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I thought they'd give it a bit of coverage but not really front page news. I looked a little closer and noticed that picture they had used to illustrate the "drinkers" looked a bit familiar.
There was also something familiar about the colouring, but I couldn't immediately put my finger on it.
I turned to page three and carried on reading:
There was an "online flyer" inviting the public to "party on the tube". At this point the colouring and my words hit home. It wasn't an online flyer but my blog post about the Circle Line Party.
The image of the "wine on the line" drinkers was of a YouTube video about the Jubilee Line Dinner Party which happened on November 27th 2006. As you can see from the video it was a very quiet sedate and funny party involving about six people and the commuters felt it was all very funny and joined in.
It's a bit strange that the London Lite chose a very sedate party to illustrate the "huge party in defiance of the Tube booze ban".
Obviously I handed this story to them on a plate, as Associated Newspapers wanted to use the opportunity to show that they had reached out to me for my opinion on their coverage. Note they've decided not to photo shop out my comment that says: "Don't forget to let The Evening Standard know what you think of their coverage of the Tube Booze Ban & Circle Line Parties as their letters guy contacted me for help."
I spose I expected a little more of them in terms of pictures that they could have used to cover this story. But hey ho. I think Bolli sums up my opinion of them way better than I could:
"Will this be mai looz payper 2 morrow?"
Sneak peek of my first and Final Circle Line Party photos here, full blog post on Sunday. Sorry, my broadband with Virgin Media was hardly usable yesterday from about 9am so I couldn't write a post or comment. The pictures are there for you to see and lots of comments have been made below, which is great that such an interesting discussion took place.
Update - 3rd June 2008 - now that I actually have internet back I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the media's reporting of the event even though London Lite continues its "sensational" front page stories as seen above. If you've seen last night's London Lite you will know what I mean.
Both Metro and the londonpaper actually tried to tell the story from the viewpoint of people who were actually at the party and weren't just commenting on what they had seen on TV.
Those of you in the comments below who went to the party as partygoers didn't see the scenes that the TV show, as like myself you probably stayed till about 11ish and then left. Sure I saw people getting arrested. I saw people very, very drunk who had no idea what they were there for which is sad. But to blame this on the main Circle Line party organiser is simply unfair. As Metro said about the British Transport Police "officers refused to blame the organisers for the trouble, instead accusing 'a very small minority' of spoiling the party."
Metro writer James Ellis openly "flouted the ban for an hour yesterday - and was not challenged. A TfL worker saw us at Waterloo but gave a wry grin and moved on".
The londonpaper open their piece on pages 8-9 with a very telling sentence: "The Last Round on the Underground was one of those events that thousands attended, but thousands more will claim they were at".
You can see the full article here but here are a few more quotes: "From the chants of "Hey Boris, leave our booze alone" to the army of Johnson wigs spilling out of the Barbican, the message was clear: London had decided to stick two fingers up to London's new mayor. His "silly new rule" was said to be unenforceable"... "Despite an idiotic few fronting up to police at King's Cross there were few genuine hell-raisers in evidence".... "Non partying commuters looked on in amusement."
And to those of you who say that the organiser was naive in not expecting that trouble would flare up, I would like to wholeheartedly agree with Neil Evans - one of the commenters below who says:
"I'm amazed BTP and TfL didn't see this event becoming what it turned out to be, personally i'd have shut the zone one lines totally for 'engineering'."
My friend James Grieve runs Nabokov, an innovative theatre company who have their offices in these old Jubilee Line Carriages - the Tube offices in the sky on Great Eastern Street, London.
A lot of you also wanted me to try to arrange a visit to go up to their offices. Well I had a chat to James and he's very kindly offered to take two of you (and possibly me) to pick up lunch at the brill BLT (Big Loaded & Tasty) sandwich shop & then have the lunch back in his Tube offices.
So please, please, please consider making a donation to Action Against Hunger with just £4, that's the price of two sarnies in most places in the UK, you can not only help the charity, but also get a chance of winning that lunch and visit to the Tube Carriage Offices.
I love Massive Attack - their dark dismal Bristollian songs really fit my mood a lot of the time on the Tube. Trouble was by the time I got around to booking a ticket to see them, the ones on the Southbank Centre's site had sold out and you can currently only get them online at about £98 a ticket. I like them, but don't like them THAT much!
However lots of people they have written songs with or have performed with, will also be at Meltdown and I managed to snag some reasonably priced tickets to see Terry Callier. He's a real soul legend and was mates with Curtis Mayfield. He's collaborated with Massive Attack and Beth Orton (who also sings fairly miserable Tube sound tracks & collaborates with the Chemical Brothers & William Orbit) and his voice makes me feel like crying (in a really good way).
So me and two girly mates - Brian Pigeon's PR agent, Lisa and Lyz from Life with an Accent are going to see him on the 20th June. We have one spare ticket, so if you want to sit next to three geeky bloggy chicks you're welcome to get in touch with us. We're looking for around £22 for the ticket.
It's weird and surprising when you first see these as Michael's email to me shows while sending the photo to me from his iPhone:
"Looks like some sort of portable scanner, complete with 3 policemen and a setter-upper man, just in time for Friday rush hour!
Don't know if this is common at other stations or something to do with Boris, but thought you may be interested.
Personally, I think there may be more dangerous places to target than leafy Chiswick!"
There is growing public anxiety about fatal stabbings, shootings and teenage gangs, particularly in large cities like London and the scanners seem to be working.
My response was initially that I thought the police needed "quiet" areas to test this first. But I'm not so sure now. Violence can happen anywhere, even in suburban leafy Chiswick. I've not been through Turnham Green since this has been installed and I wonder how many people actually notice it. But again isn't that the whole point of them?
As you know, from your previous post, the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, has a wonderful scene where the children enter into the Strand tube station, go underground, and are then whisked away to Narnia. At the end, of course, they are deposited back at the station.
I have never been into the Strand station. I am from the United States. I happen to be here this week, and now I'm obsessed with trying to figure out which station the filmmakers were trying to imitate.
You can watch the "teaser trailer" here in the "videos" section from the menu
Your blog fills in the blanks, but I'm still confused.
The Strand in the movie must be the Charing Cross Strand, if they are being historically accurate, since the Aldwych station had been closed between 1940-1946 for use as a air raid shelter on one platform and as storage on the other.
The exterior shots were filmed outside of England, though, so was the street design accurate, at all? Your blog says the "exterior shots appear to be recreating the Strand at Charing Cross". I am confused as to where this is, at the current Charing Cross station - that station is a big huge six-story building and doesn't seem to look anything like the exterior shot in the film.
Have you thought to write a new entry on your (excellent) blog with more information? I would love to know exact details of what is accurate and totally made up - one commenter, for example, says the real station did not have tiles on both sides.
Thanks for any help you may provide!".
Well I hope that someone else can help John as I've sort of exhausted all knowledge I have on the subject.
On the 17th May 2008 I went a brill event about discussing the future. GeeKyoto 2008 was based on the premise that world is fooked (sorry) broken and we have two choices, we either say "There's absolutely nothing I can do about it, and I'll be dead before it's really broken" or "I can't really do a lot but even little things I can do might make a difference to the future".
Even though I'm not a card carrrying eco warrior I'm definitely of the latter opinion and the event brought together some very interesting "geeks" who were trying to show how technology could be used to help fix what's broken.
At the event we were all given little "story cubes" see mine above to jot down ideas and stuff. The thing that really struck me throughout a lot of the presentations was there was a rash of companies being set up to measure your carbon footprint - but without actually doing much beyond that.
So you could tell how big your carbon footprint was and how it grew if you flew somewhere, got a bigger car, used more electricity, used more gas, etc etc. You could even see how large your friends and neighbours carbon footprint was. So far, so worthy. But what does that actually mean to the average person in the street?
I have a very small car. I only drive it at weekends. That's not because I want to be green (if I wanted to be really green I'd just dump it), it's because I don't like driving and it would cost me a fortune to drive to work.
But is my London Underground travel helping to save the planet then? Yeah I suppose it is. It's one less car on the road. Although perhaps it would be better if I cycled. It's a long way from Kew to the City and I'd be really sweaty by the time I arrived, so I'd have to have another shower. Which means more energy and water used there.
Unless I used the little egg-timer from the "Planet Repair" pack that Ken Livingstone put out while he was still Mayor. Apparently if I cut down my normal shower down to 4 minutes I'll be saving the planet. A four minute shower for me is more or less like just stepping in and out and simply isn't going to happen.
To me, the thing is that we're not going to really change our daily habits unless we can see some real tangible benefit or reward or have fun doing it. Perhaps we'd be more tempted to use the bus if we could have a swing while we were waiting there:
Brill presentation on playfulness by some students at Central Saint Martin's College. James Smith from dothegreenthing also had some sound ideas about trying not to follow the "worthy", "preachy", negative images slightly evidenced by the stickers in the Planet Repair pack "Turn off this", "Switch off that", "Unplug that".
If being green is rewarded with playfulness, fun, empowerment and some kind of status for doing it and if we see simple little things that we can all do, I think green initiatives will have a much greater chance of success.
You'll see from my cube that I wondered if anyone was talking to the rail companies and TfL about all this. How could people who didn't use the Tube be encouraged to use it when we all know what a hot smelly rubbish and overcrowded form of transport it is? Could my Oystercard usage give me discounts off my residents permit parking or car tax / MOT?
I'm typing this as the rain is coming down with a vengeance outside which makes the idea of a Sunshine Garden and gardening for drought seem somewhat farcial right now.
But maybe this is all part of the bigger problem. We had thick snow in mid April, interspersed with boiling hot days. We've had tons of rain this year and now even though it's virtually the end of May, it's really cold. The climate is certainly screwed and unless we start doing something, perhaps we might see a "broken world" in our own lifetimes or much sooner than expected.
Not heard about this officially yet but the Inquirer report that "The plan to enable mobile phones to work on London's underground railway network (aka The Tube) has been quietly shelved according to Martin Cassidy, president of Innovawireless."
Around two years ago TfL said "It is our intention to commence a trial at a small number of Tube stations in late 2007 with the aim of introducing mobile phone and new technology provision at stations from summer 2008." This never happened.
Then in March 2007 we heard that the technology was trickier to install and it was delayed even further "The earliest the trial will begin is in April next year and if it is successful, will be extended across the Tube network. LU said the earliest date mobile phone coverage could be extended across the Tube network is mid-2009."
The Inquirer continue "Cassidy pitched his previous company's - Zinwave's - wares to Transport for London but found that the body expected suppliers to bear the brunt of financing the project.
As Cassidy's colleague, Daniel Lewing, pointed out, it is extremely difficult to work on the underground network. He reckons that you've only got two hours max overnight to get things done."
The piece concludes to say that Cassidy is now working for a new company with "hubs that utilise just one sort of antenna to pump a variety of mobile signals around a building. The list includes everything from Wi-fi (802.11 a/b/g) to cellular (GSM, CDMA, TDMA) and 3G (W-CDMA).
Now that London's got a new mayor, in Boris Bimbo Johnson, maybe the project will be revived. Sadly, the INQ never read his manifesto to know his views on mobile phones."
With helping to organise Food 2.0 : Nom, Nom, Nom and having a particularly busy time in my day job as well, plus all the Boris & Mayor bollocks, I've been working stupidly long hours, not getting enough sleep and basically heading for mind & body meltdown.
Last night I was supposed to have been out yet again, but due to some more rubbish timing on my part, I missed the people I was supposed to meet and headed home earlier than I was expecting. So rather than catch up with even more web stuff, I decided to watch TV, something which I actually haven't done for weeks.
I've been listening to HeartFM a lot at night and one of the soundtracks to my life this month has been "Falling Out Of Reach" by the Guillemots. I really love this record but had never seen the video for it and didn't even know what the Guillemots looked like.
So I put on the "Music on Demand" channel on my TV and found the video. It was an amazing video about an old man being really run down and almost being on a treadmill in his office. He suddenly leaves the office, but still stuck to his office chair he moves around London with the rest of the world rushing past him.
Lots of music videos about London feature the Tube as a "locator" to say "this is London" and so it wasn't surprising to see the old man stuck in his chair meet the chaos of the London Underground.
It took me about two views to think, "Hold on, isn't that old guy Ian McKellen or Gandalf".
I took the photos above and obviously needed the internet to confirm my suspicions.
It turns out that Sir Ian's nephew is a fan of the band and took him to a concert. He later heard that they were making a video for Falling Out Of Reach which was released in May.
Sir Ian said: "I'm not up with all the latest music and I don't have an iPod and I don't know how they work. But I do like the people who make music and particularly kids who are just coming up and utterly devoted to it and are real musicians and it's a privilege to be with them really."
The Guillemots lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield is amazed that Gandalf was on the set and said "It's one of the country's greatest actors appearing in our video. It's mental".
My friend James Grieve runs Nabokov, an innovative theatre company who have their offices in these old Jubilee Line Carriages - the Tube offices in the sky on Great Eastern Street, London.
Since first blogging about them, they've appeared on Kottke.org, coudal, scottberkun and lots of other cool blogs from around the world.
A lot of you also wanted me to try to arrange a visit to go up to their offices. Well I had a chat to James via text (he's currently in New York) and he's very kindly offered to take two of you (and possibly me) to pick up lunch at the brill BLT (Big Loaded & Tasty) sandwich shop & then have the lunch back in his Tube offices. Hopefully, the weather will be better than when I went and you'll get some stunning views across the city too.
Nom Nom Nom has a charity element as we didn't just want to have 24 people make and then gorge on lovely food without at least thinking about people who don't have the luxury to do this. We're raising money for Action Against Hunger to help those people in some way.
We already had a real time raffle on Sunday but from next week we'll be holding an online prize draw where you can make a donation/s to be in with a chance of winning a number of foody prizes, this lunch being one of them. So keep an eye on the charity prize draw page for details of how you can enter & find out what the other prizes are.
But that's what made me really think, that must be Stewart Lee. Weirdly I had been helping to run an event about food and buying food from farmers' markets only yesterday and there was Stewart Lee (I thought) right in front of me.
So I plucked up the courage and said "Excuse me are you Stewart Herring?" He looked at me a bit strangely - probably cos it turned out that he was Stewart Lee and said "Err yes" I said, "Do you mind if I take a photo of you? As I run a blog about the Tube and weirdly yesterday was running an event about food and how it's farmed". He looked a bit awkward but said "Alright then". I said "I'm going to have to be quick cos I get off at the next stop". So managed to grab a couple of quick shots on the moving train (only just uploaded now as I left my camera lead at the Cookery School). The really blurry one is just on this link, but the one I prefer is below:
Oh yeah and the reason I called him Stewart Herring (to those who haven't already guessed) is because his comedy partner - at least when I first heard of him - is a guy called Richard Herring. D'Oh, D'Oh, D'Oh.
Boris's newly appointed director of transport policy said "The Routemaster was, and indeed still is, an icon and we need something that has the same iconic status."
In terms of budget he was a bit vague:
"We'll set some sort of ball-park figure but we can't say how much it will cost at this time. Let's see what comes back.
"The plan is to have them on the roads by the end of his first term but we're not doing this just for the hell of it. If we find there are initially no suitable bids we will review [the policy]."
BorisWatchers said: "Wasn't one of Boris Johnson's campaign pledges to bring back the Routemaster as the bendy bus was evil? Wonder how many people voted for Boris because of that?"
Boris Watch have similar thoughts "How many times during the campaign did we have to listen to Boris lecturing us on how Ken had once said "only some sort of ghastly, dehumanised moron would get rid of the Routemaster", then done so himself; and how Boris Johnson, knight in shining armour, would be riding to the rescue with a new generation Routemaster to save us all from the moron’s work? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I know it was a lot.
But just how much of a ghastly, dehumanised moron would you have to be to spend nine months telling people that if you become Mayor you will bring back an open-backed, conductor-managed "twenty-first-century Routemaster", flying in the face of expert advice and analysis of costings and practicalities, touting this as your flagship policy for months on end… only to have your transport adviser reveal, within your first fortnight in office, that chances are no such thing will ever happen at all?"
It's interesting that the Evening Standard report talks about the advice Boris was given in his first week of tenure: "mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg also warned Mr Johnson to get rid of any manifesto pledges immediately which looked unlikely to work.".
Well certainly looks like our new Mayor is being true to that piece of advice.
UPDATE: The London Transport Museum are running a series of events to coincide with a new photographic exhibition on the Routemaster which opened on the 17th May - The Last Stop. One of those events is a talk by author of the book pictured above - Travis Elborough.
"The Routemaster was taken out of general service in December 2005. It remains a famous symbol of London and in terms of postcards, books, films and souvenirs - in the eyes of the world - the Routemaster represents the city just as much as Big Ben and Tower Bridge.
Join Travis Elborough, author of the acclaimed The Bus We Loved, for a digressive, cultural tour of the Routemaster's life and times. Taking in everything from the Festival of Britain, Douglas Scott, Flanders and Swann and Cliff Richard to the Eagle comic, Sam Selvon, Alfie and On the Buses, he examines how this humble bus became a cherished global icon."
As Londonist say for a bargain price of a tenner you get "an hour of Travis talk time and entry into the museum beforehand".
If anyone who knows (TubeLines people, hint, hint) maybe you can explain.
I really do love food and love cooking (so much so I'm helping to run an foodie event on Sunday 18th May which you can find out more about here). But there is something really weird about smelling food at times and places where you're not really expecting it.
You may remember the controversial poster, asking people to not eat smelly food on the Tube which almost caused diplomatic incident between London & Italy and it was pulled.
When I've had a few drinks I've been known to eat some hot food on the Tube, and I know it's unpleasant if you're not eating. (It's like the smell of someone else eating cheese and onion crisps) But when you are starving, specially if it's late, sometimes only fried chicken or a pie or a kebab will do.
Well a kebab wouldn't do it for me actually, as I really do think they're pretty disgusting. But I will try my best not to eat hot food on the Tube anymore. It's just that you're so limited for healthy food late at night near London Underground stations, you don't get much choice.
Congratulations to Neil who has just completed his walk of all London Underground Tube Lines. It took him 54 days (not continuously) duing a period of six months to walk 378.5 miles to walk between all the stations on all the Tube lines of London.
He started the project last December and said "As I walk I'm recording my tracks with a GPS data logger and taking lots of photos. The walking routes and pics are on the site. London Photo Project - Tube Walking Blog - I'm expecting to have finished all 12 lines (I started when the East London line was still running) before the end of June."
Well he finished yesterday so he was within his target. You can also see a merged map of his route here.
He correctly (I think) guesses that he may be the only person to have done this, specially as he started before the East London Line was closed. It's similar to a number of other projects that try to show the how long it might take to walk between Tube stations and whether it's healthier or faster to walk, than take the London Underground.
But to walk all 378.5 miles and map your route taking photos along the way is a great achievement. Well done Neil and I wonder if you have set a challenge for someone to do the same. Sadly, they'll have to wait until the East London Line re-opens though.
It was very interesting even though mine and fellow speaker Lorrie's audience as very small (half were male) as the people in the audience all had some interest in transport & the Tube. Some had read my blog, one had even read Mecca's One Stop Short of Barking, others were thinking of running transport related blogs, one was doing research into a creative project involving the Tube.
I talked about all sorts of stuff which might be interesting to people thinking of starting their own blog. The importance of primarily writing for yourself so that ideally your enthusiasm shows through. What starts to happen once you get an audience and how people may or may not treat your blog differently. How do you deal with comments and particularly comments you don't agree with or find offensive.
They were fairly shocked to hear that I've had a persistent racist guy commenting on my blog since 2005. He is banned and knows that he is banned but still comes back using different IP addresses and makes posts at 2am or 4am in the morning as he hopes that at least some people will read his views before I get the chance to delete them. I'm not going to name him as that will give him the attention he craves. I will tell him & anyone else who's reading this, that I delete all of his posts and don't even read them, so I have absolutely no idea what he is saying to me. I treat him in exactly the same way that he treats Black, Asian, Jewish and basically any "non-white" people who he's maligned over the past three years. With complete disrespect. If that makes me a fascist - so be it. But I refuse to let him or anyone else try to use my blog as a mouthpiece for spreading racial hatred. It simply ain't going to happen.
The only good thing I can say about him is that, so far, he doesn't appear to be sexist. But I'm sure that will come in a comment made at 3am in the morning - so look out for it!
Back to other tips for new bloggers. Bloggers on the whole are very collaborative and share a lot. They usually acknowledge other bloggers stories and read and comment on other people's blogs. I love Flickr and spend the first half hour of most mornings having a look at my friends pictures to see what they've been up to and commenting on stuff.
The time went by very quickly and it was a shame the discussions couldn't continue as we also discussed copyright & legal issues, responsibility of blogging and dealing with sexism in blog comments.
Many thanks to Jess McCabe from the F Word for inviting me and I would certainly love to go along again next year.
I will send Josh my own thoughts (if he's also interested in my thoughts on their sister publications' Metro & London Lite, I'll be happy to give them) and if anyone would like to do the same or through the comments here please feel free.
In the meantime you might be interested to see the londonpaper's letters page on the Tube drinks ban:
Although the Londonpaper is owned by News International their letters pages cover a similar commuter audience.
The red arms, chest and legs looked a tad painful, but he didn't seem to mind and his mates spent more time joking about the sweaty smells coming from one of their equally scantily clad friends.
"Protesters against the ban on booze on London's public transport will gather this weekend to demonstrate against the new law.
The 'Anti-Boris Party' will take place at Trafalgar Square from 1pm on Sunday.
Facebook group 'Boris won't ban my booze!' – which was set up during the London Mayoral Election – is being used to advertise the city protest.
London student Beth Powell, on behalf of the Student Revolt Against Boris Johnson, posted the invitation to 'Drink as much as you want' during the eight-hour "party"."
The article did not link to the Facebook Groups but if you want to see them, Here's the "Boris won't ban my booze" group which is not affiliated with the Student Revolt Against Boris Johnson Group which the Londonpaper article might lead you to believe.
Here's what the "Boris won't ban my booze" group have to say "Drinking on the tube in London is an institution of night time revelry. With vast distances to travel across London from house to pub or pub to club, a top-up is necessary for saving both time and money. The proposal is misguided, ineffective and serves only to victimise responsible tube-riding drinkers such as ourselves."
I have no idea how many people will turn up to students' protest / party. I imagine it will be crawling with police. It'll be interesting to see how this is reported on Monday.
Just heard on Heart FM radio that the Police are looking for two men in connection with the attack of a woman last night on a Central Line carriage between Lancaster Gate and Queensway. The woman in her 20's was seriously assaulted at around 8.30pm. Doubtless more news of this will follow as internet news agencies get hold of the story. But in the meantime, if you saw anything please contact the police.
Obviously, this is awful for the poor woman who was attacked but good timing for Boris Johnson and the Government, as yesterday they both introduced plans to cut down crime & anti social behaviour on public transport. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith said: "I also understand people's concerns about anti-social behaviour on public transport. Working with passengers, transport staff and operators, Ruth Kelly and I will take action to answer these concerns.
"We want to stamp out ASB (anti social behaviour) on our buses, trains and trams. If more powers are needed to protect staff and the travelling public, we will provide them."
As Andrew Sparrow from The Guardian said of the Government's statement yesterday, "I may be wrong, but it looks like a last-minute addition inserted to show that Boris isn't the only politician concerned about yobs on buses."
Andrew Sparrow said that Home Office's announcement "is not directly comparable. But it does show that, on the subject of unruly teenagers, the government does have something to say."
As Boris Johnson announced the ban on alcohol on all of London's public transport, questions were raised about the feasibility of the ban. The RMT union described the policy as "impractical", and admitted that their members suffer violence at the hands of drunk passengers.
RMT Leader Bob Crow said "We are in favour of any measure that will make our members' lives safer and curb anti-social behaviour, but it appears that this really hasn't been thought through very well and could well make matters worse. We are being told that it will be our members who will have to approach people drinking and ask them to stop - but the mayor hasn't asked us what we think."
For more on the RMT's thoughts about the alcohol ban, please see my earlier post below.
Update - I've just been sent an email to another attack to a woman on the Central Line. D Metcalfe wrote "Is it possible there were two recent violence incidents on the Central Line or is this story the one you mentioned?
If so these facts seem quite different from yours and - to me - much more troublesome. If this news story is accurate I'm simply amazed that a car load of Brits could sit/stand by and not intercede on behalf of this mother and daughter. Simply unbelievable. What has happened to the culture of so-called "civilised" folk that they would allow such an assault to take place? And not help? Or speak up afterwards as witnesses?"
It's possible that Heart FM got the dates and locations on the Central Line wrong, but that's unlikely, so it sounds like these are two separate instances.
D continues "But I'm mad that my favorite form of transport was so badly besmirched. I've ridden that line a couple of time at about that time of day. And I'm a 77 year old Yank that as a kid rode street cars in Los Angeles during the "zoot suit" wars, so I couldn't have kept myself from butting in if I'd been in that car the other night. Just makes my blood boil."
Sadly D as I mentioned in the comments here you are in a minority when it comes to standing up to violence on the Tube. More police with real powers are needed and not just a simple crack down on alcohol on public transport. How you can instill a culture of people caring about their fellow commuters is way beyond me, and as much as I hate to say it, it sounds like there may have been some racism involved in this second attack.
As he hates Oyster cards so much, he showed a couple of attempts of how an Oyster card can be destroyed using some kind of industrial strength acetate and how the chip inside it will still work. Problem was that none of the attempts did actually work. At least not until now. Heads up to Gia who originally found this attempt.
1) 400ml of Nail Varnish Remover - I bought 2 bottles of Boots own brand at 99p each. I could probably have got by with one. 2) An oyster card - I bought a prepay one for £3, though I got a funny look when I didn't want to top it up there and then. 3) A jar big enough to contain the oyster card - I bought a jar of beetroot (urgh) for 72p.
Total Cost: £5.70
Once the Oyster card goes into the nail varnish it melts enough so that you can tear away the layers of plastic and you are left with the chip. He said:
"It's best to keep checking the card, first it will get soft, then after about 90 mins it folded over and I was able to peel off the first layer of the card, exposing one side of the chip. Then I cut the centre of the card out with scissors (so there was less plastic for the acetone to work on). I put these pieces next to the jar, and I was quite suprisied when the time-lapse showed them wobbling about.
Then after another half hour or so, the other side of the plastic loosened enough to peel that away exposing the intact chip and antenna."
You can see a time lapse video of the whole process below:
But would it actually work? After all the meltdown, would he then be able to get the chip topped up and would it let him through the gates on the Tube? He took the chip, put it into an Oyster card wallet, so as not to look suspicious, and then topped it up with some cash, then videoed the experience (see below):
It worked. So one now has potentially endless opportunities of not being restricted to your blue card if you want to get about. SkeptoBot quite fancies sticking his chip onto a wand and waving it in front of the reader, saying something like "Open Sesame" and the gates would open - as if by magic.
Watch his blog for further developments to see if he can turn it into a wand.
James said: "He was going from Highbury & Islington to Green Park (presumably for the Jubilee) and at least one person congratulated him and complained about the trains. He was also going to be late as it was 9 when I got off at Green Park. Terrible."
Just as well he wasn't on the same carriage as RMT's Bob Crow, who's not too happy about how his members will have to enforce the alcohol ban on all of London's transport.
He said: "Perhaps the Mayor will come out with his underpants over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done, and maybe tell a crowd of Liverpool supporters that they can't drink on the train."
He's also not happy about Johnson's pre-election claims of trying to stop their right to strike. I raise my eyebrows at the first sentence here, but with rest, he has a point:
"Our members have never taken strike action at the drop of a hat - the legal constraints we face make that charge laughable.
But it would be insane for us to surrender our democratic right - our human right - to withdraw our labour to defend our interests. Politicians from all sides praised South African dock workers when they refused to handle a Chinese shipment of arms bound for Zimbabwe, but had that happened in Britain the union involved would have been hauled into court.
So, for the new Mayor's benefit, I say this: the RMT wants good industrial relations, but it will never enter into a no-strike agreement."
Yesterday morning I went to a breakfast seminar which had some fascinating speakers. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a great morning person and I generally don't like breakfast meetings or seminars as I think, why not just do them at a time when people are a bit more awake. However, this was worth me leaving my house at 7.30am. (as it was I didn't get there till 8.45am but that's a whole other story and will be the subject of a Customer Charter Refund form to TfL)
Because I got a much earlier train than normal there were loads of school kids and teenagers on my train.
The guy that you can see in the picture above was reading Metro and I've always banged on about the best thing about Metro and the free sheets is that they actually get teenagers and kids reading newspapers. Some people respond to me and say "ah but they only read the gossip, TV and sports sections". I say "well at least that's something". But in reality I actually think they read way more than that.
The teenager in front of me was reading the cover story about the tragic cyclone in Burma. He also proceeded to read the rest of the paper. Other teenagers around me were reading stuff about Pete Doherty mixed in with stuff about the American elections, Boris Johnson, a gun seige in London, Britney Spears seeing her kids and a whole lot of other stuff from yesterday's papers.
Mixed amongst the Metro readers (the majority of people in my carriage were reading the Metro) were The Sun readers (most males over 30) and the odd broadsheet reader.
So indulge me for a moment if you would. What paper do you read on your morning commute into work? And if you want to say roughly how old you are, that might help to prove or disprove my theory about Metro meaning that more teenagers are reading papers. Thanks!
I've just spent about ten minutes completing quite a fun questionnaire about blogging. Normally ten minutes on a questionnaire is a little too long for me but I was attracted by the following email that was sent to me:
Hello
I've recently come to realise that blogging – which is to say, the way people blog and the reasons people blog and the things people blog about - is a complicated and profound and endlessly fascinating thing. So, because I'm an inquisitive beast, I've compiled a questionnaire about that very thing and I'd be honoured and thrilled if you'd fill it in for me.
If I don't know you personally by the way, it doesn't mean I don't want to. For the moment, I'm probably virtual friends with one of your other virtual friends. I did a little two-degree roll-trawling to get what I hoped would be a willing sample. Fingers crossed.
Of course, if you'd rather have your corneas scraped with poison arrows than answer a bunch of questions about your private blog habits, then please delete this email at once and I'm genuinely sorry to have bothered you.
If you do fancy it however, splendid! All information proffered will be treated with complete confidentiality and all results will be attributed anonymously. Unless of course, you tell me something particularly juicy, in which case I will contact you and ask your permission to single you out for special praise.
I thought the questionnaire got a little too long. I won't tell you how many questions there are, as it might put you off, but if you aren't doing a number of things that it asks, ie if you don't have a stat counter, don't carry ads, don't have affiliate links, don't have an RSS feed enabled, haven't had sex as a result of your blog, haven't had a relationship with someone as a result of your blog and don't have comments enabled on your blog, you can skip a lot of the questions.
As I have or have done all of the above it took me a full ten minutes to answer. So if you have a blog give it a go if you fancy it, as it will get you thinking about all sorts of things about why you blog and why you carry on blogging and also asks the questions in a fairly fun way. If you don't have a blog, skip to something else on this blog that takes your fancy.
Regular readers know that the problem of cooling the Tube is a big one and over a hundred people went to a talk on how the London Underground planned to tackle heat.
Jon Justice who's a regular commenter and contributor to the blog sent me a link to a role that Transport for London advertised on the 30th April - Operations Liaison Manager - Cooling the Tube.
"Operations Liaison Manager - London SW1 c£50k plus generous benefits
The Tube. Best Served Chilled.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Operations Liaison Manager who will act as the representative of local operational management on all Cooling the Tube Programme (CTP) activities. You will ensure that planned project works are delivered with minimum impact on the operational railway; help prepare and implement an operational readiness plan for using the new assets, ensuring that local teams are ready to use the new assets when delivered; and will work with Line General Managers and their teams to implement migration, transition and changeover plans."
Full details can be found in the link above and you have until Sunday May 18th 2008 at 1159hrs to apply. It's a very healthy salary to say the least, for what would be a very challenging role.
As well as carrying out the specific duties outlined, candidates require:
Extensive planning and organising experience to achieve business objectives
Experience of interpreting complex information and communicating findings and recommendations
Good understanding of principles of railway operational management
Awareness of customer priorities
Computer literate with good analytical skill
Financial and business acumen
Influencing and negotiating skills
Good working knowledge of the PPP Contract
God alone knows who would have the last requirement, but if you have, or think you know someone who has you know where to go.
Although perhaps Ian & Pete from The Londoneer might feel qualified as they made very comprehensive notes from the lecture in March.
The BBC in a Donald MacIntyre Investigation report that "Up to 20% of London Underground train drivers are sent on retraining courses each year because of unsafe driving. About 700 drivers were sent on the courses each year since 2003 for wrongly going through red stop signals.
The figures, which were obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act, include drivers who may have been on courses twice in the same year."
In each case the drivers (or operators as they like to be called) were retrained as a result of signals passed at danger or SPAD's as they are known in the trade (the reality TV programme The Tube is how I know this), which can occur when the driver (sorry, operator) misjudges the train's braking distance. If a train goes through a red signal the brake system is automatically triggered.
The train operator is then supposed to report this to the control room for advice on when it is safe for the train to proceed. If they don't report the incident it could result in disciplinary action.
Not suprisingly, Transport for London (TfL) assure us that all is well and in a statement said: "There have been no injuries as a result of these incidents.
"It must be noted that as London Underground upgrades its signal system a part of its signal system as part of its current rebuilding program, these incidents will be eliminated by the implementation of automatic train operation."
Even one of Boris's supporters Iain Dale claims to find banning not so great (not sure where he stands on banning guns then - but that's by the by) "As a liberal Conservative I instinctively recoil from banning things. However, is it liberal to allow tube users to be abused by drunken louts? No, definitely not. I think this policy will be welcomed by many as long as it is policed properly."
Yes I'm sure we can rely on the new Mayor to police it properly. He got a lot of practice in this morning, just by wearing a policeman's hat. Check out The Sun
By the way loving, Iain Dale's ads for Laithwaites wine all over his blog. It's great that some people can be trusted to booze responsibly and yet it appears there might be a blanket ban on booze.
"The magic, mystery & sometimes maddening shortcomings of London's Tube are documented with love,
enthusiasm & sometimes despair by its unofficial social historian." The Guardian
"On some mornings it can feel like the only reason to be grateful that the Tube exists" Time Out
"a big hit on the Web...one of London's obsessives" Metro
"an irreverent and informative must-read for everybody, not just subterranean commuters" The Times
