Having spent the past ~10 years living in London, I disagree.
Rush hour Tokyo trains were a dream, people are polite and queue, but they queue so that they're not in the way, the carriages are surprisingly head-roomy for 6'4 me, unlike the shit show of the central line, they're cooled properly, like the circle/district and the stations were almost universally clean and spacious unlike our tube platforms which are often cramped with tiny exits through archways blocked by people filling the platforms.
I'm not saying the London Tube is bad, but I would take Tokyo subway over it any day.
It may be controversial to say but tourists (local or from afar) are generally the worst part about central London commuting, due to the ignorance of the etiquette, especially when tourist numbers can be overwhelming in some parts.
> It may be controversial to say but tourists (local or from afar) are generally the worst part about central London commuting, due to the ignorance of the etiquette, especially when tourist numbers can be overwhelming in some parts.
This goes for any city that is popular with tourists, who seem to forget that most of the people in a city live and work there, and have their own lives that do not revolve around hospitality or entertainment for tourists.
The tube is pretty bad. Many lines have grime floating in the air that deposits on skin & clothing and turns your snot black. Often a very long walk pavement to platform. Frequent delays from suicide attempts because its old so no track doors and the designs of stations are depressing. Overworked and underpaid staff.
So, did some research. TFL have not released hard figures in recent years, but it appears the delays due to jumpers are significantly down from their past near-daily occurance because of the installation of "suicide pits" to catch jumpers under many platforms and training staff to intervene when they spot a distressed person on the platform.
Could not possibly agree more, they are the worst. System would be massively more efficient and pleasant if everyone followed basic etiquette.
Other annoyances;
When you get to the bottom of the escalators don't just stop in the middle looking at phones and wondering what platform you need. Stand to the side.
Observe the queues next to each door position on the platform and join them. Do not just stand in the clear space in the middle. Following on from that, let people off the train first!!
Walk down the platform don't huddle at the entrance to it.
Don't wait for the gates to close before tapping your card. Just tap and check for green light.
I actually expected people to stand on the "left" of the scalators - just like how they drive on the left and overtake on the right - but they didn't.
They stood on the right.
Stand on the right on escalators, let people off of the carriages before you barge on, don't stop suddenly without checking who's about to walk into you, don't run into tube trains as the doors are closing only to get stuck and hold up the train, DON'T HOLD THE DOORS OPEN, go up and down stairs on the left, corridors etc, stay on the left and don't fuck around at the barriers. Have your card ready, your contactless ready, take your kids, cases, whatever through the wide gate. Don't play whatever shitty video you're watching to the whole train and certainly don't subject others to your music taste.
DO ask people for directions or for help, people may look tired, they may look grumpy they may even be those things, but most will be more than willing to help you.
EDIT: Others covered a few important ones I missed too; backpacks off, walking N-abreast so as to be blocking others from passing are a big no-no; you may be having a leisurely stroll, commuters have places to be, whether at work or at home with their families and their feet up after a long day.
Adding to this: Don't jump aboard wearing your dirty working jumpsuit smeared with paint, cement, oil. Also stop loudly arguing with your partner over phone. Get your shoes off the chairs.
It's like London, but the overly-compressed people are more polite and the air doesn't get quite so.. thick because the carriages are much bigger.
Also, the trains are on time, so there's no waiting on an overflowing platform for 10 mins of no trains then 30 minutes of trains too full to get onto.
Based on the fashion and film grain, that picture is probably 30 years old. I lived in Tokyo recently, for 5 years, and saw this maybe 3 times, all at special occasions, such as on the way to a large fireworks festival. I've experienced train pushers in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics, too. Yes, many trains are uncomfortably crowded at rush hour but I've experienced the same in Europe. Maybe slightly worse in Europe, because at least the train tends to be on time and the ticket machines and turnstiles always work in Japan.
In Paris train pushers are just a convenient excuse for you to ram the idiots standing clueless in the middle of the carriage towards the aisles where they should have gone from the start while pretending it’s not your fault anyway.
It’s nearly as enjoyable as getting someone out of the way so you can get in said aisles yourself and avoid being compressed next to the doors at rushed hours.
It was a thing before COVID in Tokyo. Don’t know about now. The point I’m trying to make is that this thing NEVER happens in London. Train pushers don’t exist, so even if it’s not an everyday thing in Tokyo anymore I can hardly believe that anyone would say “I prefer the rush hour in Tokyo”, to which my previous post was the response to :)
Even if the trains in Tokyo are more packed (debatable, but I'll concede it for now), there is more to commuting than that. The reliability of the service, the cleanliness or the stations and carriages, the (lack of) pushing and shoving on and on the way to the platform, the temperature and ventilation of the stations and carriages etc. Tokyo wins in all these measurement.
Train congestion has been falling with the decline in population.
Also, the pandemic has really sped up adoption of either wfh, partial wfh, or commuting during “shoulder” hours instead of the peak of peak, from what I’ve heard.
Rush hour Tokyo trains were a dream, people are polite and queue, but they queue so that they're not in the way, the carriages are surprisingly head-roomy for 6'4 me, unlike the shit show of the central line, they're cooled properly, like the circle/district and the stations were almost universally clean and spacious unlike our tube platforms which are often cramped with tiny exits through archways blocked by people filling the platforms.
I'm not saying the London Tube is bad, but I would take Tokyo subway over it any day.
It may be controversial to say but tourists (local or from afar) are generally the worst part about central London commuting, due to the ignorance of the etiquette, especially when tourist numbers can be overwhelming in some parts.