I found Heathrow miles better than either Newark or LAX. It was welcoming, the shops were open late, it was spacious and warm and the facilities were good. There’s a tube directly into central London that you walk into straight from the airport and it costs about £4 cash.
Aruvqan’s right about many of the tube’s deficiencies being due to it being really, really old - the oldest sections (including some of the ones still among the most highly-used) are 148 years old. There are limits to what can be done about that. And the huge size means that really it should be compared to the transport system of a different system and all its outlying areas rather than much smaller networks.
As someone who really does live in England I don’t find it to be broken at all.
My daughter was stuck in Heathrow from this, and there wasn’t that much snow. Gatwick, with the same amount, reopened and was back to normal quite quickly. The real cause was the new owner saving money, which is hardly limited to the U.K. BTW, I went through Heathrow in 1980, and it was hardly the nicest airport I’ve ever seen. It was much better in '96, actually.
As for the weird train bit, one could construct an equally amusing story around US airline fares.
The more interesting question, which I thought this thread was going to be about is the impact of the austerity program on life.
Yeah, comparing the Tube to tiny subway systems in other cities is a far from fair comparison. It’s easy to keep a small subway system in perfect condition. And, frankly, the Tube isn’t any worse that the New York subway, which is of a comparable size. Plus it’s getting free wifi soon!
Far left? Mmmm. It’s on the left, but only far-left from a very far-right American perspective. It’s certainly not far-left from the perspective of countries whose center is considerably to the left of the American center.
Errrr I’d argue pretty strongly that’s not the case. Having ended up in customer service hell on both sides of the Atlantic I would say the problem of “decision-makers five or ten layers removed from the people who have to enforce the rules” is just as bad in the states, if not worse.
Its something I’ve always wondered about about modern capitalism as to why it seems to encourage layer-upon-layer of middle men that don’t seem to add any value to the transaction.
My most recent example of this. I was told by guy in the Sprint store when I got my phone that it would cost $50 to replace my phone if I got the insurance, so I got the insurance. Now I need to replace my phone, and it will cost $100. But the insurance it turns out is actually provided by a different company entirely, that has nothing to do with Sprint. Its not their problem that I was told that by an employee of a different company, they charge $100 and that’s final.
I can’t count the number time something like this happens nowadays.
Meh, I think it’s 99% exaggeration. Citizens of any country can find things to complain about. Some things are better here, some things worse. I was reading a forum for ex-pats in France the other day, and they were all moaning about how French retailers are in the dark ages and have no concept of customer service or new-fangled ideas such as the internet, and how they order stuff from UK websites so that they can collect it on their visits back home, at much lower prices. I’m sure other ex-pats have similar tales to tell. Other countries are shit, too, in other words.
Are civil servants part of the service culture? I thought it meant waiters and so on.
I tend to prefer the UK style because the US style is more in your face. The UK style at its worst can be stand-offish and rude, and the US at its worst can be obsequious and rude. If you’re used to one then the other can be annoying.
Never travelled via Heathrow, so I wouldn’t know whether the complaints are true or not. What happened with Heathrow shutting down during the snow was a national embarrassment, though. They started busing passengers up to Manchester Airport at one stage, despite the North West being the coldest area in the country at the time (-21C, IIRC) and itself having near blizzard conditions over the period. Yet the local authority owned airport remained open throughout.
Privatising the rail system didn’t work, and cost lives, exactly as stated. The London tube system is actually pretty good, IMO - my very favourite part of the trip any time I go there. It’s a bit grotty, rattly, crowded, but that’s par for the course, as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t live there though, so maybe it’s a bit different if you have to use it every day.
I do travel by main line train a lot though, and the anecdote quoted by jjimm is utterly foreign to me. Trains do get cancelled and delayed, but averaged across all journeys, I think road users probably suffer more inconvenience from accidents, roadworks and congestion. When there’s an emergency or incident, the rail companies often employ a policy of getting people home no matter what - for example, honouring tickets issued for other routes/carriers, opening up first class seats and overlooking peak travel restrictions.
Almost without exception, I’ve found the onboard and station staff helpful in finding the best and cheapest options for my travel - and on the few occasions where I was in the wrong - I’ve nodded off and missed my stop a few times - they were understanding and helped me out without any extra cost.
I travel extensively by train and the only times I’ve seen passengers having a hard time from the staff/system has been:
[ul]
[li]Fare dodgers (usually chavs) trying to make excuses for their lack of ticket.[/li][li]Passengers who had some genuine problem, but went in with all guns blazing when they approached staff about it.[/li][/ul]
I’ve no love of the loss of freedoms Britain has seen over the years in the name of security but these two pieces are just over the top hyperpole - either out of date or plain wrong.
Just to take a couple of examples: in the first paragraph the bit on the Civil Contingencies Act fails to mention that alterations to existing laws can only last for 21 days unless extended by Parliament nor that it cannot alter the Human Rights Act. From the second piece, ASBOs are not issued by local Authorities on a whim. They are issued by the courts when presented with evidence of a pattern of behaviour.(I don’t say they are particularly effective or sensible but at least get the facts right)
On the OP I don’t think Britain is broken – there are things I would wish were otherwise – but generally it’s a good place to live. As others have said rail privatisation was botched and trains are certainly expensive but they are also very popular – just try to get a seat from Oxford to London most times! The Tube shows its age but it is an incredibly effective way of getting around London while Heathrow is no worse than most major airports I’ve been through. The older terminals (1, 2, and 3) are not as pretty as the big new terminals elsewhere but the range of shops and restaurants is pretty good. They’ve even managed to speed up the security checking – took much less time than I expected recently when going through Terminal 2.
ASBOs (which are ending soon anyway) are a civil court order similar to the more common injunction issued by the Magistrate’s Court. They have a heightened civil burden of proof above that of an injunction or the like; similar to a criminal standard of proof. As for “hearsay” - yes, witness statements constitute evidence; this is perfectly normal, although the Court of Appeal holds the position that the burden of proof cannot be met if the case consists solely of witness statements.
Is that relevant? One does not tip the civil servant. (One bribes.)