the troubadour

True enough and especially in the past. These days there appears to be a number of folk earning big quids in the finance industry. One even claiming the other night that London now is the finance industry.
Some(quite a bit) of the street cred to my mind has sadly been lost.Mainstream does seem to rule and the action has moved away from perhaps some of the places that had a buzz when i lived here until 92.
(Bayswater,Earls Court(no sign of any Aussies these days)
Peckham,Camberwall still maintain the edge....London transport has improved somewhat i suppose with new lines and trains,but very reduced services on weekends owing to works and at £25 a week for a two zone Oyster Card barely cheap.

the troubadour

Indeed London has a lot to offer. Still would not wish to be an aged person living here.Must be a little difficult getting around if not good on the feet.
With regards to Sydney i would suspect it would depend on location.

bcworld

Since leaving the UK I've been back in London in 2007, 2008 & this year - every time I've had absolutely fantastic experiences with public transport. I also didn't find it expensive. Picked up an Oyster card at Heathrow and my fare to Acton on the tube was £1.30. That could be as low as £2.40 to Central London (similar journey would be $15 in Sydney).

The equivalent of your £25 would probably be a MyMulti1 ticket in Sydney at $41. But I reckon you get a whole lot more service in London.

ABCDiamond

It would be really fantastic if it was a bit warmer

Having a relative who lived there I did get to spend some time there, but it was a bit cold.

ABCDiamond

$57 per week (4.2% of the average full time male wage) gets the MyMulti3 Weekly covering unlimited train travel throughout the entire CityRail network, almost all NSW buses (Sydney, Blue Mountains, Newcastle, Hunter Valley etc), and all Sydney and Newcastle Ferries.

That £25 Oyster card (4.7% of the average full time male wage) is pretty similar in cost comparison.

littda01

Your experience is not typical, lets put it that way :-) Generally, tourists are a lot happier with transport around London than the natives. When I need to travel from Surrey to Waterloo, its GBP10 return for a 20 min journey. Heathrow express is GBP15 each way, though it is a good service. Zone 1 Tube journey is GBP4, not sure how you managed 2.40 from Hrow to Central London.

bcworld

I did live in London for 3 years, and I didn't have many complaints about the transport then - getting on the tube at Clapham Common in the morning was fun! - it generally seems better now. My friends who still live there and have something to compare it against generally sing its praises as well.

As for the £2.40:

littda01

OK, so using an Oyster and travelling outside of commuting hours. Fair enough.

London transport does work OK, but having lived here quite a few years I would say that on a scale of 1-10, most would rate it a 4-5. Sure its better than many places, but 3M people use it every day, and for most its the only option (you can forget driving).

So the standards its held to need to be higher than other places.

Ista

Lol, maybe your idea of fun is different to others!! I used to live in Clapham and took the Northern line every day - it was so awful that, when I moved, I made sure I didn't live anywhere where I'd have to use the Northern line). Having to wait on a crowded congested hot platform while three or four trains went by before you could even get to the doors of the train - ugh. It was such a stressful way to start the day. I've also had to use the Victoria line daily - that was a bit better but still pretty crowded (I was only going two stops though so bearable) and the district/circle line which was better but tends to have problems.

I think London has a good transport infrastructure but it's let down by lack of funding/strikes and the fact that there are too many people! It does really irk me when I'm stuck on a tube late for work, recently that's been happening far too often, which just isn't acceptable given how much we have to pay.

Yes, I agree. It depends on the line but it can be so frustrating having to take it every day. I think it was also clear that many people think this way when, on April Fool's Day, lots of people were joking that the fact that all the lines were showing 'good service' was some kind of April Fool's!

littda01

Right, Northern Line especially is inhuman.

But a lot of people also forget, when talking about London T, how bad the overground can be. When I used to live in Putney, it was a good rule of thumb that there'd be one total f-up per week i.e. it was a 10% chance. In those scenarios, you were waiting ages in a queue 5-deep to board, then getting squished in temperatures of 100+ (inside the train) in the summer. Tube suffers from no a/c also. Nice.

Ista

Haha, snap - I lived by Wandsworth Town train station for a few months, which I think was a stop after Putney. It was definitely the most stressful journey into work I've had in London. It really brought out the worst in people too, so much shoving to get up onto the train (there was a step up at my station) and a total survival of the fittest! It was quite dangerous sometimes, with people pushing each other out of the way while the doors were closing!

I lived near Clapham Junction too and that was much better - but mainly because there were so many trains coming into Clapham from all directions, so it was easy to hop on one to Victoria.

bcworld

I've just spent a few months working in Sydney and getting on a train in the morning can be similar...if you thought the tube was hot wait til you try Town Hall station!

I don't get the train in Melbourne very often but one day when the tram broke down I did and it was fairly overcrowded - not Northern Line overcrowded though.

Ista

Although the comparative areas you're talking about are much smaller - the £25 travelcard allows you unlimited travel but only in zones 1 and 2, which extends about 6 miles from Picadilly Circus in any direction. Zones 1-6 travelcard, which includes all of London (and would allow you to travel through to Heathrow) is £48/week of £182/month.

It's worse if you're outside of the zones...my boss commutes from St Albans and has a travelcard that allows him unlimited travel to London (and in all the zones) - that costs him £313/month even though the train journey takes him 30 minutes!

BadgeIsBack

I was not going to comment as I could not reliably remember London monthly costs. I'm sure I was paying well over 100 pounds 15 years ago to travel 15 miles in from Zone 6.

I come in from 25 miles away, and the Melbourne seasonal ticket is less than 200 dollars a month. On my earning power 200 dollars is significantly cheaper than 182 pounds. Perhaps 1/3. Some things stack up very well here. Public transport is good here.

It's bad on some lines, and if you get on near the city, and MOST of the trains do have AC.

Robw4

Vancouver and Toronto beat Melbourne. I heard it was a nice place?

Looks like Canada beats Australia, even with the weather!