We hate Tube train squeeze

London Underground Irritations

Yesterday's Metro had a small piece with the headline "We hate Tube train squeeze" and it was nothing to do with overcrowding! Transport for London seemed to copy what my main site www.goingunderground.net started in 1999 by advertising a list of the underground's unofficial rules.

In the short feature the results of an online survey "designed to improve passenger etiquette and make using the Tube more enjoyable" - Metro revealed that five per cent of people surveyed, were irritated by others "simply appearing to own a squeeze box". These 5% must have been travelling on the District Line or westbound end of the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow into town as there are a number of gypsy looking kids who patrol those lines with an accordian and a battered McDonalds' cup begging for money.



I fully agree, these kids aren't really buskers but beggars, sent out by their parents to annoy the carriage with their miserable, half hearted snatches of song. As a gulliable tourist just coming in from Heathrow, you might be tempted to spare some cash - but as a hardened commuter who knows that busking on the tube carriages themselves is now clamped on (since busking was made official outside carriages at designated spots at Tube stations for years now).

"More obvious irritations topping the (TfL) survey included people getting on trains before everyone has got off (17 per cent), and people who fail to say 'excuse me' and 'sorry' (12 per cent).



"Just eight per cent were bothered by beggars asking for money, while six percent found loud personal stereos beyond the pale. But mobile ringtones upset a measly one per cent of passengers." Probably because most of the people who completed the online survey travelled mainly underground and couldn't hear them anyway!

So come on - give us your pet Tube hates, everyone. Quite a lot of them will probably be on my Unofficial Tube Rules page, but I'd like to hear them anyway and see what I've missed over the years.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, November 30, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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