Public transit, how many have you ridden?

[Hound of Cullen]

Whilst in Montreal, I rode the Metro to get to a big market. It got me wondering how many subways/light rails/public transit systems I've ridden:

DC Metro
Boston T
NYC Subway
BART and streetcars
NOLA streetcars
Chicago El
Paris Metro
London Metro
Montreal Metro

Just under ten. How about you? Ridden a lot of subways? Like 'em? Hate 'em?

 

[sword_9mm]

I've rode the bus here in town once or twice.

I rode the monorail in Vegas. Does that count?

 

[w00key]

Hmm isn't this basically listing all countries/cities you have visited, well okay except some where you were on a bus tour?

As a tourist you generally depend on public transit, and that extends to taxi's, tuktuk if those are common mode of transportation.

 

[curih]

DC Metro
Boston T
NYC Subway
Philly subway/light rail
Baltimore Light Rail
Chicago L
Toronto Street Cars
London Underground and Rail
Paris subway
Rome subway and bus
Munich light rail
Copenhagen Light rail
Laussaune tram and regional rail

Public transit is great when people allow it to be.

 

[Da Xiang]

King County Metro
TriMet (Portland)
NYC — subway
Nanning Rapid Transit — all five lines
Guangzhou — subway lost track of which lines....
Hong Kong — DoubleDecker buses and subway
Shanghai — High Speed Rail
Beijing/Shenyang — buses
China — Subways, High speed rail and slow sleeper trains all over the country

 

[Hound of Cullen]

Hmm isn't this basically listing all countries/cities you have visited, well okay except some where you were on a bus tour?

As a tourist you generally depend on public transit, and that extends to taxi's, tuktuk if those are common mode of transportation.

No, I've been to a lot of cities with a rented car and relied on that for transit. Including some with public transit.

 

[abj]

SEPTA in Philly
L in Chicago
T in Boston
London underground
NY Subway
LIRR
CapMetro in Austin
MusicCity Star in Nashville

 

[Oddabe19]

You said public transit, so I'm including bus/cable cars/trollies/large equipment subsidized by .govs to get people from A to B.

Boston
NYC
NJ Transit
Red Rose (Lancaster City)
SEPTA
DC Metro
Baltimore
Amtrak Light/Regional Rail to commute between Lancaster and Harrisburg
Wilmington (DE)
Anchorage
Do Venician Gondola's count?
Kissimee/Orlando (as well as Mears, if that counts)
Paris
Ketchikan, AK
Westendorf, Austria
Zion NP Bus, if that counts

 

[sword_9mm]

Hmm isn't this basically listing all countries/cities you have visited, well okay except some where you were on a bus tour?

As a tourist you generally depend on public transit, and that extends to taxi's, tuktuk if those are common mode of transportation.

Went to London a few years ago and never took public transit.

We were in a big group and most things we saw were within walking distance of the hotel. The few planned things we did were in a coach bus. We did Uber once to the big park but walked all the way back as the bus routes were just as confusing as all bus routes are so we didn't trust ourselves to pick the right bus or whatever.

 

[FranzJoseph]

Whilst in Montreal, I rode the Metro to get to a big market. It got me wondering how many subways/light rails/public transit systems I've ridden:

DC Metro
Boston T
NYC Subway
BART and streetcars
NOLA streetcars
Chicago El
Paris Metro
London Metro
Montreal Metro

Just under ten. How about you? Ridden a lot of subways? Like 'em? Hate 'em?

My own EU country plus all its neighbours, so make that 5-6 just there (all modes from city buses, long distance buses to S‑bahn, trams, trolleybuses, metro, rail, ferries, cable cars)
Paris (all modes, including the city's excellent Vélo bikes)
London (all modes, Eurotunnel to get there)
Ukraine (all modes including marshrutkas* and ferries)
Romania (all modes)
Hungary (rail plus city transport)
Moldova (buses, trams, trolleybuses and marshrutkas)
Transnistria (marshrutkas)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (trams, buses, rail)
Albania (buses, ferry)
Croatia
Serbia
Greece
Italy
Spain
Georgia (the country, not the US state) (metro, buses, marshrutkas, rail)
Egypt (metro, buses)
Iran (metro, buses, rail, tuk‑tuks)
China (all modes except rail I think)

…need I go on? I don't think I can even count that high!

As for a favourite, I'll have to think about it more, but the most memorable would probably be marshrutkas in Georgia – their drivers are absolutely crazy on the crazy mountain roads, overtaking into a turn they can't see into while relying on a horn to clear the way – and one old passenger ferry in Albania, as it's cabin was just a body of an old German bus welded onto a flat ferry, complete with the windshield and seating.

* a private minibus that usually waits until it's full before departure and stops anywhere along it's route when flagged down, with a somewhat loose schedule

 

[FranzJoseph]

As for subways? Love them. Clean, nice, fast, even the ones (especially some of the ones) in former Warsaw Pack or Soviet countries.

Except for London's Tube which I hated. Quite understandable given its age, but to me coming from proper metros the whole system was a mess of stairs, narrow claustrophobic corridors and stuffy air...

 

[FranzJoseph]

Oh, and back then when Windows Mobile and Pocket PCs were still a thing, I had an absolutely awesome free and crowdsourced app that had public transport maps and routes for the bigger cities in almost every country in the world. Some good quality, some less so, but when the only alternative was to try to decipher Georgian script or Arabic, it was a godsend!

 

[Scotttheking]

Whilst in Montreal, I rode the Metro to get to a big market. It got me wondering how many subways/light rails/public transit systems I've ridden:

DC Metro
Boston T
NYC Subway
BART and streetcars
NOLA streetcars
Chicago El
Paris Metro
London Metro
Montreal Metro

Just under ten. How about you? Ridden a lot of subways? Like 'em? Hate 'em?

Definitely not all the cities I’ve been to, this is a fun thought exercise.
Notably missing is the southern United States. And that’s not the statement of places I haven’t been.
What comes to mind:
DC
New York
Boston
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Chicago
Philadelphia
Portland (OR)
Seattle (probably)
Various New Jersey suburbs of New York
Montreal
Toronto
London
Manchester
Glasgow
Other random cities in the United Kingdom that I can’t think of
Dublin
Paris
Nice
Marseille
Vienna
Berlin
Geneva
Hong Kong
Sydney
Melbourne
Cairns
Auckland
Wellington

 

[dferrantino]

It really is just a list of "cities I've lived in or visited", with the exception of London since I'm 90% sure we only walked or took cabs for the couple of nights we were there. Also feels like cheating since living in and around NYC you just kind of accumulate these as you go without even thinking about it. Also makes you way more likely to just take public transit when visiting any other city that has a system.

NYC Subway/Buses/SIR
Staten Island Ferry
LIRR
Metro-North
PATH
NJTransit
NJT Light Rail
SEPTA
Boston T
Chicago L
DC Metro
LA Metro (buses only)
BART

Assuming public/private counts, Amtrak, NYC Waterway Ferry, and Virgin Trains in the UK

 

[MacBrave]

Only the Chicago L.

 

[crombie]

Winnipeg Transit
Calgary Transit / LRT
Regina Transit
San Diego Transit / LRT
Halifax Transit
Durham / RDU Transit

 

[whoisit]

Seattle Metro
Seattle Light Rail
Chicago L
NYC Subway
SF Bart
Seattle Monorail (Westlake to Seattle Center for Kraken games. Maybe Supersonics games soon)

 

[Tijger]

I think my post would be way too long if I listed all of the public transport systems I've ridden all over the world.

From train to bus to tram to metro to cablecar to waterbus to underground to light rail to funicular and in more than a dozen countries

 

[fitten]

I tend to like public transport although we have pretty crappy public transport here in the USA. I am usually glad to use it when elsewhere. Not buses, but subway and rail. The main ones I can think of...

BART (Bay Area)
MARTA (Atlanta)
Chicago L
NYC Subway
Munich U-Bahn
London Tube and UK Light Rail
Lisbon Bus
Moscow Metro
Washington DC Metro
Paris water taxi


I've actually enjoyed traveling around the UK by rail. I've been Manchester <-> Liverpool, Manchester -> London, London -> Cambridge, London->Bristol, Bristol->Liverpool, London->Canterbury, London->Milton Keynes, London->Basildon, Basildon->Leigh-on-Sea and some others. Get on.... read, sleep, do work, whatever... Of course, getting around London by Underground is really convenient. It seems you're always just a hundred or so meters from a station and you can pop up pretty much anywhere in London in a reasonable amount of time. If you're with people, you can enjoy talking and all that while traveling.

 

[continuum]

How is this not a poll?

 

[Telwar]

I am aware of:

DC Metro (I mean, I commuted this way for well over 20 years)
NYC Subway (a couple of visits)
Atlanta MARTA

I have been to Chicago and Philadelphia, but don't think I have been on their trains.

 

[rtrefz]

Typically, US public transportation sucks. I can take 20 minutes to ride a bus in to work, or I can drive it in 10. There are exceptions. I've moved away from driving in Chicago when I go there, using the L instead. Portland Oregon had a surprisingly good public transport when we were there ~ 15-15 years ago.

We depend on public transport a lot more when traveling in Europe. I think we've rented cars twice. In both cases we were visiting places pretty far off the path.

 

[BobTheFourth]

Riding different public transit systems is one of my favorite things about traveling. I'll try to make a comprehensive list of what I've used...

North America:

• NYC Subway
• Atlanta MARTA
• Chicago L
• Washington DC Metro
• Los Angeles Subway
• Montreal Metro
• Ottawa BRT
• Toronto Subway
• San Franciso Muni
• Denver RTD
• Cleveland RTA
• Portland MAX
• Seattle Link
• Baltimore Water Taxi
• Disneyworld Monorail (this counts right?)

South America:
- Buenos Aires Metro

Europe:

• Paris Metro
• London Tube
• Lausanne Subway
• Geneva Light Rail
• Venice Water Taxi
• Madrid Metro
• Prague Subway
• Vienna Subway
• Amsterdam Metro
• Munich U-Bahn

Asia:

• Tokyo Subway (both!)
• Kyoto Light Rail
• Hiroshima Light Rail

I've also ridden trains in various places, including AMTRAK here in the USA. Also the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Japan. Obviously, nothing beats the Shinkansen, but the high-speed trains in Spain were pretty close.

 

[Doomlord_uk]

I guess for Americans this is a novel thing to talk about Over here, public transit is kind of normal. The only kind I haven't ever used is Uber.

[Edit] - I've never rented an eBike either.

 

[poochyena]

I've taken multiple trains across Malaysia
For the US, I've taken MARTA in Atlanta. Its a big downgrade over trains in Malaysia, but its so much better than driving. Driving in Atlanta is awful.

 

[FranzJoseph]

Oh, and I'd add that there is something inherently very satisfying in figuring out public transport in a very unfamiliar country. Like all its vagaries and intricacies that only the locals know. Like navigating a local long‑distance Marshrutka yard in Georgia, or figuring out whether the small village train and bus schedules as told by the locals in Western Ukraine are given in the CET (which the Westernmost parts sometimes used a few decades ago) or Kyiv Time, or even worse in Moscow Time under the more pro‑Russian president puppets a few decades ago.

Plus it's the same thing as with learning at least at least very beginner conversational phrases in the local language while travelling. It's just common courtesy and trying one's best at not being another dumb tourist, even if one invariably is in some way. I still often got some pretty nice entry fee deals only available for locals that way, and even if I rejected plenty of them thinking I could still afford the higher fee even as a dirtbag student from Western Europe, there is still something to be said for being able to at least haltingly communicate in any local language in the place one visits as a tourist.

Back to public transport, Marshrutka minibuses in the cities of many post‑Soviet countries operated on two different principles – "pay on arrival", or "pay on exit". Either way, you would just give the notes to the closest passenger who would pass it on through the crowd all the way to the driver, who would then pass you the change the same way. Nobody cheated or stole from it.

But it was this dichotomy in different Marshrutka‑using countries that was most interesting to me, and I'd often start any journey by asking the locals whether you pay Marshrutkas on departure or arrival.

Alas, modern Marshrutkas had become much more institutionalised than thirty years ago, basically becoming more like regular buses. Gone are the days of flagging one in traffic on a street corner to get in, or telling the driver to detour to the next village over from their regular route because that's where you wanted to go.

On one hand, a good thing. On the other, I still miss the slightly chaotic way of them then. Though I am pretty sure even the locals do enjoy much less chaos with more rules!

Anyway to get back on track (pun not intended), every time I had successfully figured out some remote foreign local transport in a totally unfamiliar city or countryside, it was a nice experience (even if sometimes feeling like solving a Cryptic puzzle!).

Up to that one where the only ones on the old Soviet train in the mid 1990s going around 15 km/h were me and the conductor rested our legs smoking belomorcanal cigs out of the open door and talking trains. Or the absolutely terrific homemade food offered to me on the overnight to Odessa by everybody in my open‑door sleeper with me offering them mine. Or all the other experiences and human interactions I'd have missed if I just took an Uber everywhere or whatever.

Still, two days of a train through Hungary's flatlands does indeed suck. There is only so much maize fields everywhere that I can manage!

 

[vassago]

Sound Transit (I'm very excited for the Crosslake Connection to Bellevue to open up next weekend!)
BART
Some train in Chicago to the airport...?

 

[Zoc]

Keeping it to subways/metros: NYC, Toronto, Montreal; London, Paris, Munich, Moscow, St Petersburg; Seoul, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Sendai.
Worst is Toronto, because it breaks down constantly. Best was Seoul, because it was cheap and went everywhere. Most interesting was Moscow, because the stations are so beautiful. Smelliest was Paris.

 

[whoisit]

Sound Transit (I'm very excited for the Crosslake Connection to Bellevue to open up next weekend!)
BART
Some train in Chicago to the airport...?

They've been running test trains across for at least a month now.

 

[Technarch]

Tokyo subway/ferry/monorail
Kyoto subway/buses
Tokaido shinkansen

Of these the buses in Kyoto impressed me the most, simply because I don't know how you run a bus service that actually stays on schedule in rush hour traffic.

 

[Backstop]

If people haven't lately, it's kind of amazing how good Google Maps (the app) is at doing trains and buses. I used it in Germany, and it predicted how long the waits for connections would be, how crowded the trains were and everything. The app pops up questions for people to answer, Is the train crowded, is it hot, etc, and passes that along.

So, my list is like... NYC, Boston, Chicago, DC, San Francisco, Cleveland, London, Paris, Dublin, Munich, Berlin... that's about it. Generally in the US we have a car.

I would not count taxicabs and ride-shares or E-bikes as public transportation.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

How is this not a poll?

Can't list all of the world's metros. That would take forever.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

Smelliest was Paris.

Boston in August reeked.

 

[whoisit]

Can't list all of the world's metros. That would take forever.

It's ok. Once the D.C. Metro is on the poll, it'll shit the bed and destroy the RAM of anyone who visits the site.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

[Edit] - I've never rented an eBike either.

Heh. I was dating a marathon runner for a while. She ran the Columbus, IN marathon and I was going to rent a bike from a bike shop to cheer her on. Sadly, they were closed. So I used one of the Citi-bikes that they had. I rode 30-ish miles on an urban rental e-bike.

After a race, the runners all compare notes at the bars. On this trip, people were like, "You were the whacko on a citi bike weren't you?"

 

[DaveJ]

I've only been on two subways - the London Tube, and the Tandy Center Subway. The latter was awesome as it made parking downtown a breeze.

Other public transit I've taken includes the TRE locally, and the London Tube, British Rail, and a train in Denmark from Copenhagen to Skodsborg while on vacation.

 

[fitten]

I guess for Americans this is a novel thing to talk about Over here, public transit is kind of normal.

Yeah... and I've always been envious Even when Brits complain about the Tube and light rail, it's still pretty fantastic compared to what we have. I would love to be able to just go get on a train on Friday afternoon and go to the beach or some other large city for a Saturday trip or the weekend (granted, some of our large cities are more than a day's train ride away unless we ever got some really fast trains). But then, I am envious that you guys can just go jump on a plane and in a couple/few hours be somewhere else in Europe that's pretty cool to visit... Italy, France, Germany, etc. or even just get on a fast train in London and head out... When I was working in Paris, the guy from the UK I was working with just came by (fast) train for the week or two we were staying (multiple trips, some were two weeks, some were one), and then went home by train.

 

[w00key]

No, I've been to a lot of cities with a rented car and relied on that for transit. Including some with public transit.

Oh right. Idk where you would do this in Europe or Asia but renting a car is common enough in North America I guess.

But with taxi's and Uber, I doubt I would be bothered to get an international driver's license and deal with parking rather than just hailing a ride for a short, few days trip.


Here cities are becoming rather more pedestrian friendly and introducing bigger car-free zones so even for locals with a car, it often makes more sense to just go by metro or park at the city's edge and take public transit the last few km.

 

[Louis XVI]

Off the top of my head, and keeping it to subways:

• San Francisco BART
• London Underground
• Paris Metro
• Athens Metro
• Istanbul Metro

(I think I might have also taken subways in Munich and Rome, but it was quite a while ago, and I honestly don’t remember.)

Paris’ was easily the best, and London’s was easily the worst.

 

[rainynight65]

In Germany:

Berlin (extensively)
Munich
Frankfurt
Erfurt
And generally regional and long distance trains

In Australia:
Brisbane trains and buses
Sydney trains and trams
Melbourne trams

Other countries:
France (subways, trams, the TGV)
UK (London)
Eurostar between London and Paris
The Talgo in Spain
The Gautrain in Johannesburg
Austria (Vienna, trams and airport transfer trains)

And a long time ago, buses in Havana, Cuba.