The transportation in York

I am not saying that the transportation  is different from China. It is the way which makes the difference.

First, I want to talk about the bus. One thing that really confuses me is that the normal ticket and the return ticket is the same price for the NO.4 bus. I just couldn’t figure out why this happen. Further investigation indicates that the normal price was 1.7 and the return ticket was 2.5 a period ahead of time. But now, the company changes its policy and to make the price balanced and more attractive  to customers, they make it 2 pounds. Another thing for buses is that you have to always inform the driver where you want to stop. If you don’t wave your hand, the driver will pass leaving you standing at the stop. If nobody press the stop button, the driver will not stop at the station. It seems to make the bus drive more quickly. But it may also cause some trouble. Tourists who take the bus for the first time may miss the bus or the stop with little knowledge of the rules. But one thing that makes me happy is that there is always plenty of seats on the bus. In Hangzhou, the bus is always crowded with people making it hard to breathe.

The second transportation I want to talk about is the train. The British train ticket is quite weird. If you buy a ticket with several interchanges and some of the train don’t have reserved seat, then you will know nothing about he departure and arrival time for the train. Such trouble happens to one of my friends when they travel from London to York. They mistake the departure time of the train and missed it. Only British people can read the ticket. Another thing worth mention is that there is always a lot of discout. If you travel together, or if you book the ticket ahead of time, the price will be much lower. Such thing never happens in China. Maybe that is because the train tour price is quite cheap compared to other transportation and there is no need lowering the price to attract the travelers. Another reason is that the railway is owned by country in China government. But in British, there are several railway company and they have to compete with each other.

Taxi is another difference. In China, you seldom have to book a taxi. The only thing you have to is to wave a hand and the taxi will stop right in front of you. But in busy hours, it is hard to get one. In British, almost all the taxi have to be booked by phones. Also, there is very few spots in the city for you to wait for taxi.

Some other interesting thing is that the public transportation in British is quite expensive. I don’t know whether the government want to promote the automobile industry or not. It is still worth further investigation.