Tag Archives: trains

What’s the most irritating thing about riding transportation?

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A while ago I wrote a quick post about enjoyable encounters on public transportation, because not all encounters on the train or bus are really that awful, and I think in some cases the opportunity to talk to strangers is a great feature of riding the train. Sometimes, though, one person can ruin it for everyone around them.

I’ve been reading a lot about Paris lately (not at all because I want to move back, of course), and stumbled again across the Restons Civils campaign on the Métro/RER. Here’s what’s most annoying to Parisian riders:

  1. 86% of riders say they saw someone speaking too loudly on their phone
  2. 83% saw someone jump over the turnstile to avoid the fare
  3. 80% saw someone leave a newspaper on their seat
  4. 78% saw someone enter the bus/train before letting departing passengers off first
  5. 75% saw someone standing on the left side of an escalator/moving walkway
  6. 75% saw someone not validate their ticket on the bus or tram (bus passengers can enter at the rear if they don’t have to pay in cash)
  7. 73% saw someone eating
  8. 73% had someone follow closely behind them at the turnstile (two for the price of one!)
  9. 71% were pushed/shoved without hearing “excuse me” (when boarding/exiting)
  10. 69% saw someone sitting in a fold-down seat during a peak travel period

I’m assuming that these are similar annoyances in many other cities. Personally, I am annoyed by people talking too loudly on the trains, period (not just on their phones). A bigger problem, somewhat unique to Chicago, is that people tend to crowd around the doors without “filling in” the rest of the space on the train. Probably because there isn’t much to begin with.

CTA 5000-series/RATP MP 05

It bears repeating: The CTA car is wider, yet it always feels more cramped.
Left: CTA 5000-series car (Credit: Steven Takaki/Chicago-L.org)
Right: Paris Métro MP 05 car (Credit: Wikipedia)

I couldn’t find a nice graphic like the one RATP has, but through Google searches and stumbling across some Yelp forums I’ve found these to be the most-cited annoyances (in addition to the Top 10 on the RATP):

  • People with large bags blocking the doors/aisles
  • Tourists
  • Begging
  • People (mainly men) spreading their legs wide to take up two seats

  • “Pole leaners,” or people that lean against the entire poll, rendering it useless to anyone else
  • People stopping on the stairs/escalator/in front of the turnstile
  • Body odor (and to break the stereotype, I have never experienced this problem in France)
  • Ill-preparedness, or waiting until the doors open to emerge from your seat at the end of the car to decide to get up
  • And just for Chicago summers, Cubs fans (I had to say it!)

I don’t think any one of these is reason enough to not ride the train or bus, but you can bring these issues to light through a nice public civility campaign like the RATP did. The CTA did put up these announcements about strollers recently:

CTA tried. Credit: CTA Tattler.

The problem with things like this is that it’s all words. Nobody is going to read that. I like the public civility campaigns that focus on images and short, simple messages:

Tokyo Metro public civility campaign. Credit: The Verge.

The Tokyo notices are simple and image-heavy. I don’t know exactly what it says in Japanese. Maybe it rhymes?

“Pay the fee, travel with ease” is probably the best English translation. Literally, this says “He who validates [his ticket] travels without worry”

And some smaller stickers to remind stone-faced Parisians to smile:

“2 strangers’s smiles lasts for a while” is a good way to translate this, otherwise literally “Exchanging 2 smiles lights up 1 day.”

I haven’t come across any surveys regarding the most annoying habits here in our cities, but I don’t think we need them to create more awareness of how to behave properly on public transportation. There seems to already be a consensus about the most annoying occurrences.

What do you find the most annoying part of riding public transportation, and what do you do about it? Have you seen any other public civility campaigns around the world? Leave it in the comments or tweet @transitized.

 

Ouigo: SNCF launches more low-cost train service

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SNCF (French national railways) president Guillaume Pépy announced today the introduction of Ouigo on the national high-speed TGV network of France. The service will run between Marle-la-Vallée-Chessy (also where Euro Disney is located), a suburb east of Paris, and Lyon, Avignon, and Marseille. Tickets for the roughly 475 mile journey (which takes only 3 hours) will start at just 10 € for adults, and 5 € for children (today, that’s $13.50 and $6.75 USD, respectively).

Ouigo Duplex train. Credit: 20 Minutes.

Pépy lauded the introduction as a TGV service “not for Parisians” (“pas pour les Parisiens”), by which he means it is for those who live on the outskirts of Paris. Most TGV service runs radially from Paris, which makes some sense considering it is the capital of France, a national and international economic powerhouse, and the most-visited city in the world. But in an attempt to make itself a viable option for those who might otherwise make the journey to southern destinations by car or low-cost airline, SNCF is acting like a business in a recessed economy.

Comparison of ticket prices for different modes between Paris and Marseille, from top to bottom: TGV Loisir (standard high-speed rail), Air France, reserved carpool, iDTGV (other low-cost TGV service), Ryanair, TGV Prem’s (the first tickets sold, usually cheaper), and Ouigo. The map is not to scale; Marne-la-Vallée is not out near Strasbourg. Credit: Le Figaro.fr.

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CTA Next-Train Displays Arriving in More Stations

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One of the best ways of improving the rider experience when using public transportation is to give riders more information. CTA has done a good job in giving riders more information about the location of the bus or train they’re waiting for, both by placing displays on bus shelters and in train stations, as well as opening the data to developers to create apps for smartphones and SMS information services.

Before, I’ve complained that some of the displays on train platforms aren’t that great (specifically at the Belmont and Fullerton stations) because they spend only 1/3 of their time giving useful information; for the rest of the time, they show a standard “Thank you for riding” message or train arrival times that will be irrelevant for the waiting passengers (since other trains will arrive first). Other displays throughout the network, such as the Titan displays, show everything but important information, like the weather or news and other things we don’t really need to see on a train platform.

Finally, there is the latest type of screen, which was recently installed in the Chicago (Red line) station on the mezzanine, just before going down to the platform.

Spotted at the Chicago Red line station. Credit: Rodney LaBauex.

Spotted at the Chicago Red line station. Credit: Rodney LaBauex.

I like that the screen is on the mezzanine for a few reasons:

  1. You can grab some food or drink on the mezzanine if you see that your train isn’t coming for a few minutes (yes, I know, you’re not technically supposed to eat on the train).
  2. Since you can’t see the trains from the mezzanine, you can only hear them, it would avoid the running rush that happens when you hear a train coming and it ends up being a train going in the opposite direction.

I don’t know if they will be putting these screens up on the platform either. If they already have them on the mezzanine, I don’t see the point of adding more (except perhaps to notify passengers of train delays or express-running trains). Of course, some stations (Grand on the Red line comes to mind) already have displays on the platform that do nothing but show the current time and the “Thank you for riding” message – those could be retrofitted or replaced. I do think it would be nice if some of the elevated train stations had signs on the outside of the station, hanging over the sidewalk, showing the next train/bus arrival times on one screen. Certain stations that are near certain attractions, like Wrigley Field or the airports, could have these screens located at unique locations as well.

I asked the CTA if they had a list of where else the displays would go up, and they said they plan to have all of them up in every station by the end of 2013. I hope that type of plan isn’t the same as with the bus tracker displays on shelters, which were delayed. Giving more information to riders is important in improving the quality of the experience.

Union Station feels a little brighter

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I haven’t taken a train to or from Union Station in Chicago for a few months, but today I noticed that many of the lights in the station felt a little brighter.

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North concourse of Union Station, Chicago. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

 

According to the Union Station website, many of the station’s lightbulbs were changed recently. As a result, there is an annual savings of 3,142,932 kWh, or $336,402 in energy costs, annually.

Union Station always felt a little dreary (the Great Hall notwithstanding), if not because of the lightbulbs, because of the low ceilings or pollution from the diesel trains on the tracks. It feels a little brighter now.

Chicago Union Station’s unfortunately underused Great Hall. Credit: Wikipedia.

It would take some high ceilings and natural light for Union Station to feel like a more “European” station. That’s not to say that we should be building stations modeled after European stations, but most of them do feel airier and brighter. Most trains in Europe are also electrified, meaning no local pollution.

Gare du Nord in Paris

Gare du Nord in Paris. The regional/international station is also connected to Metro lines 4 and 5, and RER lines B and D. Credit: Wikipedia.

It’s worth noting different train station designs around the world. I haven’t visited many stations in America outside Europe, since we don’t have a very decent regional train network in the U.S., but I do know that there are some gems. I have visited Grand Central in New York, whose concourse is very open (the tracks are not). I’ve also heard that Union Station in Washington, D.C. is very nice. It would be nice if the Great Hall in Union Station could see more “life” like Grand Central.

If you’ve seen “airier” and “brighter” train stations here in the States, where are they?

“I don’t know what the point of these new trains is if people still can’t stand in them”

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Not surprisingly, some of the best observations come from casual, nontechnical strangers. Last night, while riding the Red line towards Howard from Lake, a new 5000-series rail car pulled up to the station and quickly became packed. There was no difference between the lack of comfort in the new cars and the older cars still in use, but this isn’t entirely because of the design – it’s because the CTA can’t run cars often enough to actually alleviate the crowding in the cars. A woman who was trying to get off the train at the Chicago stop said this when trying to squeeze herself between passengers to get to the door:

I don’t know what the point of these new trains is if people still can’t stand in them.

It’s true, actually, that the new 5000-series cars on the CTA really don’t do anything for comfort of the passengers. The new seating, while different, doesn’t help to get more passengers in the train. Even though the aisle-facing seats do increase standing room, the case could be made that they actually decrease overall room for passengers. The configuration of the older cars’ rows is 2 seats, room for 1 standing person, and 2 seats (2-1-2). Now, with aisle-facing seats, there is 1 seat, room for 2 standing passengers, and 1 seat (1-2-1). A person standing away from the doors will find it hard to get out of the train unless a fair amount of other passengers are trying to leave the train.

Interior of a 5000-series rail car during the PM rush hour.

Interior of a 5000-series rail car during the PM rush hour. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

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