Customer Reviews

Subways of the World (Enthusiast Color)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Author Stan Fischler's interest in Subways developed as a child in New York City and having ridden subways all over the world, he has now written about 10 major systems (London, New York, Moscow, Paris, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, San Franciso, and Tokyo). As is typical of Motorbooks works, about half of the 96 pages are taken up with (generally) crisply reproduced color photographs, well laid out amid the author's text. Unfortunately, both the text and the photographs leave something to be desired.

A large majority of the photos are the work of one person and in some cases those used provide a very limited view of a given system. In the case of Boston, for example, there are 3 views of the current Orange Line cars, 2 shots of one of the 4 types of Green Line cars - but none of the other 3, no shots of any Blue Line cars, and 2 of the 3 Red Line photos are of a series that was scrapped some time ago while one of the current series goes unseen. At least 4 different series of Chicago cars are shown with little effort to identify their differences, while each of three series of nearly identical DC cars are shown and identified separately - if it matters. On the plus side, some of the photos provide unique views of the diverse systems: a snow-covered underground platform in New York, the museum-like interiors of several Moscow stations, classic brickwork on the London Underground, and interior shots of several cars.

With an average of eight pages available to describe each system, and much of that given over to photos, an author must be very focused to convey information consisely. Unfortunately Mr. Fischler's abbreviated histories of each system lack such a focus. A large part of his Chicago chapter is devoted to the South Shore Lines - an interurban railway which never ran on CTA subway or elevated tracks. Yet no mention is made of Chicago's two other interurbans which did use the 'L' to reach downtown. He is sharply critical of some systems for their failure to build express tracks or run 7x24 like his beloved New York while never mentioning these shortcomings (if, indeed, they are) about other systems. And, clearly, the LRV subways of Boston and San Francisco bother him; he doesn't seem to know how to deal with these aspects of those cities' systems and never mentions their common usage of the ill-fated Boeing LRVs.

Motorbooks aren't known for publishing academic reference books, so perhaps I'm being too critical. This book does provide a variety of information and photos on many of the world's subway systems and may be appealing to those with a developing interest in the subject. But it left me disappointed and unsatisfied.

I bought this book expecting to find interesting, coffee-table-type pictures and chatter on 10 subway systems of interest to me, and ended up writing a letter of criticism to the publisher. Almost all of them are compared (usually negatively) to the author's hometown system of New York. The two systems that received the greatest complaint from the author are Chicago and Toronto, Chicago for having a low proportion of subway mileage in its total, and Toronto for not having express tracks. The pictures in this book are mostly from the last 20 years (although little effort was made to identify when in that time the pictures were taken) and are generally fairly limited in their variety. In all I was somewhat disappointed with this book; good thing it was inexpensive.

"Subways of the World" -- the title implies that this is a book about ALL subway systems of the world, but it covers only ten of them. It is written from a very American point of view; the author claims six out of the ten most important subways to be in North America. Due to these shortcomings the book can get no more than four stars from me.

Nevertheless, it is an interesting book with a lot of nice color photographs. It covers history and recent high-tech developments of both pioneering London Underground and Paris Metro. It tells about the construction of the extraordinarily ornate and effective Moscow Metro, the luxurious Washington Metro, and the state-of-the-art technology of the San Francisco BART. Lesser known subways like the systems in Toronto, Chicago, and Boston are treated as well as, of course, the vast systems of New York City and Tokyo.

Really enjoyed the good overview of the subways of the world. Learned a lot but not too technical or detailed. it would be nice to see perhaps an expanded version (but not too detailed) of the book and subways covered. Also more photographs (those presented are good) to help characterize the uniqueness of each system.

I bought this book for my son who is autistic. He is fascinated by subway systems. He enjoys looking at the photos of the places he has been. If you have traveled and ridden the subways in the countries you have visited, this would be a treat. I particularly liked the photos of the Moscow system. I was there 25 years ago and had nearly forgotten how gorgeous some of the stations were.