Green Line Equivalent

May 25, 2016

Growing up in and around the city of Boston has made me become accustom to the hustle and bustle of the MBTA’s infamous public transportation system. Some days, it’s a normal commute where it’s ten stops and about a half an hour with minimal shoving, other days, I’ll be lucky enough to find space to bend my elbow. In London… it’s pretty much the same thing except for some of the names, lingo, and semantics. First off the public transport system is called the Underground, as opposed to the subway in Boston or The Tube as opposed to the T. Many of the stops and lines are named after former Queens, kings, heads of State, and despots, like the Victoria Line. The public transport system in London is divided into six zones, we use our Oyster Cards (similar to Charlie Cards) to get around. For the first two zones, it is free to get around and most of our activities are off the stops in these zones. To go outside of these zones to zones 3,4,5 and 6 would be extra money.

To get to class everyday, we take the Tube. It is about a 45 minute commute, comprised of a 35 minute Tube ride on the District Line and a 10 minute walk from the stop. It is usually crowded as class tends to start around 9 which is when you see most other Londoners are going to work or school children on their way to class. The Tube is usually as crowded as the green line can get but can get up to two times as crowded. Another con is that the doors slam very fast and can close on you and can only be reopened by the driver who usually can’t see that you are trapped. But on a more positive note, the Tube moves faster than most trains in the US, like exponentially faster. And when there is a stop or delay between stops, driver makes announcements to explain why there is a delay as opposed the the T where you can be staying in the same spot for up to ten minutes and not have a clue why, Overall, the Tube station, with is pros and cons, is a pretty efficient way to get around the city of London, for class, exploring, and sightseeing.

Written By

Cynthia Orofo

Living in America for the entirety of my life has blanketed me in a shell of American culture and lifestyles. I aim to expand my limited view of the world that I live and learn in everyday and in having the possibility to study abroad, an individual is granted the opportunity to broaden his/her global outlook by experiencing every aspect of that nation’s civilization, culture and society. With this dialogue, I wish to be thrown past my limits and experience first hand what it means to live, work, and learn in an environment completely different from my own. One of my long term goals in life is to better the lives of the deprived and disenfranchised, essentially helping those who may not have or have lost the ability to help themselves. This I aspire to attain later in life by constructing a free health clinic in impoverished villages in Nigeria. This dialogue gives a global prospect on health care systems which can broaden my way of thinking in progress towards a better understanding of the differences in health care systems.