Annie Mole's, webmaster of Going Underground, daily web log (blog).
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, THE fun and informative BOOK about travelling on the London Underground.
This 'battery farm' would be the first of its kind in the UK, with over 8,000 Holstein cows being cooped up in tiny enclosures 24/7 for at least ten months of the year. Compare this to normal herds with just over 100 cows free to roam the fields. The Londoneer has more on this in his blog post.
Cows seem to be getting a raw deal at the moment if their number of Tube protests is anything to go by. Let me know if you spot any other strange animals on the underground.
Ex-Metronet (maintenance and engineering) staff will begin their first 24-hour strike at 5pm on Monday September 6, with similar action also scheduled to begin at the same time on Sunday October 3; Tuesday November 2 and Sunday November 28.
All other London Underground workers including station and revenue staff, operational managers, drivers and signallers will start their first 24-hour strike at 9pm on Monday September 6, with similar action also set to start at the same time as the other strikes above.
Union leader Bob Crow who insists the dispute is about safety as well as job cuts said "RMT and TSSA have been presented with a stark choice. We could sit back and wait for a major disaster while safety cuts are bulldozed through turning the tube into a death trap or we can stand up and fight for passenger and staff safety. On Monday we will be making a stand on safety and safe staffing levels on behalf of all Londoners."
At time of writing there has been no statement from TfL over the break down of talks.
All Tube lines will suffer some disruption from delays to full or part suspensions. Before you leave work on Monday night, check TfL's website for the latest on the exact situation and be prepared for continued disruption on Tuesday.
Update - 3rd September - TfL have released their plans as to how they will help travellers during the strike action.
Boris Johnson added "Londoners are a hardy bunch and I am sure a Tube strike will not deter us from getting around. I have asked TfL to pull out all the stops. But we must be clear that the RMT and TSSA plan to inconvenience Londoners for no good reason....this planned action will cause disruption for millions of Londoners and I call on the unions to get round the table and show common sense."
An email forwarded to me by London Lass helpfully explains "Westbound Central line train doors will now open on both sides. When facing the direction of travel, you should exit via the right side of the train to change onto London Overground and National Rail services or via the left side of the train to change onto the Jubilee line, DLR or to leave the station." Mmmmm I'm already confused. I wonder how many others will be too? London-Lass was sceptical and at first wondered if the email was an April Fools come early!
Is this going to make the age of problem of people barging onto trains before others have got off even worse? There's bound to be a certain amount of dithering from travellers trying to work out which side they should exit.
It's supposed to reduce "dwell time" at the station as in the past TfL acknoweledge there were issues "with legacy signing in the rail/ underground station creating uncertainty on the Central Line/ mainline rail platforms and capacity increases are beginning to impact on movement in the eastern entrance, beyond the gate line at the foot of the stairs to the mezzanine level."
Time will tell and in the meantime let's hope that the Tube drivers remember to open the doors on both sides.
A collection of Max's own work will be on display. Including maps that break all the rules; maps that are easier to use (eg the Curvy Tube Map above); maps that teach us about good design; maps that challenge our preconceptions; and maps that are purely decorative (like the one below). Whether you are a graphic designer, transport professional, or just a frustrated commuter or tourist, maps will never seem the same again.
The exhibition is free and runs until 24th September 2010.
It will run until the 14th September at The 198 Gallery in Brixton Village SW2.
These staff are showing a completely different aspect of their daily working lives. It's often a surprise when we see their hidden talents revealed, as with the Caledonian Road Tube artwork featured earlier this week.
It looks as though this exhibition will uncover some real diversity, from a poetic Supervisor, a musical ticket seller, a photographing station assistant (the very talented Version 3 Point 1 who'll be displaying work from The Slumber Line) to a bonsai-loving train driver. There are also individual websites and a documentary film to view. Everything has been put together by the staff themselves - sadly with no official support from Art on the Underground.
For further details and a list of staff who will be exhibiting, visit Out of Uniform.
The first strike will be on Monday, September 6 2010 from 5pm and last 24 hours and involves maintenance and engineering staff. Then other workers, including train drivers, signallers and station staff, will strike for 24 hours from 9pm on September 6 and this will be followed by walkouts at the same time on October 3, November 2 and November 28.
RMT leader Bob Crow said "London Underground and Mayor Boris Johnson must understand that the cuts they want to impose are unacceptable to our members and will undermine safety and service for the travelling public."
"We have already had potential disasters narrowly averted, with fires at Euston and Oxford Circus and a runaway train on the Northern Line, and Boris Johnson's planned cuts would deal a potentially fatal blow to the ability to deal with emergencies."
In a press release today London Underground responded with the following "We need to change, but we will do so without compromising safety, without compulsory redundancies, and in a way that means all stations will continue to be staffed at all times and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one.
"The weak mandate for strike action, which saw only around 35 per cent of TSSA members and less than a third of RMT members voting for a walkout, should resonate with the unions' leadership.
"These threatened strikes are in nobody's interest, and should not go ahead."
They claim that some ticket offices now regularly sell fewer than 10 tickets an hour. The quietest ticket offices include North Ealing, which sells less than six tickets per hour, and Latimer Road and Moor Park, which sell only around seven tickets per hour.
There is still potentially time for more talks to happen and the disputes to be called off or postponed, but with both unions announcing a number of dates, it will take some severe negotiations with ACAS for this to happen.
Update - 26th August - Just to make matters worse around 200 workers on the Northern and Jubilee lines will walk out on September 5th for 24 hours from 7pm, and then again on October 2nd, November 1st, and November 27th.
The staff in this case are up in arms about an "insulting" pay rise offer of 2%. Bob Crow said "The deal on offer is worth less than half of those won by other Tube workers this year, and the massive vote for action should tell Alstom all they need to know about our members' determination to win a fair pay deal."
Considering Bob Crow, had a salary rise of 12% this year (he now earns over £90,000), you can see why he thinks 2% is insulting!
Anna Codrea-Rado spotted it this morning and said "What a great start to the commute! It definitely brought cheer to my day. All Tube stations should feature such messages".
There's a whole collection of Kim's artwork on the service information boards here, taken by Flickr snapper Caledonian Park.
Pictured above is the winner from Pinner in 1966. So resplandant with its 3,000 plants and flowers you can hardly read the station's name.
The Underground in Bloom awards aim to recognise Tube staff who have gone beyond the call of duty by making stations more attractive in their own time. Just in case you're feeling peckish, there's a new edible food category to support the Mayor’s Capital Growth programme which encourages organisations and communities to grow their own produce.
I'm not entirely sure if the green beans, sweetcorn, bananas, chillies and gooseberries grown at Hampstead, Tottenham Hale, Putney Bridge & North Acton will be shared amongst Tube commuters. Perhaps if you hang around the stations with a sorrowful look, the staff members might take pity on you and hand some out.
Extra points will be given to environmentally friendly gardens that attract wildlife or are water wise. Hopefully, the gardeners are putting their green fingers towards some ingenious uses for last night and this morning's heavy rainfall.
Let me know if you manage to get some shots of your station, if it's one of the 55 taking part and I'll update this post with some entries. The winning stations will be announced on 16th September at City Hall.
Update - Here's Rickmansworth's from Cormac
He said "We're overall title holders, though I'm not massively impressed with the current state of the place. I think the hanging baskets are more impressive than The Tubs (which Ricky also won last year)"
Great spot by @whatleydude of a service information board at Maida Vale London Underground station. Not content with just writing that the down escalators were err... down, the staff wanted to make things crystal clear.
James said "I love that they drew me a diagram explaining which was was down. Y'know, just in case... :)"
I only hope that no one tried to WALK UP the broken DOWN escalator after all that artistic effort!
JazCummins twittered this to me and I thought it was pretty unique. However, far from being the only one on the system, there's a number with the roundel design.
I wonder if anyone can identify where the photo of this encaged clock was taken? Russell James Smith took it and said "I thought all these cables "growing" around this clock looking kind of interesting. Can't remember which station it was (umm, yes I had been to the pub)."
Passenger trains were diverted to another branch of the Northern Line while trains were cleared from the Charing Cross branch and that part of the line was closed for most of the day.
A passenger on the train in front of the engineering train described the experience to the BBC. Tom Redfern said: "As soon as we pulled away the driver came on the tannoy and said, 'There is an emergency, will everyone move towards the front of the train'. "There was a ripple of panic. I went from half asleep to a big adrenaline rush. I thought, 'Is this it?'"
The train went through all stations until Moorgate trying to keep ahead of the other vehicle.
Mr Redfern said: "We went full speed. We knew the situation was dangerous because we were going fast. Even by the driver's voice, we could tell it was serious."
London Underground are obviously making a full investigation as to how the incident took place and hopefully we will get to hear the results. I'll be keeping watch on the Rail Accident Investigation Branch site which investigates railway accidents and incidents on UK railways to improve safety.
As you may have also heard the RMT are going on strike in a row over staff cuts and safety. They were quite to make a statement after Friday's incident and said: "This horrific failure comes against a background of a systematic reduction in safety-critical jobs and safety procedures as a direct result of TfL's financial cuts programme. In the light of this morning's events it is essential that TfL call a halt to their cuts plans and bring an end to the dilution of Tube safety."
When the votes for strike action went through Bob Crow said its members would not "sit by while the tracks are turned into a death trap".
At the time London Underground's strategy director Richard Parry accused the RMT of "scaremongering". Now this (Friday 13th) accident has come at a time where Bob Crow must be thinking he's right. Whether there'll be any more public sympathy to the strike remains to be seen.
Trixie didn't like the poster and said it was "Massively inappropriate & too obscure a joke for the people who'd see it".
London Transport Museum who obviously thought otherwise and questioned this on Twitter "Really?", they asked.
What's your views? Laying aside whether women should or shouldn't be given seats - if you want to join the discussion on that leave a comment on the previous post, what do you think of the ad?
For a promotion for London Transport Museum I personally think it's very brave and I like the ex-King's moquette socks and tie! It's certainly eye catching too. But does it work better as an ad for public transport etiquette rather than a promotion for the Museum?
I'm don't know whether the ad will be placed on the London Underground and railway stations as well. Maybe Trixie's comment about it being "obscure for the people who'd see it" implies that it will be lost on bus travellers. Are rail or Tube travellers more likely to "get it"? Do you think more "appropriate" images for a "romantic age of travel" could have been used?
I'll leave you to try to guess what they are really represent (or you can click through to the link to find out), but here's my initial thoughts:
Warning Ninja Nuns on Board - April 1979
Beware of Charlie Chaplin impersonators - July 1976
Transformers will turn you into monsters if you behave incorrectly.
The last one is actually from 1982 but was my personal favourite.
Compare these to "Please do this at home" campaign from 2008 and you'll see the Japanese have now gone for a more obvious approach. It must be a difficult balance from being clear & literal & maybe a touch patronising, to being so creative & running the risk of few understanding what you're trying to say.
Do you think these would work on the London Underground? Have you seen any posters which you think are too cryptic?
Take particular note if you use machines at Victoria, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, and King Cross London Underground stations as these have had the highest number of complaints.
BBC London discovered the amount of refunds from a Freedom of Information request. So far 2,421 complaints have been made on over charging. Don't expect any errors on the machines to be magically refunded to your account as TfL explained that it will not be aware of any over-charging until the issue is reported by a passenger.
However they said "But we constantly check the screens on ticket machines and how the ticket machines are set up to minimise these problems."
Let us know if you've been over-charged recently and how you went about getting your money back.
Hopefully, this is a sign that TfL are working on improving the temperature at deep level platforms and trains running through them, despite cooling budget cuts. The Piccadilly, Central, Northern, Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines were all marked as "high risk" from a heat point of view, if commuters got stuck on a stalled train.
Asked what qualified him for the role at the railways museum, he answered: "I've been on loads of trains, including the Eurostar." All we need now is a similar applicant for the London Underground
Anyway, part of Sam's duties appear to searching around for bloggers to send rock too. I was lucky enough to be on his hit-list. I'm a sucker for rock (sorry!) and liked the puntastic "Chew, Choo, Choose, The NRM" label.
I visited the National Railway Museum in York many years ago before the internet existed. But I'd certainly be keen to visit again to see how it's doing under Sam's Directorship.
There's a load of Summer holiday activities for kids and kids at heart, including a sand sculptor making a train from 20 tonnes of sand and the opportunity to climb inside the steam engine "Olton Hall" from the Harry Potter films. Entry is free although is a small charge for some activities.
"The magic, mystery & sometimes maddening shortcomings of London's Tube are documented with love, enthusiasm & sometimes despair by its unofficial social historian." The Guardian
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