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Path: utzoo!sq!ludo
From: ludo@sq.uucp (Ludo VanVooren)
Date: Sun, 27-Nov-88 12:06:31 EST
Message-ID: <1988Nov27.120631.4151@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: tor.general
Subject: European subway systems vs. TTC
References: <8811252311.AA05323@wilson.csri.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: ludo@sq.com (Ludo VanVooren)
Distribution: tor
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
Keywords: TTC,subway,Europe


In article <8811252311.AA05323@wilson.csri.toronto.edu>
hofbauer@csri.toronto.edu (John Hofbauer) writes :

>...You must go to Europe or Japan to see how a real transit system 
>works.

I disagree. I am French and I know the transit systems of most of the big
European Cities. It is not better than the TTC.

I moved to Toronto last April and I found that the TTC had a lot of good
things :

1. Subway, Bus and Streetcar are in the same system. The direct connection
   between the subway and the bus/streetcar is a very good idea. For example,
   in Paris, some bus stops are shared by 10 or 12 different bus lines. You
   have to first find the bus stop (often far away from the subway station) 
   and then figure out what bus you should take. Don't expect to have any
   clean separation and good information about the busses.

2. TTC subway stations are compact and well serviced by escalators. I know
   that they don't always work but at least you see people trying to fix them.
   In Brussels they have an average of 50% of their escalator working. I lived
   for two years in Brussels and there is one escalator I *never* saw working.
   In Paris, when you change subway lines, you may have to walk *miles* (I am
   not kidding, the longest connection is over 2 km) and go up and down in
   a real maze. There are people that get lost in those long corridors.

3. TTC is safe. You don't have to watch your back when you walk past midnight
   in a subway station. The number of *murders* in the European subways is just
   incredible. (I don't know if you realize that there was ***only*** 46 murders
   in Toronto this year (so far, thanks god!). You shoul check the criminal 
   records of the subway in Paris. I bet you the number of murders is bigger.)

4. Last but not the less, TTC is very clean. I am not use to ride a subway that
   as no giant grafiti on every single wall.

5. I have never been to Japan but have you ever read about the subway employees 
   pushing the crowd into the subway cars at rush hours ?

TTC is not perfect, OK! But it is not that bad !

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Ludo Van Vooren					
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
(416)963-8337							UUCP : sq!ludo
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