and are constantly increasing the price for monthly tickets. You can buy monthly tickets or individual ones (one pass, you can transfer from one bus to another, or go from subway to bus or bus to subway for free), or a group of six tickets (the price is lower than if you buy 6 times individual tickets). I’m pretty sure they rarely increase the fee for individual tickets.
So, basically, buses are often late (if they ever show up), and it gets worse as you go further from downtown.
When I get the bus to college I have to pay £1.60… when it’s not even that far away. At all. My friends and I are slow walkers so it takes us about an hour to walk there, but on the bus? About ten/fifteen minutes max. I think the prices are disgusting! I don’t understand how they can get away with charging that much personally! Plus I have to set off earlier to catch the bus than I do to walk because the ones here are so.. dodgy. The earliest one is 7.50 and the other one comes too late. 
So we end up catching the 7.50 bus when we don’t start college til 8.50! D:
You are very very very lucky. The TTC (our public transport) is a piece of garbage. The streetcars never come on time, are often way crowded as a result of not coming on time, and there are usually ten in a row during the lazy hours and one every ten minutes during rush hour. Sadly, I have to take it two times a day. The prices are also quite hideous - $1.70 for a student. I pay almost two bucks for what? Grumpy people packed way too close together on a streetcar that I had to wait 12 hours for?
@Julie: It’s funny, whenever I’ve taken the Metro in Montreal I’ve had way better experiences than with the subway/streetcars/buses in Toronto.
Buses suck for me too! One day me and my friend waited for two hours for a bus to get home and it was about 9pm! two out of the four buses I get a day are usually late. Also all the old people tell you off for no reason, it’s crazy!
I don’t get the train but I might actually start taking the train to see if thats any better for me.
My experiences with public transpo here are pretty good, since I take the main routes and have a lot of options. One ride is $3, or only $2 if you buy tickets (in Canadian currency). For students, a monthly pass is $59.75 and a yearly one is $573.60 (I have the yearly one).
I think a lot of people find it easy to complain because prices are always rising (gas prices, inflation… I don’t think the transit people can help it), and the service can always be better. But personally, I’m satisfied.
Well just from the prices, I have to say, yeah, public transport in London IS that shit. 5 pounds 70 is equivalent $13AUD. We can ride the public transport system in Melbourne all day for just about $5, or 2 pounds 20.
The Calgary Transit system IS pretty bad. But I’m so used to it by now, that I can’t even entirely see the downsides. For me, sitting on a bus for the ride to school, with my iPod, is the most relaxing thing. I’m generally not too fussed if it’s late, unless it’s freezing, and it IS badly planned in the newer areas where I live, but it’s all part of the experience! One day, I will have to drive everywhere, and I will be like “I wish I had someone to chauffeur me around.”
I hadn’t heard of public transport sucking anywhere outside of this country I live in. I think you have it pretty good. Here we have one train that goes from nowhere to nowhere (which means it stays in the same place because it doesn’t even go that far), buses are really filthy and sometimes you have to wait for them for hours or forever (because sometimes they don’t even show up). There aren’t bus stop anywhere around my house. You have to take the train to go from my university to the nearest bus… erm… I guess the only bright side is that the price is fairly cheap.
I’ve never experiences any problems with public transport, except for living in the countryside and there not being many buses running to get me into town but that’s pretty much expected. Prices aren’t pretty bad either for the buses I use, however they’ve just increased it to £2.20 a single (only up 10p though). All in all public transport is pretty good.
Public transport in London is a joke. £2 single bus fare? Go away. I remember back when it used to be 40p. A one day zones 1-6 travelcard is £13.80 peak/£7 off-peak which is ridiculous in itself. Trains never run on time, there’s always delays on the underground due to a faulty train/person on the tracks/etc. One time my 7:49am train didn’t arrive until 8:30am and then stopped halfway. Had to wait until the next train and as a result was late for an exam. I could go on but it will just turn into a full blown rant. :p
This song explains things pretty well: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BgwoPG63B3Y
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Amber said:
I went on three when I was going to the Chelsea match. All three were filthy, two were so crammed that my palms were touching some sweaty man who had body odour and not only that but people practically fell out when the doors opened.
The second train was completely late, making us get to the game later than planned.
So, yep, I’d say public transport is that bad and if they want me to use it instead of getting my mother to drive me everywhere they should make it nicer and cheaper. It cost us £27 to get there in train fares (and the trains were SLOW!).