London Banter - View Single Post - London Underground 'best metro in Europe'

Ian Jelf · April 28th 09, 09:21 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , writes
On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:33:41 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
Not done Frankfurt and many years since I have been to Brussels and
Amsterdam. The key point is that those systems have very few staff
present on them which means that there is little pride in the system.
It's no wonder they look down at heel and untidy.

I was in Brussels last year a couple of times. The metro seemed quite
tidy to me though the information was woeful. We ended up going in the
wrong direction on one of the underground tram lines because trying to
decode the rats nest system map for the centre was a nightmare.

It always reminds me as though it was built in c1972 and hasn't been
touched since!

Actually, I've had much more use of the pre-Metro, the tram served
tunnels, which it sounds as though you experienced, rather than the true
Metro there.

I'm sure that without a reasonable knowledge of the City (which I'm
lucky enough to have), sorting out where to go would be
less-than-intuitive.

As an aside, I did briefly consider proposing to my wife in a Brussels
underground station, as she (and it) are called "Louise". In the end I
settled for Lake Louise in Alberta. She tells me she was glad about
the choice of venue.......

Romans actually tolerate such neglect I just don't know - I can't think
of one railway system in the world whose stock is in such bad condition.

They're italians. They couldn't sort out a **** in a toilet, never mind a
**** up in a brewery. Its amazing the system works at all.

The tram systems in Milan and Turin (the only places I've been to in
Italy for any meaningful time) seemed to work effectively although as
always with such networks working out the system map was tricky.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk