Overview

Yes, I also did the proverbial post-grad Asia trip. As I write this on a bus towards the Izu Peninsula, I thought I would recount my experiences so far in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, where I visited in June 2023, as well as Singapore, which I visited in April 2023.

From NBA players to Japanese city pop songs, it's no secret among my friends that I love to get into heated debates about which ones are the "best". But even though Kevin Durant is the best in my heart, I know I'd be delusional to say he's the overall greatest basketball player of all time. I think it's a lot more sensible to rank with certain criteria, or dimensions by which we can evaluate different classes of something.

(As of 7/9, I haven't uploaded any images yet. But expect some additional photos in this article eventually.)

Criteria

In the context of public transit, there are a few areas where I pay the most attention. To zero in on the transit and avoid politics, I won't be considering safety (though all of these cities are incredibly safe to begin with). The dimensions I'll be considering are as follows:

• Reliability. As a tourist, I admittedly wasn't as focused on reliability, but arriving on schedule is key to commuters and travelers alike. If there are faults, are they addressed and broadcasted widely?

• Efficiency. Are ridiculously annoying transfers (think 42 St Times Sq -> Port Authority in New York) commonplace? Also, is the integration with other modes of transit, like buses and trams, easy to navigate?

• Technology. How modern are the traincars and information displays? Also, do fare entrances have high throughput and are they easy to use?

• Accessibility. Are there significant accomodations for those with disabilities? Also, for non-native language speakers, do communications support multiple languages, or is the network easy to navigate without understanding a single word?

• Comfort. Are traincars overly packed to the point of having to go for the next train? Do stations have A/C, and are they pleasant to walk around?

And one final disclaimer before we get started—I'm certainly not a civil engineering or urban planning expert, and I'm speaking on limited experiences from about a week's stay at each city. These rankings are mostly based on opinion and anecdotal evidence, though I would collect data or do some more involved analysis if I actually lived there.

For the sake of a more accurate comparison, I'll be considering both the JR (Japan Railways) and Tokyo Metro in my analysis of Tokyo.

Rankings

We'll be conducting rankings conditioned on the dimensions described above before tallying them and trying to come up with a notion of overall rankings. Let's get started!

Reliability

1. Tokyo

In NYC, sometimes I hope for my train to be a bit late so I can speedwalk instead of sprint. But in Tokyo, that's simply not an option. Despite having the busiest rail station in the world, you can always count on your trains in Tokyo to be on time, plus or minus one minute. Additionally, they have extremely transparent information on display in many trains about possible delays due to unforeseen events or natural disasters like earthquakes.

2. Singapore

As probably the most technologically advanced city on this list, Singapore's trains run incredibly reliably. I'm not certain whether I've ever experienced a delay more than 3 minutes in Singapore's MRT, but admittedly I was only there for a couple days.

3. Seoul

Seoul's metro system is quite reliable. But I've seen some trains get delayed for more than a couple minutes, and others disregarding the scheduled times by departing slightly early. That being said, I do think the frequency of the lines makes up for the possibility of missing the trains.

4. Taipei

It's not like Taipei is any slouch with the reliability of its metro system. But the Taipei MRT has some inconsistent reporting to Google Maps, and I've personally been on a train scheduled right before the final departure on the line that ended up being the actual final departure (this wasted like 15 minutes). The other cities just have such a high bar of reliability that makes it hard to compete.

Efficiency

1. Seoul

To me, Seoul has the best subway transfer experience in the world. Nowhere is it easier to see where exactly to go based on the signage and information provided. In addition to Naver Map and Kakao Map (Korea's de facto navigation apps) providing information on which exact subway car to board for the fastest transfer, Seoul has an exceptionally easy-to-access bus system with close locality to all metro stations. T-money is a super easy and unified payment method that can be refilled at every convenience store.

2. Tokyo

Tokyo has great integration with Google Maps, allowing for lucid information about which cars to board for the fastest transfers. However, I do think the buses run a lot more infrequently and are a ways away unless you take the perfect exit. This may be owing to Tokyo's massive metropolitan area, however. The Suica/Pasmo payment methods allow for credit card refills, but I'm placing it below Seoul because the transfer experience isn't quite as simple.

3. Taipei

Taipei's metro is super easy to use with respect to buses. In my experience, the buses in Taipei ran the most frequently and were super close to station exits. Any transfers were simple: usually only one level up or below. Also, I really liked how the Taipei metro connects to more rural towns such as the Pingxi line, which goes through Houtong, Jiufen, and Shifen.

4. Singapore

While transfers and information are easily accessible in Singapore's MRT, I'm ranking it last because the coverage isn't quite as good. All of the lines run through the major hubs of the city, but oftentimes getting around less-trafficked parts of Singapore is difficult or time-consuming with the metro, making you resort to a Grab (Southeast Asia's Uber).

Technology

1. Singapore

I was definitely the most impressed by Singapore's trains. My hotel was located near the Orchard <-> Great World line (brown line), which was new. The train ran autonomously, and was extremely clean and smooth. Additionally, the ticket gates accept Apple Pay / NFC cards, which prevents a ridiculous amount of hurt and pain as a traveler trying to wrangle with cash and digital payments. And their buses seem to be pretty sustainable as well.

2. Seoul

One big factor in putting Seoul above Tokyo was the widespread Wi-Fi available everywhere in the metro. The T-money card also works as a payment system, which is useful for spending extra credit you have remaining. Also, every platform entrance had an automatic glass door, which was nice. Yet, they had some NYC-style ticket gates which were a little annoying to get through with a suitcase.

3. Tokyo

It's needless to say that Tokyo has one of the most sophisticated metro systems in the world. But seriously, knowing whether you can use Suica/Pasmo or cash only, dealing with machines that "accept credit cards" but then spit them out with a 90% probability... it's just not the modern and technologically advanced Tokyo known around the world. Yes, it's a bit petty that I'm placing Tokyo this low, but this caused a significant headache for my group. Oh, also it's cool that they're using a lot of electric buses now.

4. Taipei

Once again, I'm really not trying to hate on Taipei, but the other three cities are just so technologically advanced. I do really like the EasyCard, but only being able to fill it with cash and not being able to use it elsewhere makes it a little fussy. The trains and train stations lacked the modernity of the other cities.

Accessibility

1. Singapore

Being a multinational country, Singapore definitely supports plenty of major languages, and I feel like they had the most accomodating station architecture for those with disabilities. Admittedly, this view could be biased because I'm a native English speaker, and English is the official language of Singapore. But I saw a lot more elevators and foreigner-friendly signage.

2. Seoul

I was a big fan of how easy it was to find elevators and access the subway as a non-Korean speaker. Even though I couldn't read a single word of Korean, I felt that I could navigate the metro system in Seoul even without the help of a navigation app.

3. Taipei

Taipei is also pretty great for accessibility, supporting several languages. There honestly just isn't much for me to say here, which is why I didn't put it above Seoul or Singapore.

4. Tokyo

If I could, I would put Tokyo in the same tier as Taipei. But we're not doing ties, so I'm placing it at fourth because its accessibility should be much better than it is. As a global city, you'd expect more international support when it comes to payments. Also, elevators are often very far away on huge platforms, coupled with a long wait, making it pretty time-consuming for disabled passengers.

Comfort

1. Taipei

Since this is a ranking of metro systems, I actually think Taipei was the most comfortable. The MRT in Taipei was way less crowded, and always had plenty of convenience stores in stations and restrooms. I was always able to get a seat in the trains (besides rush hour on weekdays), which made some long trips a lot easier.

2. Singapore

I think Singapore has the most modern and clean subway stations of the bunch. Each station was complete with A/C, plenty of escalators, and clean seating areas. The only way it could have been better is if it were a bit less busy.

3. Tokyo

If you've been to Tokyo, you probably used the Yamanote Line, the busiest railway line in the world. But coupled with that grand title is the inevitable squeeze—our Airbnb was near Gotanda Station, which is a stop on the Yamanote Line, where you were bound to be left crammed next to a ton of other passengers. Other metro lines were pretty busy at all times too. However, one big plus is that Japanese culture is super respectful: every incoming train would have neat boarding lines and everyone would wait for those to deboard before entering the train.

4. Seoul

Seoul is also insanely busy, which isn't really a fault of its own, but I felt like the frequency of their subway lines couldn't really keep up, especially at rush hour. The cars themselves weren't that comfortable, but I'm kind of picking at straws here because all of these cities' metro systems are infinitely more comfortable than New York's.

Overall Rankings and Conclusion

After visiting these amazing cities and conducting these rankings, I know they're much closer to each other in terms of urban planning and modernity than not. But we had to do a rigid ranking, so here we are.

Summing the rankings across all the criteria and sorting from lowest to highest, we have the following overall ranking:

1. Singapore: 10 points

2. Seoul: 12 points

3. Tokyo: 13 points

4. Taipei: 15 points

Honestly, I expected this overall ranking system to differ from my gut ranking. But before I even began writing this article, I would have ranked the four cities in this way from feeling alone. The ranking system does assume that each of the five criteria have equal weight, which could have been a source of potential error, but it worked out anyway. In any case, I'm not going to be used to NYC when I come back in August for work, having gotten used to these nice public transit systems. But one thing I do miss is the 24/7 service that New York offers. If you bore with me up to this point, thanks for reading, and if you were one of the hordes who did the exact same trip this summer, I'd love to know if you disagree with me!