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milkmanchris · Feb 10, 2005, 07:40 PM

Found this amusing

Swearing involved

Enjoy Guys

Mafia · Feb 10, 2005, 07:44 PM

lol i liked it.

iCol · Feb 10, 2005, 07:55 PM

effing tube strikes, always seem to happen when I visit mates in London. And to think, when I finish uni and get a job there I will have to put up with that s*** every day!

The Tube really needs a kick up the backside!

maxintosh · Feb 10, 2005, 08:49 PM

Eek, the NYC Subway isn't perfect but at least we aren't plagued by strikes... I can't even imagine what a pain in the ass that must be.

Well I'll be in London in a month... we'll see how the system performs.

TeknoTurd · Feb 10, 2005, 10:10 PM

LOL. ****ing worthless union lackeys. Great song. Get back to work you lazy arses!

willed · Feb 10, 2005, 10:45 PM

Got sent this the other day... why don't they just automate the whole system?

Isn't that what the Japanese do?

I have to say though...
NYC: couldn't understand the thing (although was only there for 48 hrs)
Paris: doesn't go as many places as Underground, plus is older/dirtier/more shoddy
Washington DC: Is cheaper and cleaner but doesn't have to serve as large an area

Sven G · Feb 11, 2005, 08:03 AM

Funny "arse" song; but the real problem lies a little deeper, probably: it's not like unionised workers are bad - they just are limited to today's unions' context, and thus don't solidarise with the passengers to change the whole transportation system. Sadly, it's yet another time "everyone for her/himself" - just another useless and counterproductive wall, when all barriers should rather be eliminated...

moonmonkey · Feb 11, 2005, 08:24 AM

What he said.

sugar_coated · Feb 11, 2005, 08:28 AM

Ribtickling funny!!

Simon X · 09:05 AM

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mitchell_pgh · Feb 11, 2005, 09:17 AM

I ride the DC metro on a daily basis... I'm completely spoiled. It's the best I've ever been on.

moonmonkey · Feb 11, 2005, 09:32 AM

Originally posted by Simon X:
I found the Paris Metro to be quite good, but it did stink of piss everywhere. I love Paris but what's up with this? Dog crap all over the pavements and stinking of piss in the Metro?

France stinks of piss, paris is in france no?

Goldfinger · Feb 11, 2005, 09:45 AM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
France stinks of piss, paris is in france no?

turtle777 · Feb 11, 2005, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
France stinks of piss, paris is in france no?

-t

maxintosh · Feb 11, 2005, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by willed:
Got sent this the other day... why don't they just automate the whole system? Isn't that what the Japanese do?

Yep, and the DC Metro is automated too. NYC's first automated line should open this summer (on the L train). DC was able to automate so early because the system is so young and pretty small. But cities like London and NYC the problem is much bigger, dealing with old switches and hundreds of miles of track that needs to be upgraded. It's going to take a while.

willed · Feb 11, 2005, 07:08 PM

Originally posted by Simon X:
Paris, older? Hardly. The Tube is the oldest metro system in the world, and it sometimes feels like it hasn't been updated since its inception. I found the Paris Metro to be quite good, but it did stink of piss everywhere. I love Paris but what's up with this? Dog crap all over the pavements and stinking of piss in the Metro?
[/URL]

I was in Paris the other week, and as I was waiting for a train in the Metro some guy, luckily on the platform opposite, just whips it out and starts pissing against the wall! He wasn't the most well dressed guy, but he wasn't a complete bum either. People just walked by like nothing was happening... but then I guess you would unless you wanted to get pissed on!

Bloody French

sideus · Feb 11, 2005, 07:29 PM

That's funny.

Mafia · Feb 11, 2005, 07:51 PM

Originally posted by willed:
I was in Paris the other week, and as I was waiting for a train in the Metro some guy, luckily on the platform opposite, just whips it out and starts pissing against the wall! He wasn't the most well dressed guy, but he wasn't a complete bum either. People just walked by like nothing was happening... but then I guess you would unless you wanted to get pissed on!

Bloody French

wtf?

RonnieoftheRose · Feb 11, 2005, 08:14 PM

Don't diss the London Underground. It's the one place on earth you'll notice people actually being themselves, and it's my third home (clocked up so many hours on it that it feels like I know every tile).

moonmonkey · Feb 11, 2005, 10:35 PM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
I ride the DC metro on a daily basis... I'm completely spoiled. It's the best I've ever been on.

Hong Kong MTR is pretty good too, you can also check your baggage for a flight in in the middle of town and they will transport it to the airport for you and pop it on your plane.

In my experience the trains are clean, fast, cheap and on time.

Its probably not as big as DC's though.

Angus_D · Feb 12, 2005, 05:14 AM

That song's months old, hadn't seen the flash though.

I was far more amused by the backingblair.co.uk site, but I probably shouldn't discuss it, it's too "political".

kenazo · Feb 12, 2005, 08:31 AM

I think the biggest downside to the Tube is that is shuts down at 12.30ish. WTF is with that??? I know I know they need to shut down to do maintenance and that's good but you think they would have thought ahead on that one.....

Angus_D · Feb 12, 2005, 11:44 AM

Originally posted by kenazo:
I think the biggest downside to the Tube is that is shuts down at 12.30ish. WTF is with that??? I know I know they need to shut down to do maintenance and that's good but you think they would have thought ahead on that one.....

Last trains suck. Fortunately I live on a night bus route. W00T!

paully dub · Feb 12, 2005, 11:54 AM

The Paris metro isn't so bad. We have one line that's fully automated, and a few of the lines have some fancy new trains. And the rubber tires means it's not so fucking loud like, say, New York.

We're open later than London by about an hour. And Paris is small enough that that's not too big of a deal.

But we've had a few strikes in the last ten years. One that lasted a couple weeks. That just sucks. And sure there are some homeless and winos around. Disgusting drunken behaviour, and the like, but all in all safe, reliable, and fast.

My favorite's New York, though. But man do they need a 2nd avenue line.

Amorya · Feb 12, 2005, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by paully dub:
The Paris metro isn't so bad.

I lived in Paris for a month (working) a few summers ago and really got to rely on the metro. IT was so cheap (�13 a week? Something along those lines), and seemed to function reliably and identically over the whole city.

Today I experienced London Underground for the first time since childhood. It cost �2.50 a ticket or so, one line was closed that I needed to use, each line seemed to have its own quirks (what's with the doors on the Jubilee line?)... of course, I also found everything backwards because of being used to Paris, but that's not their fault.

Checking the ticket as you leave is fairly annoying too.

Amorya

maxintosh · Feb 12, 2005, 07:54 PM

Originally posted by paully dub:
The Paris metro isn't so bad. We have one line that's fully automated, and a few of the lines have some fancy new trains. And the rubber tires means it's not so fucking loud like, say, New York.

My favorite's New York, though. But man do they need a 2nd avenue line.

24 hour service is one of the best features of NYC. It's mostly possible because of its 4-track design... it's very easy to reroute trains around construction areas. There are always a few "service changes" during late night service while they work on maintaining/upgrading parts of the track but it's easy to navigate around.

2nd Avenue subway line is in early construction, but as usual, the government isn't giving the MTA the money they need.

Rubber tires are unique in Paris but my understanding is they are phasing them out because they smell like crap and degrade quickly.

Simon X · 09:05 AM

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Oisín · Feb 12, 2005, 08:03 PM

The more I'm using the M (Copenhagen Metro), the better I'm liking it. Fully automatic, no pilots, very quiet, only rarely crowded, and goes 24/7 (albeit only at 20 minute intervals or something during the night). They used to have a lot of troubles with the system going down and the cars just suddenly stopping in the middle of a tunnel somewhere (never were accidents, thankfully), but that seems to be pretty much cleared up now. The only problems they have nowadays is that some of the escalators seem to be out of order rather frequently, but at least it doesn't stop you, just slows you down a little.

I like the ticket system very much - you use the same ticket (or multiple ride cards, or monthly cards) for all public transportation in Copenhagen, both buses, the commuter trains (S-trains), and the M. You pay about $50 (�40, �27) per month for that. And there's no real checking system for tickets. Once in a while there will be a ticket controller or two going through the train you happen to be on, checking whether people have valid tickets (it's a DKr 500 [$86, �67, �46] fine if you don't and they catch you), but that only happens to you about once every other week or so, if you take the M twice a day.

dcmacdaddy · Feb 12, 2005, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
I ride the DC metro on a daily basis... I'm completely spoiled. It's the best I've ever been on.

He's right. I've been on the underground in London and the Metro in Paris and we ARE spoiled here in DC. However, we don't have nearly the coverage of these other cities.

And it is coverage we could so desperately use considering that the metropolitan Washington, DC area has the 2nd highest concetration of vehicular traffic, and concomitant traffic tie-ups, in the nation. More people on Metro would mean less people on the roads.

kenazo · Feb 13, 2005, 04:24 PM

Originally posted by Amorya:
<snip>

Today I experienced London Underground for the first time since childhood. It cost �2.50 a ticket or so, one line was closed that I needed to use, each line seemed to have its own quirks (what's with the doors on the Jubilee line?)... of course, I also found everything backwards because of being used to Paris, but that's not their fault.

Checking the ticket as you leave is fairly annoying too.

Amorya

hehe it's an absolute pain when the Circle goes down (like this weekend) and you're trying to get around the centre....still possible but annoying

The other funny think is I was in Camden Town today and the Camden Town stop closes for the afternoon Sunday because of overcrowding. I can almost see why but it appears absurd to shut down incoming traffic to a Tube stop because it is too useful

Angus_D · Feb 13, 2005, 04:32 PM

Originally posted by kenazo:
hehe it's an absolute pain when the Circle goes down (like this weekend) and you're trying to get around the centre....still possible but annoying

If by this weekend you mean just about every weekend since 6 months ago and until some undetermined point in the future, then yeah

But actually it's a good thing. The District line was certainly long overdue for some attention.

techweenie1 · Feb 14, 2005, 04:48 AM

Hmm just got back from studying and working in London, took the District line every day to Paddington and the Circle line to South Kensington to catch my night classes at Imperial. The BS about signal failures was no fun...especially when I needed to be to class at a certain time, but overall the service wasn't too bad, had myself a crunchie or two to calm my nerves...unless of course the bloody machine decided to eat my 50p. Anyway glad I have missed the strike, I'm back to carting my ass around on my set of wheels here back in Chicago. Just be glad you Londoners don't have to take our public transportation system...the CTA, it's way more ghetto than the Underground will ever be and you think your trains and stations are dirty! Hah...try riding the Redline from 95th and the Dan Ryan up to Loyola...that's Eff'n dirty. We might have a bit cheaper faires...with the whole exchange rate and all, but we don't have the quaint candy machines or the minding of the gap and what have you...then again we don't really have any gaps to mind...anyway. The Metro in DC is probably the only really nice public transportation system in the states that I've rode on. I'm sure the CTA could improve...being that it is the 2nd largest system in the US, but I don't think enough people ride it to improve it, we all cart our own arses around on our 4 wheels...of course that means battling traffic on our awesome tollway system and IPASS and all those wonderfully wicked things...gotta love Daley

Randman · Feb 14, 2005, 04:55 AM

The Tube has its own character. That said, of all I've tried, Singapore's is tops: Clean, efficient and cheap.

techweenie1 · Feb 15, 2005, 01:01 AM

Updated Link (Naughty Four Letter Words involved)