I’ve been to enough places now that I’d like to consider
myself an expert on riding the subway*. I have actually come to find subway
maps to be artistic and really, when you look at the names of the stops, where
they are (where they aren’t) and who’s at them, you can find out a lot about a
city and the culture of the people there. It’s a tie for best subway system
ever between Hong Kong and Korea, but I’m going to go ahead and say Asia wins
the transportation contest—they have the cleanest, most up to date and logical
subway systems I’ve ever seen. So how does BA stack up?
The Subte is the subway system of Buenos Aires. It has 6 (or
7 if you count E2) lines, of course denoted by color, that span through the 48
neighborhoods of BA. It's very comprehensive and you always know if you're going to the right train as there's lots of signage and maps. People without Spanish skills could easily find their way--and I give it a lot of credit for that. Most of the stops are conveniently located (or at least
I’m sure they’ll seem like it once I get used to where they are) and service is
fast—but if you do miss the train right after it leaves, it seems like you wait
an eternity before the next one shows up. Depending on the stop and the time of
day, the trains can be completely empty or completely full—but usually they’re
on the full side. A-line is the original line and spits you out at some of the
city’s most historic spots. Additionally, it still features some of the
original trains from back in the day, so it’s like you’re walking into a time
machine as you try and get to the Plaza de Mayo. D-line is the line I use most,
as its stop is closest to my house and gets me to most of the places I want to
go (school, Palermo, PDM, etc.). While I wouldn’t say the subway is safe
(nothing in BA is truly safe…), I think it’s a fine means of transportation
assuming the stop is conveniently located to where you’re trying to
go—otherwise, prepare to walk. I wanna say it costs around $2.75 for a one-way
trip, which is just over .50 USD. That’s pretty cheap—but at the same, if
you’re making 4 trips a day (which one often does), then you’re burning through
a lot of money. Additionally, unless you buy a lot of one way ticket passes at
once, you have to wait in line each time you travel, and often times there are
3 people working in the cajas, but
only one of them feels like being open (BA, I think it’s time for you to invest
in some ticket dispensing machines as well as more accessible multi-trip
cards…).
And this is where the SUBE card comes in. But ask any Porteño how they feel about the SUBE
card and you could get a smile or a drawn out explanation of why they hate it. Some
like it because they think it’s better than the Monedero card (I think that’s
what it’s called…?) which is a card you can put money on, thus lowering your
travel time and making everything more convenient because you never have to
worry about those pesky coins that are so rare and precious here. But they seem
to be phasing these out for the SUBE card. If you can get the elusive SUBE
card. And this is why some people hate it—not only did they just make ordering
the SUBE card a viable option in that you can order it online (before it was
that you could order it online, but when it would arrive exactly…well that was
a mystery) but really, por lo menos,
you have to wait at the post office to get it. And Correo Argentino, just like any governmentally owned institution,
is slow, there’s 1000 people in line and they all have a huge problem and when
you finally make it to the front, they run out of what you need. Also, people
have a beef with the SUBE card because you have to give personal information to
obtain one, as opposed to just getting it at the Subte station anonymously and
supposedly, some peoples’ information was leaked. But it did seem to alleviate
the coin shortages that were reeeeeally bad
in 2008 and 2009—and this is why I like it. I usually never have small change
because Argentines are freaks about change (if they saw my old coin jar back
from when I was a kid, they’d probably just die). Thank god Juan had the card
and never uses it, because he gave it to us to use. No stupid post office line
for me! At least not the SUBE line…
Theeeeeen you have el
colectivo which is a bus in BA. There’s 482 bajillion lines in the
colectivo network and unless you’re a true native, always make the same trip or
carry around your Multiguía
like a bible like I do, it’s a little more difficult to just “take the bus”.
Similar to the amount of lines in the network are the number of buses in each
line—that’s gotta be in the billions at least! The colectivo system functions
all day every day, meaning you’re never SOL at 5am and they really go
everywhere in the city. The colectivo is cheeeeeeeap. It costs $1.20 (so about
.30 USD) for my trip to school every morning—but the price of your trip depends
on how far you’re going up to $1.25 pesos, which is the maximum cost. Thus,
when you get on the bus, you have to tell the driver where you’re going so he
can charge you accordingly—and this is different than anything I’ve seen where
they charge you a standard fare. At first it seemed tedious (wouldn’t there be
a line of people waiting to say then pay?) but I’ve never seen this happen…yet…Another
thing that amazes me about the colectivo is the way they drive these things. We’re
talking 1000s of pounds of fast-moving metal filled with people weaving in and
out of traffic—that would be hard enough on an empty road—but add in cars that
don’t obey the lanes and people deciding at the last second they wanna get off
so you have to pull over and in fast—it’s incredible! The most fun part about
the colectivo is that you get to hail it the way you do a cab. “Yeah, that’s
right, bus, come get me”. It makes me feel like I’m a real Porteño.
Finally there’s the taxis. They’re yellow on top, like a NYC
cab, but the rest of it is navy blue. There are 3 types of cabs here: radio
taxis, regular taxis and taxis that are driven by “people that pretend they’re
in a taxi” according to my program advisors. Radio taxis are owned by a company
that you can call and the taxi will come get you wherever you are at whatever
time and they are regarded as the best taxi. Regular taxis are the ones you can
hail off the street and are probably legitimate, too. Pretend taxis are driven
by scam artists that try and take you on a wild goose chase, in addition to
disseminating fake $100 peso notes. I generally avoid the taxis because for
one, they can’t understand me and vice versa and for two, why the hell would I pay
a minimum $7.30 when I can take the subway or colectivo!?
*Ok, except the NYC
subway, because this is how it was built: “But sir, how will the people know if
they’re truly getting on the northbound or the southbound train?” “They’ll just
know.” “And what if they don’t speak English?” “Even if they do, it’s still
gonna be difficult.” “How many lines will there be?” “A lot. And some of
them will have 6 parts, and depending on what day and time it is, the route
will change.” “Are you going to put up lots of signs and maps in the stations?”
“No. Too much money. Make people buy the maps instead.”
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