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[QUOTE Originally Posted by bballniket Top 10 subway systems (excluding commuter rail and light rail) based on usefulness, imo are: 1. MTA New York City Subway 2. Boston MBTA red, blue, and orange lines 3. DC Metro 4. Chicago CTA 5. Port Authority NY/NY PATH 6. Philadelphia SEPTA Market Frankford, Broad Street and Broad Ridge Spur lines 7. BART (debatable that its commuter rail, but since it has 7 stations in SF, multiple in Oakland, Berkeley and the close-in peninsula, and since it runs underground through SF, lots of Oakland and Berkeley and under the bay, I'll include it) 8. PATCO (low ridership, but very useful for getting from South Jersey to CC Philadelphia) 9. MARTA dunno about number 10
Just curious and while PATCO is very good and expanding (though currently a small system) why would you not include it's sister PATH in the NYC metro - much higher ridership and far more comprehensive. ]
I'd listed it as the number 5 system.
My bad - though would put Septa above PATH but agree it is very good [/quote]
I agree that they're both really good systems given the generally poor state of urban/inner-suburban transit in the US, but I feel like PATH serves its function (connecting portions of Urban Northeast NJ to NYC) better than the Subway portion of SEPTA does (connecting portions of Philadelphia to one another). Of course this ranking is a bit odd because it isolates the subway systems from other modes of transit, when in reality all modes of transit are connected and all are necessary to give clear picture of the transit situation in a metro area. This is particularly true of SEPTA, with its large trolley and regional rail networks that are very well connected to the subway network (much better than PATH is connected to the NYC subway).
Unrelated to ranking, but SEPTA and MBTA are really similar systems. Both have relatively extensive trolley networks and commuter rail systems run by the same transit organization. Both have three large commuter rail terminals in the city (South Station, North Station, and Back Bay Station in Boston and 30th Street Station, Suburban Station and Market East Station in Philadelphia)...DC has A LOTTTTT of catching up to do in terms of commuter rail to compare to either Philadelphia or Boston.
Unrelated to ranking, but SEPTA and MBTA are really similar systems. Both have relatively extensive trolley networks and commuter rail systems run by the same transit organization. Both have three large commuter rail terminals in the city (South Station, North Station, and Back Bay Station in Boston and 30th Street Station, Suburban Station and Market East Station in Philadelphia)...DC has A LOTTTTT of catching up to do in terms of commuter rail to compare to either Philadelphia or Boston.
DC's metro also doubles as a commuter rail you know that right?
Yea I think most people here realize that the Metro is a bit of a hybrid rail...but if you're going to say that's the CR of DC and compare its map to the maps of the MBTA and Septa, then the Metro gets crushed.
I must say NYC being in the top 10 is interesting considering how America hasn't embraced public transportation as a country as much as other countries. We're more of a "everyone should have 2 cars" country.
Yeah but NYC is a completely different beast from the rest of the US. The car culture criticism doesn't really apply there. Not only does it have the largest subway system in the world (by stations), and one of the largest bus fleets, but ~55% of NYC households don't own a car. List of U.S. cities with most households without a car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Manhattan, ~77 % of households don't own a car:
New York City Green Business Certification | GREEN BUSINESS LEAGUE (http://www.greenbusinessleague.com/greencity/ny - broken link)
NYC also has one of the very, very few 24 hour subway systems in the world. Not even Tokyo or London can boast about that.
Thus, NYC does focus on public transportation in contrast to the ignorant comments made earlier on this thread.
As the stats clearly show, in terms of overall ridership, accessibility, and coverage, the NYC subway easily compares with (and even surpasses) the very best systems in the world.
That should not be surprising to anyone who has spent any amount of time using the public transit in NYC.
I think Galactic lives in NYC. He just said it was interesting, and it is.
I personally think it's interesting (and ridiculous) how much people in NYC whine about the MTA. And a lot of Manhattanites may not own cars, but spend a whoole lot of time (and $$) in taxicabs and livery cabs.
^^I was born/raised in NYC and have known for some time how its subway compares with the rest of the world in terms of size and ridership.
I got an even bigger appreciation of NYC transit when I moved to live in car-oriented places elsewhere in the country. I can never complain about the MTA after seeing the rest of the country.. lol.
What I find interesting is that some posters have remarked that NYC does not focus on public transportation!!!
On what universe is that statement even remotely true?
Yea I think most people here realize that the Metro is a bit of a hybrid rail...but if you're going to say that's the CR of DC and compare its map to the maps of the MBTA and Septa, then the Metro gets crushed.
Yea I think most people here realize that the Metro is a bit of a hybrid rail...but if you're going to say that's the CR of DC and compare its map to the maps of the MBTA and Septa, then the Metro gets crushed.
If thats the case and Metro/MARC/VRE combined is on par with SEPTA and MBTA, since the DC area is less dense than Greater Boston and Philly area, it works out evenly.
Notice how far our commuter rail lines go.
-DC to West Virginia
-DC to Perryville, MD via Baltimore
-DC to Fredericksburg, VA
Those are some pretty far places.
Commuter rail stations in Boston and Philly are too close together which means the trains are slower.
Our system, however have station that are far apart thus reaching far areas in less time.
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