The 10,000 Post thread V3

[timmie 988]

481
 

479: Yeah that clock thing weirded me out when I was there.

 
I love those clocks! I'd buy one if I had the money, but they (Mondaine, the official seller of the SBB clock) only have clocks that look like it, the second hand moves just like any other clock. And you can't buy old station clocks, since they are connected to a central computer for the right time (and guess what, it's not the kind of computer I own ).
 
 

Broken beer bottles are nothing.Wait until you come across a syringe on a platform, methheads screaming on the other end of the carriage, as well as the general people who always try to ask me for a smoke for some reason. Usually they look underage, and it disgusts me.

Well, this does make the Brussels metro sound like a heavenly place

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

482: 

480

 

Where in Melbourne is that? Foostcray? Frankston?

No, this was actually in Croydon, and I've heard about it in Doveton. 

 

481
 

479: Yeah that clock thing weirded me out when I was there.

 
I love those clocks! I'd buy one if I had the money, but they (Mondaine, the official seller of the SBB clock) only have clocks that look like it, the second hand moves just like any other clock. And you can't buy old station clocks, since they are connected to a central computer for the right time (and guess what, it's not the kind of computer I own ).
 
 

Broken beer bottles are nothing.Wait until you come across a syringe on a platform, methheads screaming on the other end of the carriage, as well as the general people who always try to ask me for a smoke for some reason. Usually they look underage, and it disgusts me.

Well, this does make the Brussels metro sound like a heavenly place

 
Deutsche Bahn had those clocks too, if I remember.

And yes ahahah, ours isn't a strict metro but rather a rapid transit - commuter hybrid. In fact, there is a Facebook page with videos of all the silly things commuters do... this includes hanging out the window of a moving Hitachi.

[Durfsurn 539]

483

 

How stupid can people be?

[timmie 988]

484

 

In Brussels, there was once a Twitter-hype (#stibsongs) where names of songs and public transport stops (tram, metro, bus) were combined. This led to beautiful combinations such as

• Are we Schuman, or are we dancer?
• Madou bist Alles
• Don't you Wand me?
• Que Ceria, Ceria
• Don't Kraainem for me, Argentina
• Ducale me maybe
• The Wiener takes it all
• Can't Buyl me love

Seems like a nicer initiative than that Facebook-page about Melbourne transit

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

485: Yeep, Melbourne has one too.
 

• You ARDEER to me
• You are the JEWELL in my heart
• Hunka hunka LABURNUM love
• Be my DARLING, my SUNSHINE
• ALBION your side
• WERRIBEE together forever
• I'm on MACLEOD nine
  
  And my personal favourite:
• Are you drinking beer? NAR NAR GOON.
  
  

  Okay, I'll explain the last one. Goon is slang for cask wine/boxed wine.

[Duke87 1,070]

(486)

 

New York's subway doesn't lend itself to such a thing so well because the vast majority of our stations are named after a street they cross rather than a neighborhood or nearby landmark. I mean, I suppose you could go for "Hunka Hunka BURNSIDE Love", but the station is called "Burnside Avenue", not "Burnside"

 

And then, a great deal of the streets in question (more than 40%) have numbers rather than names. You won't be making too many puns out of "23rd Street".

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

487

 

The Tokyo Metro maps look like spaghetti.  Overlaying the various JR lines and other lines separate from them (Tobu, Sobu, Narita Express, Tsukuba Express, the list goes on) and it is damn near indecipherable.  That said, the stations are impeccably clean, the trains are in great shape (even the old ones, despite the slightly musty smell some of them can have).  They run on time every day, even if they wait a second for those last two passengers who *just* make it to the platform.  I hate traveling by train, but if I have to, I'll do it here.

[Mr Saturn64 742]

475

Never been on the subway in Philadelphia. I looked in a station and saw a broken beer bottle at the bottom so...

And my mother told me that the last time she was on it there was a meeting of drunk homeless people on it. William Penn wouldn't be satisfied.

[astronelson 339]

489.

 

I'll have to think up a few for the Citytrain network.

 

The network has about 50% more passengers than it did a decade ago, and carries approximately three times the population of Australia per year.

[timmie 988]

490

 

The metro of Brussels alone carries 15 times the Belgian population per year. Obviously, with only 4 lines, that results in too much people in too little trains.

[Duke87 1,070]

(491)

 

There was a time not too long ago when New York City had the world's third-highest subway ridership, behind Tokyo and Moscow. It has, however, since slipped to seventh, as four other Asian cities (Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) have surpassed it.

 

It does, however, still boast more miles of track, more stations, and a larger fleet of rolling stock than any other subway system in the world.

[timmie 988]

492

 

What's the most pathetic subway system you know? I thought Rome was ridiculous. Two lines for a city of 3 million people! A city like Stockholm, 1 million inhabitants, has a better network and higher ridership.

[Muck308 55]

493

 

Try Allentown buddy. Here you have to sometimes wait 1 hour for a bus and with all the construction and 2 new skyscrapers being built in the city, traffic is garbage. Philly is even worse. It takes me 45 minutes to get from Allentown to Philly. But another 30 just to get to Center city due to the Schuylkill expressway. But traffic here is like a parking lot.

 

The Schuylkill stinks. But whenever I was going inbound and got to City Line I would switch to Kelly Drive. That can back up as well but often it's a great drive. I think the speed limit is 35 but everyone does at least 50. That will get the last few miles a bit quicker.

 

Pittsburgh's subway is only underground for 4 stations. It does however pass through a tunnel southbound after the second surface station.

 

Duke I recall you saying you have ridden the entice New York subway system. I'm curious how many years you chipped away at that task and when you started keeping track.

[Duke87 1,070]

(494)

 

Duke I recall you saying you have ridden the entice New York subway system. I'm curious how many years you chipped away at that task and when you started keeping track.

 

It's really not as big a deal as people make it out to be. The record for doing it all in one shot is 22 hours, 52 minutes, 36 seconds.

 

Now, I have never come close to doing it in one shot. In terms of time gap, well, the first time I was on the NYC subway I was too young to remember it, and I was a couple months shy of my 21st birthday when I "finished". So I suppose you could say it took me about 21 years. But realistically, I had ridden probably 5% of the system if that much prior to starting college. So, in terms of actual intentional effort, it took about 3 years (Fall 2005 - Fall 2008), and that was with me only dedicating maybe a couple Saturdays a semester to the pursuit, so it could have been done much faster if I were more eager.

 

What's more of an impressive statistic is what I started paying attention to after I finished covering all the routes: the stations. The New York City subway currently has 420 active stations. I have entered or exited the system at 383 of them (91.19%). And I haven't even had to specially dedicate time to doing this since my job requires I go all over the city, so it's mostly just travel for work! Somehow I don't know that I quite see myself making it to 420/420, though. For one thing, the Rockaways are outside of my job's territory, so for the 10/11 stations down there that I have not already used, I would have to make specific effort on my own time, and that is the most far flung part of the system. Furthermore, Aqueduct Racetrack station is only open for a few hours on days when there is an event at the track, and the exit leads directly to the grounds of the track with no access to anywhere else, so using that station if you are not a fan of horse racing (I am not) is difficult.

 

 

Also, New York is not the only city in which I have ridden the entire system. I can also say that about Toronto (did it in one weekend), Montreal (did it in three weekends but could have done it in one), and Detroit (did it in 15 minutes )

[Larks2242 251]

495.

 

People still live in Detroit?

[Chptrk 86]

496.

 

My dad was just on a 2 business trip to Detroit. There was so little to do that he ended up calling me just to talk for awhile. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just seemed weird.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

497: Of the Melbourne metro, I have only ridden on 6 of the 16 lines, and only 3 of those the entire length of the line.

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

498

 

 

Try Allentown buddy. Here you have to sometimes wait 1 hour for a bus and with all the construction and 2 new skyscrapers being built in the city, traffic is garbage. Philly is even worse. It takes me 45 minutes to get from Allentown to Philly. But another 30 just to get to Center city due to the Schuylkill expressway. But traffic here is like a parking lot.

 

The Schuylkill stinks. But whenever I was going inbound and got to City Line I would switch to Kelly Drive. That can back up as well but often it's a great drive. I think the speed limit is 35 but everyone does at least 50. That will get the last few miles a bit quicker.

 

Pittsburgh's subway is only underground for 4 stations. It does however pass through a tunnel southbound after the second surface station.

 

Duke I recall you saying you have ridden the entice New York subway system. I'm curious how many years you chipped away at that task and when you started keeping track.

Pittsburgh has a subway? At least you have rail. Rail in Allentown was suspended in 1980

[astronelson 339]

499.

 

It's possible to ride all of Brisbane's subway in an afternoon. Seeing as the only two underground stations are Central and Fortitude Valley, which are about 2 minutes apart, it's not a difficult task. Roma Street to Bowen Hills will take you through the entire underground rail network.

[timmie 988]

500

 

The Brussels metro is very compact (50 km, 59 stations), but I've not yet ridden all the lines. A quick look shows me I have done 28 km of the 50 km, but I'm not sure what's included in the 50 km. I think they include so called pre-metro (trams running underground with stations that can be converted to real metro). If that's included, I have ridden approximately 75% of the network.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

501: I was referring to the entire rail network, which is more of a commuter rail style though. However there are 4 underground stations (Melbourne Central, Parliament, Flagstaff and Box Hill), the former 3 are in the city and the latter on my rail line in the suburbs.

There is plans to build a high frequency subway line of 5 stations underground, which will be integrated into the current network.

Riding the tram network would be a task in itself, with 30 lines and 250km of unique track.

[Durfsurn 539]

502:

 

The tram network is the longest in the world isn't it?

[Duke87 1,070]

(503)

 

If you want something to do in Detroit, take the factory tour at the Ford Rouge Plant. It's well worth doing. If it's baseball season, go to a Tigers game. And if, like me, you are fascinated by urban blight rather than scared of it, do take a drive around some of the cruddier parts of town (although personally I say that while Detroit deserves its bad rap, west Baltimore is worse).

[timmie 988]

504

 

 

Also sung by Nina Simone

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

505

 

Detroit is the scariest place I've been.  NOTHING in the places I've been here in Japan come close to that scariness.

But yeah, like Duke said, a Tigers game is awesome, and if it's winter, you may be lucky enough to catch a Red Wings hockey game at The Joe.  Also, in January, Cobo Hall hosts the North American International Auto Show, and it's a cool spectacle even if you're not that interested in cars.

 

The Detroit People Mover is absolutely pathetic.  It's  like a ten minute ride from start to end and only covers like a mile.  But hey!  It's a monorail!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

506: Sydney has a monorail. it's such a failure they're pulling it down this year.

[Vahr 341]

507

 

Oh hey, v3. *late to the party*

[astronelson 339]

508.

 

Hey, BL! Grab yourself a slice of cake, there's probably still some left.

[timmie 988]

509

 

It might taste a bit funny, however.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

510: Wasn't the baked good some sort of fallacy?

EDIT : The monorail is being torn down next week.