Friday, December 31, 2004
Happy new ...
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Get snapping
tubemap.org where people can upload photos of an area around a station in an effort to "share the discovery you make. It's good to try and capture an area - it makes you concentrate on it. This is about filling in the gaps between the stations".
There's not many stations on there at the moment but I'm sure with the many digital cameras people got at Xmas it will fill up soon.
By the way, big thanks to my brother for my new digital camera - you should see more piccies on this blog in the future.
Friday, December 24, 2004
Where's your camera when you need it?
New Year's Eve strike has been called off as LU staff are now at the "at the top of the industry pay league in Britain" as RMT Union leader Bob Crowe smugly said, each time I watched the news. Lucky bastards.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Strikes still on
The Standard: "LU said there are "behind the scenes moves" taking place today to try and prevent tomorrow's strike.
"Steve Grant, Aslef London district secretary, said: "There are no new meetings planned for today and as far as we are concerned tomorrow's strike is going ahead."
Fantastic. I'm sorry but I really have no sympathy for this strike. If a driver travels through red signals several times surely he deserves to be demoted not have all his mates striking in protest.
Also the whole network looks like it will be down on New Year's Eve still too.
In the meantime me, Geoff and Neil are having Xmas bevvies tonight with their friends Chris and Stephen. We're doing a Secret Santa or "Confidentially Clause" as Geoff and Frank Skinner now call it and apparently there's a Mind The Gap thong in the mix. I got one as a leaving pressie and there's only so many Mind The Gap thongs a gal can have so I'm really hoping one of the guys gets it.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Festive London Underground Strikes
strike situation the best and I'll try to keep you updated.
Oh and you may well be one of the commuters going on strike on Monday (yes, yes, I did say commuters) - although I can't see that really taking off, but you never know.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Mobile Phone Users on the Tube
etiquette page what seems like donkeys years ago, but I must becoming more tolerant in my old age. Probably because I may be a culprit myself. But Coudal Partners and Aaron Draplin have designed a whole load of stickers which you can download and pass on to the offenders
Like some of the commenters I don't like the use of "Yer" as in "Everyone is forced to listen to yer conversation", but otherwise the Society for Hand Held Hushing or SHHH could certainly take off.
Cheers to Ralf - The Cartoonist for bringing this to my attention.
Confusing Tourists again
Thisisn't London:
"I was working in Epping today (argh). On my way home I spotted one of those Yahoo "Found" posters, with a purple arrow, that you occasionally put on your site; it said "Theydon Bois", the next station along the line.
The funny thing is, it was pointing in the wrong direction!
I took a (crap) photo on my phone, but the story is entertaining enough without it. And the poster has been seen by thousands of Eppingites."
Come on Yahoo poster putter up guys, at least get the direction right.
I've been trying to get a picture of the one at Bank station pointing to Shadwell for ages and at least that is going in the right direction. But I must apologise for the lack of piccies from me recently. I have a new digital camera on my Xmas list as my current one is knackered. If anyone has any recommendations for small pocket sized one let me know - must have a microphone on it so that I can tape the buskers in the Waterloo and Shitty Line interchange.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Olympic Train-ing (geddit??!!)
Click here to see how your council tax is being spent
Monday, December 13, 2004
A chill in the air
Friday, December 10, 2004
Circle Line worst commuting route
The Standard) asked 1,000 people at key commuter spots to vote on the most horrendous commuter routes in London, including travel by road, rail, Tube and bus. The Circle Line won hands down - for its constant stops between stops ("mysterious halts in the no man's land between stations") and the bumpy ride. The Jubilee Line came fourth and there were a couple of bus routes from Waterloo which I can certainly vouch for. If you want to check out the full top ten terrors here you go.
With a question designed to bring no surprises with its answer commuters were also asked how they pass the time "reading a paper or book was the most popular option, followed by daydreaming about their next holiday (Oh quelle surprise the survey was sponsored by cheapflights.co.uk, remember), texting or phoning a friend, deciding what to do at the weekend or planning the day's work".
Let's hope they weren't reading a book or paper while travelling on the A1 between the North Circular (A406) and Junction 2 of the M1 (number two on the crap commuting routes).
Party, party, party
the following site.
Don't worry if you feel you're not going to know anyone, as there's probably names on the list where you've been reading about their lives for the past year or so, so you do know them anyway. Lots of commenters and regular visitors to this blog will be there - including Jag, Jack from GreenFairy, Ann from Pixel Diva, Tom from Random Acts of Reality, The Funjunkie Crew, This isn't London, The Londonist and James from Oddblog.
So may well see you there and to regulars who can't now come (you know who you are), hope to see you at some other blogmeet.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
It's a Wonderful District Life
Drivers announcements" was one of the first things that got me to this site, but I have to say that I've never actually been on a train where the driver was jolly enough to announce silly things - until yesterday morning.
Coming up the District Line from Wimbledon again on a completely packed train, the driver thought he'd have some fun by announcing at Parsons Green:
"Well as you can see now ladies and gentlemen, the train is completely full, so if anyone at Fulham Broadway is going to get on you're going to have to huddle together just that little bit more aren't you?"
And when we got to Fulham Broadway and some more people did manage to squeeze on, he came out with:
"Now I know you're all squashed together back there, but it's a cold day so at least you're all keeping each other warm"
At West Brompton, where he knew he was going to be held at a signal for a while:
"This is West Brompton, just one tantalisingly short stop away from Earl's Court which is where I expect most of you want to go, but instead we've got to sit here for a minute. When the doors do eventually close please don't get any of your body parts stuck in the door"
And eventually, as we approached Earl's Court, he announced:
"We are now approaching Earl's Court where you can if you want change for the Piccadilly Line. Or why not change to another wonderful District Line service? The District Line is marvellous isn't it! Or you can stay on my train, where I'll have the pleasure of taking you up towards Edgware Road."
On a cold Wednesday morning, on a packed train, he caused many people to look up from their 'Metros' and smile. Nice one!
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Spare Tube Parts being bought on Ebay
Standard saying that Tube bosses are having to buy spare parts for the Northern Line from ebay. Anyone travelling on the Northern Line this morning will know that it was generally cocked up due to problems with aging cab radio systems.
But ebay????? Sounds like a major cut back. If people now know the bits and bobs they were selling on ebay had the potential to mess up hundreds of thousands of commuters journeys they could have a field day. Forget internet hacking and viruses you could just sell spare parts of the tube at sky high prices.
A dot matrix indicator is currently going for about �180 and I assuming that it's the components that the Tube are after rather than the sign itself, otherwise we might be seeing - "Sale Now On" or "Half Price Bargains" rather than the usual "Ealing Bdwy - 13 mins"
Check out the full story here.
Monday, December 06, 2004
I heard a rumour ...
It's Christmas Time, there's no need to be afraid....
SE1 for more on the figures.
By the way, the above poster isn't me after a few drinks, it's a nice little effect to show what the escalators look like when you've had some bevvies.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Still here, still commuting
Coughs and Sneezes
BBC about how bugs are spread on public transport.
"BBC News has learnt the Rail Safety Standards Board is investigating the impact of overcrowding on trains and the Tube, including how much passengers share bugs.
No scientific research has yet been done on this but experts in virology believe poor ventilation and a lack of space can make some forms of public transport a fertile breeding ground. However there is a strong argument this fear may be over-hyped."
No surprises really but interesting that the Standards Board is looking into it.
"The London Underground must be an absolute goldmine for viruses trying to find someone to spread to because it's so packed," says Dr Rosy McNaught, a consultant in communicable disease control for Sheffield.
"The closer people are packed together and poorer the ventilation, the more likely people close to you will get a face full of it when you sneeze."
Nice.
Luckily there is some hope though and the article gives some sneezing and coughing etiquette and also recommends "avoiding cramped spaces" when travelling (yeah right) and sound advice about washing your hands when you get to work or home.
Was also encouraging to read "The Health Protection Agency says there is no indication that passengers in London and the South East - where public transport is more crowded - suffer more respiratory illnesses than other parts of the UK."
Check out the full article here with comments from commuters at the bottom including my favourite: "I can't believe there really are people being paid good money to make a study of this nature. I am not a doctor or a scientist but I can see that any germ will spread among a load of people crammed into an unventilated bus or train."
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Take two announcers
DVBoy sent me an email where he heard the following at Warren Street station saying that Piccadilly Circus was closed "cos of a fire alarm or summink".
It's like comparing Vicky Pollard to Joanna Lumley.
Oval Thinkers in Metro
a site which shows all of the "thoughts" which appear at Oval station.
The motivations behind the station assistants were to improve relations between staff and passengers, and they were very surprised at the positive reaction they got.
�It�s a break in that routine which everyone gets into, of rushing into the Tube and ignoring everything around them. It�s unexpected and catches them by surprise.
�No one has ever said they don�t like it. We get at least three good comments a day. One woman regularly takes a photo of it with her phone and sends it to her husband.
�We�ve made so many friends through it. People come up and speak to us. Without the �Thought of the Day�, we would not have had that interaction. People look for it now. We never expected this sort of reaction.
�It works both ways - it shows customers that staff are not faceless and vice versa. It says we do care about how they feel about travelling on the Underground. And we care about how they feel about us.�
Nice one guys. But I wonder now that they've had fame through Metro whether the posts will change or become wackier? At the moment they come from the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. Perhaps they'll become more widespread across the system. One can only hope.
NEWER POSTS
........
OLDER POSTS
|
|
