[manwithnofriends]

Here in the UK, the train service is notoriously infamous for being the most expensive in Europe, badly run, always late (and any other negative thing you can say about it)... yet passenger numbers are rising year on year so people don't complain much do they? (I'd have thought the people who vent their dissatisfaction of the British train service online represent just a tiny minority of passengers)

...and also, how would you define a train being "on time"? Would it have to arrive at its scheduled arrival time and depart within the same minute? i.e. A train that arrives at 1600 as scheduled but for some reason departs at 1601 (or 16:00:59 if you'd like) is still late? If that's the case, the company that runs the trains I take to uni (London Overground) would roughly be 50% punctual instead of the 95-97% they claim to be every quarter of a year.

[Fresia]

Living in the Northeast, there are more train services and in some of the major cities to be able to use. For what train services there are, they are pretty good at being on time and fairly reasonably priced given the cost of trains other places that have been in Europe and Asia, with commuter fairs available and discounts for various reasons if you know where to look.

Train service? What's that? Don't have any here

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[IchbinkeinTeufel]

Room for improvement.

[healingme4me]

Usually on-time. Prices have been going up. Discounts are usually only possible if you ride them near daily. I'm Northeast too. They are talking about building another train line, through another state up here. Makes it convenient to get to the city, because the cost of parking in the city, is just extravagantly priced ....

[Wren_]

overpriced
overcrowded
running late (more than about five minutes)

are the main issues

that said; I'm still glad we have our train service

I've known a number of people online that live in the US who haven't been on a train before so that could be another interesting thing to see in replies to your thread

[Blue_Bird]

I live in a rural town and there's no public transportation at all No buses, taxis, trains, nothing. Hard living here without a car, need to get to driving someday.

[BeenThereDunIt]

In the part of Calif I live in, public transportation is not very good. A few years back, I tried taking the train to work (approximately 35 miles). What I most disliked most about using the train was that it was a minimum 12 hour round trip, could not shorten that at all. The trains only run North during certain times and only run South at certain times. I would catch the train at 6:00am and the earliest I could get back home was 6:00pm. Also, I needed to take a bus between the train station and my office, the morning bus was fairly reliable but the afternoon bus often would never show up.

[-jimi-]

Pricey as heck. On time often but sometimes very delayed.

That said, we have trains and buses a lot of places. Most of my American friends has never been on a train! And I have like 100 times.

[lizardlady]

I live out in the boonies in the US. There's absloutely no public transportation out here. If you don't drive you are stuck.

[atomicc]

I live in New York City so almost every one relies on public transportation. It's pretty damn reliable. If one doesn't come on time, then there's another right behind it!

Not Applicable here ...

But I can certainly understand the frustration.

[DenisDonnacha]

in Ireland it's pretty crap, too expensive and can be ridiculously late sometimes, I wouldn't like to be someone who has to rely on it for commuting to work

[SilverNeurotic]

Originally Posted by Blue_Bird

I live in a rural town and there's no public transportation at all No buses, taxis, trains, nothing. Hard living here without a car, need to get to driving someday.

Same where I live.

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[LadyShadow]

Originally Posted by atomicc

I live in New York City so almost every one relies on public transportation. It's pretty damn reliable. If one doesn't come on time, then there's another right behind it!

I live in NYC too, but out on Long Island. The Long Island Railroad is pretty reliable but so pricey! It costs almost $15 to go to Manhattan one way! I couldn't imagine paying that every day if I worked in the city.

I drive so I am pretty lucky to have a car.

[NWgirl2013]

Trains are Great where I live. Love that I can get to the airport on a train. Very easy, not too spendy.

actually pretty good.

we've southwest trains, and they are very reliable- they go from like half 5 in the morning, until like.. i think the last train is at 11 59 in the evening

[Timgt5]

In Japan if the train is more than one minute late, the train personel will actually write a note for you to give to your boss-hand it to them-that's service.

Public Transport works best in areas of high density urbanized populations like Tokyo, London, NY, Paris etc... The cites are simply too congested to make private autos effective during business hours.

In the rest of the US, well its population allocation, and geography render widespread public transport difficult and unable to meet a cost vs benefits basis, sorry Liz, just economics.

Besides the majority of us simply do not like being piled into boxes like cattle, we want our own climate control, to go where we want and when we want to, its a cultural thing.

[yellowted]

I can not complain about the train services around me (I am in the UK), at least most of the guards allow my mobility scooter on board and I have even been offered a cab by the train company on two occasions when the trains were not running!
the busses on the other hand refuse to allow me on board even though my scooter fits in the wheelchair space with a baby pushchair behind me!
train staff are generally pleasant and helpful though like any profession you do get the odd axxhole who thinks it is beneath them to deploy a ramp.
bus drivers again are polar opposites, they hoot at me to 'get on the pavement' even though my scoot is a class 3 vehicle which is road taxed and insured, and not allowed on the bus. when I try to board a bus in my manual wheelchair more often than not they refuse entry on the grounds the ramp is not working or there is a pushchair or suitcase in the wheelchair space and they will not ask for it to be vacated!
only problem I have with trains is my local station is not accessible by scoot as it has steps, the next closest I have to wait for the train to arrive, battle through the crowds leaving to find the guard to ask for him to deploy the ramp, and this station is not used at weekends, so if I want to go anywhere at the weekend I have to scooter 4 miles to the next closest accessible station which means I do not have much scoot power left to do anything at the other end of the train ride!!

[Marla500]

I grew up in a town without public transportation so I had to walk everywhere until I could borrow my mom's car and I was really glad when I moved to a place with buses!! but they are mostly on time so no problems really. we do have trains for traveling long distances but it's been a long time since I was on one.

[dumburn]

I'm in a rural-ish area and they are pissing awful.
only one an hour run between 7am and 9pm, the buses are even worse.
So glad i finally learned to drive a couple of years ago

[Raging Quiet]

I holiday in the Isle of Wight (UK) and the trains there are on time 99.9%...! (There are like 6 stops the whole train line though!)