Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:47:18 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Nerdbird wrote:

This web site may be of interest to the visitor to London. The
Underground and taxis are discussed.

http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html
Quite entertaining!

Yep not bad.

Other things that spring to mind (from my modest knowledge of London and
thoroughly scanty knowledge of NYC):

- You don't mention buses; i think they're cheaper and a lot more dense
and frequent in London, more geared towards local trips than commuting.

I'd generally agree with you. NYC's bus system is largely based on the 5
boroughs with distinct networks in each and not many links over borough
boundaries. There is an express network which the MTA have recently
taken over from private operators. These do link the Boroughs to
Manhatten for commuter flows.

Not exactly. (But impressively close for someone who doesn't ride the
buses in question!)

MTA New York City Transit has operated a large number of express routes
between Staten Island and Manhattan and several express routes between
Queens and Manhattan and between Brooklyn and Manhattan for decades.
(There's also an express route between Queens and the Bronx, but that's
an anomaly.)

The various city-subsidized private bus operators operated many local
routes in Queens and Brooklyn, along with express routes between Queens
and Manhattan, Brooklyn and Manhattan, and the Bronx and Manhattan.
Those routes were recently taken over by the newly formed MTA Bus.

- What are New York's night buses like?

Not dissimilar to the concept used in London - i.e. 24 hour service on
key corridors. There is not the same need as in London for longer
distance routes as the Subway is 24 hours in NYC.

Generally, New York doesn't have any specific night buses. Some bus
routes run all night - that's all.

London is now catching up with NYC with its never ending variants of
what line or station is open or closed at any point in time! I think
I'd struggle to cope with a Subway system that is subject to such
frequent change to its operating pattern.

Catching up? With three exceptions, every single subway station in New
York is open around the clock. (The three exceptions are the two
northernmost stations on the 3, which are replaced by bus service at
night, and Broad Street on the J/M/Z, which is closed on weekends, when
the J is cut back to Chambers Street.)

But our route patterns can certainly get confusing.

- London has more commuter rail than New York (particularly south of the
river), and it's often this which provides a more expressish service to
the outer reaches of the city.

Yes. The statements about our lack of express services is just plain
wrong. Almost every radial line from a London terminal has a mix of all
stops, semi fast and expresses. Only the orbital lines and perhaps a
few radial lines have no difference in stopping patterns at peak and off
peak times.

The statements about your lack of express services were probably
referring to the Underground, where they're largely accurate, except on
the western Piccadilly and Metropolitan.

- Navigation on foot; aaaah, man up and learn your way! Once you get
the hang of it, you can have hours of fun figuring out the best route,
whereas in NYC, it's always obvious.

I didn't find NYC to be always obvious. Of course this is all down to
familiarity and I've got more of the London street pattern imprinted in
my brain that New York's but that's only to be expected.

If you stick to one of NYC's grids, it's trivially easy to get around.

If you should find yourself, however, in a part of NYC where there's no
grid, or if the grid begins to break down, or if you should find two
grids meeting at odd angles, then things can get very confusing.

- We do have a couple of jewish neighbourhoods, which you probably never
ran into: Golders Green is the big one, and Stamford Hill is smaller,
poorer and much more orthodox, with furry hats and curly sideburns
everywhere you look.

Don't forget Gants Hill and Barkingside. Not as obviously orthodox as GG
or SH but plenty of Jewish businesses and synagogues.

Also Hendon and Edgware.

(I didn't realize Gants Hill and Barkingside were Jewish. The various
lists of kosher restaurants that I consulted didn't include any in those
neighbo(u)rhoods.)
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA