GodAtum

Is it me or is the NYC subway way more confusing then the London tube? I'm an expert on finding my way around the tube but still get lost on the subway!

WillR

It's way more confusing.

And it's dirtier.

alanR

And full of REALLY strange people

GodAtum

lol how about Washintgon Dc metro, it seems easier becuase of the electronic signs we Londoners take for granted!

travelmad478

But a hell of a lot more reliable! And cheaper!

I have an easier time in NY (which, to be fair, I have been using my whole life, vs. about 6 months' cumulative time spent in London over the last 20 years). For me it is a lot simpler to choose between "uptown" and "downtown" instead of Epping vs. West Ruislip, for example. That doesn't do much for people who haven't the faintest idea where Epping or West Ruislip are!

RichardInSF

Well, the NYC subway is air-conditioned and the tube is not. The subway runs 24 hours a day and the tube does not. The subway is fixed price no matter how far you go and the tube is not.

But in both cases, the respective cities could not function otherwise.

Sunny 1

I've never been on the NYC subway, but have experienced the Washington Metro, the London Tube and the Paris Metro and the Paris Metro is by far the easiest to travel on, just guard your pockets...

jib71

It's all because verbal people in NYC made themselves heard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMKHXLBZrc

The_Diamond_Z

I think it's a cultural difference that leads to the services evolving to reflect its users.

NYC subways are great if you know in advance how to get where you're going (e.g. express vs local is really useful) and if you do it's a much more practical and efficient system. It's brusque but efficient.

London is much more egalitarian. It's easier than NYC if you're figuring it out as you go but there's no competitve advantage for knowing. It's more civilized but not as efficient.

All Metro's (or at least Paris, NYC & London) probably feature a certain aroma though I think the actual platforms in London are a bit less aromatic than NYC.

I don't think one system is better than another; it's just what's appropriate.

CMK10

I'd go to the mat for the New York City Subway for one reason and one reason only: Express Trains. The idea of getting from JFK to Manhattan or Yankee Stadium to Queens without them would be murder. London could use these too.

Oh and let me add some more reasons:
- Flat Pricing
- 24 hour service
- "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Please!"
- Easy bus to subway (and vice versa) transfers
- Air conditioning.
- Fewer advertisements in stations

Athena53

I've found Underground stations in countries where I don't even speak the language easier to figure out than the NYC system. Still, it takes forever to get anywhere on the London system and you may as well not plan your route till you find out which lines are closed for "improvements".

My latest venture into London I landed at LCY and the DLR tracks were closed. I got on the "replacement bus", got off at the wrong stop (Canning Town instead of Canary Wharf), got bad info from the staff there and ended up on another bus going someplace not on my map. A kindly woman told me that it stopped at Barking Station, where I got off and navigated my way to where I wanted to be (Baker Street).

I had begun to wonder why I'd scheduled this crazy overnight expedition on the way home from a business trip. Then I ended up having a perfectly delightful day- buying whisky, dropping all my bags off at a nearby Marriott (agreed to beforehand), walking though Hyde Park eating roasted chestnuts, checking out the Harrod's windows, catching the end of a Latin Mass at the Brompton Oratory and a few hours at the V&A. I backtracked, picked up my things, walked to Paddington and took the HEX to a hotel near Heathrow for the night. I realized later that things turned around as soon as I got away form using the Underground and used my feet instead!

tonywestsider

Well, the geography of Manhattan and the way the city is laid out lends itself well to having a "downtown" and an "uptown" subway configuration. Beyond "downtown", you know the subway is going to Brooklyn. Beyond "uptown", you know the subway is going to Queens or the Bronx. The subway lines support this type of wayfinding via an alpha-numeric system. "Take the A train Uptown", for example.

OTOH, London is not laid out like Manhattan. The city layout is much more complex where you follow roads because there is no street grid to tie a location to an intersection. So the Tube uses line names like the Circle Line or the Picadilly Line so that one understands the city by using the line much like how Londoners follow roads to get from one point to another.

Another difference between the Tube and NY Subway is that the Tube is a much older system with narrower tunnels and tube cars. These trains in London run at much slower speeds than NY's subways, if you were to just compare local train service in each city.

caGALINDO

Well Londons is pretty bad... lights flicker on some trains, if you get through 1 day without being stopped for 5 minutes on a train consider yourself lucky, construction everyday... I was there for a week and it was ridiculous.. Getting places was hard but I had my handy LONDON TUBE IPOD APP... which made it hellahh easy.

sajgidda

That's quite an exaggeration, take that from a Londoner. I think all things considered the London Tube is far, far better than NYC although it is quite expensive. I've never felt threatened on the Tube but some stations/people on the NYC Subway are a little too 'adventurous' for my tastes. I probably use the NYC Subway a couple times a day when I'm in the city, Tube is used far more heavily

However, just compare any system to Hong Kong, Singapore or my personal favourite, Tokyo, and you see just how far the rest of the world is behind Asia. I even had positive experiences in Taipei, Shanghai and to a lesser extent, Beijing

Yamanote Line, Tokyo FTW

Christopher

True, but equally "uptown" and "downtown" aren't so very helpful either if you don't happen to know the "town" very well and which one is where.

The London Underground often advertises the direction (not on the front of the train but on the signs pointing you to the platforms) – "northbound", "westbound" and so on. I find this helpful because I tend to think in terms of directions like this, but I appreciate that it would be of no use to some people. I guess a combination of systems is a good idea.