In message , Mrs Redboots
writes
Ian Jelf wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:
the people I'd had the day before from another part
of the UK didn't venture outside Covent Garden during the r free time
because they wouldn't have dreamed of getting a tube or bus......)

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!
Indeed, it is for me, too. But such views, while not unknown are very
uncommon.

That said, do bear in mind that by definition I tend to deal with people
who book guided tours, so they tend to be the ones most likely to want
everything arranged for them. The problems arise when they want to do
something that isn't in an itinerary or is during "free time" but want
to be hand held to that, too.

I had very considerable grief from three American ladies a few months
ago up here in Birmingham. They had a City Tour with me for half a day
and then wanted to visit "Cadbury World" at Bournville. They had three
more days completely free (their husbands were attending a conference).
No amount of telling them that there were four or more trains an hour
from a station virtually next to their hotel cut any ice. They wanted
to know why I hadn't taken them there and kept saying that, while on
vacation, they didn't want to have to go around "figuring things out".
I felt very exasperated and this is perhaps an extreme example but it
does happen.

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

---patrick said:


In Paris, directions are on the
sides, and inside. Simple and logical.


The newer LU trains show the destination inside too.

Ian Jelf wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 2 Nov 2004:

That said, do bear in mind that by definition I tend to deal with people
who book guided tours, so they tend to be the ones most likely to want
everything arranged for them. The problems arise when they want to do
something that isn't in an itinerary or is during "free time" but want
to be hand held to that, too.

That's true. And I am the kind of person who would only book a guided
tour of a city if I only had a couple of days there and wanted an
overview! Otherwise, I'd figure out how to use local buses, and copy a
tour using them (we did that in Hong Kong, and it was half the price a
city tour would have been, and a lot more fun!).
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

John Ray wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:

Ian Jelf wrote:

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!

When did they bring space trains on to Line 1? Last time I was there, a
couple of years ago, we travelled on both lines, and line 1 still had
2nd-generation rubber-wheel trains.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

In message , Mrs Redboots
writes
Ian Jelf wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 2 Nov 2004:

That said, do bear in mind that by definition I tend to deal with people
who book guided tours, so they tend to be the ones most likely to want
everything arranged for them. The problems arise when they want to do
something that isn't in an itinerary or is during "free time" but want
to be hand held to that, too.

That's true. And I am the kind of person who would only book a guided
tour of a city if I only had a couple of days there and wanted an
overview!
No, I'm one of those, too! :-))

the fact that I don't enjoy "conventional" tours has - I think - helped
me in the way I do my job now.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Mrs Redboots wrote:
John Ray wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:

Ian Jelf wrote:

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!

When did they bring space trains on to Line 1? Last time I was
there, a couple of years ago, we travelled on both lines, and line
1 still had 2nd-generation rubber-wheel trains.

David Pirmann's tour of the Paris Métro at
http://world.nycsubway.org/eu/fr/paris dates from April 2000, and Line 1
seems to have been largely populated with the new MP89 stock at that
time. Incidentally, although he refers to the cars as "articulated",
they have conventional bogies on each car, not shared ones.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In message , at 13:15:04 on Mon, 1
Nov 2004, Mrs Redboots remarked:
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!
^
I think you've found that spare apostrophe you said Giles didn't need!
--
Roland Perry

Richard J. wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 2 Nov 2004:

Mrs Redboots wrote:
When did they bring space trains on to Line 1? Last time I was
there, a couple of years ago, we travelled on both lines, and line
1 still had 2nd-generation rubber-wheel trains.

David Pirmann's tour of the Paris Métro at
http://world.nycsubway.org/eu/fr/paris dates from April 2000, and Line 1
seems to have been largely populated with the new MP89 stock at that
time. Incidentally, although he refers to the cars as "articulated",
they have conventional bogies on each car, not shared ones.

Hmmm - thinking about it, it's quite possible I haven't been on the
Metro since 1999..... where does the time go? It might have been 2000,
but I'm not sure!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

Roland Perry wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 2 Nov 2004:

In message , at 13:15:04
on Mon, 1 Nov 2004, Mrs Redboots
o.uk remarked:
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!
^
I think you've found that spare apostrophe you said Giles didn't need!

I know, I know..... hand quicker than brain, and eye half-asleep, I'm
afraid!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

Mrs Redboots wrote:
Richard J. wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 2 Nov 2004:

Mrs Redboots wrote:
When did they bring space trains on to Line 1? Last time I was
there, a couple of years ago, we travelled on both lines, and line
1 still had 2nd-generation rubber-wheel trains.

David Pirmann's tour of the Paris Métro at
http://world.nycsubway.org/eu/fr/paris dates from April 2000, and
Line 1 seems to have been largely populated with the new MP89
stock at that time. Incidentally, although he refers to the cars
as "articulated", they have conventional bogies on each car, not
shared ones.

Hmmm - thinking about it, it's quite possible I haven't been on the
Metro since 1999..... where does the time go? It might have been
2000, but I'm not sure!

Just discovered that Line 14 opened on 15 October 1998, and that MP89
trains were introduced on Line 1 from 1996 or 1997, though David Pirmann
managed to photograph an older one still in service in April 2000.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)