The BBC reports today that London's taxis [have been] voted world's best. The article is quite un-interesting overall, with a quote from the Licenced Taxi Drivers Association and a reference to the source at the very end: a survey of 1400 travellers commissionned by Hotels.com. It just says they're not particularly good value for money.Unfortunately, there's nothing on their web site to check on the methodology and the sample demographics, etc, which reminds me of another bogus award where the Tube voted Best Metro in Europe. When the news came out, in disbelief I tried to check the source but coult not find it, but thankfully London Underground pinpointed it to "a small group of Londoners who did vote for the Tube".
What all the newspapers failed to report from these bogus awards is that the best metro was Singapore's SMRT and the best passengers experience was Seoul's -two relativement recent transportation systems indeed.
Personally, while I agree the London Black Cabs are courteous and knowledgeable (quite unlike the rude and ignorant Parisian or New York drivers) and set a benchmark for the industry, the London Underground is dirty, saturated and not running well. For instance, the drain (Waterloo & City Line) has been CLOSED in 2006 for 6 months to refurbish signalling but I still get a text message saying it's to blame for this line not running at least once a month. Where the tube could easily win an award though would be when it comes down to its ticket price: it's probably the most expensive in the world?
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