What underground metros have you been on?

NoNewFriends

For me, underground rail transport is the best option for urban travel as it doesn't require expensive planning permission or visually spoil the cityscape. In chronological order for me:

Toronto (Clean and spacious but expensive)
Montreal (Great architecture and colourful stations)
New York (Cramped and dirty compared to Toronto and Montreal but it's essential for getting around the Big Apple)
London (Absolutely huge and packed trains)
Chicago (Only used it for an airport trip to downtown)
Madrid (Some colourful and unique stations. Very packed like London)
Sevilla (Modern and clean)

I hope to try out some of the smaller metros closer to home soon in Liverpool and Glasgow. Hopefully someday Dublin can have it's own stretch of DART Underground.

coylemj

Rome (awful smell of soot, stations are very grim. Basic network consisting of two lines that intersect at the main Termini station)
Milan (modern-ish and clean)
Paris (very busy like London, decent stations and connections to the RER)
Barcelona (modern and clean)
Washington DC (modern and clean, lights embedded in the platform flash when the train is arriving)

London is the only underground I can recall where entry to almost every station (Oxford Circus, Hyde Park Corner and Piccdilly being exceptions) involves walking into an actual building at street level, in most other cities you can walk down steps straight off the street (as in NYC) to the station.

KCAccidental

agreed, there's something about underground travel I really love, even the smell! When I'm away I always try to get on a metro if I can.


London (it's the daddy really. Expensive, Packed, but I still love it!)
Rome (don't remember much of it, school tour years ago. felt dirty)
Montreal (love the rubber tyres, the stations are works of art in some places)
Toronto (decent, but small compared to cities of it's size.)
Barcelona (quite modern and clean, but pickpockets everywhere)
Krakow (a small pre-metro line as part of their tram system. nothing to write home about)
Frankfurt (clean & efficient, can't complain about the germans and transport!)
Karlsruhe (Not a metro in any sense, but their unique tram-train system was a joy to ride)
New York (Dirty, but safe and 24hrs operation is fantastic. Trains a lot cleaner now)
Baltimore (Just the one line, kinda out of the way. Not much to write home about really. Clean and spacious though)

Judgement Day

I prefer trams myself but have used the London Underground & Paris Metro - can't say that I yearn for DART Underground.

hfallada

London( some lines are nice, others horrible).
Beijing ( very cheap (25 cent per journey), extremely overcrowded , but nearly a stop at every major tourist attraction. On some lines trains come every 3 mins).
Shanghai ( brand new( I imagine it was built for the expo) some basic stations are breath taking with how nice they are)
Tianjin, China( you use a chip coin instead of a ticket and its was originally built by volunteer workers, but replaced recently)

Also Subways in China are Air conditioned and you have to your bags X-rayed before going into the station. Most have TVs on them with funny videos or Ads. Although most were built only 4/5 years, they appear to at capacity. You can use your mobile phone on them and they are surprisingly smooth. All train tickets are reusable.

MadYaker

London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Barcelona, probably a few others that I have forgotten. These all seemed kinda the same to me, but not I'm not a train enthusiast or anything. Barcelona metro gets ridiculously warm in the summer and if you're ever on it watch your stuff, a friend of mine got pickpocketed. St. Petersburg underground was the most recent I was on. Apparently its the deepest in the world and id believe that. We spent about 10 minutes on the longest escalators I've ever seen to get to and from it. It was different to any other I've been on though. When you get the station you are in a wide tunnel with walls separating you from the tracks. There are sliding doors in the walls which open when the trains pull up. The first time we used it was a bit of a wtf moment when we got down there and couldn't see any tracks or trains.

HeidiHeidi

Moscow's underground is amazing - not least because of the usually 30-letter-long station names written in the Cyrillic alphabet :eek: Myself and my pal took four or five letters from the beginning and the end of the station names we wanted to stop at to try to identify them - took a lot of concentration!

There are some that are like art galleries, with painting and sculptures galore and huge vaulted ceilings - we were over there for a football match, we didn't spend too much time boning up on De Culchur (I normally would, honest!) so I can't remember from what period they date - but well, well worth a trip and a look. Quite spectacular.

Plus, I think it cost the equivalent of 10c to enter the system, and you could stay down there all day if you wanted (you wouldn't, and we didn't!).

The other one I know really well is Munich's. Typically German - scrupulously clean, efficient and safe. I love Munich!

NoNewFriends

Agreed that the Toronto subway is small for a city of it's size. For anyone unfamiliar with it, it mainly consists of a yellow line in the shape of a "U" with a horizontal green line running through it. There are also shorter blue and purple line extensions to populated suburbs. In my opinion, the subway is not necessary for travelling within Toronto city proper; only really useful if you're coming from the suburbs.

I've never used the Rome subway but common complaints are that it's filthy and antiquated. Surprising for such a popular tourist destination.

For anyone who wants to see an example of Montreal's metro station, here is the eye-catching Rainbow station metro]

L1011

I've done three not mentioned yet:


Copenhagen - tunnels lit internally, mobile phones and data works. Nice modern system. Lines don't run anywhere close to the main train station for some reason though.
Amsterdam - surprisingly dingy and old, Linke-Hoffman-Busch units that look and feel like pre-refurb DARTs. They've been working on a new line for what feels like an eternity now, there's been construction outside the central station every time I've been there over the past ~5 years.
Glasgow - really nothing of note to say about it.

Cookie_Monster

London
Paris
Frankfurt - goes overground all the way into the mountains
Milan - during a strike day, missed the last official service due to overcrowding but an extra empty train turned up unexpectedly two mins later
Amsterdam - been on the platforms by mistake only, meant to get a tram but were following the wrong numbers

Banjoxed

London - of course.
Liverpool - a short city centre loop line all one way and back out to Birkenhead
Glasgow - tiny tube trains that just incidentally connect with the rest of the rail system
Newcastle - great for the size of the place and at one time a template for the expanded DART that never happened
Paris - the Metro, RER and peripheral trams are just great. Was only ever on a bus once in Paris.
Brussels - not a lot of it, the trams are more comprehensive and better with a pre metro section and the really nice run to Tervuren.
Barcelona - watch your pockets!
Berlin - love the u-Bahn. Just great and fascinating to see how the city has been rejoined.

Victor

Brussels - metro and pre-metro (lots of tram lines using a tunnel - it is now a proper metro line). I never did work out how they were power in the underground stations - no third rail and no OHLE obvious.

New York - only discovered this week that several Manhattan lines were elevated until about 1940.

London - Underground and Docklands

San Francisco - I've been on the trams and train, but I was only in the concourse of a BART station.

Köln - widespread tram system become a U-bahn in the city centre.

Dusseldorf - I don't rememeber it much

Chicago O'Hare has a nifty, elevated automated people mover.

I've been on the L in Dublin. :pac:

iusedtoknow

Barcelona (watch your pockets, but damn fine air conditioning in the summer)
Madrid (the transfers are a pain, but overall an amazing system)
Paris (was young, but what I remember of it was pretty nice)
NY (creaking around the city, but great for getting from a to b)
London (ok...ish)
San Francisco (BART is great, if a little outdated, the streetcars (MUNI) that go under ground at are great for getting around the city to the burbs)
Bilbao (small but perfectly formed)
Rome (the less said about it the better)
Milan (like madrid's, nice and easy to use)
Glasgow (not bad at all, especially if you call into a pub at every stop)

Senecio

Tokyo and Paris.

The Tokyo subway is incredible. It covers every inch of the city.

Shinjuku station is like its own city beneath Tokyo.

Conway635

London (of course) a vast and yet somehow friendly system, have used it so much, for so many years that it is almost in my DNA. From the wonderfully dense underground core, through elevated suburban sections and semi-rural stations on the edges, it has a unique magic.

Some oddities in London:

The line that goes furthest SOUTH is the NORTHERN Line.
The Line that goes furthest out is the CENTRAL Line
And the CIRCLE Line is really more like a rectangle . .

Waterloo & City: used to be a distinct BR underground line, with ancient stock, now co=opted into the main LU system.

Glasgow - tiny system, stations smelling of sewage.

New York - wonderful, fully air-conditioned, as underground rail should be.

Berlin - the U Bahn is fairly small compared to the extensive S-Bahn and tram system, but still interesting.

Also, not sure if these count, but underground busways in Seattle and London, and an underground tram section in Bonn.

C635


C635

the_syco

London & New York.

Found both to feel safe; not many junkies, etc. Was only on the London one during the day, but was on the New York one fairly late, and thought it ran decently, on time, etc.

monument

Shanghai
Budapest
London*
LA*
DC
Paris
Berlin
Copenhagen
Warsaw
Bucharest
Prague
San Francisco

It's amazing how systems like Copenhagen have remain barrier-free when the pro-barrier camp says the sky will fall in without any barriers.

The original near-surface stations in Bucharest were interesting - just a few steps from street level.

I was in NYC for 24 hours without going near the subway -- unless the Acela Express starting underground counts?

I've been to Amsterdam so-far without going near the metro, and I cant recall if I also stuck to trams in Vienna or not, I've a feeling I was on the metro once and then got used of the tram system which was less walking for where I was staying.

* The only ones I've used for anything like week-long commutes even if both were mainly hotel to conference centre trips.

Fratton Fred

Conway635 wrote: »

London (of course) a vast and yet somehow friendly system, have used it so much, for so many years that it is almost in my DNA. From the wonderfully dense underground core, through elevated suburban sections and semi-rural stations on the edges, it has a unique magic.

Some oddities in London:

The line that goes furthest SOUTH is the NORTHERN Line.
The Line that goes furthest out is the CENTRAL Line
And the CIRCLE Line is really more like a rectangle . .

Waterloo & City: used to be a distinct BR underground line, with ancient stock, now co=opted into the main LU system.

And, of course 65% of the underground is above ground.

The first section, the metropolitan railway, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year.

Tabnabs

London
Madrid
Paris
New York

Much the same as everyone else

Also Oslo (their underground dates from 1928).

westmidlands

I have only ever been on the London underground and the Lisbon Metro. I worked for a short time in Lisbon and found the metro there really useful, I was staying right by a station and used it for all my transport needs, it's clean and airy. I found it very easy to use, I believe its connected up to the airport now so that makes it even better again!

circadian

Come to think of it, I've been on loads.

Tyne and Wear Metro has some underground sections, a little old but works pretty well.

London Underground, great system, huge coverage.

Vancouver Skytrain (Canada Line) runs underground though most of Vancouver before coming above surface at Richmond. Great system, brand new from the winter olypmics, some clever design features like larger cars with space for suitcases (runs to the airport).

Seattle Transit Tunnel has capacity for both bus and tram/light rail. It'd be like building the Luas underground and running bus lanes through there too. Great idea.

San Francisco BRT is another great system and covers a massive area. Really handy and very usable.

LA Metro, didn't really use this. It seemed to be a bit all over the place and I felt you could find yourself in a dodgy area too easily as a result. Buses served me well in L.A

Tokyo, world class. What a system, timely, clean, regular and covers everything you could ever want to go to in the worlds largest metropolis.

Kyoto, not quite as nice as Tokyo's and a lot older. Expensive too, like really expensive. Class city though.

Osaka, great, not unlike Tokyo's system but a little more unruly. Osaka is generally more unruly than Tokyo anyway. Great city. Lots of underground shopping malls at subway stations, excellent use of the space.

Busan subway system is incredible considering the geography of the city. It's pretty modern and clean. Cheap enough to use but the stations can be a bit grim.

Gwangju subway only has one line. It's exceptionally clean, uses a coin token system. Runs well, people are a lot more mannerly on this system compared to many in Asia. Pretty effective considering it's only one line. Connects many main districts with high speed rail stations and the airport.

Seoul, huge subway. I mean huge. It's great although certain lines really do get packed. Clever colour coded system so it's very easy to use. Some of the newer stations look like they're from the future (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_Police_Hospital_Station_on_Seoul_Subway_Line_3,_South_Korea.JPG)

It's miles ahead of the other Korean metro systems which are pretty good.

Shanghai metro. I had the pleasure of having a trip on the Maglev, worth it. The underground system is pretty good, extensive and timely. It's cheap as chips too as are all the metro systems in China. Someone else mentioned the bag check, which is odd at first but once you know it's coming it's fine. It's usually young students at the bag check which I found interesting.

Beijing, pretty similar to Shanghai, busy, very very busy. Cheap again and effective. All these subway cars have tv's playing news/adverts.

Chengdu, brand new system. Lovely, clean and people are more orderly here than in the rest of China. I loved the Chengdu system it just worked well, was clean and well presented.

Hong Kong, what can I say? Not unlike the London Underground but vastly more modern. Covers quite a large area, very well developed and not the most expensive but can be a shock compared to the rest of china.

Bangkok. Excellent system, the skytrain is lovely and clean but so is the subway. Bag checks exist here too. More expensive than you'd expect but nothing on the Japanese prices. Only one subway line, but it does run across the city. The main problem with Bangkok's system is it doesn't quite cover everything. They're expanding but the city is sprawled. Clean system, polite passengers and air con which is awesome since it's so bloody warm there.

If I think of more I'll add them.

coylemj

monument wrote: »

It's amazing how systems like Copenhagen have remain barrier-free when the pro-barrier camp says the sky will fall in without any barriers.

It's because they're trained by their parents to obey regulations. I was once walking along a Copenhagen street back to my hotel on a Sunday evening, there was very little traffic on the main road and when I arrived at the junction with a small side street, I was completely gobsmacked to find a young lady standing there waiting for the pedestrian lights to change. God knows what she'd think if she saw the carry on every day at College Green or O'Connell bridge.

murphaph

Conway635 wrote: »

Berlin - the U Bahn is fairly small compared to the extensive S-Bahn and tram system, but still interesting.

I don't really think the U-Bahn network is small compared to the S Bahn. Smaller yes, the route mileage is about half that, but the frequencies are of course higher and the U Bahn has higher ridership (I use the S Bahn to get to work however, so no bias lol).

Berlin's transit network has been heavily influenced by division. West Berlin ripped up its tram network and replaced with a combination of buses and U Bahn. East Berlin didn't have the money to build extensive underground extensions to their side of the divided system, so they just left their tram network in place and extended it and their S-Bahn. Having said that, even though it's only "half a system" the Berlin tram network is still one of the most extensive in the world!

As for my underground exploits (might be forgetting some):
London,
Glasgow,
Paris,
Rome,
Budapest (oldest underground on the European continent, second oldest in the world),
Munich,
Berlin,
Cologne (premetro),
Stuttgart (premetro),
Warsaw,
Prague,
Boston,
New York,
Washington DC,
Chicago,
Los Angeles,
Montreal (pneumatic tyred like some Paris lines IIRC),
Tokyo

goingnowhere

London
Paris
Madrid
Lisbon
Rome
Prague
Budapest
Berlin
Lyon
Brussels
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Moscow
New York
Vancouver
Vienna
Rio de Janerio
Cologne

Louche Lad

Berlin
Brussels
Budapest
Lille
London
Paris

CatLou

London - huge and pretty reliable, somewhat busy. Some of the stations could do with some renovation, this underground deserves it

Madrid - stops at the Airport, what's not to like? For some reason reminds me of the London underground.

Lisbon - busy metro, very useful for getting around most of Lisbon, a bit noisy, some of the most recent stations are very interesting:



Porto - it's a tram with a big underground section in the inner city, pretty swift and new; the system is similar to the LUAS but faster either underground or above and people usually behave and let you leave the train before boarding (unlike here in Dublin ). It's connected to the Airport and the tickets you use for the metro can also be used for the bus and some trains.

Paris - For some reason I always remember the smell inside the carriages, like an intense and not very pleasant musk emanating from the people inside... Anyway, some of the stations are really interesting, you can feel the years, but they are fairly easy to navigate and i found the service to be reliable and fast.

Rome - Disappointing, terrible, never again! A bit like Rome itself - the only interesting thing about the city is the museums and stuff like the Colosseum - people are rude everywhere and everything is disorganized. From what I remember the Termini station was half-complete. Very bad, really.

Barcelona - Great for getting around the city, neat and tidy, i didn't find too busy as I was expecting it to be, might have been luck.

HeidiHeidi

Some of the Moscow stations I referred to in my post above.....

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.trekexchange.com/images/Moscow_Metro.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.trekexchange.com/tours/131&h=612&w=860&sz=145&tbnid=clu5XWbBlhI61M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=126&zoom=1&usg=__YfEbpa9PQPkGG1eX3S-gY7w69vU=&docid=HlzDSuCxnKygCM&sa=X&ei=HWETUtTQDPOA7QbYuoGoBw&ved=0CEoQ9QEwAg&dur=220#imgdii=_

(wow, sorry about the HUGE link.... kind of appropriate though given the HUGE station names!!!)

Amirani

London
Glasgow
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Vienna
Brussels
Prague
Copenhagen
Berlin
Hamburg
Munich
Budapest
Milan
Rome
Amsterdam
Bangkok
Boston
New York
Chicago
Hong Kong

Think that's them all. Not bothered writing reviews for them all, they are available on request though...

Zebra3

London, Paris, Brussels, Moscow, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Tashkent, Frankfurt, Milan, Stockholm, Budapest, Bilbao, Berlin, Munich, Newcastle, Minsk, Vienna, Kiev.

Geuze

London
Glasgow - tight, tight, you wouldn't want to be too tall.
Liverpool - is it considered a metro?

Brussels - I think I must have been on the metro to get to the Atomium and some park.
Brussels - pre-metro tram

Amsterdam - int'l soccer tournament, took metro to Ajax stadium???

Paris - spent a lot of time on line 6 - elevated, with rubber tyres, you can see the next station from some platforms
Lyon - not deep, at least in some spots

Berlin - used both U and S bahn underground - great city - so much public transit
Hamburg - found it a bit confusing - the HBF is served by two U-bahn stations
Munich
Nurnberg
Koln = pre-metro

Madrid - big system
Barcelona - big, expanding system. Three different railways under Catalonia square?

Lisbon
Porto = very modern tram with underground sections

Prague - deep
Budapest - can't remember

dowlingm

London
Glasgow
Vancouver
Toronto
Newcastle (T&W Metro)

carlmango11

NYC, London, Lyon, Cologne (I think), Paris, Rome, maybe some others.

Love the double track idea on the NYC Subway though. On the main arterial lines there's a pair of tracks which run on the inside for certain services to skip stations and run express. So for example if you need to get from the top of Manhattan to the bottom you can take an express that will only make like 5 stops then switch over to a local train once you're nearly there. Cuts journey times enormously.

MyKeyG

Toronto (Very pleasant but expensive)
Rome (Two main lines that cross in an X, very handy but then again Rome isn't the biggest city anyway)
Paris (Nightmare, no apparent order to the system it's like the design was from some kid scribbling on a piece of paper)
London (Very well organised but extremely busy. Probably the best I've been on)

Conradd

Lisbon
Barcelona
Roma
Moscow
Minsk
Kiev
Kharkiv
Bejing
Shanghaj
S.Petersburg
Dubai, Bangkok - not underground

petronius

Berlin (excellent)
Paris (nightmare busy)
Stockholm (excellent)
Munich
Oslo (excellent)
Prague (old but very good)
Hamburg (mostly above ground needed airport link when i was there)
Copenhagen (50% above ground maybe)
Brussels (mixed over ground and some underground)

robindch

Pyongyang. Nice murals down underground, but the ticketing and entry isn't quite ready for the big time yet:

soirish

robindch wrote: »

Pyongyang. Nice murals down underground, but the ticketing and entry isn't quite ready for the big time yet:

How did you manage to enter North Korea metro and take a photo without losing your camera? Amazing

islanderre

I've been on a few too.

London; love it and still find the design / shape of the carriages attractive.
Paris; was middle of summer and way too hot to travel in!!!!
New York; loved the creaking of the carraiges!!!
Pyongyang; was a unique experience and I 'Think' the carraiges are ex Berlin Germany.
Beijing; Modern and very easy to use.
Singapore; Modern, stylish and easy to use

Will probably geet on the ones in Toronto and Montreal next month as I'm paying a short visit to both cities.

kc56

London
Paris
Toulouse (Driverless)
Copenhagen (Driverless)
Brussels
Prague
Vienna
Madrid
Oslo
Moscow
Singapore
Boston
Munich
Berlin
Helsinki
Frankfurt
Rome
DLR
Dubai

galwayrush

London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Paris, Rome, Milan, Hannover, Toronto.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

monument

coylemj wrote: »

It's because they're trained by their parents to obey regulations. I was once walking along a Copenhagen street back to my hotel on a Sunday evening, there was very little traffic on the main road and when I arrived at the junction with a small side street, I was completely gobsmacked to find a young lady standing there waiting for the pedestrian lights to change. God knows what she'd think if she saw the carry on every day at College Green or O'Connell bridge.

They are also not left waiting long compared to us -- far faster traffic light sequences.

Seen Daines being ticketed by inspectors a few times and only used the system around six or seven times.

It also worked in LA before excuses were given to stop it - mainly terrorism, not a loss of fares.

Eponymous

London - Hate it: overcrowded, expensive. Prefer to walk when in London!
Paris - Love the stations, some are fantastic, particularly like the engineering in constructing the line under the mud of the Seine, the Art Deco signs and the fact that one of the lines is automated!
Brussels - only used this twice during a visit, but found it to be good
Stuttgart - Clean and efficient (surprise surprise)
New York - Not nearly as scary as TV/Movies make out!
Vancouver - Not much of the route I used was underground, but it was underground in the city at least
Rome - Horrible. Filthy and not to be recommended at all!
I don't know if this counts but the train from Malaga Airport to the city (or westwards to Fuengerola) runs mostly underground.

petronius

Paris I liked the architecture but it was hectic and hot in the summer
Berlin I really liked the combination of over and underground and trams
The Scandanvian ones Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen very clean and efficent
Prague I was impressed with even if it seemed old, it worked a treat
Brussels was dependable efficient and mundane as you would expect in belgium.
Helsinki from my memory wasnt and underground

Every time i am in a city with a good Metro system I think why on why dont we have something like this in Dublin!

Polar101

petronius wrote: »

Helsinki from my memory wasnt and underground

It's underground in the city centre, and mostly overground in the suburbs.

stevedublin

Newcastle - a few lines, fairly modern
London - variety between lines in terms of tunnel size/train size e.g. circle line had narrow tunnel
New York - not modern at all
Chicago - clean and modern
Berlin - had to leave station and re-enter if went a station too far, couldnt just go to opposite platform
Prague - had to get a bus to metro station from the airport
Bucharest - okay, but first line was badly built under Caucescu and they had to spend loads to keep it from falling apart.

munchkin_utd

ordered by how you might do them all in one trip rather than chronologically when I used them:
London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Rennes, Toulouse, Madrid, Barcelona,
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart,
Nürnberg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, New York, Boston, San Francisco.

All have their interesting features but one that hasnt been mentioned is Rennes which is a really short underground line from the bus/rail station at one side of town to the University at the other (IIRC). Its driverless so trains run unbelievably frequently, similar to Tolouse.
But the beauty is that it keeps all the busses out of the old narrow streets of the city centre as they mostly terminate at the station and you then take the metro a stop or 2 if you want to go to the centre.

AND last but not least, the coolest metro of them all:


Wuppertal Suspension Railway !
(ok, its overground but its definitely a metro line!)

jacko1

of those not discussed previously -

Lyon - 4 line metro, very efficent and amazing value if you buy a weekly or monthly ticket

Boston - Old and wonderful - red line to Cambridge celebrated 100 years last year

Strasbourg - best tram system I've seen - 6 lines and great interconnections at the Homme de Fer stop in the city centre

KCAccidental

jacko1 wrote: »

of those not discussed previously -

Lyon - 4 line metro, very efficent and amazing value if you buy a weekly or monthly ticket

Boston - Old and wonderful - red line to Cambridge celebrated 100 years last year

Strasbourg - best tram system I've seen - 6 lines and great interconnections at the Homme de Fer stop in the city centre

oh yeah, forgot I'd been on the Strasbourg Trams. excellent system alright.

Naked Lepper

Seoul - similar to london except on steroids
London
Paris
Barcelona
Madrid
New York
San Francisco
Glasgow
Amsterdam

think thats em all

LXFlyer

London
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Stockholm
Copenhagen
Prague
Vienna
Rome
Lisbon
New York