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.

- 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.

- The Underground is mostly more frequent than the Subway, but the trains
are shorter, so the capacity of a line is less (i think); that and the
narrower, lower carriages means they're even more densely packed than in
New York (or rather, are packed to capacity for longer - i've been on the
Lexington Avenue line through the financial district in the peak, and
that's as bad as anything we have!).

I'd broadly agree with that. It's a while since I was in NYC but the
thing I found frustrating (i.e. different to London!) is the complex
service pattern and generally quite wide headways if you need a specific
service. It's OK if you can catch an express between your origin and
destination or there is a frequent stopping pattern of service. I have
used the Subway in the early morning and survived!

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.

- 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.

- Hmm, is south-of-the-Thames London comparable to west-of-the-Hudson
Jersey in transport terms?

I'd say South London's rail network has a far higher density that any
part of the NYC suburban rail network.

- A big one - London has rail links to all its airports! Stanstead has a
rail and a tube line, City has light rail (and used to have a railway
line), and the three outside the city, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, all
have trains. In NYC, JFK and Newark have AirTrains, but they're only
shuttles that get to you to Subway/LIRR stations, so there's no
single-seat ride anywhere useful; i don't think LaGuardia has anything at
all.

I think Stanstead should read as Heathrow!

- I think NYC yellow cabs are cheaper than London black cabs.

I don't use taxis.

- Cycling is, from what my American correspondents tell me, a much faster
method of suicide in NYC than in London!

Perhaps but I think London is now better at providing road space and
some level of priority for cycles than NYC.

- 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.

- Turkish, greek and urdu are other languages you hear a lot in London -
more so than the western european languages, in fact.

And in my part of London you'll hear most of the Eastern European
languages. Obviously a subway trip to Brighton Beach will make you think
you're on the wrong side of the Atlantic for Russia.

- 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.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!