I've lived in London for several years now, and lived in Paris before.
The Metro needs a bit of maintenance and rework, but let's face it, the Tube
needs to be started from scratch again. Which will never happen, since my
fellow Londoners will never admit to having an inferior network to anyonein
the world.

It's not that signage is confusing (I never had any problem with it, but
then, I'm a map addict), but some designs are very questionable.

For instance, the Paris local maps show exactly where the Metro exits are,
and what you face when you get out. In London, someone decided it would be
better to just show a big round Tube sign, and once you get out you are
totally lost as to which street is which one.

Most of the trains don't have their directions written anywhere else than in
the front. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when on a platform, what you see of
the train is not the front, but the side. In Paris, directions are on the
sides, and inside. Simple and logical.

Colour coding vs. numbers: colours are ok for locals (I tend to prefer
nicknaming the lines myself), but please note that tourists don't remember
the colours anyway.

A good point for London: everybody understand the concept of "keep right" in
the escalators. A major pain every time I take the Metro Or maybe it's
the ratio of tourists to locals, higher in Paris?

On the other hand, Londoners tend to disregard the fact that in order for
them to board a train, they have to let people off first. Very impolite, in
Paris it doesn't happen that much - but maybe it's more because of the
general crampness in the Tube, its very narroy platforms?

International signs: the RATP made a real effort in adding ES, IT, DE and EN
signs here and there. Apart from station names in Hindi in Southall and
Ealing, LU doesn't seem to care and assumes everybody speaks English. Which
is true, but it says a lot about the London state of mind vs. the Paris
state of mind.

Just my 2 pences.

"patrick" root@localhost wrote in message
...

LU doesn't seem to care and assumes everybody
speaks English. Which is true, but it says a lot about
the London state of mind vs. the Paris state of mind.

I'm not convinced. When I was in Paris, the woman selling tickets in the
Eiffel Tower didn't speak a word of English. At Paris's number one tourist
attraction, I thought that was very poor.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

John Rowland wrote:
"patrick" root@localhost wrote in message
...

LU doesn't seem to care and assumes everybody
speaks English. Which is true, but it says a lot about
the London state of mind vs. the Paris state of mind.


I'm not convinced. When I was in Paris, the woman selling tickets in the
Eiffel Tower didn't speak a word of English. At Paris's number one tourist
attraction, I thought that was very poor.

I reckon she found you so sexy, she assumed you were bilingual, John:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3966413.stm

"Dave Newt" newtonline{AT}gmail.com wrote in message
t.net...
John Rowland wrote:

When I was in Paris, the woman selling tickets
in the Eiffel Tower didn't speak a word of English.

I reckon she found you so sexy, she assumed you were bilingual, John:

Maybe she thought I was a cunning linguist?

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"Patrick":
Apart from station names in Hindi in Southall and Ealing, LU ...
assumes everybody speaks English.

That's Punjabi at Southall, if it still looks like this:
http://users.chello.be/cr41864/travel/colchester/southal00.jpg
And it's not an LU station anyway. Ealing I don't know about.

On the other hand, I learned the German word for "baggage" from the
doorways of Piccadilly Line trains.
--
Mark Brader | Peter Neumann on Y2K:
Toronto | This problem gives new meaning to "going out on
| a date" (which many systems will do on 1/1/00).

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 21:14:46 -0000, (Mark Brader) wrote:

On the other hand, I learned the German word for "baggage" from the
doorways of Piccadilly Line trains.

Regional Railways and (if I recall rightly) NSE standardised on
English, French, German and sometimes some variety of Chinese/Japanese
for on-train signage. The 175 is English and Welsh, while most other
new stock appears English only.

On the Continent it tends IMX to be French, German, the local language
if different and one other (often but not always English - in
ex-Eastern stock it's not unknown for it to be Polish or Russian).

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To e-mail use neil at the above domain

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...

I'm not convinced. When I was in Paris, the woman selling tickets in the
Eiffel Tower didn't speak a word of English. At Paris's number one tourist
attraction, I thought that was very poor.

Pre my visit I thought French people either rarely spoke English or
disapproved of tourists not trying the local lingo. After a few failed
attempts I soon realised that many people in Paris (well, the tourist areas
I visited) spoke English. And not one hint of derision.

Handily, on the Metro I found that the French word for carnet is carnet :-)

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 21:44:34 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 21:14:46 -0000, (Mark Brader) wrote:

On the other hand, I learned the German word for "baggage" from the
doorways of Piccadilly Line trains.

Regional Railways and (if I recall rightly) NSE standardised on
English, French, German and sometimes some variety of Chinese/Japanese
for on-train signage. The 175 is English and Welsh, while most other
new stock appears English only.

I think I've seen 158s with signs in EN, FR, DE and whatever it is.

On the Continent it tends IMX to be French, German, the local language
if different and one other (often but not always English - in
ex-Eastern stock it's not unknown for it to be Polish or Russian).

I was surprised to find a train in Croatia with signs in Swedish (and
English). Turns out HZ bought them second-hand from Sweden.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Ian Jelf wrote:

I'm finding this an interesting thread as I get to work in both London
and Paris pretty frequently and consider that I know both systems well.

They both have their ups and downs.

The "space trains" on Paris's Line 1 are - I think - magnificent.

I would add Line 14 to that; the same design of stock, but driverless.
It's great fun to sit at the front!

--
John Ray

In message , Mrs Redboots
writes

I can never understand this attitude - for me, part of the challenge of
a new city is working out how to use it's public transport!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
In which case, if you come to West Cumbria, don't forget your car.
--
Clive.