The Worlds's Ten Worst Public Transit Systems

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The World's Ten Worst Public Transit Systems
If you think your city has a terrible public transport network, visit these places and see what they're dealing with. Here are the ten worst systems out there according to our readers.

10.) Los Angeles
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Here's the complaint from a local:

The Los Angeles Red Line subway system. It doesn't go anywhere, it's too short, it's too expensive, and there's also, you know, building a ******g subway in the most earthquake prone part of the country near a faultline, cause that's a ******g DYNAMITE idea.

Seriously, the red line is unusable and the buses suck here too.

It's a pity, cos we -did- have working public transit at one point...
And here's the answer from renniSaint, who happens to be working for the company:

As an engineer who happens to design for the LA Metro Subway system, I will say that it is currently not that extensive. However, we are trying to rapidly expand the system but that isn't cheap or easy. As to safety, contrary to what you might think, being underground is safer in an earthquake. Surface waves dissipate at a square rate, while body waves dissipate at a cubic rate. Trust me, you'd rather be underground than in any tall building during an earthquake. Also subway tunnels are tubes, quite a strong geometry.

Now if you want to complain about LA Metro public transit the green and blue lines.... those suck.

Finally, complaining about LA's lack of public transit is kind of like complaining about the U.S.'s lack of high speed rail. It is all about density. NYC has nearly FOUR TIMES the population density of LA.
Suggested By: itsNitroNickdude, Photo Credit: JoeInSouthernCA

9.) Detroit
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Smart, but not finished according to Auto Guy:

Actually, the Detroit People Mover works pretty well. It does exactly what it was intended to do: Transport folks around downtown Detroit destination in a looped configuration. It's been doing so reliably since the 87's, and uses magnetic induction motors and runs under computer control — pretty advanced stuff, especially for the day. It's not the PM's fault that the rest of the system (Detroit Subway) was never built.
Suggested By: Patrick Frawley , Photo Credit: javYliz

8.) New Orleans
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New Orleans Transit seems to be pretty useless unless you live or work near one of the few streetcar lines:

It only runs in the city on New Orleans, and does not connect to any of the surrounding suburbs. Makes it pretty useless for many of the people who work in the city. Also, no service from the airport, because it is in Kenner, not New Orleans.
Suggested By: KMarino, Photo Credit: smaedli

7.) Minneapolis
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MacGuffin is not impressed by the Minneapolis metro service. Here's why:

The public transportation system in Minneapolis/St. Paul is criminally bad. For the 15th largest metro in the US with close to 4 million people, there are two trains, but only one of which is of any use.
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The best map I could even come up with shows many "proposed" routes that are currently not in existence. On that map the only trains actually in service are the Brown Northstar line and the Blue Hiawatha line. The Central Corridor line is currently under construction.

The Hiawatha line runs from the Mall of America (to which no one who actually lives here ever goes) to downtown/Target Field. The Northstar line actually does serve a purpose, running from St. Cloud, through the northwest metro, to downtown. The Northstar stops running after rush hour and Hiawatha stops at 1am, so it doesn't adequately serve the bar crowd.

The bus system routes every single bus through the downtown station, which means that if you want to go anywhere, you have to go downtown, transfer busses, and then head back out. Getting anywhere on the bus easily takes 2-3 hours.
Suggested By: MacGuffin, Photo Credit: Mulad

6.) Boston
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Boston has good lines, and bad lines. Apparently, Orange is good, Red and Green are bad:

MBTA in Boston. Not only is in on a brink of bankruptcy, but the entire operation is run by a woman getting paid $220,000/year and it's still the worst transit system I've seen in my entire life. Buses are late or don't stop at all, drivers get attacked by the public every month, trolley trains made in 1986 (yes, those are still used) catch fire every week, subway trains get shut down for several hours because of a power outage, AC working only on about 40% of trains, trains are never on time, I could go on for the entire day. But MBTA is the worst public transportation system I've ever seen. Want more proof? Search #mbtaannoy on twitter.
Suggested By: Erzhik Tem, Photo Credit: tyger_lyllie

5.) Toronto
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Canuk blames Canada:

Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is by far the worst transit system for a large global city. Its appalling the conditions that people have to travel in and the **** they have to take from the people running the system. Over 2.7 million passengers use the system daily and its barely getting any better as the whole system is muddled in unions, bureaucracy and ever increasing ridership.


Suggested By: Canuk, Photo Credit: 松林L

4.) Atlanta
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The Olympics are long gone. What remains is a pointless system:

There are certainly worse options out there, but Atlanta's MARTA system may be the most useless. It goes nowhere, you want to go, the trains are often late, the bus schedule is constantly changing, and it shuts down way to early for a night out.

Of course if you want to go down Peachtree street and to the Airport, or the Jail, then it is perfect. Oh MARTA is also known for giving a guy with to many DUIs to drive a bus anymore a job driving the train. WooHoo go Atlanta.
Suggested By: My X-type is too a real Jaguar, Photo Credit: veggiefrog

3.) São Paulo

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DConsorti says it's hell:

Expensive as hell, inefficient as hell, crowded as hell... in resume, HELL!
Suggested By: DConsorti, Photo Credit: Fora do Eixo

2.) Manila
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In the Philippines, you better pray to someone while using one of the Jeepneys...

Suggested By: Vanishing Boy , Photo Credit: Stefan Munder

1.) Mumbai



Mumbai's suburban railways experience over 3,500 deaths per year. It's easy to see why.





via Jalopnik
 
Lifelong Los Angeles resident: "Public Transportation...

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We love our cars, having a car is a way of life out here. We are a car loving state. Not having one is literally frowned upon. Public transportation is for busters. As laid back as we are, we love our space, we hate the smell. We'd rather sit in traffic, in our own AC filled bubble with our personal music instead of being packed like sardines smelling the unique smells of a public transportation bus/train.
 
The public transportation in Memphis is by far worse than Atlanta or New Orleans. There is no subway system and it is a bigger city than both of those other cities.
 
The airport, buckhead, peachtree, Turner Field, GA Dome, Philips Arena, Decatur and Lenox are a few reasons to use MARTA.

This article is trash.
 
The public transportation in Memphis is by far worse than Atlanta or New Orleans. There is no subway system and it is a bigger city than both of those other cities.

Memphis has like 1 million people metro, Atlanta 4 million.....or you talking about land area?

I rode Marta everyday to school in High School, and before I got my car I used it everyday to go to work.....its not horrible, but it definitely does suck for certain reasons.
 
^ Nocomment, what do you mean?
 
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The public transportation in Memphis is by far worse than Atlanta or New Orleans. There is no subway system and it is a bigger city than both of those other cities.

Memphis has like 1 million people metro, Atlanta 4 million.....or you talking about land area?

I rode Marta everyday to school in High School, and before I got my car I used it everyday to go to work.....its not horrible, but it definitely does suck for certain reasons.

I'm talking about the city area itself. Not metro, just city boundaries. Just city boundaries Memphis has ATL beat by like 200,000 people. Public transportation in the Memphis burbs is non existant
 
If you don't have a car in Las Vegas... I feel for you.

It's not even a matter of bad public transit, it's almost complete lack of adequate transit. no subway. slow and unreliable busses. city is very spread out. if your destination isnt on a major cross street you're walking or catching three transfers, and 100+ degree weather if you were thinking of walking.
....and also being its a money flowing city.... I aint saying she a gold digger
 
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I'm talking about the city area itself. Not metro, just city boundaries. Just city boundaries Memphis has ATL beat by like 200,000 people. Public transportation in the Memphis burbs is non existant

oh ok, yeah memphis has more. i just googled it. My company sales houses in Memphis and whenever one comes up I always wonder about Orange Mound lol
 
Lifelong Los Angeles resident: "Public Transportation...

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We love our cars, having a car is a way of life out here. We are a car loving state. Not having one is literally frowned upon. Public transportation is for busters. As laid back as we are, we love our space, we hate the smell. We'd rather sit in traffic, in our own AC filled bubble with our personal music instead of being packed like sardines smelling the unique smells of a public transportation bus/train.

That's cool and all, but personally, I can't stand being in traffic. I get frustrated and exhausted. BART has been on strike since yesterday, and it took me ONE HOUR to travel a distance that usually takes me 10 minutes because of the extra traffic . Sorry, public transportation is a necessity here

Taking a 2.50 BART ride to your destination>>>>>>>>>>>sitting through bull @#$% traffic and dealing with horrible drivers who can't handle city roads
 
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NY subway is my favorite in the US. It's just a shame that everytime I've used it after a night out, my boys and I all KO'd on the train and ended up far as @#$% from where we needed to get off at (resulting in paying for a cab anyway) :smh: :lol:
 
LMAO@minneapolis, boston, and toronto being on this list

they have some of the BEST public transportation. the latter 2 you can easily live in without a car.
 
The airport, buckhead, peachtree, Turner Field, GA Dome, Philips Arena, Decatur and Lenox are a few reasons to use MARTA.

This article is trash.
As a former Atlanta resident, MARTA was appreciated by me.

MARTA was my primary means of getting around when I was at Georgia State since I didn't have a car.

Like you pointed out, MARTA makes key location of the city conveniently accessible. I would've been SOL without it.
 
NY subway is my favorite in the US. It's just a shame that everytime I've used it after a night out, my boys and I all KO'd on the train and ended up far as @#$% from where we needed to get off at (resulting in paying for a cab anyway) :smh: :lol:


DC Metro is :pimp:  So clean.

I knew Boston would be on the list :lol:

Boston is surprisingly clean. prolly second to DC. i don't see rats, or trash on the tracks..here in nyc its like every1 defecated on the tracks, then threw their trash for the week on top of that on to the tracks.


flipside is you can get just about anywhere u want anytime day or night. NYers complain about the MTA, and it can def get annoying as ****, what with train delays, long subway trips and slow moving tunnel traffic. then there are those "sick passengers" or the passengers that want to kill themselves by jumping onto tracks :rolleyes ain't no1 got time fo dat. at least not here.


but NYC transit > all that 1230 am transit shutoff madness in other cities.


philly transit is boston's but dirtier. and a lot less crowded. and more hood :smh: its only 2 lines so its by far the easiest system to navigate.
 
The airport, buckhead, peachtree, Turner Field, GA Dome, Philips Arena, Decatur and Lenox are a few reasons to use MARTA.

This article is trash.
As a former Atlanta resident, MARTA was appreciated by me.

MARTA was my primary means of getting around when I was at Georgia State since I didn't have a car.

Like you pointed out, MARTA makes key location of the city conveniently accessible. I would've been SOL without it.
MARTA covers 1/4 of where you need to go at best. Anyone who has to go in and out of the city is essentially screwed, and instead of being proactive about it, they've made things worse? Now you have to PAY for what used to be the HOV lanes? LOL this is why Georgia is terrible.Georgia is the worst.
 
Their gripes about NOLA seem pretty pedantic, especially since they make a point of telling you how terrible bus lines are in other cities, so there's only 4 street car lines these days, well there's a ton of RTA routes. It's pretty easy to get by in this city without a car, unless you have the misfortune of living on the west bank. Then you're pretty screwed, especially since they're cutting back on the ferry service over the next few months, but living in the city you can get around pretty easily. Maybe not up with the MTA or other better thought out transit lines, but it's not that bad.
 
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