On 9 May, 21:46, Mike Bristow wrote:
In article ,
Boltar wrote:

On 9 May, 17:24, John B wrote:
Could you get any more Anglophone-arrogant? Last time I checked, TfL
stations didn't have signs in Katakana...

I think its fair to say that the latin alphabet is a worldwide
standard

Western European, rather than worldwide.

Western europe, the entire americas, all of sub saharan africa, the
indian subcontinent & australasia.

Or in Moscow, Japan, China, Greece or any country using the Arabic

The latin alphabet is used frequently in russia and ukraine and I've
seen it used in greece too. I'd be surprised if its not used for
advertising as well as other things in japan and china.

alphabet (which used to include examples on every continent except
Antarctica and America).

Yes , well not any more.

B2003

On 10 May, 11:17, Paul Corfield wrote:
premium priced Tourist Travelcard. I can't think of a city anywhere that
makes it easy for people with loads of fresh, high denomination currency
to use standard public transport services. Many systems are farebox no

Paris - queue at the ticket office at the gare du nord , buy a Mobilis
(or whatever they're calling it this year). Sorted.

Kiev - queue at ticket office , buy tokens.

New York - ditto above , or you can get the equivalent of a
travelcard, can't remember its name.

Brussels - ticket machines accept notes and give change.

etc etc

to find the public transport at Singapore Airport, try to find a NYC
transit bus to take you into town at JFK in NYC.

Or do what everyone else does and get the airtrain or local bus to
howard beach subway station.

B2003

The latin alphabet is used frequently in russia

Russia uses Cyrillic alphabet and latin alphabet is used very rarely
(the only related example I can think about is tiny transcriptions of
station names on some Moscow Metro maps).

In message , at
21:10:07 on Fri, 9 May 2008, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
I've never been to Japan, but do they not transliterate the station
names into the Roman alphabet?

Nowadays, in some places at least. When I was in Osaka 25 years ago
almost nothing (let alone things like railway station names etc) were
transliterated. It was virtually impossible to do anything without a
local guide.
--
Roland Perry

In message
, at
09:24:41 on Fri, 9 May 2008, John B remarked:
What about someone who boarded a plane to India without bothering to
check that they needed a Indian visa? Would they be a victim of
outrageous bureaucracy, or an idiot? What about an Indian who did the
same thing the other way round? (and if your answers to these two are
different, why the difference?)

In both cases the airline won't let you on board unless you have the
relevant Visas (because they get fined at the far end). At least one
country I've gone to, the visa had to be checked by an "expert", and not
just the check-in clerk (and that at a busy place like Heathrow). Later,
going to another country I almost didn't get allowed on the plane (a
small irregularity that got sorted out on arrival, but only after some
phone calls from the gate - Heathrow again).
--
Roland Perry

Arthur Figgis wrote:
Connaire wrote:
On 9 May, 21:13, Arthur Figgis wrote:
Boltar wrote:
On May 8, 9:25 pm, Simon wrote:
You are just being silly. TfL provide cheap and excitant travel for
Londoners.
Sorry , that joke is lost on me , it must be too early in the morning.
It's true, though. Try elsewhere in the country. See what response you
get in Hull to something like "the 01.00 bus was a whole 10 min late,
and they only run every 20 min".

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

They run that late in Hull ? Because they bleeming don't in Manchester

They don't - that's the point. When I go home I get blank stares if I
use an oxymoron like "night bus".

Yet they do run in somewhere like Croydon. Not that I'm complaining
about being able to have a bus to myself (and the driver, obviously).


I had the problems with the N87 from Trafalgar square at about 3 a:m the
other night, there must have been a bus missing as I had to wait about
20 minutes for one.

--
Tony the Dragon

Boltar wrote:
On 9 May, 21:46, Mike Bristow wrote:
In article ,
Boltar wrote:

On 9 May, 17:24, John B wrote:
Could you get any more Anglophone-arrogant? Last time I checked, TfL
stations didn't have signs in Katakana...
I think its fair to say that the latin alphabet is a worldwide
standard
Western European, rather than worldwide.

Western europe, the entire americas, all of sub saharan africa, the
indian subcontinent & australasia.

Malaysia, Vietnam, much of eastern Europe (depending how eastern Europe
is defined, but including the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, Croatia,
Turkey). Some of the *stans.

Here's a map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:L...stribution.svg

Or in Moscow, Japan, China, Greece or any country using the Arabic

The latin alphabet is used frequently in russia and ukraine and I've
seen it used in greece too. I'd be surprised if its not used for
advertising as well as other things in japan and china.

It appears a bit in Bulgaria - things like station names. But they are
tiny and hard enough to spot even in Cyrillic.

Japan has romaji, but I've no idea where and how it is used.

alphabet (which used to include examples on every continent except
Antarctica and America).

Yes , well not any more.

Well, if the Moors call for a rematch in Spain....

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In message
, at
07:11:27 on Sat, 10 May 2008, alex_t
remarked:
The latin alphabet is used frequently in russia

Russia uses Cyrillic alphabet and latin alphabet is used very rarely
(the only related example I can think about is tiny transcriptions of
station names on some Moscow Metro maps).

I found Central Moscow very friendly to those of us only fluent in the
latin alphabet. The one exception was the Landing Card at the airport,
which is only available in Russian. I did think the airlines could have
made more of an effort to provide us with a translation.
--
Roland Perry

In message
, at
09:35:03 on Thu, 8 May 2008, MIG remarked:
Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

The display of your balance is somewhere that you have to train yourself
to look for (otherwise you miss it), but it's there.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 11:17:20 on
Sat, 10 May 2008, Paul Corfield remarked:
I can't think of a city anywhere that makes it easy for people with
loads of fresh, high denomination currency to use standard public
transport services.

They've solved that in Geneva, where previously you had to have the
somewhat unlikely amount of 3 Francs in coins only, by giving all
arrivals at the airport a free bus/tram/train ticket to the City centre.

In Lisbon you can buy a voucher (for about a tenner) which will pay for
a taxi ride from the airport to anywhere in the city.

A useful scheme would be an EU-wide voucher for a "bus/train/tram ticket
from airport to anywhere in that City" for about 5 Euros, and you could
buy a book of them in any place and use them later. In most towns you
could do better ad-hoc, but at least you'd never be stranded.
--
Roland Perry