From: mary@Cayman.COM (Mary Malmros)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Chicago,Boston,etc.,subways
Date: 28 Jul 92 20:05:15 GMT
	<1992Jul21.013430.3219@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com>
Organization: Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: lms@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com's message of 21 Jul 92 01:34:30 GMT


In article <1992Jul21.013430.3219@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com> lms@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com (Max Stern 310-524-6152) writes:

   In article <1992Jul20.133108.12009@linus.mitre.org>
   woodside@maestro.mitre.org (Jim Woodside) writes:

   >	One always hears about the dangers and horrors of riding the NYC
   >subway, I was wondering how other large cities' subways compare?

   I have ridden extensively the subways of Boston, Paris, New York,
   London, and Washington DC.

   My experience in Boston and New York is too many years old to be
   relevant to your question.


Most of my subway experience is in NYC, DC, and Boston.  The three
systems provide an interesting contrast, I think.

The NYC subway system seems to largely live up to its reputation.  
The stations and trains are often dirty, the wino/panhandler/menacing
person index seems rather high, and the fare is IMHO high.  I also
found that it wasn't too easy to figure out how to get where you are
going.  For all its disadvantages, however, the NYC subway manages
to move an awful lot of people around every day, and most of them get
where they're going without getting mugged or barfed on, so that's 
certainly a success of sorts.

The DC system impressed me as squeaky-clean, easy to figure out, 
safe, and again a little on the pricey side.  The only real objection
I had here was that the trains don't seem to run very often, but 
I've only ridden on weekends...it's probably different during the
week.

I'm pretty sure the Boston subway system is still the cheapest of the 
three (fares are .85).  It's pretty easy to find out where you're 
going (the color-coded lines and the simple "inbound/outbound" 
designation helps, but people who simply can't read a map AT ALL
are out of luck here).  The trains are generally clean and in good
condition...you see a little graffiti inside the cars from time
to time, but other vandalism is rare.  Sometimes panhandlers will
congregate around the stations, and the T cops generally let them
get in out of the weather but will chase them out if they get 
aggressive about hitting people up for change.  The stations and
trains are generally quite safe...I've been riding the trains 
daily for over four years now and the worst incident I have seen
yet was two old ladies who got into a shoving match over a seat 
(that's not to say that more serious stuff doesn't happen, however...
it does, but it's rare).  Trains run frequently.  The big disadvantages
of the T are that the trains are sometimes almighty crowded during
heavy-use times, and the T stops running at 12:30 a.m.

Hmmm, I'm thinking about starting a grass-roots campaign to 
extend service hours...
--


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 Mary Malmros     | Cayman Systems Inc, 26 Landsdowne St, Cambridge, MA 02139
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