Subway Surfing: The battle of the tubes
The tube. Keeping London running beneath its depths.
Much like Hong Kong. The Mass Transit Rail, or MTR for short is the 11th busiest metro system, by annual ridership.
How does the youthful 44 year old network compare to the oldest in the world?
Here’s how:
What I love about the London Underground
- (Nearly) Everywhere is serviced by a tube station, HK’s are fewer and further between.
- Covers the city and surrounding areas spreading across 9 zones, into Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, though still not South East London.
- Adding to that, the ability to travel to so many parts of London (fairly) quickly, compared to driving, its a breeze.
- Retains its history and heritage such as Oswald Laurence’s Mind the Gap announcement at Embankment station, and each stations’ unique tile pattern: keep an eye out when you next visit Tottenham Court Road, Maida Vale & King’s Cross.
- Accessibility and step free access stations.
- At the time of walking, not so much, but stations with an optional climb the stairs.
- Alight here messages for notable places, from hospitals to museums and universities.
No explanation necessary for the final 2, a designers dream:
8. The Johnston Typeface
9. Harry Beck’s tube map
How does Hong Kong do it?
- It’s clean.
- Reliable, the MTR has a 99.9% punctuality rate.
- Wider, taller trains.
- Metal seats, which stick to you in summer, but no scratchy, dusty textile seats of the Underground.
- Platform screen doors, separating passengers from the train tracks.
- Maps on the trains light up indicating the next station: if it’s an interchange stop, lights of the corresponding line also aglow.
- There’s light up directional arrows too show the way of travel!
- A 3rd light indicates which side the doors will open at the next station.
9. Bigger, expansive stations to serve the 5.5M daily journeys, think the new Elizabeth Line stations at Liverpool Street & Canary Wharf, but everywhere.
10. This means there are many exits, and you’ll find maps across the station to help you navigate your way to exit A, B, C, D etc. It is broken down further (if required) into Exit X1, 2, 3 etc to get you even closer to where you want to go.
11. At least 2 escalators going up and down, that always work.
12. Shops within the stations, convenience stores such as 7 Eleven and bakeries, with many linked to shopping centres.
13. London Underground is synonymous with the Oyster card, Hong Kong is with its Octopus card. Which is also accepted as a form of payment at grocery stores, car parks and many other shops³.
14. Customer Service counters with someone stationed at all times
Service, Designed
The 3 service periods and sequence of travel was considered, consider this:
- Before you board a train, there are top up machines as well as manned customer service counters for enquiries. Yes, a human. Something I believe the western world now lacks post pandemic.
- On board, the MTR maps light up for the upcoming stop, direction of travel, an interchange station and which side the doors will open.
- A long lasting post service period, cleverly orchestrated to retain customers by extending Octopus usage outside of the transport system. Inconspicuous indeed.
I’ll be honest when I say I struggled to name good things about London’s tube system partly because I listed Hong Kong’s first and who doesn’t want to know which doors are going to open so you can be first off?!
However, I can’t help wonder if these elements were included in Hong Kong’s MTR system because they wished the London Underground had it?
The MTR was built on the foundations of London, with British transport consultants Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates being responsible for the modern MTR’s inauguration² . A study was conducted looking into Hong Kong’s future and how a transport system could support a rising population.
London’s 161 years has nothing against Hong Kong’s mere 44, it’s shiner for sure, but without it, there was no way to learn. No lessons on how to make it a better, smoother experience. No way to add elements we wish London had somewhere else.
The takeaway
With that in mind, Hong Kong’s MTR anticipated the needs of multiple users and several different scenarios of use.
Perhaps a difference in culture and expectations: the human element offers passengers interaction where they need it most. But most notable is the thinking beyond transport itself with its discernible artefact: the Octopus eliciting gentle reminders from our wallets with its versatile application.
These service moments are what makes it stand out and above London, taking the win from me⁴. A stellar exemplar of taking an exisiting service and making it better.
In the words of my lecturer, “steal the good bits”.
What transport networks have you ridden?
Share in the comments or get in touch at iwudesign8@gmail.com
#tfl #transport #servicedesign #serviceexperience
¹ London I don’t want to know (nor could I find it).
² Yes, this was my source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR
³ The wider use for retail transactions was a later added feature.
⁴ DISCLAIMER, I have not used the MTR like I have the Tube, particularly in frequency. My opinion may very well change if I lived in Hong Kong for an extended period of time. Perhaps this has been an unfair comparison, yet I still argue I have not a negative thought from my experiences.
