Train System

nwadeltaboy · **on:** January 19, 2008, 12:23:13 pm

How good is the passenger network in your country?

Blue Sky Mine · **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2008, 12:39:26 pm

Deutsche Bahn (German Railways)= Never on time, freaking expensive, just had a loooooong ennerving strike, the trains are dirty as hell, it is controlled by politics and by a manager called Hartmut Mehdorn, which means that it's a madhouse

Well, at least they don't crash too frequently

nwadeltaboy · **Reply #2 on:** January 19, 2008, 12:48:59 pm

everything the same for Amtrak except for the dirty part, the strike, and Hartmut Mehdorn. :|

Blue Sky Mine · **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2008, 12:52:31 pm

In addition I must say that most train systems I've been on aren't better in any way...

blue25 · **Reply #4 on:** January 19, 2008, 12:55:03 pm

Quote from: "nwaboy"

everything the same for Amtrak except for the dirty part, the strike, and Hartmut Mehdorn. :|

I use the other one, Metra [Chicago].
It runs through my grandma's town.
I thought my uncle was going to try to clean it up when he was mayor

He left that to the other one.
Marta [Atlanta] is an okay system

CornField · **Reply #5 on:** January 19, 2008, 12:59:59 pm

Quote from: "nwaboy"

everything the same for Amtrak except for the dirty part, the strike, and Hartmut Mehdorn. :|

Ever ridden Amtrak?

?

The trains are clean. They maintain as close to possible an on-time schedule as possible, considering they don't own the tracks in most places. They are no worse than the air travel system for delays.

The NorthEast Corridor actually makes money, has a phenomal on-time percentage. The trains are new, the equipment is in good condition, and Amtrak actually owns the tracks in most places. Prices for these trains are VERY reasonable. If they can ever aquire enough land to quad-track the region they will begin to supplant air travel out there.....

The long haul trains are expensive and the regionals are not too badly priced. The major downfall is that the train station is not in a good area in most cities.....(Chicago being a HUGE exception. Union Station is a masterpiece of construction. And the history contained within is astounding)

Hampo · **Reply #6 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:00:16 pm

Sh!te

blumage · **Reply #7 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:00:44 pm

Ferrovie dello Stato Sucks, it's just like Deutchbanh, Dirty, always late and expensieve fares. I Believe it's cheaper to fly with a lcc.

blue25 · **Reply #8 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:03:46 pm

Quote from: "Hampo"

Sh!te

Wow. Implying profanity.

At least that can get you banned, yet :wink:

Hampo · **Reply #9 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:23:00 pm

That's the only word to describe network rail

You can pay over £200 for Manchester - London - Manchester return, yet fly into London City airport (expensive...) for about £140! Only about £80 into Heathrow or Gatwick...

Now, which do you prefer

?

Sam

StephenM · **Reply #10 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:29:18 pm

Ireland is going to have the youngest fleet in Europe. And we are sending our "Hand me downs" over to the UK.

Its taken nearly 100 years but the railways are on the way back again in Ireland.

Plenty of service improvements and track upgrading to be done, but we have started re-opening and building new stations along with re-opening closed lines. Theres a lot of work done but a lot left to do.

gizgiz · **Reply #11 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:35:38 pm

Hong Kong by itself, very good...single system operated by the Mass Transit Corporation. They do both metro rail (subway and "regional") as well as intercity express trains to cities as far as Shanghai and Beijing.

I'm not sure about the ontime performance of the intercities (they run every 2 days or so, and 50% is owned by China's State Rail company, which sucks so bad they don't even mention departure times anymore), but the metro rail comes so frequently there is no need for a timetable. However, I did once need to ride the first Airport Express train 0550 and it was about 10 seconds early

Anyways, on top of every station there are signs relaying information about how much time remains before the next train arrives - this is always accurate because data is transferred from one station to another. Nearing arrival of one station, the train trips a switch on the rail and a message telling people a train is arriving is broadcast on the platform.

Regarding China state rail....let's just say I took it once and will never do so again. I won't even comment about on-board services, especially CLEANLINESS. Here's a simple run-through the boarding of a train.

A man dressed in what looks like a PLA General's uniform walks into the "waiting" room - a giant room with about a million people in which you stand. There are no seats.

He says, "Train no. 64 heading to Guiyang, please proceed to platform", in rough and highly northern accented Chinese (obviously reminescent of Communist times - this was a station in southern Guangdong, near HK). He uses nothing but a loudspeaker and a 4-foot tall ladder.

Two miniscule doors open and the million passengers file out.

People start shouting, drowning the man's pathetic attempts at Cantonese. The train was scheduled to depart at 1512. It departed at 1549. It was on-time.

You get the point

blumage · **Reply #12 on:** January 19, 2008, 01:55:37 pm

Quote from: "gizgiz"

Hong Kong by itself, very good...single system operated by the Mass Transit Corporation. They do both metro rail (subway and "regional") as well as intercity express trains to cities as far as Shanghai and Beijing.

I'm not sure about the ontime performance of the intercities (they run every 2 days or so, and 50% is owned by China's State Rail company, which sucks so bad they don't even mention departure times anymore), but the metro rail comes so frequently there is no need for a timetable. However, I did once need to ride the first Airport Express train 0550 and it was about 10 seconds early Anyways, on top of every station there are signs relaying information about how much time remains before the next train arrives - this is always accurate because data is transferred from one station to another. Nearing arrival of one station, the train trips a switch on the rail and a message telling people a train is arriving is broadcast on the platform.

Regarding China state rail....let's just say I took it once and will never do so again. I won't even comment about on-board services, especially CLEANLINESS. Here's a simple run-through the boarding of a train.

A man dressed in what looks like a PLA General's uniform walks into the "waiting" room - a giant room with about a million people in which you stand. There are no seats.

He says, "Train no. 64 heading to Guiyang, please proceed to platform", in rough and highly northern accented Chinese (obviously reminescent of Communist times - this was a station in southern Guangdong, near HK). He uses nothing but a loudspeaker and a 4-foot tall ladder.

Two miniscule doors open and the million passengers file out.

People start shouting, drowning the man's pathetic attempts at Cantonese. The train was scheduled to depart at 1512. It departed at 1549. It was on-time.

You get the point

I only took the KCR until Shatin. Never been to the boarder between HKG and China, I think that's Lo Wu. KCR or MTR or What ever it is are great especially on MTR where you get to speak on you phone even if you're under water. Connection between the lines are fast and efficient. Although the only one that seems a little bit far to walk. (HKG standard) is between kowloon tong with the KCR and the greeen Line.

dktc · **Reply #13 on:** January 19, 2008, 02:02:43 pm

Yea... MTR in HK is good.

The best trains (most expensive ones, with beds) between HK and Guangzhou or Beijing are nice, or so I heard from my family. But yea... they are not really that punctual, depending on the operating company and the track / traffic condition.

Amtrak... now I have heard really bad things with them~ Never took the train, but let's just say the service they have to the city where my college is located at is never on time (according to my classmates).

And I would like to point out the on time rate of air travel in US is... hmm... not good at best

(Seriously, the airports should implement high delay penalties like HKG, and force all airlines to be on their toe and to depart on time).

gizgiz · **Reply #14 on:** January 19, 2008, 02:51:33 pm

Quote from: "blumage"

I only took the KCR until Shatin. Never been to the boarder between HKG and China, I think that's Lo Wu. KCR or MTR or What ever it is are great especially on MTR where you get to speak on you phone even if you're under water. Connection between the lines are fast and efficient. Although the only one that seems a little bit far to walk. (HKG standard) is between kowloon tong with the KCR and the greeen Line.

KLT isn't that bad compared to Tsim Sha Tsui and TST East...that's a loooooong way to walk. And if you've heard anything about how they plan to extend the Ma On Shan extensions all the way down to Wanchai until Central has 4 lines going through it.....whoa......