Wednesday, June 1, 2011

City train network

Since I've seen the world, I'd like to share with readers how good the public transportation are in the city I have visited.

Recently I've been to Leipzig - one small city approximately 100KM of south Berlin. Most of you probably have not heard this city before. Below is the image of public transportation map in Leipzig which consists of tram, suburban train and bus.
Very encouraging and almost every location in the city centre and suburban area (Zone 162, 163, 164, 147, 151, 155, 156 and 168) are well connected. If you wish to go further out than these areas, you need another train called Regional Express or Inter-City.

Now let's look at Berlin transportation map. Berlin is the capital city of Germany for those who still don't know. Even it is the capital city, Munich and Frankfurt are more advance than Berlin in term of economy, development and living style. So you will find it more expensive living in Frankfurt or Munich.
The map shown only for suburban and underground train in Berlin. Of course they also have tram in the city but not as encouraging as in Leipzig. Well, I've been told that tram in Leipzig is the most advance network in Germany.

Now let's go further west of Europe. London. I think most Malaysians must have been here already; either for study, work or holiday. It has been the must visit place for Malaysians. I really amazed with the underground tube of London. Very well connected, organized and full of people. It's like you put the whole tram and bus network system in Leipzig underground!
See, you can go anywhere in Greater London by underground tube. With only GBP 9, you can use the underground tube, buses and britain rail (not sure what is the name for this network train, in the map above the line is white) within Zone 1 to 6 for one day.

Enough west, let's go to far east, Tokyo!

I was not much using the train service there. Not so often.
But I'm sure the train network is better. When you drive in Tokyo, sometimes you will stop under the multiple trains' rails. They have subway, on ground, and above ground. They have train like monorail and train like hanging on the rail, not sure whether you can imagine this or not. Many types of trains I must say, you name it.

In Singapore, they have MRT. I used this when I was little, long time ago. Now I drive if I go to Singapore.
Some people still find it discouraging. But for me it's good enough for small country like Singapore. It will connected you to every corner of the island.

In Kuala Lumpur, we have LRT-Star, LRT-Putra, Komuter, KLIA transit/Express and monorail. Let's see how KL's looks like.
As one of the oil and gas exporting countries, I find this is a joke made by the ruling government. I feel ashamed as citizen of the country. I feel ashamed to my colleague from Leipzig when they came down here. The train networks couldn't even beat the one in Leipzig. Rather than wasting the money building the mega tower, they should improve the public transportation in KL. Please!

I am mortified.

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