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subway posts

Paris metro gets an IKEA design upgrade

Paris metro gets an IKEA design upgradeMar 12th, 2010 at 4:30PM: Mass transportation sure is convenient, but it's often far from comfortable. Hard plastic seating. Harsh fluorescent lighting. Pungent smells. It's not the type of environment where you linger longer than necessary. Global furniture uber-retailer IKEA feels your pain and is trying to do something about it - at least temporarily. From now until March 24th, the company is giving four Paris Metro ...

10 Reasons London's Tube is better than the NYC Subway

10 Reasons London's Tube is better than the NYC SubwayJan 30th, 2010 at 10:30AM: I'm a New Yorker. I spend plenty of time on the subway. At present, I'm in London, and I just can't help but notice the staggering differences between the Tube and the MTA. Frankly, there is a lot we could stand to learn from the masterminds behind the Tube. I'm writing this from the UK, so as not to incur bad subway karma (you know, when you have a series of just-missed-the-train experiences) ...

London's Tube will have (some) air conditioning next summer

London's Tube will have (some) air conditioning next summerOct 24th, 2009 at 3:30PM: tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/24/londons-tube-will-have-air-conditioning-next-summer/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling'; Londoners love to hate the Tube. The London Underground is said to be overpriced, overcrowded, and prone to breakdowns and strikes, but perhaps the biggest (and most valid) complaint is that on hot summer days the lack of air conditioning turns the cars into ...

Photo of the Day (10.4.09)

Photo of the Day (10.4.09)Oct 4th, 2009 at 6:00PM: tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/04/photo-of-the-day-10-4-09/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling'; What year is it? Based on a first glance at Flickr user Cazimiro's photo, you could be forgiven for thinking you've been transported to some kind of "space station of the future." The shot was actually taken inside Washington DC's Union Station metro stop, but it feels almost ...

A tour inside Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue Tunnel

A tour inside Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue TunnelSep 28th, 2009 at 9:30AM: Gadling's Undiscovered New York series first told you about Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue Tunnel earlier this year. This past weekend, we headed down inside for a first-hand look. This subterranean tunnel, first constructed in the 1840's, is perhaps the world's first subway, pre-dating the system in London by more than 20 years. Each month, the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association runs tours of ...

Spend a weekend in Pyongyang

Spend a weekend in PyongyangAug 27th, 2009 at 2:00PM: If you didn't get a shot at the last short trip that Koryo Tours organized into North Korea, you have another chance coming. This rare breed of travel company – which brings westerners into the most isolated country on earth – is planning an excursion for September 24 – 26, which will include the sights of Pyongyang and the opportunity to witness the Arirang Mass Games spectacle. ...

Five ways to get to the airport

Five ways to get to the airportJul 28th, 2009 at 4:00PM: Your bags are sitting in the hallway, and you're ready to go to the airport. How to get there involves a tradeoff between cost and hassle. A sacrifice is always necessary, and it's significant: you'll have to give up something important. But, this is the nature of travel, so the best you can do is understand the good and bad associated with each. 1. Drive Take yourself to the airport, and you ...

Dim Sum Dialogues: The MTR

Dim Sum Dialogues: The MTRJul 7th, 2009 at 9:00AM: I love public transport. For me, it's one of the factors that define whether a city is good or great...and after living in Los Angeles for 4 years, I've been overdue to live in a city with great transportation. I've navigated the underground systems of most of the major U.S cities, as well as London, Barcelona, & Paris - but none of them are as efficient or well-maintained as Hong Kong's MTR. ...

Photo of the day (4.21.09)

Photo of the day (4.21.09)Apr 21st, 2009 at 8:00PM: I have fond memories of the DC subway system, a series of long, ovular tubes that ferry passengers through the nation's capital. In addition to being one of the deepest metro systems on earth, the sweeping brutalist architecture in each station is an awe inspiring sight to behold -- whether or not you're an everyday metro passenger. Today's photo of the day is from a POTD regular, ultraclay!. ...

Photo of the day (2.24.09)

Photo of the day (2.24.09)Feb 24th, 2009 at 10:00PM: Most people don't think "art" when they see a train yard, but as dydcheung shows in this picture, the right perspective and frame can really bring out the beauty in an otherwise mundane setting. This photo was taken at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, one of largest train stations in Germany and reminds me how much I enjoy watching trains and people move, commute and flow through a maze of public ...

Do you collect souvenirs? Or "youvenirs?"

Do you collect souvenirs? Or Feb 20th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Upon returning from many trips abroad, I find I am unable to part with what many would consider the "garbage" that accumulates during your travels. I'm not talking about banana peels or tissues - more like readily disposable items such as mass transit tickets, nightclub flyers and entrance passes to monuments. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/travel_places/Souvenirs_OR_youvenirs?'; For example, I ...

Undiscovered New York: Going underground

Undiscovered New York: Going undergroundFeb 18th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Welcome back to Undiscovered New York. If New York was a human body, with Times Square as the heart and Central Park as its lungs, the city's subway system would certainly be its veins and arteries - unnoticed yet vitally important. No public transportation system could possibly encompass as many hyperboles. The smelliest. The slowest. The dirtiest. The most confusing. The hottest in the summer ...

Budget Travel: Toronto

Budget Travel: TorontoJan 21st, 2009 at 11:30AM: With a metro area of more than 8 million people, Toronto is one of North America's largest cities. It is the economic and cultural center of Canada and is by far the country's most international city. Even when compared to New York and LA, it is a culturally diverse place. Nearly half of Toronto's residents were born outside of Canada. Because all these different cultures have been absorbed into ...

Went to Beijing without your condoms? Buy a bus card

Went to Beijing without your condoms?  Buy a bus cardDec 22nd, 2008 at 11:30AM: Safe sex is going high-tech in Beijing. The old, bright yellow coin-operated condom dispensers were finally ditched by the city's authorities. They will be replaced by state of the art vending machines that look more like touch screen ATMs than the final stop for those who are about to get their naughty on. The government has installed 411 of the machines already. thousand's more will be popping ...

Minding the gap

Minding the gapDec 12th, 2008 at 3:00PM: I find it funny how the London tube is so adamant about warning passengers about the gap between the subway platform and the train. Sure, it's an big hole in the ground and you could fall into it if you weren't paying close attention, but risks like this are everywhere and on some platforms without warnings, the gap is much larger. On the RER in Paris, I could fit a donkey in it (pictured). ...

New York City MTA helps commuters lie to bosses

New York City MTA helps commuters lie to bossesDec 1st, 2008 at 9:00AM: There are lots of valid excuses for being late to work. Your power was out so your alarm clock failed to go off. Your kid was sick and you had to take him to the doctor. You passed out at the brothel and didn't have money for a cab. The problem with all of those excuses is that you have no way to prove to your boss that you're telling the truth. But validating your tardiness just got simpler if ...

Britons Bring Bowel Bacteria Onto Buses

Britons Bring Bowel Bacteria Onto BusesOct 16th, 2008 at 2:00PM: I've never been much of a germaphobe. I don't carry Purell with me. I don't wash my hands obsessively. And I don't walk around with a mask on. But then I come across a story like this one on the BBC News website and I start to question whether I should live in a bubble. A recent recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (is there a better location for the study of tropical ...

NYC subway fan arrested for 26th time, shows true dedication

NYC subway fan arrested for 26th time, shows true dedicationOct 8th, 2008 at 9:00AM: I'll admit that I enjoy learning about mass transit, and I am probably what you might classify as a "rail enthusiast." This, however, is a trifle extreme. 43-year-old Darius McCollumn was arrested in New York's Penn Station Sunday night for "impersonating a transit employee." That was, indeed, his 26th arrest by transit police, the first of which occurred when he was 15 years old and involved him ...

NYC subways are slow... and getting slower

NYC subways are slow... and getting slowerOct 7th, 2008 at 11:00AM: That's according to the latest NYC Transit data, at least, which covers the past three years of service. The New York Post points out that while the days of broken-down cars and graffiti-filled stations, at least, is long gone, there is a significant trend downwards in the quality and reliability in subway services. Through June this year, the average number of delayed trains is up 24% from last ...

Hack your local subway

Hack your local subwayAug 13th, 2008 at 1:00PM: Frequent travelers on any metropolitan subway system know that the two major means for fare tracking and billing are via magnetic strip and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). And every nerd and his RPG character know that those systems can be both readable and exploitable. To see how secure the Boston subway system was, several MIT students decided to run an analysis on the security of the ...

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