England vs. America: Round Two

So it's been 2 months since Round 1. Ready for Round 2? So far America is winning 1-0.

Round 2: Transportation
Being a student here has forced me to rely on pubic transit in all forms. Here I will compare my experiences on each in America and England.

Planes

This one is a draw. The experiences I've had so far flying over here, which have been limited to, have always gone well. The only airline I've used while over here is RyanAir, of which I have heard travel horror stories, but this hasn't been my experience.Trains

Far and away this goes to England. The trains run more often here and people use them. To give an example: In 2008-2009, Waterloo Station, London's busiest station handled just short of 88 million passengers. By comparison the entire Amtrak system handled over 27.1 million passengers in 2009. That pretty much says it right there. And London has another 6 stations that handle more passengers than Amtrak does across an entire nation.

If you take those 7 stations (Waterloo, Victoria, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Paddington, & Euston) they handled a combined 356 million people. That’s more than the population of the United States. I could go on and on with statistics to prove my point, but I’ll just leave you with this last one. The number of people handled by all train stations in the U.K. is about one third of the population of the world.

Underground/Subway

This one also is going to England. While disruptions are fairly frequent, and some lines shut down on the weekend for improvement work, overall the system is extremely good. Trains run frequently (I've never waited more than 5-7 minutes), and you can get anywhere easily. And when lines do shut down, replacement bus services run and extra staff are placed at the stations to help you. Also, you can look up planned closures for the next 6 months. But these problems plague all underground (subway in America) systems.

Buses

Again, this one is going to England. The buses run extremely frequently. For example, in Baltimore at rush hour the #11 will run about every 20 minutes. The #25 in London will, at its most infrequent run every 8-12 minutes, and that's in the middle of the night. Which brings up another point in favor of London's Buses: many routes run 24 hours

Overall

I think it's clear that England has won this round. Simply put, people use the public transit options that are available more often, and therefore more services are provided. For buses and the Underground, I've never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus or tube train, and that was when I was coming back from the grocery store and the first 2 buses that came by were too crowded.

America will never reach the level of England, and for one simple reason: we're in love with our cars. And until we embrace public transit like we do our cars, England will always win this one.

Score: U.S.:1, U.K.: 1