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I think Boston is a little better than SF in my exp and looking at maps. I don't know enough about Philly to comment.
would agree, and Philly is a lttle better than SF based on my exp.
Boston and Philly to me are very close with edge to Boston. SF is just a little back. Bart is not really a subway in the pursest sense and while is serves Market street pretty well it misses a lot of the key parts (some of the LRT and street cars cover theses ok) but to me is just a widely used system with worse coverage if that makes sense relative to a Boston or Philly IMHO
I'll say this for SEPTA, it got me pretty much wherever I needed to go. I lived here car-less for 20 years, and used the system extensively. To me, that's the mark of a good system. Can it completely substitute for auto ownership? By this measure, SEPTA passes.
I think LA and Atlanta deserve to be above "the rest".
Agreed with Atlanta, but not LA. Our heavy rail "system" is essentially one line with a short 2 station spur. Now if we're ranking by ridership, then LA does pretty well per mile, but as far as usefulness and how well it serves the city, it rates poorly.
I'd rate DC's subway as second and not really that far behind NYC. It's world class imo. I haven't ridden the Chicago 'L', so maybe it's as good as DC. I suspect not based on ridership (fewer riders on a much larger system), but it's certainly the best looking!
After that it gets a bit murky with Boston, Philly, Atlanta and SF. Based on ridership Boston leads that group. Technically BART is next, but it's a commuter/rapid transit hybrid (more so than DC), so as a "heavy rail" system, I'd put it near the tail end of that group. I guess that my rank would be:
1. NYC
2. DC
3. Chicago
4. Boston
5. Philly
6. Atlanta
7. SF
8. LA
9. Miami
10. Baltimore
11. Cleveland
Oh, and I just assumed that PATH was part of NYC for ranking purposes.
Agreed with Atlanta, but not LA. Our heavy rail "system" is essentially one line with a short 2 station spur. Now if we're ranking by ridership, then LA does pretty well per mile, but as far as usefulness and how well it serves the city, it rates poorly.
I'd rate DC's subway as second and not really that far behind NYC. It's world class imo. I haven't ridden the Chicago 'L', so maybe it's as good as DC. I suspect not based on ridership (fewer riders on a much larger system), but it's certainly the best looking!
After that it gets a bit murky with Boston, Philly, Atlanta and SF. Based on ridership Boston leads that group. Technically BART is next, but it's a commuter/rapid transit hybrid (more so than DC), so as a "heavy rail" system, I'd put it near the tail end of that group. I guess that my rank would be:
1. NYC
2. DC
3. Chicago
4. Boston
5. Philly
6. Atlanta
7. SF
8. LA
9. Miami
10. Baltimore
11. Cleveland
Oh, and I just assumed that PATH was part of NYC for ranking purposes.
Pretty fair assesment though on PT overall I would put SF ahead of Atlanta thought to me as a pure subway/heavy rail in the core MARTA may be better. MARTA is much like METRO in many ways just not widely used or with as much coverage. The system itself is very good, clean etc.
Also I agree PATH is part of the broader NYC system, it runs as a subway in Manhattan. PATCO the south jersey equivilent of PATH does the same in Philly as it runs into the core with multiple subway stops in Philly. One other thing in Philly is that the RR lines run underground in the core similar to BART in a sense connecting the main CBD areas like a commuter system if that makes sense (though under utilized relative to capacity)
This is PATCO in Center City Philly not part of Septa (what is nice is that this runs 24/7)
Agreed with Atlanta, but not LA. Our heavy rail "system" is essentially one line with a short 2 station spur. Now if we're ranking by ridership, then LA does pretty well per mile, but as far as usefulness and how well it serves the city, it rates poorly.
I'd rate DC's subway as second and not really that far behind NYC. It's world class imo. I haven't ridden the Chicago 'L', so maybe it's as good as DC. I suspect not based on ridership (fewer riders on a much larger system), but it's certainly the best looking!
After that it gets a bit murky with Boston, Philly, Atlanta and SF. Based on ridership Boston leads that group. Technically BART is next, but it's a commuter/rapid transit hybrid (more so than DC), so as a "heavy rail" system, I'd put it near the tail end of that group. I guess that my rank would be:
1. NYC
2. DC
3. Chicago
4. Boston
5. Philly
6. Atlanta
7. SF
8. LA
9. Miami
10. Baltimore
11. Cleveland
Oh, and I just assumed that PATH was part of NYC for ranking purposes.
Yeah I posted that before I realized it was heavy rail only on this thread.
It's a nice "trunk" system but definitely needs to be expanded.
Two of my friends (both from Chicago and currently living in DC) argued about which transit system is better between the two. One argued for Chicago saying how it ran all night. The other argued for DC saying that the Chicago trains are death traps. It seems that it comes down to comfort vs. convenience.
Two of my friends (both from Chicago and currently living in DC) argued about which transit system is better between the two. One argued for Chicago saying how it ran all night. The other argued for DC saying that the Chicago trains are death traps. It seems that it comes down to comfort vs. convenience.
That makes a lot of sense. One more modern though even METRO is starting to age avs an older first generation incarnation (though the Blue line is more modern)
Two of my friends (both from Chicago and currently living in DC) argued about which transit system is better between the two. One argued for Chicago saying how it ran all night. The other argued for DC saying that the Chicago trains are death traps. It seems that it comes down to comfort vs. convenience.
"Death traps?"
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