7 CITIES THAT DO TRANSPORT RIGHT
If you, too, want the real local experience, hop on a city bus, take a tram, board a ferry or discover a unique form of public transit in one of these cities.
PARIS
It can be difficult to decide which is more confounding: the view from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim on Line 6 of the Metro or the way Parisians seem utterly unimpressed by it. The train zooms across the Seine River and offers an outstanding vista of the Eiffel Tower. Not a bad deal for $3.20.
LISBON, PORTUGAL
In Lisbon, everyone should purchase a one-day metro card. For less than $12.15, you will get access to the various canary-yellow trams, as well as Lisbon’s bus and subway system. Pile on to the popular Tram 28 and lurch past ornate churches and tile-covered dwellings, or take one of the other, less busy lines and savour the ride.
Your metro card also will get you access to the Santa Justa Elevator, an ingenious lift that opened in 1902 and connects the lower town to the jacarandas and earthquake-ruined convent of Carmo Square.
LONDON
You also can find a good mix of scenery and commuter life on city buses and trains all over the world. In London, bus route 11 ($3) rolls past the Bank of England, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey, an ideal route for sightseeing.
LOS ANGELES
The Expo Line light rail rises over Jefferson Boulevard for a clear-day panorama of the downtown skyline, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign, all punctuated by power lines and palm trees. Cruise from downtown to Santa Monica for $2.70.
HONG KONG
The skyline of central Hong Kong, with closely packed skyscrapers rising in front of lush hills, is stunningly reflected in Victoria Harbour. Moving passengers between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is the Star Ferry, which has provided commuters with jaw-slackening vistas for more than 120 years. The cost for this mindblowing view? Just 50c.
MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA
If you associate cable cars with ski resorts and amusement parks, chances are you have never been to Medellin, where the gondolas of the Metrocable system connect residents of the mountainside favelas with the main city down below. Part of a growing trend in Latin American public transportation, Medellin’s Metrocable route opened in 2004 as a lifeline for low-income commuters. A one-way fare costs tourists and locals alike $1. You haven’t really experienced this city until you’ve queued up with locals and dangled over red-brick buildings while the morning sun pours into the valley below.
SALVADOR, BRAZIL
Outdoor elevators are rarities in public transportation, but Lisbon isn’t the only place where you can find one. Ride the Lacerda Elevator in Salvador. The apparatus travels up a steep escarpment, connecting Tome De Souza Square with the waterfront down below. The queues can be long, but the experience is easily worth 5c. From the top of the Art Deco tower, you’ll see the Bay of All Saints spread out in all its azure glory.