Central London transport is world class, and she was in Central London, so it was not luck

Compared to what? Ventilation in the tube is pretty bad, train delays and line closures are fairly frequent. Rail is notoriously always having problems. Locals may correct me, but transport in e.g. Tokyo seemed a lot more efficient when I was there.

Indeed. Central London transportation works, almost all of the time, and has a good layout, but it's not the greatest metro in the world.

Of course the rest of the UK looks at London's well funded bus and tube network the same way we look at Tokyo, a symbol of unattainable perfection.

She got a train from Manchester to London. I'm surprised that the price of this ticket wasn't mentioned (when the £4.90 one in London was). Manchester to London can typically cost anywhere between £40 to £90.

Yes, I was slightly surprised at the whole "flying into manchester then taking a train was cheaper", given how many times I've chosen air over train because of the prices.

When it works and it's reasonably priced and you get a seat in a good environment it's the best form of travel. It's a shame those conditions so rarely all hold at the same time.

I got a first class from Hull to Southampton the other week for £42 (booked a day in advance, obviously).

Chap got on at Doncaster, apologised for not having a ticket and handed over his card - £250!!

Very British comment, this is :) As a Romanian living in London, I find the parts of the public transport I used so far to be at least good enough.

I'm travelling, fairly often to Essex, from London to Colchester and I find the trains to be clean enough, plenty of space most of the time, including when I go there on Friday evenings. From Colchester I usually take a bus to Brighlingsea and I find those buses to be clean, comfortable, cheap and you even can pay with a contactless card. They are not too often, but I get the why. I could say the same for my travels south, to Southampton. With the trainline app, I don't even have to queue to pick up my tickets, most of the time.

London wise, I use mainly the North Line and Victoria and while sometimes they are crowded, I don't find that to be terrible annoying. I think the only time I was pissed at tfl was before a Chelsea game at Stamford Bridge, when they barely had trains going to Wimbledon, from Earl Court and I missed the start of the game. Dully noted and since then I made my way to the Bridge with time to spare, just in case, for some reason those overpriced hot dogs taste really good.

I get it that if you use some of the public transport daily, the sore points will stick out, but I am really curios to know what you would call the Romanian public transport, if the uk one is appalling (really, what's worse than appalling?)

It's much better than it used to be. Expensive though.