My biggest complaint about the railway network in my home country of the UK is that we never really did the post-war high speed network thing that most European countries did. Nearly all of our mainlines were built in the Victorian era with small loading gauges and tight curves making running trains at high speed difficult. We are finally getting high speed rail "soon" in the form of HS2 but the project has been controversial, to put it lightly. Most trains in the UK are limited to 125 mph by rules requiring cab signalling for higher speeds, which makes long-distance journeys take far longer than they need to. A secondary complaint is the sheer amount of unelectrified track in the UK. Unlike Switzerland, there was never much justification to move away from steam in the UK, leaving many lines unelectrified until the 1950's and a lot still unelectrified now. Could be worse, I guess. At least it's not like the Irish network.

@markusstudeli2997

Жыл бұрын

Like the UK, Switzerland built most of its tracks more than 100 years ago. There's also no high speed lines, apart from a few new tunnels. Building high speed tracks here is nearly impossible, since the land is densely populated. If you want to build new tracks here, you have to build them underground.

@youreafurry8818

Жыл бұрын

Electrification is god awful in the UK the area I live in is full of so many rail ways and is just black on an electrification map. Obviously if you’re in the south east there’s near 100% electrification. There’s no excuse now, ever since network rail started using electric resistant paint the low clearance is far less of an issue. But the government is just so lazy and unorganised to just knuckle down and reach 90% electrification.

@edmund-osborne

Жыл бұрын

@@youreafurry8818 Totally. It felt a little bit absurd travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two biggest cities in Scotland, on a DMU until the Edinburgh-Glasgow mainline was electrified. Really feels like something that should've been done decades ago given the importance of that route.

@MTobias

Жыл бұрын

Britain sounds a lot like Germany. We also never built a real HSR network. Just some random copium lines.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

I think the lack of electrification is certainly problematic, speeds less so though!

The gates in front of the exit of the Amsterdam trams are there to keep the exits clear for people to leave the vehicle. You have to enter the tram in the front or at the central entry. Hence this is not a measure to force people to pay, but to speed up the process of boarding and leaving the vehicle. (This is what the GVB said about it)

@piderman871

Жыл бұрын

Indeed, it enforces the one-way nature of the exits.

@PatrikKron

Жыл бұрын

It's interesting to see how the opposite solution can be used to achieve the same thing. In the most southern part of Sweden (Skåne) ticket scanners was installed at all entrances of busses (both normal busses and longer "tram-like" busses) a few years ago to speed up boarding.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

That makes sense, though in pratice it has a similar impact on making entering and exiting more bothersome. I think you should really allow people to board or deboard from any door

@erkinalp

Жыл бұрын

@@RMTransit One should definitely tell this to Turkish agencies.

@Hollandstation

Жыл бұрын

@@RMTransit it's like the spanish solution on one side. but I found it rather confusing when I was on a amsterdam tram for the first time. luckily the new trams don's have those gates anymore

If you ask anyone in London to list their complaints about the rail network, they would have a *very* long list of complaints before they get down to level boarding. Definitely nobody is going to be offended by you highlighting a shortcoming. If you are looking for the worst example of platform to train accessibility in London, that is probably the Central Line platforms at Bank, and Bank is just an overall horrible station.

@davidty2006

Жыл бұрын

Biggest issue with UK network is well cost.

@rageshk7828

Жыл бұрын

As well as frequency up North

@fifabots

Жыл бұрын

cost, lack of high speed rail, easier to go north. Those are what we need. The platforms are far from the main issue we need fixed

@arklu8341

Жыл бұрын

Central line is way too hot

@bopit_exe2061

Жыл бұрын

The amount of bloody strikes were having

As a Brit my biggest complaints about the system are the inconsitent pricing and The fact that the system is basically completely offline after 11pm. If you want to go out in the neigbouring city or hell you just live in the outer boroughs of London and want to go out for drinks or you work in a bar you have to head home by 10 otherwise you'll end up on a bus for 2-3 hours. Im glad that there is at least the option of the Bus but I would love for their to be night time services even if they were only once an hour.

A lot of issues with these systems you don't really notice until they affect you. I thought the London system was perfect the first time I used it, but the 2nd time I went with a toddler and a suitcase, so I noticed the massive gaps, how hard it is to get through ticket gates, and HOW LOUD THEIR TRAINS ARE!

@henrytudor8537

Жыл бұрын

yeah, the deep level trains are loud. But the subsurface lines and Elizabeth lines are pretty alright. The worse in my opinion are the Picadilly, Bakeloo and Victoria

@galashery7264

Жыл бұрын

@@henrytudor8537 have you been on the Jubilee?! St. John’s wood to Bond street is the only part of the network where I plug my ears. It’s unbearable, and I always see many other people do so as well. It remains noisy all the way down to waterloo. I’m sure that if one travels regularly on this part of the line without plugging one’s ears this is a sure way of loosing one’s hearing.

@henrytudor8537

Жыл бұрын

@@galashery7264 nah, not used it to Bond Street.

I always knew about the gap (“Mind the gap”) in London, but never realized it was VERTICAL until we went there. Some stations you basically have to fall out of the carriage to reach the platform. That has to be awful for wheelchairs and parents with strollers. At least have a raised section of the platform with a ramp up like on some high floor trams (the MUNI in San Francisco had this when I was there a decade ago)

@choppership465

Жыл бұрын

yeah we do have raised sections on platforms around the network

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Indeed its quite problematic. Which is why a massive project like Crossrail not being fully accessible is crazy to me!

@petitkruger2175

Жыл бұрын

On (most) tube platforms there is a carriage-sized section of platform that is raised to allow level boarding to one carriage that has extra wheelchair spaces. It’s a good start, but doesn’t fix the horizontal issue.

@neeha9449

Жыл бұрын

Right? I was baffled and shocked about it when I first arrived there. More so when I went to Central Line's Bank. Not just the wheelchair users, I had problems boarding/unboarding with luggages! Thank goodness somebody by the door helped me with it or I would get stuck on the door lol.

@memediatek

Жыл бұрын

You forgot stations like willsden junction where it is a step down from the platform to the train too

One thing I noticed that really triggers me is something I noticed while watching the Tokyo metro video: The Tokyo bay bridge. I expected to see what rail line went over it, only to later find out that the aqua line is car only. Unsurprisingly for a demographically saturated metropolis, that industrial zone quickly turned into a dormitory city, saturating the highway with buses.

Honestly, the fact that Switzerland's trains can even go 300 km in 3 hours is already great given how unfriendly their geography is. But of course there are always time improvements to be made that don't involve maximum speed.

@filiaaut

Жыл бұрын

I think the fact that the advertised speeds are "low" make the schedule more robust. If your train can make the journey in 2h30 in perfect conditions, if you advertise it as a 2h35 journey, you'll have very little leeway to deal with unexpected delays, whereas if you state it is a 2h45, or even a 3h journey, if something happens, you can probably catch up by speeding when things go right. Of course, if there is a big incident, it won't suffice, but a lot of delays, at least in France, are relatively short ones. (The numbers I gave are not representative of any journey in particular, I have no idea about the actual minimum durations of train trips, I'm not sure that information is public) And while speed has always been an important marketing argument for the SNCF, I think people in Switzerland care about reliability more than they care about speed, and they certainly wouldn't tolerate delays as frequent as we have in France. Of course, it is not the only factor that can explain the differences in reliability between both systems, but I do think that they have different priorities and it affects the end result.

@fnorgen

Жыл бұрын

Yeah. Personally I value reliability over speed on trips of that length. I've been burned by missed connections a few times too many.

@jerry2357

Жыл бұрын

But Geneva via Bern to Zürich is in the Swiss lowlands, with no major mountains to cope with. Yes, it’s understandable that routes through the mountains are slow, but the terrain isn’t very extreme from Geneva to Lausanne to Bern to Olton to Zürich.

@Sacto1654

Жыл бұрын

Switzerland has an excellent transit system because it works very well given the geographical limitations of that country with its mountainous terrain in the southern part of that country. And the Swiss spent a fortune building various long underground tunnels around their largest cities to facilitate faster train travel.

@beyondEV

Жыл бұрын

@@jerry2357 the 200 km/h speed limit has another reason. safe spatial separation of trains depends on the square of the speed. quite a bit of the track would allow for higher speeds as well some trains would be capable of higher speeds. but there are so many trains running, that you couldn't fit them all if you increased the speed limit. and adding additional tracks would be very expensive (especially since most would have to be in tunnels, Swiss trains stations are in the center of the city.)

I'm from Switzerland and although it would sometimes be nice to see new tracks beeing buildt, or existing ones being upgraded, heck even building new ones in a way, that they can be driven on with higher speeds, there is actually a system behind the basicly non-existant speed increases in switzerland. Switzerland is a verry federalist country, which is a huge contrast to france for example. The density of population is overall quite high and not only in a few cities and there are a lot of midsized cities and towns everywere, so it was basically descided in the 80s, that only verry few individuals wanting to travel between the bigger cities would even benefit from highspeed connections in switzerland, because with all the stops in between, it wouldnt really make sense to accelerate eveytime and not even make it to full speed. And this small benefit for a huge cost, was deemed as not worth it. Building completely new lines in switzerland is incredibly expensive as well due to the high standards that need to be met in terms of environmental impacts, the relativly high urban sprawl and the resistance and need for cooperation with locals and farmers for new lines, the mountains and of corse the labourcosts in switzerland. So it basically comes down to tunnels most of the time and long ones too, where it gets even more expensive to be fast. So it was descided to first try to get everything out of the existing network with connections and timetabling to get travel times down for everyone in the whole area of the country, that was possible, and only increase speeds were really necessary. Today, with faster trains with better acceleration even with our population spread, higher speeds would be appreciated. But it remains not a priority, because it's just not deemed costworthy in a country, where journeys are under 4h most of the time anyway. Besides that, from the spacial planning perspective it isnt even desired to be able to, for example, travel from lake constance to Zürich in 30 minutes, because urban sprawl would even be encouraged by that, which there is a lot of effort to avoid in a country with that few naturally preserved areas already. The only ones benefiting really greatly from highspeed through switzerland would be business travelers and travelers only travelling through, and that's not what is deemed worthy the investment. And to the last point. Of course the travel between Lyon and Paris is far longer in distance but shorter in time than between Zürich and Geneva, but it's just a perfect illustration of the priorities in our country, because the journey between these two French cities may be incredibly fast and easy, but if you live only 50 km from one of them and want to travel to a destination 100 km from the other, you will see were the problem lies... The system is amazing for travellers and tourists, but not at all a replacement for locals or an instrument to reduce car traffic, because the overall French train system is kind of crap and very lowly financed. It would maybe take you only 3 hours for the huge highspeedtrip, but I'm not sure if you would get to your destination in a further 3 in France, here you are everywhere in those 4 h and that's deemed a far more worthy benefit for the cohesion of the country as a whole and therefore the clear priority here in Switzerland over the fastest connections between big cities.

@tomg1247

Жыл бұрын

Dominik, I'm just a multi-time visitor to your fine country, and I wanted to respond to RM Transits regarding the Swiss lines. You make every point I wanted to make! I agree completely.

@RTSRafnex2

Жыл бұрын

Yeah it's like he has completely missed the point of "Bahn 2000".

@vojtasTS29

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for saying this. Too many people see 300km/h in France and think that's amazing before they see the non existant public transport and deserted countryside towns everywhere else.

@domin727

Жыл бұрын

@@vojtasTS29Thanks. It is just quite simple. France is investing 45 Euros per inhabitant and year into its railway-network, which for european standards, is a laughable amount and can never finance a great network in a big arrea of france. So they did what a centralist country does. Provide great connections with that tiny amount between the centres with the biggest demand. It works but it leaves a lot of people wanting... To compare this, even Germany, which, contrary to what this channel, being of course a little biased by the often barely existent North American public transport system, leads you to believe, has a far from a perfect network and is with its 124 euros on the lower ranks, spends more than double the amount and its railway network has got really unreliable with tons of delays, because of too little funding, orientation only on profits for a long time, and to little infrastructure, and you won't get anywhere in Germany either... Here in Switzerland by the way, we spend the highest amount in Europe, 414 as of last year, bar Luxembourg, which I'm not counting because of its size. Switzerland's public transport system isn't perfect, by the way. I still see potential, especially in the countryside where bus services sometimes end at 8 in the evening and aren't provided at least every 30 minutes, but I still would take it over every other system currently in service.

@ferportoricardo

Жыл бұрын

@@domin727 As a non-European who lives in France, lived in Germany and travelled quite extensively to Switzerland, it never ceases to amaze the Swiss tendency to deflect any sort of criticism to your country by finger-pointing issues in France, Germany and Italy like they were third-world countries. 🤣French railway system is not perfect, but kind of crap? Only for travellers, tourists and not for locals? Come on. The French high speed network exists to quickly transport people from cluster A to cluster B, divert them from either long car journeys or airplanes, in a territory that is at the same time pretty large but sparsely populated outside these clusters. Efficiently, quickly and for a reasonable price. Regional travels are to be done with TERs - and here I agree, its quality varies greatly from region to region. With the introduction of low-cost high speed trains (Ouigo), they even managed to bring new customers who would not travel for the regular TGV prices. A unplanned/last minute trip from Paris to Lyon, Marseille or Nantes is currently feasible, affordable and no French would even dare to even check the airplane prices. Trains will be cheaper and quicker anyway. Quite good for the cohesion of the country as well, isn't it? The criticism concerning the Swiss railways expressed in the video is highly relevant from the French large cities perspective. From Paris, reaching the southern UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, western and South-western Germany is unthinkable by any other means rather than the train. Milan and Barcelona also enter in the list if we really want to avoid the hassle of airports. Concerning Switzerland? Geneva for sure, but anything beyond it becomes an endless journey and Zurich is a nightmare. TGV Lyria is still far behind Thalys, really a pity in this time in which we should really think twice before hopping into an airplane for environmental reasons. So yes, it is a surprise that the two largest cities (Geneva and Zurich) of a country which a) has a longstanding tradition in railways efficiency and b) invests heavily into transportation infrastructure (hello base tunnels?) still lack a faster train connection. It would not be great for the cohesion of the country but also for the cohesion of the continent? :) And to show you that self-criticism can be done without finger-pointing: the French high speed system is great but still has a few major pain points. Among them: Toulouse and the Cote d'Azur desperately need to be integrated to the high-speed network, as a line from Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand to Tours or Poitiers would do wonders to decentralise the network from Paris.

Regarding the Chinese HSR system, you have never heard of the massive annual migration within China that happens around Chinese/Lunar New Year have you? Those HSR stations are huge because they've had years and decades of institutional trauma of just handling all those passengers from BEFORE the HSR was built out. That one holiday period has more people travelling within China than the total populations of Canada and England combined twice over. The Thanksgivings Day holiday rush is already a big enough traffic sink here in the USA and that is just with 10% of the US population doing that. Over in China, about 200 million (or 1 in 7) people travel for CNY. You try to handle that many people in your standard European stations and see how that goes. This is a solution that is catered specifically for China's needs and interests and absolutely considers exceptional situations like dealing with CNY.

@LukeRichardson1981

Жыл бұрын

Yes, this is exactly it. Stations in China are designed for maximum passenger load. Anyone who has ever experienced an older train station in China during the 40 day Chunyun (Chinese New Year travel period) as I have will appreciate why Chinese HSR stations are built as large as they are. It should also be noted that while Chinese HSR stations do have security, you can still easily arrive at most stations no more than 30 minutes prior to your train and have no issues catching your train - try doing that at an airport!

@hentaioverwhelming

Жыл бұрын

@@LukeRichardson1981 LAX (especially the International terminal) is how many times bigger than these stations and still can't get its act together during off seasons. And this was before the pandemic lockdowns. I've heard that things are even worse now for departures but I already hated my experiences of picking up my dad at the arrival terminal.

@anrvrx

Жыл бұрын

I think the big issue with China Railways (not only high speed) is that the frequency and level of service are those of an airline and not those of a suburban or intercity railway, as is Japan instead. The railway is almost never used for suburban travel (it is not designed for that, with very few exceptions), where buses are usually a preferred choice, and due to the low frequency almost all trains run at capacity every time.

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

@@anrvrx For suburban travel mainland China has expanded its metro/subways instead traditionally, though some more recent CRH trainsets are designed for intercity travel (based on Bombardier Regina I think) e.g. circumference around the Pearl River delta

@barvdw

Жыл бұрын

while I understand that reasoning, couldn't it have been somewhat more flexible? Like how you build queue areas that allow to make the walk to the end of the queue shorter. If feels over the top to maintain this maximal set-up for the entire year

As an İstanbulite, I think our metro/tram system has other major problems other than the fare gates on tram lines -which didn't bother me at all- such as fare itself and coverage.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

A lot of that stuff (coverage at least) should be fixed in the not so distant future.

@alexfrancisburchard4708

Жыл бұрын

@@RMTransit Also, T1 (the line you showed) is probably the most overcrowded line in the city. This weekend, I went to Sultanahmet with friends, and the tram had to proceed at a walking pace in places because there were too many pedestrians and the road is too narrow for them to get out of the way, and the inside of the tram.... As usual, was stuffed, it was leaving like half a train's worth of passengers on each platform because there just wasn't any more room to shove in. T1 needs platform lengths to double or more (trams already come every 1-2 minutes). And when T5 finally makes it to Eminonu, I don't imagine that will improve the situation.

Getting the little things right: In Melbourne the passenger information screens will sometimes say "listen for announcments", but the audio quality is so bad that the announcement is unintelligible. By contrast Japanese systems have invested in good audio, and passenger information screens that provide the information without requiring the audio announcment.

@firefly1509

Жыл бұрын

Bad information screens are so frustrating, a pet peeve of mine is scrolling information messages that either only appear some of the time or keep resetting before scrolling all the way, making a frustrating experience (like partial outage on a line) even more frustrating (making it unnecessarily hard to understand what's wrong/whether one needs to find an alternative route). Or just information screens that are completely blank/disabled, or busy showing ads instead of upcoming stops inside a vehicle.

@fallenshallrise

Жыл бұрын

Same thing here. There are screens all over the place in the stations that display the weather and adverts. There are screens in the trains that tell you what the next station is. But if there is a major problem it's audio only over garbled speakers that I can't make out. And over half the people on the train are wearing earbuds or headphones anyway. This is basic user experience design stuff and it's really easy to get right. What if I'm deaf, can I get the info I need? What if I'm blind, can I get the info I need. What if I don't know the local language well and I only know the name of the stop or the number of my route, do I get the idea that there is an alert that I should be finding out more about? If it works for those groups it will work for everyone else.

@ThomasNing

Жыл бұрын

if you've been, what do you think about the ones in Sydney?

@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042

Жыл бұрын

From what I have seen, Sydney and Brisbane do a really good job of announcements, and PIDs. Melbourne I don't think is bad in most places but they seem to do a worse job of attention to detail when it comes to making sure everything is actually working. They still had CRT televisions for the PIDS at Caulfield in like 2017 or something.

@thurstonkuriata7929

Жыл бұрын

The passenger information systems on the Comengs that have not received the latest refurbishment seem to consistently announce that the train is arriving at the station that it has already departed from... I imagine that this does not make for a very useful system for those who are unfamiliar with the network.

As someone who lived in Turkey for a few years, I can say that the turnstiles in Istanbul (and Turkey in general) are an unfortunate necessity. It is the only way to guarantee people will pay their fares. The honor system will not work there, unless there are frequent ticket checks with very high penalties, or many people will just risk getting caught to not pay the fare. Even with the turnstiles, some people (I've seen this first hand) will attempt to enter the station by crossing the street/tracks and then get yelled at by the security guards at the station. This is the reason why Istanbul's commuter rail system, Marmaray, is operated more like a metro (with turnstiles), because checking the tickets of thousands of passengers each day is near impossible without it.

@TheFarmanimalfriend

Жыл бұрын

People with no integrity screw people with integrity all the time. Transit is one more example.

@cw4959

Жыл бұрын

All the more reason to fully subsidize transit and make it fre

@randomscb-40charger78

Жыл бұрын

Aren't you famous for cats just casually sitting on them?

@traindude80

Жыл бұрын

@@randomscb-40charger78 cats run the city. Humans are just their subjects haha

@randomscb-40charger78

Жыл бұрын

@@traindude80 Based. If cats were in charge of CAHSR, they could've built all of phase one in half the time and money. Cats are more competent than humans. Reject humanity and embrace feline supremacy!

On the subject of fare gates, you do overlook the role they pay in crowd management at platform level. During times of heavy foot traffic, fare gates act as a filter controlling the flow to platform level, when even that exceeds safe levels staff can close gates in order to reduce flow, thereby preventing dangerous crowding. if done smartly, these are a very effective tool in managing passenger flow through the station.

About the speed of rail in Switzerland: From city center to city center, the rail is currently competitive with the car. It take exactly the same time by car between Geneva and Zurich than with the train. However, why hasn't Switzerland built more high-speed rail ? I could probably cite a few reasons. 1. Cost. Of course, the geography of Switzerland isn't favorable for high-speed train, but so are some regions in France and Japan, so this isn't an excuse. I think the problem is more that the cost of terrain makes it very expensive to build anywhere: all the flat regions have been built upon. Also, getting the authorisation to destroy buildings for a new line is incredibly difficult here (you can't force somebody to move out. The renovation of the railway station of Lausanne took a lot of delay because residents nearby refused to move out). Also, every citizen can oppose any project, which has always legal implications. Then, big projects that cost a lot of money are always voted upon, so high-speed rail isn't favorably seen by the villages which wouldn't benefit from the lines going through the village. I am not saying these problems don't exist in other countries, it is just that they are particularly pronounced here. 2. Induced demand. A lot of people are already commuting from long distances (Bern - Zurich for e.g., where there is high-speed) because of the excellent transit system. If you build more high-speed rail in Switzerland, you will have induced demand and people commuting from even greater distances, favorizing urban sprawl. And I think this is not seen favorably by the population. 3. Regional focused. Switzerland tries its best to have great coverage of the whole country. So the country first focused on connecting everything properly before implementing high-speed rails between big cities. As a regular user, I have to say that the lack of high-speed trains in Switzerland doesn't bother me too much. The country is tiny enough that you can almost get anywhere in 3h, so this is okay for going anywhere for a hike or visiting a friend in another city. However, if you want to go to international destinations, the lack of high-speed is more annoying.

@markusstudeli2997

Жыл бұрын

From a national perspective you're completely right. If you look at it from a European level, it would make it much more attractive to take the TGV from Bern or Zürich to Paris, for example. High speed lines should not be planned on a national level only, but considering connections to major European centers. Faster connections to Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne, Vienna, Paris, Milano, Rome and Lyon could replace much of today's air travel.

@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest

Жыл бұрын

I think Switzerland also has too many terminus. Like seriously, Zurich in the middle of the country being a terminus?

@railotaku

Жыл бұрын

@@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest Haven't they built a new Underground through line in the last few years. In any case I've seen the Swiss reverse a local hauled train (not push pull, actually swapping locos) in 4 mins - at a big station like Zurich with a high turnover it can be done during the course of the normal stop time.

@joachimk6540

Жыл бұрын

@@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest There are 8 underground through tracks in Zurich main station. Lucerne main station is the last big terminus station, but there are plans to make a underground through tracks.

@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest

Жыл бұрын

@@joachimk6540 You two are correct, but it does show that terminus stations are not really that great if they need underground extensions.

London’s obvious problem is heat. It’s severely uncomfortable in all the deep level tube lines, and it isn’t something easy to fix. Price is another problem. I wasn’t too careful one day, and a day trip’s worth of tapping in and out around London shaved £25 off my Oyster card.

@ryanbittman6468

Жыл бұрын

Paid CAD$44 (£27.50) recently for a 1h30 one-way Thameslink journey from Cambridge to King's X on a weekend. Ticket was sold by a different operator (Greater Anglia, couldn't find any Thameslink or Great Northern ticket machines which I used in the way up. Paid 1/3 of the price), no option for child price that I saw, and being charged for "peak travel" on a weekend is just ridiculous. Greater London really needs to tackle it's price on transit use. *It's possible the machines and staff were just straight out ripping off tourists. The thought that a railway company would do that is appalling.

@1nbp

Жыл бұрын

£25? The zone 1-9 daily cap is £20 (although you could’ve used a service that doesn’t use TfL’s fares)

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

@@ryanbittman6468 I remember the machines sell you tickets only for same-day (& next-day (on some operators)) travel; if you buy over the counter you can also buy further in advance which is cheaper (mine was £9 in 2017)

@ryanbittman6468

Жыл бұрын

@@lzh4950 I went to the counter and they gave me the same price which was ridiculous

@UserUCKANAOD8SlYguEhbCkUdlMQ

Жыл бұрын

​@@1nbp Trainline fares are not the lowest. Plus Trainline charge fees. Use any train operators website. Each train operator sells tickets for each other one but there are occasionally cheaper fares which can only be bought direct through the train operator whom you are travelling with. Trainline can find some cheaper fares but not always. They charge fees and they have the wrong times on their system very often (they sell tickets long before the timetable is confirmed so basically sell you a ticket and hope that the train runs. If not, you're out of luck as they don't like customer service. Please, never book through trainline). As for 'sold the wrong ticket'. Sadly with the UK, one thing that they haven't worked out yet is removing 'peak' tickets from sale when it's not peak time. Ticket machines normally only sell tickets for same day travel and so at weekends, there should be no option for a peak ticket, it should only be off peak tickets sold. That is one areas though where the UK rail network needs to improve.

There is one major thing you missed when talking about the Chinese stations. "Golden week " in China is insane and the stations are sometimes filled to the brim with the millions of people traveling in that period. I assume there are multiple of these periods but GW is the one I experienced and you just needed the space to manage the massive queues for people waiting to get access to the platforms to avoid crowding on the platform themselves.

@perniciousoctopus

Жыл бұрын

Yeah he literally says the train stations are too big, while showing clips of the train stations being absolutely jam packed with crowds. Even with the huge stations, I had to line up outside when it was too full before.

@bugsygoo

Жыл бұрын

The problem comes down to the usual paranoia that he CCP I stills in everyone in China. This myth that they need to keep you safe from the big bad world. A friend of mine had a Friggin kitchen knife confiscated while entering the station, ffs!

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

@@bugsygoo Meanwhile I was almost stopped by station security because I had a stapler in my bag. Am thinking if its related to a bookseller in HK who allegedly had his thighs stapled when questioned for selling anti-CCP books

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

@@perniciousoctopus Lining up outside the station is also because ID checks are performed on passengers I heard, to prevent ticket scalping

@anubizz3

Жыл бұрын

​@@bugsygoo why sometimes related to public transport becomes political?

Even the best transit system KZread channels have their (audio) flaws.

@michelangelobuonarroti4958

Жыл бұрын

💀💀

@unclestarwarssatchmo9848

Жыл бұрын

ouch

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Its KZread!

I'm so on two minds about the situation in Japan. I've visited the country 16 times so far, and indeed, the countless different operators can make things more difficult than it needs to be. But I'm also a train fanatic, and all of those operators contribute greatly to the sheer variety of trains in Japan. Every company is doing things their own way, and it's fun to see (and ride) the tiny oddballs within such a huge system.

@gabriell.4440

Жыл бұрын

I want to visit really badly. I hope they open up to solo tourists soon.

@lik7953

Жыл бұрын

It’s great to have many operators for train enthusiasts, but not so much for the vast majority of people. For example, the UK has so many rail operators, which is very interesting to me. But it makes transfers, pay as you go trips, and customer service a headache for average travelers

@1955DodgersBrooklyn

Жыл бұрын

As k2101 said, that's great for people like us, but it's a nightmare for people who just want to get from A to B

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely, there are always arguments to be made both ways!

@lontongstroong

Жыл бұрын

Depends on which part of Japan you go to. In Kanto, interoperability (through service between multiple operators) is already in place for years, which allows passengers to pay just once to get to destination at the other end of the line that is operated by other operator. In Kansai (with Kyoto as the biggest offender) on the other hand, not so much. Sometimes two lines that are supposedly intersected if they exist elsewhere aren't even seamlessly linked at all, not even with a dedicated walking path or a pedestrian tunnel/viaduct (I'm looking at you Keihan). Or even worse, ALL operators choose the same route and leaving much of other parts of the city (particularly the well-populated suburbs) grossly underserved, for example in case of Fukuoka, Shizuoka, and many mid-sized cities.

Also a big problem of Chinese HSR network is that you're banned from using it if you criticize government.

@shauncameron8390

Жыл бұрын

Or your social credit score is not good enough.

I have recently traveled on the Chinese High-Speed Rail. I get out of the subway roughly 10 minutes before my train leave and I still manage to catch the train. The security check only took me about 1 min.(it's at noon and the station is pretty crowded.) Then I find the right gate and tap the ID card to get to the platform which cost me no time. Although the run across the vast station nearly killed me and it's kinda hot in the station, unlike an airport. It's a pretty fast process actually. Tho the scale of the station like many buildings in China might be more of a statement piece. Large station like Guangzhou South is actually constantly overloaded. Also, the stations need to accommodate for the Spring Festival travel rush.

1:30 - I do have "a bit of pride" for the place where I live (Zagreb, Croatia), and that's why I find its flaws and shortcomings even more maddening than a guest would. BTW, there is an adage here: "A good horse has thousands of flaws, a bad only one."

There ought to be a ticking clock on the soundtrack of these videos with a bell going off when he mentions Toronto.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

I have to! I live here!

I'm so glad that you brought up the fact that Americans are actually self-aware of the faults of their systems compared to people in regions that are considered rail successes. One blaring fault that came to mind when you said this and I only realised last week when I watched the Adam Something video on it was that international rail travel in Europe was quite bad because of how poorly synchronised the systems were with each other (given that they were developed separately by each nation) and therefore crossing national borders is extremely slow.

@rakandzakwan6402

Жыл бұрын

Im pretty sure Railway Explained channel was talk about the international train service in Europe that back then was successfully operated but then discontinued due to reasons. I wish that service is revived with latest technology so railway can be mayor alternative for short haul flight between European countries.

@barvdw

Жыл бұрын

It definitely ads a lot of complexity to an already complex system. Different signalling systems (and train staff that needs to be trained for it), different voltage systems, different operating philosophies, even (the closed train system à la TGV, with compulsary reservation, compared to the more open system by DB, where you buy a ticket for a connection, more than a train)... But even within these limitations, we could and should do a lot better.

The fragmentation of (mostly private) Japanese transit operators can also have a very limiting effect on trips taken. Whether it's in big cities on the suburban railways, or even in smaller cities between the tram and parallel bus lines, most of the systems compete, and-by nature-there is little fare integration. You will generally pay separate fares to ride separate systems, making certain trips cost more and making it costly if you have to make a large amount of trips in a single day. Kyoto is one of the cities that I think suffers from this immensely. The railways in the city are highly disjointed and not fully maximized, often resulting in people making bus trips instead and then those bus trips become extremely crowded and slow.

@Sacto1654

Жыл бұрын

This is where something like Suica or Pasmo become REALLY useful. These pass systems work on most transit networks in Japan--fortunately!

@daisukiman

Жыл бұрын

@@Sacto1654 IC cards in japan are a funny one. They almost universally use the same Sony FeLiCa technology as the backend, and most cards issued in big cities (including Tokyo's Suica and Pasmo) are usable in other big cities. However, inter-operation (which only started in 2013) is not guaranteed, as some cities do not take part and often have their own IC cards for the local system only (such as Nagasaki's streetcar and bus IC card). You can also only ever stay within the zone you tapped in - i.e. you cannot cross the boundaries of IC service areas, or the cards will not let you tap out (for these trips you must utilize a standard paper ticket or pass).

@daisukiman

Жыл бұрын

@@Sacto1654One additional note is that while IC cards can provide inter-line compatibility, they almost never provide free transfers or transfer discounts when going from one operator's system to another, or even from one mode to another, as this concept is simply not recognized in Japan. Yes, there are no free transfers from bus to subway or vice versa, with the exception of Sendai, which I believe is the only city to offer it in full. You will pay separate fares. (Kyoto does however offer a combined day pass for the municipal bus and subway systems, at slight premium over day passes for either the subway only or the buses only. But you cannot ever free-transfer to any private railways or even competing non-municipal buses. Hence the issue.)

I would argue that the biggest fault with London's Underground is it's stations when less mobile persons are travelling. My mother tried to avoid the tube when she visited London.

About Japan though : its rural lines are falling apart. The reckoning is coming as thousands of kilometers of tracks are about to be shut down in the foreseeable future, due to lack of funding. Sadly the government appears to think that cars are (still) the way to go...that's why I prefer Switzerland : whether urban or rural, everybody gets decent transit service. Even if it's just a postal bus every hour...and it's often a train.

@brokeafengineerwannabe2071

Жыл бұрын

This ties with the rural decay problem of japan. An aging population that worsens the ridership, lots of outdated nonelectrified single-line railways, and the lack of staff to serve and maintain rolling stocks and stations. Only the big cities can support and expand a large metro and/or train system even though the population is decreasing.

@fallenshallrise

Жыл бұрын

In Japan the highways are income generators for the government with high tolls. Every additional car is worth thousands per year in revenue.

@MSTS33

Жыл бұрын

Not completely : it was a political choice to privatize the railway, and not to invest in it. At the same time, the state invested heavily in new roads and expressways. And I'm not convinced it makes the government a lot of money, as it reinvest most or all the profits in loss-making expressways. One extreme example is the Rumoi line (Hokkaido), set to close in March 2023, has seen falling passenger numbers as the population declined...and a toll-free expressway was built right along it!

@HenryMidfields

Жыл бұрын

Yes, as a Japanese, I can attest to all of this. In addition, smaller cities are generally car dependent. While I'm not sure of the exact extent, I would not be surprised if the extent of car dependancy in some places were comparable to North American cities, considering that the ratio of car to families in some preferctures of outer Greater Tokyo goes over 1 or maybe even 1.5 cars per family. Only Toyama and Utsunomiya have a light rail system comparable to regional European cities.

i think the case made about japanese railways applies equally to the uk and its franchising system (that is on the way out but still). it’s even sillier in the uk as it’s not even like the tracks are owned by different operators. the rails are all nationally owned, but just split up for literally no reason. there are about 10 different companies operating london’s massive commuter network today compared to the singlular NSE system in the early 1990s. another similar link is that we are bad at consolidating our central mainline stations and connecting them conveniently. having 15 smaller termini is stupid when there could be one large one. in london, a trip from the south coast up north means going to one london terminus, taking a tube a few stops to the other side of central london, and then getting on a separate one, while paying for all of these separately. thameslink and crossrail help with crossrail 2 coming as well, but just even combining these prices into one ticket with a cheaper price is such low hanging fruit to reduce the complexity of making a journey across london by rail. also, trains just need to be less expensive as well.

@moofey

Жыл бұрын

Ah yes, the good ol' public-private partnership, where the government is like "We own these, but don't want to run them." We have that here in Vancouver where the entire transit system is split up between multiple companies: Coast Mountain Bus Company, (most buses) First Canada, (community shuttles in the southeast part of the city and handicapped services) West Vancouver Blue Bus, (Buses in West Vancouver) BC Rapid Transit Company (SkyTrain Expo & Millenium Lines and the West Coast Express) and ProTransBC. (SkyTrain Canada Line) The whole thing was government-run until the mid-90s, so if anything, it went in the _opposite_ direction of what the UK is doing.

@railotaku

Жыл бұрын

UK does at least have integrated ticketing, you can buy a through fare for any journey. Japan is a bit trickier as generally you would have to either purchase a specific transfer ticket from an office, or buy a new ticket at the interchange station (fares are distance based so cost is similar) - the IC card system has helped somewhat as you can tap on to most trains in urban areas - but even in Tokyo there are a couple of operators that don't accept the IC Cards. Also when changing between operators you will need to clear a set of fare gates between the platform of operator A and operator B. One example of how ridiculous things can be is at Narita Airport, where the Keisei Platform is divided in 2 - trains stop at one end or the other depending if they are a local or the the Airport Express, halfway down the platform is a set of gates, local passengers must pass through the second gates to avoid being charged Premium Fare on the airport service.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Having the integrated ticketing is a big differentiator though!

@neeha9449

Жыл бұрын

last point is so much needed. I could cross a country with a lower price in Europe compared to going from London-Scotland. More so if you decide to buy on the same day 🤦‍♂

@cyri96

Жыл бұрын

@@RMTransit This is probably the thing Switzerland excels the most in, considering the level of integration here is that basically any of the Major Rail companies down to small bus companies and even some mountain railways/cablecars, etc are fully integrated and can sell Tickets for each others services.

My personal pet-peeve is transit supervisors, operations and other staff that are issued company cars or trucks and don't ever step foot on or try to use the transit service they are supposed to be experts on. IMO policy decisions from the top down are possibly the most difficult to change, even more than buying new rolling stock, adding routes or extending lines. In Vancouver we had gate-less payment for 25 years and it worked fine until the transit authority decided that they needed their own police force to crack down on fare evasion. Then they replaced all the ticket machines with a tap card system with fare gates but didn't eliminate the now redundant and useless transit police who drive around all day in SUVs doing nothing of value.

Immediately when you talked about the huge Chinese stations I thought about Japans concept, where it is completely feasible (normal even) to switch trains in 4-5 minutes, even changing platforms. As you say, the concentrate the Shinkansen platforms so it is _easy_ to switch. Overly large stations just add to the changing time, having more people walking around rather than at the platforms or moving in the trains.

@nehcooahnait7827

Жыл бұрын

You got it wrong. Chinese railway and train stations are designed for long distance travel (long for a European country) and it acts accordingly like an airport. People rarely switch to a connecting train for more than once unless they change means of transport. The things you describe work for a smaller country with less (much less people); Chinese metro mostly work like that.

@cooltwittertag

Жыл бұрын

4 - 5 minutes is supposed to be fast? It never took me longer to change in a German station and tbh they're mostly pretty mediocrily designed

@brokeafengineerwannabe2071

Жыл бұрын

@@nehcooahnait7827 What he was saying is not wrong. It is a plain fact that using HSR in China is more troublesome. It is just that it's less of a real problem in China.

@57thorns

Жыл бұрын

@@nehcooahnait7827 I was describing Japan, has a decent amount of people and is not that tiny.

@idot3331

Жыл бұрын

@@57thorns Compared to China, Japan is tiny, both in population and land area. Journey times in China can be much longer, and passenger volumes much larger.

As you said, Reece, changing timetables in Switzerland isn't easy. Trip times can only be reduced by 15', 30' or 60'. I don't really know what's going on between Zürich and Geneve, but I can tell you for Shure, that despite all the difficulties, timetables in southern Switzerland changes about every year, and travel times are constantly reducing. Travel times between Zürich and Chiasso (border to Italy) do decrease every year. From 3h30 to 3h15 to 3h00. Travel times between Chiasso and Milan increases every year. From 0h39', to 0h43' to 0h49'... Thanks to the new Ceneri tunnel in southern Switzerland, you can now travel from Lugano to Zürich in just 1h53, which is crazy compared to the more than 3 hours of some years ago That said, trains in Switzerland does not usually travel really fast, but it's worth mentioning the motto of Bahn2000 project: ''Not as fast as possible, but as fast as is needed"

The tramway stations in Santos Brazil not only have fare gates, but they also have platform screen doors, so people can not walk around the fare gates and acess the platforms

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

I generally do like my trams with platform screen doors!

When I went to Tokyo with my family, I noticed there were women's only cars. While they are intended to reduce sexual harassment and assault, my mom said that this is a failure on society and government in making sure passengers don't get harmed. Unfortunately, she has admitted that she was a victim when using Seoul Subway before visiting Tokyo. She also said that in America, she does not have fear of being harassed when using SF's BART system and DC Metro.

@lesbianesti

Жыл бұрын

I think the issue of sexual harassment and assault on public transit is very important, both for passengers and operators. I've been on a bus where the operator was met with some gross sexist comments by a passenger before, it's scary. We have to talk more about it

@alistairlee7604

Жыл бұрын

@@lesbianesti Sorry for the late reply. I agree that sexual harassment must be dealt with in order to have a better and safer public transportation.

Having traveled multiple times in Japan, I have to say there is another negative aspect of its transit system: rural connections. In the great cities, the transit is incredible, but if you dare to go to tinier cities, the transit frequencies becomes sporadic. Example: Akita - Morioka (about 300'000 people each, 1h30 travel time) has its last service at 8pm, and starts again the next morning at 6 am, and has a service every hour or so.

@cubasfidelcastro

Жыл бұрын

That's an issue here in Germany too. If you live in one of the large cities like Berlin, Hamburg or Munich you are still fine even late in the evening, but once you enter rural areas or smaller towns services becomes hourly or bi-hourly, especially on weekends, and terminates before 9 PM, severely limiting it's basic usefulness and making it even more unattractive for people who can get around by car.

@lontongstroong

Жыл бұрын

And even with such sparse service, those rural lines tend to be delayed most of the time.

@HenryMidfields

Жыл бұрын

Yes, someone aside from my fellow countrymen finally gets this! The amazing public transport only really exists in Tokyo or Osaka. A lot of smaller cities (and even some suburbs in the aforementioned two metropolises) are surprisingly car oriented, and have also been suffering from depopulation. Hence, a lot of rural lines don't have anywhere near the same level of service.

@woodwart

Жыл бұрын

Service every hour is extremely good. In similar parts of Europe you’re looking at a few trains per DAY. I actually missed the convenience of that in rural Japan when I moved to Europe.

@joachimk6540

Жыл бұрын

@@woodwart not in Switzerland. Considering that most towns with > 5000 people get every 30 minute service, I think this is really good.

In paris a few days ago a saw an injured man even with 3 peaples help having to struggel for over a minuete to get through there extreame gates. Also shown in paris is that even if you have advfanced fare gates and cheap tickets you still get lots of fare doging which high fines and occasional checks can avoid.

Great video! Living in Japan I would say a big issue with transit here is that while transit is great in major cities, the fact that all railway companies are private (including ex national railways JR) means service in rural areas and small towns is pitiful (often one train every two to three hours) Part of the reason smaller cities in Japan don’t have good transit or trams is also that they are very similar to the North American car centric sprawl. There is no lively dense city center that would help foster public transit. It’s a very unfortunate thing, because transit in large Japanese cities is so great.

You make a good point for the Swiss network. A lot of infrastructure improvement are ongoing but they are unlikely to lead to travel time reduction. They would rather increase capacity. One can just look at the dwell times in Bern or Zürich on IC1 or IC5 which can stay at station for 7 to 11 minutes just so that the half hourly schedule is followed. Unfortunately the small infrastructure improvements that might lead to a few minute of reduction in travel time are likely to just be eaten up at stations where the train have to arrive on the half hour or hour. They can however lead to a reduction in travel time between two consecutive or major stations (see Bern-Lausanne as an example).

For Europe, my number 1 Transit System Flaw is still Cross-Country Traveling that overall is really horrible, making railroads an awful option, a few exception like the Eurostar, but thats only like London-Paris, and pricing is not that great for it neither, but as a whole. Traveling fast with high-speed thru Europe is a pain, as most countries just have their own high speed nationally, and not inter-connected. Spain for example have excellent High-Speed, but try traveling from Madrid to Lisbon with Railroad. I know there are some plans about the railroad, but PT gov pushed for that to be moved to be completed by 2030.

@markusstudeli2997

Жыл бұрын

Countries only focusing on their internal networks is indeed a big problem. Take Germany for example. Switzerland build two transalpine high-speed base tunnels and Germany is about 20 years behind upgrading the Rhine line, connecting them in a meaningful way. Italy for once did it a lot better and faster.

@KaiHenningsen

Жыл бұрын

That's so strange to hear here in Germany, where interconnections with our neighbors are usually pretty normal (I don't know much about the eastern border, though). There are TGVs running to some German cities, ICEs to French, Austrian, and at least I believe Netherland destinations (unsure about Denmark since the end of the diesel ICE-TD, which did go there; also unsure about Belgium), and the aforementioned Swiss train also goes to Germany, and of course lots of non-HS trains. (In fact, at least for a time, NS and ÖBB were running some ICE trains lent or bought from DB and still carrying the basic DB livery, just with a changed logo - reminiscent of the time when an ICE sported the Amtrak logo.) I still remember, from my youth (over 40 years ago), the many times radio informed about train connections being cut at the French or Belgian border because of railway strikes on the other side.

@christofferdh

Жыл бұрын

@@KaiHenningsen I did say there are some exceptions, but overall the interconnections between countries, specially with high speed rail is very poor, even with Germany and bordering countries its a lot to be desired, I know there have been some improvements in the last few years, but still its one of the things that makes flight the number 1 choice for distances where people could consider rail-service.

@lws7394

Жыл бұрын

@@KaiHenningsencross border rail is really not good. In Netherlands there are only 3 proper cross border connections : A'dam to Brussels, Cologne and to Berlin. The other crossings are really bad and cumbersome.( And for Berlin there is even sometimes a loc change i think). There is no direct train to Hamburg/Denmark and to Prague you have to transfer multiple times. That means that you have to plan slack time for transfers , for the risk of delays. That is even more so when you have to make reservations. For example when you want to go to Brussels or Lille from the eastern Netherlands , you have to calculate so much slack time before leaving in Amsterdam,, that HSR make no sense, time and price wise, that you take a sliwer intercity.. For Prague , you would expect that from the main hub Frankfurt would be a direct train. Instead you have to deal with 2 or 3 extra trains ( and again plan in slack .) That means to go to Prague by rail, complicated ! Google even suggest tobuse a flixbus !🤔🧐

@ajfrostx

Жыл бұрын

@@KaiHenningsen I'm a regular passenger on French-German interconnecting lines and while they are not awful, the infrastructure on the German side is pretty bad. It is all value engineered to make it as cheap as possible without any possibility of future growth. The German part of the rail line to Strasbourg for example is shared between local slow trains and high speed trains - so it cannot really be high speed, numbers of both local and high speed trains are limited, and it still has level crossings (!), and there are no flying junctions upon connection to the Rhine mainline which severely limits capacity. At least they mostly eliminated single track - so at least something...

I know everyone talks about how dirty the NYC subway is but that is not its worst trait. It's really how on some lines one delay can cause a massive cascade of delays because of extensive reverse interlining.

personal thoughts: 6:26 In many busy cities, fare gates arnt the "bottle neck", but the trains are. Gates help regulate the passanger flow in a manageable level ensure the platforms and corridors are not dangerously overcrowded thus safe for everyone 11:16 Thats only from a tourist stand point. If I am a commuter in Japan, i want train companies to compete and strive for better including doing things differently, instead of standard or unifying.

@jonathanma2741

Жыл бұрын

I think its a weird idea that one country can only have one country-wide railway ststem. i think competition is good and the European style of open access rail operator thing dont work coz its not real competition. I think the Japanese way where train companies (mostly) operating their own train on their own track to and from the same destinations real competition, and it is something the world should learn (especially the so-call anti monopoly EU)

@waffluru

Жыл бұрын

To add to the latter point and second comment, the EU is in fact trying to further diversify (regional) rail operators to foster competition. So even there it's seen to be a good idea! (As long as the payment systems are integrated) Though this has not been tried with metros yet, no European urban area is as big as Tokyo to begin with Also as a Jakartan with a sorely lacking amount of rail transit, fare gates don't do anything to prevent the platforms being overcrowded lmao but that is more due to a lack of service. Though some stations clearly lack enough fare gates for how much they should serve and can end up being the bottleneck (looking at you, Velodrome LRT)

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

I don't really agree that this is only true fromm the standpoint of tourists! I know people who live in Japan and still find making multi operator journeys annoying!

@Alexander_C69

Жыл бұрын

​@@jonathanma2741 Competition is not good for natural monopolies such as railways and utilities, the duplication of networks is very costly in terms of capital, resources and land, and splits customers meaning companies have less capital to covers costs mean that in best case scenario (Outside exceptions like Japan.) is all but one of companies will succumb to destructive competition or an small company survive by providing an specialised service, in worser case scenarios you have multiple companies too poor to invest in better service, or to busy to trying undermine their rivals to provide a good service as seen with the railways in south of London before they were grouped into Southern Railway. Japanese railways are an exception because how heavily urbanised Japan is meaning that there can be sufficient number of passengers to sustain all of the companies, and Japanese railways companies makes a large part of their income from their real estate investments.

@greghall4836

Жыл бұрын

​@@RMTransit Coming from Sweden, a country where every bus or rail-operator has it's own payment system that needs to be researched before travelling, I was quite suprised by your pick of weakness for Japan. During my visits to Japan, in hindsight I've probably travelled with something like 15-20 train/subway/bus/tram operators, in multiple cities in different regions, paying everything except Shinkansen with the same Suica card. Admittedly I was mainly traveling through urbanised parts of Honshu. Is there a comprehensive map or list somewhere of which lines/parts of the country is (not) yet part of the standardised system?

I've only visited Tokyo once and speak/read no Japanese so of course I was going to struggle somewhat with transit there, but I found the fragmentation to be extremely confusing. I'm glad to see it called out, because to me it really puts a damper on how excited I can get about what is often treated as the best system in the world.

Montréal has free access at 6 stations on the weekend right now. That also deceases fare checking. An improvement.

@shauncameron8390

Жыл бұрын

That's only for stations located Downtown.

Re: fare gates, the DLR in London has it right I think. No fare gates, just tap in and tap out and sometimes somebody comes around with a card/Oyster scanner to check passengers have paid

4:04 In my home country, China, the boarding process of trains is a HUGE pain in the ass, in which you have to arrive an hour earlier, walk across those painfully large concourses, and then go through multiple ticket gates and security checks. As public security constantly improves, I really hope that it'll get simplified one day!

@azure_kisaragi

Жыл бұрын

4:21 But what I have to mention is that, even relatively smaller cities in China often have got MILLIONS of population, so the size of those stations actually kinda makes sense anyway.

Finally someone saying that about switzerland!!! I live here and this is something I often discuss with other people, that in my opinion the "Taktfahrplan" Just makes it very long to get to for example from Zurich to Geneva. Especially annoying in my case is that they made a train connection which I take everyday from around 29 minutes of riding time to around 32 minutes, which is counter intuitive that with newer technologies the rides take longer, especially in a "highspeed" train.

I think TfL got ticketing right. One may use, but don’t need an Oyster card. Every normal bank issued card with standard RFID basically works. The fare is calculated automatically between zones, and converted to a day-fare (or similar) after a certain threshold. No need to “top up” or otherwise maintain the card balance, as long as the card has funds. Sure, there are additional benefits within the TfL Oyster system, but for touristy or pragmatic use, it just works. I don’t know, but TfL may serve the largest number of “first timers” at any given time as a transport system in a huge city. Either way, it’s popular among visitors, so “something” must be right… 👍 from 🇳🇴

@Malte_OJ

Жыл бұрын

I thought it was really great as a tourist. Even in other cities in my country, it sometimes takes me some time to understand the ticket system and buy the right ticket. The system in London is very easy to access.

One thing about fare gates that's often overlooked is whether they actually reduce fare evasion enough to justify their cost. This will of course differ between systems, but in many places it would be more cost-effective to just have delineations ("beyond this line, you're required to have a valid ticket").

On your comment on Switzerland: there's a reason why Swiss trains don't go any faster, and it's not the timetable, it's the mountains. Between Paris and Lyon? It's flat, you can put a straight rail for kilometres on end, wide radii for your turns. Between Geneva and Zurich? Even if it's flatter than other regions in Switzerland, you still have to zig-zag between mountains and lakes, and worse, avoid cities. Because yes, France between Paris and Lyon is quite empty, or at least empty enough that you can make a path for high speed without impacting inhabitants. But since Switzerland is mountainous, the only places where you can have high speed rail are also the same places people build their homes. So it's really hard to build any new rail infrastructure, and that's why Switzerland is mostly updating its current system rather than building anew. Which makes it hard to speed up. But in the end, it isn't much of an issue, since as you mentioned there's the integrated timetable, and everything else is also slowed by the mountains (cars, planes aren't really practicable in Switzerland either, too small).

I'm gonna come in and defend the fare gates here. I live in London, for context. Most tube & rail stations have fare gates, and no tram or DLR stops (except stations where they are inside another station, such as Bank or Wimbledon). I much prefer a fare gate setup. It generally feels faster due to the more orderly queueing (and most stations with fare gates having enough so that there aren't queuse), and I also don't have to worry about trying to find a reader to tap on - which can be more of a headache than you think. A prime example of this for me is Heron Quays DLR, where all the ticketing is in the centre (machines and readers), but the stairs to the platforms are on the edges - meaning you can't take a direct route out. This could be solved by having more standalone readers, yes, but then you'd just have large queues at those in rush hours.

@eurovision50

Жыл бұрын

Completely agree. I don't understand what his proposed alternative was. Free transit? Because those card readers solve literally no problems.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Thats traditionally been one of my main reasons for liking fare gates, but honestly theres no reason the readers need to be hard to find or off to the side, thats just bad design!

Id say by far the biggest problem in the UK (as a resident) that you probably miss if you go to greater london (where I live) Is how much the whole country's network radiates from it. The English mainline network is, for the most part, a series of mainlines radiating out from london with some connecting, lower quality, branches. For the most part, if you take a city in the country, there may be reliable service to London and anywhere along the route, but cities in different directions often face much lower quality service. This london-dependance is at least partly caused by how london-centric the governing of the UK often is.

@shauncameron8390

Жыл бұрын

Because London is the UK's economic engine.

Regarding fare gates, as someone who was in Hong Kong for 2 years and used the MTR a great deal, the simple solution is to have people pay with a tap card like the Octopus Card. Often times, the MTR's fare gate only breaks down because of the stupid paper ticket reader breaking down. Move everyone to a tap card system which has no moving parts on the gate system and you simplify and streamline this issue for everyone.

Saw an absolutely wild gap on the central line the other day, can't remember exactly where, I think it was at St. Pauls, but it was honestly like a foot gap between the train and platform. It is a curved platform, and obviously the train can only curve between the units, so at some of the doors, you end up with massive gaps where the door isn't anywhere near the platform. Was fun for me, I found the biggest gap and jumped over it deliberately. Can't imagine it would be very fun for someone with accessibility issues.

I'm with you on faregates, especially for systems that only let you use a ticket once. On the RER last month, I didn't realise that the entrance I used was only good for one direction, so I had to buy another ticket. And a faregate just plain didn't open for me in Barcelona last week, but took my ticket anyhow, and there weren't any staff available to help.

Thank you for this video. Great contribution! I think

annotation to the second last point: Swiss Rail The goal of swiss rail is to have short transfer times. All the trains are arriving befor xx.30 or xx.00 and are departing after xx.30 or xx.00. If now the travelling time is shorter that system isn`t working, because the IC 1 from Zürich HB to Geneve Cornavin have 3 stops on the way. Today is it working that all trains are arriving at the same time. And Switzerland have today about 200 km of highspeed rail. Thank you for the nice video

Level boarding is by far not the biggest problem with the UK rail network. The biggest structural problem is that of centralisation - trains go to central London and that's it. As you were a tourist, it's understandable that you'd not notice it, but trying to get from suburb to suburb, or city to city that aren't on the same axis away from London, is an absolute nightmare. Train times between big towns and cities outside of London are appalling, and often the rail connections don't exist, or are once every 1 or 2 hours. + Literally no-one's gonna be offended if you mention something bad about our transit system, it's barely functional. While yeah, train accessibility IS an issue, and it IS one we're trying to improve, focusing on that as *the* issue is denying the systemic problems people outside of London face whenever they want to visit friends or family in what's sometimes the next town over, or even when people IN London want to go to the next suburb over (especially considering how the vast majority of Londoners don't own cars, or own 1 for an entire family)

@haweater1555

Жыл бұрын

Here in Canada, we can only wish that intercity rail could be "once every 1 or 2 hours" .

@youreafurry8818

Жыл бұрын

Are you kidding? The UK has far better train frequencies between big cities than basically any other country. High frequencies are the strength of the UK rail network For some comparison- cologne to Düsseldorf: 111 trains per day for 20 miles apart Manchester to Liverpool: 139 trains per day for 30 miles apart What intercity connections are running over 1 tph?

@Alexander_C69

Жыл бұрын

​@@youreafurry8818 Manchester to Liverpool only has so many trains becasue so many trains from Liverpool to the other major cites goes though Manchester, Manchester to Sheffield which is roughly the same distance as Manchester to Liverpool has 83 trains per day and Nottingham to Lincoln which are county cites only 40 miles apart only has 33 trains per day. It is even worse when get to the trains which only go between towns and cites Matlock to Derby which is closer together than the cites mention before only has 28 trains per day, and Grimsby to Lincoln only has 18 trains per day.

@youreafurry8818

Жыл бұрын

@@Alexander_C69 and I’m sure Düsseldorf to cologne has trains that continue onto Frankfurt or the Rhine Ruhr. some of those frequencies you have mentioned are extremely high by any other countries comparison. 28 trains per day between Matlock and derby is incredible given that Matlock has a population of 9,000 Just picking some random French towns Caen and Le havre pop (100k and 150k) distance: 31 miles. 8 trains per day Pretty similar to Grimsby and Lincoln but slightly more populated Just compare any pairs of towns and frequencies are all pretty great in comparison to anywhere else. It’s kind of useless to bring up frequencies with no comparison. UK trains have problems mainly congestion, lack of electrification and long journey times over the Peak District, but frequency is not one of them.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

The point of the video is not to address the single greatest problem with each system, but to address A problem which exists in each - and this is a problem!

7:33 When you said that, I immediately thought of Amsterdam. When I visited, I didn't think anything of it, but it does seem odd in retrospect, especially as a German.

Re faregates, the UK policy is to open the gates (or at least the wide gate) if there is a staff shortage or technical issue. I think this is required by law. Faregates are common even for intercity in the UK, in part because they can't be bothered to actually come round to check tickets (for Bamber Bridge - Lime Street - James Street - Moorfields - Ormskirk - Preston, the only physical on-board check was Ormskirk to Preston).

@railotaku

Жыл бұрын

Yes, UK law requires the gates to be open if there isn't staff present - some stations have remote monitoring at some gatelines - but still must have staff on site (Exeter Central's main entrance is staffed, but the back entrance is remotely monitored from the main entrance)

I think the Italian high speed network is both underappreciated and imperfect. The twice daily Rome-Milan nonstop train for example is a great thing that not many countries are doing. The route network as well is just about as good as it gets, one north-south axis one east-west axis plus the spurs to Genoa and Bari (I think it's worth to question the value of the latter project, sure its ment to bring opportunity to the Southeast but it's a massive risk). At the same time tho extending the network all the way down to Reggio Calabria will have little tangible benefit and the money should be spent upgrading the conventional network to get trucks off the road, and/or upgrade one of the Milan-border, Bologna-Venice or Bologna-Verona corridors. As well as that the delays are quite problematic, though that's more an issue of the very ubiquitous terminus stations. However I have to say that for HSR the pricing is cheap, especially if you book well in advance and I feel that's the main reason it has been so successful.

@KaiHenningsen

Жыл бұрын

DB has been getting yelled at a lot that ICE4 can only go around 250 km/h when ICE3 gets over 300 km/h. The sad fact is that we don't have that many routes where a train can go over 200 km/h, both from how good the tracks are (tracks for >160 km/h need to be grade-separated and have large curves), but especially from how far apart the stops are. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons for the move to EMUs which can accelerate faster because of better power distribution.) Also, people are not usually aware that DB is still buying more ICE3 trains, not just ICE4 ones. ICE4 are slowly replacing the IC routes, which trains max out at 200 km/h currently. As for the main video point, Germany is very aware of a lot of our shortcomings in that area, because we've allocated a lot of billion Euros to fixing them, as well as organizational projects for improving the ticket situation. We'll see how that works out. One unfortunate reality is that problems with tracks are behind a lot of delays (the most-criticized problem), and yet repairs, by necessitating temporary closures, will lead to even more delays. "It will get worse before it gets better." (Also, there's a lot of action around reopening old branch lines that were closed _to save money_ (and thereby cut off many potential riders, costing money) around half a century ago.)

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

The Italian network certainly is not perfect, but it is getting much better!

@mancubwwa

Жыл бұрын

Well avarege speed of 140 kph is still very high compared to a car when you take into account bathroom breaks and fuel stops. And say what you will about the network, but the Italian high-speed trains are absolutely top notch. Frecciarossa 500 is definetly the best train I've been on, and I hear Italo trains are even better. Also I encountered less delays in Italy than I did in Germany somewhat ironically. However, I found older Italian regional trains not very nice or comfortable, so there is room for improvement there.

@gulagkid799

Жыл бұрын

The main reason for the relatively low average speeds between Florence and Milan is that sections of the Milan-Bologna high speed line are currently undergoing maintenance so for some of the route the train needs to take the legacy tracks, if you look at schedules after the 27th of August you should see journey times decrease back down to 1h 50m and average speeds increase to 170kph.

@michelangelobuonarroti4958

Жыл бұрын

@@mancubwwa Yeah deffy. One thing I didn't touch on was ticket prices. It's pretty darn cheap for HSR in Italy. And idk if you've been on it but the Frecciarossa 1000 is even better. It has free WiFi that's if memory serves even good enough to stream stuff sometimes (though prolly low quality not exactly sure about that) and it is one of the quietest and most comfortable trains I've been on.

In defense of switzerland, the integrated timetables and frequency are really worth it imo. Also getting HSR in the mountains is kinda difficult. But most importantly Switzerland is generally slow/averse to change. They really like the good old "don't fix what isn't broken" mentality. I.e, they won't a change system that they spent years/decades into perfecting.

Chinese stations have more than enough room for identity checks, crowd control, and wide well lit stretches for cameras to perform face recognition. The passenger is certainly not supposed to just hop out from a train and hop into another or be lost in a crowd. So not a bug, but a feature for controlling people.

@anubizz3

Жыл бұрын

Yup another political statement in public transport channel....

I recently spent a month in Jakarta and I am hopeful RMTransit will get up to examining it and similar under-resourced rail systems with great potential! The KRL commuterline serving Jabodetabek appears to have gone through a service rationalization during COVID that replaced an interlined, looping service pattern with higher frequency service on two perpendicular trunk routes. The lynchpin of the change is (ongoing) major investment at the interchange station of Manggarai. Local news indicates national rail service by KAI will also terminate at the new expanded Manggarai when works are complete, which should allow local KRL trains to once again serve Gambir (current improvised national rail hub). Lots more going on in the city too: some good, some questionable!

I believe you have a major misconception around the idea that the rest of the world is very prideful over their transit system. Even in very good systems, most people constantly complain about delays, cancelation, price and slowness compared to cars. Especially if they haven't used poorer systems in other countries yet. Here in Germany for example, the name of the rail operator will mostly give PSTD to people instead of evoking pride. And that is besides the fact that Germany has a very dense network where even small towns (pop 10.000) can have hourly rail access. It looks like you got this impression from the railfan bubble. Of course railfans have pride in their local system.

@barvdw

Жыл бұрын

There's something to that, everyone's favourite subject to complain about is either the weather or how bad our trains are. However, I have seen many jump in to defend their railways against foreign criticism, *we* can criticise, and will often tell foreigners that our system is really not that good... until they start complaining even harder.

The swiss high speed trains in use today, going over 250 km/h are both bought and used for eurocity service, there's only 3 sections of track in switzerland certified for over 200 km/h afaik, being the lötschberg, gotthard and ceneri base tunnels, I've actually recently ridden a stadler giruno through the gotthard and it was going 230 km/h. Switzerland didn't buy high speed trains for the swiss network, they bought them for international networks, like germany and italy.

Having been to Japan several times, I think Westerners in general get the "Japan is so technologically advanced" idea from Shibuya and some other gimmicky things. Yes, Japan is certainly very technologically advanced, but once you get outside of the major cities, that drops off dramatically. Even culturally, you still see flip phones and fax machines(!) as well as a lack of acceptance of credit cards and even foreign bank cards at most ATMs in Japan. Finding cash in Japan means finding a Family Mart, Lawsons or 7eleven. ATMs for other banks that you may find around in large stations will not work if you don't have a Japanese bank card. And outside of the Shinkansen, trains in Japan are quite slow. Take this into consideration: if you travel from Sapporo to Tokyo by train, half of that travel time will be on a sleek Hayabusa, which is the fastest train in Japan at 320km/h between Sendai and Hachinohe. The other half of your travel time is on a limited express Hokuto. Hokuto travels 318.7 km while Hayabusa travels 823.8 km. Yes, the Shinkansen is being extended to Sapporo, which will cut journey time drastically, but that's not until 2030. There's a chance Japan will have fully opened back up to the outside world by then, but who knows.

@p.nguyen4010

Жыл бұрын

I think that is a good observation on the dichotomy of Japan. Half the stuff is an amazing experience of tech, and the other half that is pretty old school. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just as long as you're prepared for it. But I do have to say in 2019 I was able to take the Shinkansen all the way from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori in 4 hours, so I'm not sure when they completed that part of the line.

@anrvrx

Жыл бұрын

I was indeed astonished for the low commercial speed of the ordinary railway throughout Japan. If even on older main lines in the UK or Europe trains can reach 160 km/h, very seldom I have seen a train in Japan reaching 100 km/h, even in main double line such as the Tokaido, Tohoku or Chuo.

Audio is working for me... Not sure why it doesn't work for others

In Vancouver, I boarded a bus and was prepared to pay using Apple Pay with my phone. I asked the driver if there was a way to pay for a transfer to the Skytrain. The bus driver kindly let me board for free because he didn’t want me to pay twice. It would be nice if various transit systems could build in transfers for customers paying for rides using contactless payment.

Transit cards are design fault when credit card could work. The most common reason I sometimes can’t use public transit because figuring out the payment system is too difficult when arriving in another city

Considering that Japan has more annual rail transport passengers than the entire EU combined, maybe Japan should be compared to the EU as a whole with regards to possible drawbacks comming from number of operators and fare card standards. And I think we all know that the EU won't come out on top from such a comparison. :)

@Guy-Zero

Жыл бұрын

I wouldn't really trust those numbers. The statistics I found for Japan often included every type of transportation on rails i.e. subways and even trams while the statistics I found for the EU don't seem to include those and only include "real" trains (idk how to describe them so I just used "real". You probably know what I mean)

@cooltwittertag

10 ай бұрын

least delusional japan railfan

@cooltwittertag

10 ай бұрын

maybe you should become literate in statistics before saying stuff like this 😊

@greghall4836

10 ай бұрын

@@cooltwittertag If you've got any actual statistics, please show us.

@cooltwittertag

10 ай бұрын

@@greghall4836 Japanese rail statistics include subway, tram and monorail services, the German statistics only include long distance and regional transit numbers, as well as s-bahn systems. By just adding the 4 heavy rail u bahn systems in german cities to the german number, Germany alone is already transporting about 60% of the rail passengers japan is, pre covid. you can get these statistics yourself from the respective authorities. For Japan they are just bundled up nicely with local rapid transit services. Hope this helps!

As a person who uses the tube a lot I can say that it’s like going up stairs but at some stations by the main platform entrance there is a elevated area where level boarding is possible

Think another flaw in Japan's rail system is the break in gauge between high-speed & most other normal speed rail means more transfers are required in your journey, while journeys on the latter can be slower as their tracks can be quite winding e.g. 2h for the 120km Nagasaki-Fukuoka/Hakata, 3.5h for the ~210km Sapporo-Hakodate, 5.5h for the ~340km Sapporo-Wakkanae journeys (the 1st 2 hug along rugged coastlines that mountains sit close to), which also means trains can have quite a bit of a rolling sensation too

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

This also strengthens the case for HSR in Japan as a greater reduction in travel time is achieved with that e.g. extending the _Hokkaido Shinkansen_ from Hakodate/Hokuto to Sapporo reduces the travel time between the 2 from 3.5h to just 1h

So I recently used Oslo's transit network (T-bane and busses) it's a very good system for the relatively small city that Oslo is, but it bothered me hugely how hard it was to buy a ticket. Sure being able to buy a ticket on an APP or in a shop is a nice option, but it's not enough to only have that. If you're only there for a couple of days; plenty of people won't bother downloading an app, and if you just arrive in the city and you have to search for a shop where you can buy a ticket and is actually open at the moment with your luggage is not a pleasant expecience. At least hav it as an option to buy tickets at the station or at driver. Why make it so hard.

@erikjohansson2703

Жыл бұрын

In my city (Gothenburg) quite literally the only way to buy a ticket is through an app. I don't see why it's a problem really

@Frahamen

Жыл бұрын

@@erikjohansson2703 a) not everyone has a smartphone, especially older people who might want to use public transport b) while roaming costs don't exist anymore, somehow networks somethimes just suck internationally and you can't easilly download apps. In general you're under the mercy of your provider wheter you can pay tickets or not. The more options a transit company provide, the more userfriendly it is. Putting a ticket machine in or close to a major station isn't much of an ask.

@justahermit1172

Жыл бұрын

@@erikjohansson2703 how do older people or people with disabilities (who usually don't/can't use smartphones, especially apps that deal with payments) buy tickets? And what if your phone suddenly stops working, and you can't show that you did buy a ticket?

@ivarnordlkken8082

Жыл бұрын

You can buy ticket on busses. The ticket-vending-machines was removed a few years ago because "nobody" used them. (Actually they costs to much to run for the little sale they had). If you need ticket, look for Narvesen kiosks, they are almost everywhere. At the mail train station there is a Ruter help centere you can visit.

@Frahamen

Жыл бұрын

@@ivarnordlkken8082 Yeah except the info guy just send me to an other guy who sent me back to the first guy and the Narvesen in the station was conveniently closed for some reason. Very professional and user friendly all that. Oh, and about paying the bus driver, you know who said that wasn't possible? The bus driver.

I grew up in London and used the tube to travel to school from age 11 onwards. It's an old system, or actually many old systems that were unified under one management many years ago. At the time of construction ease of access was not a consideration, times have changed and the system has had to look to ways to keep up and over time many changes have been implemented. Nowadays many platforms have raised sections that grant level access to the trains, many stations have lifts (often one must use multiple lifts) to grant access from street to platforms and the fare gates all have wider gate options for those who need. However, for some some stations the changes are fairly difficult to implement and it will take time to acheive these improvements. Train noise and ride comfort are two other areas that need attention, as well as dealing with heat. Many of the sub-surface lines now offer airconditoned trains, but this is more of a challange for the smaller tube trains. Some station platforms are airconditioned, it helps but is not a solution. 1976 was the last very hot summer, I still recall being offered bottled water at stations! On the subject of fare gates, there are no gates on the DLR, just places to tap on entrance / exit to the system. On the subject of fares, yes in the UK these are too expensive. There are ways to reduce the prices (eg off peak travel, advance ticket purchase, railcards) but these are not universal. The continuing impact of COVID has reduced the number of commuters, perhaps with time numbers will fully recover but until then there continues to be a revenue shortfall that central Government has to make good.

I remember when I went to Germany, and we took the train in Munich to go see something outside the city (not far outside, but close enough that it was easy to just buy a ticket and hop on the train in a single day instead of buying tickets ahead of time). We hopped on the train, and nobody scanned our tickets… which is when I realized that the little scanners next to the stairs leading to the elevator were probably the ticket machines to take your ticket. It was super odd since we just walked right by them and never scanned our ticket. But we were also American tourists visiting Europe for one of the first times. (My parents had been to Europe, but me and my brother hadn’t)

@Malte_OJ

Жыл бұрын

When you put a ticket into the machine, it prints the location, date and time on it and gives it back to you. But this is only necessary if you have a multi-ride ticket, otherwise you don't have to use it. It doesn't check if your ticket is valid. On the train, there are random checks by ticket inspectors.

I'm not entirely sure on the fare gates idea. In Belgium I almost feel stupid for paying for busses and metros, since it feels like I'm paying for a few other passengers as well. The system has the ridiculous combination of expensive fares, zero fare integration with other modes of transport and almost no checks for a proof of payment. On the other hand, having been in Germany with the 9-euro ticket and therefore always being able to stroll onto any form of public transport was so nice. The Switzerland issue also annoys me a bit in Belgium and the Netherlands and I think really hurts international trains. There is very little will to improve journey times since 'It's a small country anyways', while for (potential) international travellers this reduced journey time may be very appreciated.

As someone who is lucky and fortunate enough to have lived in Japan for almost a year while I mostly agree I do have some nuance and critiques of my own to add for consideration. 1) The critique multiple operators is more true of Tokyo than other parts of the country where there are less operators. I lived in the Osaka area and all the operators coordinated fairly well on interoperation, schedules, and wayfinding so it was fairly easy to understand. That said, one potential critique of multiple operators you kind of touched on with the fare card issue but didn't say expressly is the technology differences between operators, or even among the same operator. Of course, I say this while I also personally found it charming and frugal lol, but still I know not everyone thinks the way I do so I thought I'd mention it. Still I appreciate how a "if it isn't broke don't replace it" philosophy meant my rinky dink little neighborhood station got new accessible fare gates even if it still had late 80s ticket machines. 2) The critique of fare card interoperability is fair, but because of the geography of Japan and the train routes the interoperability issue doesn't come up as much as the recharging issue. Which is a part of why I don't think there will be any push for a national card anytime soon, hopefully at least a reduction in the total number of cards is possible. I do think they would benefit from some standardization and improvement in both online recharging and usability on shinkansen and other deluxe trains. Speaking of, my biggest criticism of Japanese Rail is: 3) JR stations are the absolute worst (Insert why are you booing me I'm right meme). The wayfinding (and the fare system tbh) is terrible compared to almost every other operator in Japan, and it is glaringly obvious in the stations they share in the Osaka area including Osaka Station. Not to mention it feels like their stations (or even their side of shared stations) are in the worst shape in the Osaka area. Granted I haven't been to the southern and northern most parts of the country and I've heard it's better there but the major cities need some work. Anyway, I think I droned on long enough. Sorry and thank you for reading my long ass comment. It's a great video as always!

@railotaku

Жыл бұрын

It doesn't help that JR's passenger operations are 6 independent companies with differing standards. I gather JR West isn't the best of the JR operations.

@trainsandmore2319

Жыл бұрын

Rural JR West stations are probably the one with bad wayfinding unlike Osaka or Kobe, from what I could tell from my experience there. That is because I saw that most of the urban JR West stations have been renovated already and look much nicer compared to most of their JR East counterparts, particularly the platform levels. Look at Shinjuku, most of the platform levels look so old already and are currently in the process of a very long renovation.

biggest complaint about UK transit network, mainly the railways instead of the underground is the price, it’s £80 to get from my hometown just outside london to Manchester, and for that price I can fly to Central Europe or the Mediterranean. The underground ain’t too bad, tapping in and out is decently priced if your not going to far out from the zone you’re in, but when I went to milan and a all access metro card was 12 euro for 3 days which is amazing, and when we brought tickets from Milan central to the airport in the nearby city of Bergamo, it was like 5 euro for an hour train, my trip into work in central london costs me £23 with a railcard, or £34 if you don’t have one, for 45 trip both ways!! The prices are ridiculous and in my experience are most peoples gripe with it

Fare cards have been nationally integrated in Japan since 2013. For example, can take your Tokyo Suica or Pasmo cards to Osaka and use them on the Icoca system there with no issue. And the multiple operators is mostly transparent to riders, unless you are changing at one of the major interchange stations where you need to exit one fare system and enter another. But my favorite example is the interlining that happens on the Fukutoshin line. You can board at a Toyoko train at a Tobu station, and exit at a Tokyo Metro or Yokohama Subway station. And all you have to do it tap your IC card from any of the nation IC networks and it works before you can 1 step into the fare gate. Are all line and such this integrated? No, the Fukutoshin line is relatively new and was built to allow this. But this isn’t that uncommon in Tokyo where several of the subway lines are actually interlined to intercity lines for one seat rides to the outer suburbs.

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

Stay tuned for my 2.0 Tokyo Explainer which will ofc make mention of the Fukutoshin Line!

@lontongstroong

Жыл бұрын

Sadly the interoperability service so far only happens in Kanto. On the other parts of the country, particularly Kansai, the service is as fragmented as it gets whenever they have multiple operators in place.

The Thameslink platforms at St. Pancras International were only built a few hestd ago; they opened in 2007. A ‘hump’ for level access has since been added in the centre of the platforms where the wheelchair area on the trains is, but elsewhere the step and gap is terrible, at the back of a Northbound train for example. The new platforms 1&2 at Stratford station for the London Overground weee also only built a few years ago, but have large gaps.

Trams here in Antalya, Turkey, despite being the most reliable public transit option here, still has some really big issues, but the railway map isn't one of them. It looks nice, describes it pretty simply and accurately, in most times, describes which station has access to what amenities (University, Airport, Intercity Coach Station, Hospitals, Museum etc.). It could be better though, describing where are the most central areas, which stations has access to shopping malls and the coast, considering how this city is filled with tourists. Also, fare gates at tram stations aren't that big of an issue, for most of the times there is a security guard that prevents people that didn't pay for their rides, and it is usually empty, so you won't have to wait that long.

In Calgary, there’s been talk about adding turnstiles to LRT stations. The idea comes out to get people suffering from homelessness out of the transit area, making it “safer”… But really it’s just putting a bandaid in the real problems.

Most of you seriously overlook the downsides to high speed trains: price, availability and lack of alternatives. When the Thalys high speed train between Paris and Amsterdam, via Brussels, was introduced, the regular locomotive pulled carriage trains were cut. Prices for the Thalys were much higher, which makes sense, because it offered a faster connection. It is also reasonable for passengers to pay for the investment in expensive infrastructure. At the same time the system was introduced that makes your tickets more expensive if you book late or if you want to travel at a popular time. Officially called yield management, I'd rather call it the Scrooge system. A late reservation may also mean that there is no seat available, since the capacity of the high speed trains is limited and no standing places are sold. The original style flat rate trains kept running between Brussels and Amsterdam, but the Thalys became the only direct connection between Paris and Amsterdam. Some decades later, new infrastructure was build between Brussels and Amsterdam to allow for even faster speeds. The railway company decided to cut the old style service on this part of the line, leaving only high speed trains between Brussels and Amsterdam. That was met with great opposition by passengers and politicians, resulting in a compromise with some old style trains kept in service. However, this still makes train travel between Brussels and Amsterdam more expensive and more complicated than before, pushing people to make reservations, even though that is not always mandatory. If the railway company had had its way, the fare would now be three times as much, and reservations would be obligatory. That would make it hard to commute over this route, which a lot of people do. Since the most southern train stations in The Netherlands on this route are only 100 km apart from Brussels, it is a trip you can easily make back and forth each day. So the plan to make this connection high speed only, fell through, at the cost of dropping revenue for the high speed rail investment. It was the state that made the investment, so the Dutch pay for this deficit after all, with their tax money. Nowadays, when I want to travel through a high speed train eager country like France or Spain, it is hard to find cheaper options with a flat fee and without the need for reservations, making it difficult to travel spontaneously on a low budget. High speed trains certainly play their part in this let-down.

Your thing about faregates - I watched a video from I think the 80s of the London Underground concourse, there were about one hundred people cramming through faregates which broke about 10 times in 10 minutes. My system - the Tyne and Wear Metro - removed the barriers almost completely and it reduced fare evasion and accidents on the system. Because the stations were unmanned people would jump the barriers - ultimately they were removed because someone was seriously hurt getting trapped as they tried to jump over. Now they have to have staff at all stations with closed faregates which is fairly unnecessary as every station has help points and the system was built for driver only operation and no station staff.

About the speeds in switzerland, you also have to consider that the country is much smaller and less centralised than France. So, in average people travel shorter distances (most travelers don't cross borders in switzerland) A 3 hour trip is really ok to cross the country along it's backbone. This is the case in Switzerland, and you'd need 4.5 hours to cross France along it's north to south backbone. Do swiss people really need to travel faster between Geneva and Zurich ? I am really not sure it is a priority... Without an HSL, Lille to Marseille would have been something like 9-10h, so you really see the nessesity of the HSL in the french case

A big issue I had in Japan when riding without a transit card in the south is distance-based fares on the buses. Having to be constantly checking the fare screen and rapidly counting coins to make sure you're up to date is stressful and at one point we missed our stop because in the time of counting coins and getting our (many) things the bus had departed. I get that it makes short trips very cheap but for smaller cities a constant fare you pay up front is still preferable to me.

@wayale94080

Жыл бұрын

There’s no need to use cash on Japanese buses when you can simply use an IC card.

@kueller917

Жыл бұрын

@@wayale94080 Didn't know at the time or where to get one.

The lack of level entrances at some London Underground stations is not “nitpicking” - it is shocking. What about the autonomy of people in wheelchairs?

Regarding Switzerland, Geneva is only the ninth busiest railway station in the country. Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lausanne, Luzern, and Winterthur are all busier along with several Zurich suburban stations.

Another problem I saw with the Japanese train network is the lack of low-speed standard gauge lines that can be used by both freight and passenger trains, and could’ve provided a cheaper alternative to the Shinkansen.

Regarding the complaint about having too many operators in Tokyo, it is very on spot, as even locals cannot navigate the transit system. You may find it hard to find an integrated transit map for Tokyo, and each transit company/agency just draw their own maps promoting their service. The situation is more confusing as there are through services with rolling stocks from different agencies on the same track. When you are at a metro station walking onto a Tokyu train, suddenly the only route map you see is for the Tokyu system, and good luck trying to find your destination on that map.

Hi Reece, I shockingly found out a pretty wack fact about the Elizabeth line. They procured the trains first and then designed the system around it rather than the logical other way round. What this means is that the platforms are too low for the trains outside the central section and perfect in the central section. To correct this so all platforms are level will mean RE-BORING (if I've spelt that right) the platforms in the central section so that they match the external platform heights. Absolutely nuts!

@MarioFanGamer659

Жыл бұрын

The problem is that by doing so, you'd also restrict the design of trains thanks to the placement of the boogies. Crossrail is supposed to be rapid transit i.e. a high passenger flow which requires a high amount of doors (three doors per carriage per side) but if you want to avoid the boogies, you can only place two doors at most. I can't really call that "logical" when it does come with notable disadvantages.

Could not agree more about the modern Chinese HSR stations. I was there in 2011 and I remember being in Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station and thinking to myself that I have been in large convention centers and airports built to a more human scale than this. Hopefully things have changed. Was in Japan in 2018 and just loved how human everything was, how many shops there were, restaurants, big hallways, little passages, etc. Exploring the stations was genuinely fun.

@LukeRichardson1981

Жыл бұрын

If you rode the train during the Chinese New Year travel period you'd understand why the stations are built as big as they are.

@coreyhipps7483

Жыл бұрын

@@LukeRichardson1981 that's fair. But I have more love for the older style ones, which were still huge, but felt less like airports / convention centers.

IMO, the biggest problems on the UK rail network are: 1. Disjointed connections (e.g. the approximately hourly train from Boston and Sleaford to Grantham onwards just missing the hourly connection to Leeds at Grantham). This is at least in part due to the fractured “system” chosen when the railways were privatised in the 1990s. 2. Insufficient electrification. 3. The slow speeds on the trans-Pennine (and other east-west) routes. Electrification would massively help here.

Now, concerning transport in London, my biggest issue are interchanges - in-station and out-station. In-station, some stations (Waterloo, Kings Cross, Euston etc.) have really many pathways which as a tourist felt overwhelming to navigate. I also think that the signage isn't great in the Tube stations in general and something which could be improved. Also, fare gates. Sometimes you have to pass them for transfer, sometimes not. I usually navigate by these as I assume fare gates indicate an entrance/exit but sometimes, I was massively wrong. Out-station: you see dashed lines in the Tube maps which indicate that two stations have interchanges with less than a 10 minute walk. Again, I wish for proper signage outside of stations if they already suggest me a walkable station. I can cover one kilometre in 10 minutes and depending on the area, navigating towards a station can be a hassle if it includes traffic lights, a busy street/pavement situation or the weather or the need to constantly look down on your phone navigator app. I wish instead that the stations were close enough in the first place so that you can change lines in-station. Another aspect I have to note which are more a personal issue ot me are timetables: looking at London, I can understand why there are no hard timetables for Tube lines for passengers to see. Even some bus lines just indicate things like: "Every 5-7 minutes" depending on the line and time of day. However, if I've learned one thing is that I cannot trust the TfL navigation app at all, especially if it involves Tube lines. They never arrive at the time I was told and some connections suggested were...interesting to say the least. Bus lines that don't run that often for London's usual standard (say, 20/30 or more minutes) are also hard to use when I can't feel that I can trust the timetables. I think that's a bigger issue in the UK in general though as I also had my fair share of bad surprises when I was in Birmingham. Occasionally, you had no bus for 20-30 minutes or so and then you get two buses of the same line next to each other. Nevertheless, I enjoy travelling through London a lot when I'm there. And I do hope that when I return, there's still that extra cheap ticket (1.50 back then) that allows you to use all TfL bus lines for 60 minutes and caps at 4.50 per day. It really is a steal.

@petitkruger2175

Жыл бұрын

I think the best way to navigate maze like stations (bank, kings cross, etc) it’s just follow the signs are remember to put on deodorant. TFL can’t really change the interchanges as it will require a ton of disruption and money that they don’t have.

Coming from vienna, a city known to be proof of payment, I have to say. No. Fare gates are the better solution. I honestly envy every city having them. With fare gates you know people (most likely) paid. Without them, so many people take advantage of the system and the fact that the provider can’t check everyone. It really becomes a game of „if I don’t get stopped more than x times a year it pays off“ and the people who pay for their ticket getting even more mad.

@anubizz3

Жыл бұрын

People forget fare gate not to prevent the people that don't want to pay, but to make lazy people or opportunist to pay.... Jesus how many times I seen people get cought in our trams or bus when they get check and the excuse are it just one stop it's I don't have time to pull out my phone or wallet to tab...

Fair comment about level boarding in the UK. Considering we have high platforms and no steps inside trains like in mainland Europe, you would think it would be relatively easy to fix, but I guess when there's 1000s of stations to sort out, many which are 100+ years old, it just gets very difficult and expensive. The main thing they're doing right now is adding new footbridges with elevators to allow step free access to stations. Once they've cracked that, maybe they'll work on level boarding. One thing I will say though..they've made an effort on the Victoria line, with the middle part of the platforms being raised up a bit.

4:05 this is also quite relatable for the Spanish high speed network, if you want to go in any high speed train you have to pass a security checkpoint, and if you are taking the national operator (Renfe), you also have plane style boarding, ouigo is better in this regard because they check your ticket inside the train. Also some stations are way to similar to an airport, most notably Madrid Puerta de Atocha, with two departure lounges that aren’t even connected to each other. Yesterday when I took a train back home they only announced the departure platform around 10 minutes before departure, and in the span of a minute a massive queue was formed in front of the single boarding desk.

In regards to the geography of Switzerland, Zurich to Geneva is dead flat, some small hills (Heitersberg) or along lake Biel or Lake Neuchâtel (if you take the north route), with tilting trains (ICN). So high speed train could be built without much costs (but at swiss prices...), but would need a lot of tunneling, since nobody wants the new line in front of the house, and private property laws are very very strict. But honestly, not many people take the train from Zurich to Geneva, but people start in zurich and leave the train in Biel or Bern or other intermediate station, and people from Geneva do not go regularly further than Biel or Neuchatel. I used it often, and in intermediate stations, especially at the language border (german to french), not many people remain within the train as cross language border traffic is not so heavy (same on the motorway, never had much traffic between Murten/Morat and Payerne, which is the language border) . People from Geneva know Paris much better, and some have never been to Zurich in their life, and people from Zurich have often never been to Geneva (except salon automobile once a year), but go to Basel, München or Berlin often. I think it is a language/cultural problem and for tourists, the existing line is beautiful (around Lausanne or Lake Neuchatel). Where there will be a new high speed line is between Geneva and Lausanne (also on the way to Zurich), because traffic is simply too big, so the Geneva to Zurich will be a bit shorter (maybe 15-30 min) in some years. Furthermore, Fribourg to Lausanne (also a route Geneva - Zurich, there are two), will get an upgrade, simply to move the integrated timetable of lausanne to 00 and 30 and not 15 and 45, as it is today.

To me as a rider, the advantage of faregates is that they reduce the number of beggars and homeless people on the trains. Places with proof of payment ticketing tend to have a lot more issues with that type of passenger. To me those issues reduce the quality of the experience a lot more than a little congestion at the faregates does.

@sonicboy678

Жыл бұрын

NYC says hi.

@lesbianesti

Жыл бұрын

I feel like, if a city has issues with homeless people on trains, you should be solving that by reducing homelessness in the city, not hardening security on transit. Give people a nice place to lay their head so they aren't getting on the train to get out of the heat. Just my two cents

@KaiHenningsen

Жыл бұрын

What "number of beggars and homeless people on the trains"? I never noticed any in our faregate-less nation. I think you have a different kind of problem.

@lesbianesti

Жыл бұрын

@@techtutorvideos "it's too hard" is no excuse for working towards ending homelessness. Of course, I'd never frame such a task as easy. I will say, though, that the US has the resources and could probably resolve (or greatly reduce) the problem within a decade, the issue is that it isn't a political priority. So, I think we should pressure politicians into doing so. In the meantime, though, we should absolutely never shut people out of places where they go to be safe from heat stroke and frostbite. The fact that some of us look at our fellow human beings with disgust because they were born into the 'wrong' family, or got in a bad situation once doesn't make it right. The suburbanites who get mad that they saw a homeless man on the train can be quiet.

As a resident of the NYC area, the MTA has one of the dumbest fare structures. $2.75 isn’t bad for a single ride, but they don’t have 1 day passes like most other cities! Not only that, but the Express bus fares (interborough coach routes) are $6.75, and the regional rail lines offer a $5 city fare. Which are WAY faster than the commuter bus that gets stuck in crazy traffic. At least the one zone fare for Metro North is only $2.75, for my commute!

@RMTransit

Жыл бұрын

I agree, the fare structures are super weird!

On the Amsterdam trams. The gates are not to enforce fares, but to keep one-way traffic in the trams. They swing outward and are loaded with a light spring. They don't perform any check whatsoever. Just keeping people moving in one direction. Due to the low floor nature the wheel wells and motors take up some space, making the path in the tram narrow. Therefore 3 out of the 5 doors are exits, and the 1st and 4th door are entrances. The ticket desk in the middle of the tram does seem a bit excessive tho, that could've been smaller if you'd ask me.