Public Transportation Around The World
Dear Readers,
Yesterday, Pem Charnley asked for less rhetoric and more investment in public transportation.
This week, we are featuring articles on public transportation around the world.
With the auto industry taking heat for emissions, it’s important to look to other feasable alternatives to personal transit.
How far has any country come toward achieving a high-tech, fully integrated transportation system? Where do we need to improve? These are some of the questions we will seek to answer.
Please join the conversation and continue to check back during the days that follow as we explore public transportation around the world.
We just returned from Switzerland and I believe (so do they) that they have one of the best public transportation networks in the world. Every town is connected to the train system by bus. The Swiss Post runs the inter-city bus service (delivering people and mail!) Each town has its own intra-city system. The SBB is well run and efficient. Recently, it has taken on contracts to run train service in the Italian Alps and the ICE service in Germany.
For a about $800, our family of four got a pass that enabled us to ride for free on trains, buses, ferries and trams. Adults paid half price on mountain gondolas and funiculars. If you factor in the cost of renting a car, parking fees and gasoline, taking public transit in Switzerland is definitely the way to go.
And we didn’t just travel to cities. We went deep into the Berner Oberland, near the Jura foothills to visit a farm. We spent a day in the Alps. We went to Lake Biel and Lake Lucern. We used every mode of transportation…except a car!