Welcome to the fun, "irreverent & informative", award-winning London Underground - Tube Blog.
Click here for other London Underground guidance. Contact me here
Annie Mole's, daily web log (blog) & “guide” to the London Underground
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, the fun and informative book about travelling on the London Underground.
He said "It was stuck in the same place that a normal one would be, next to a door".
Wonder how many people decided to follow its instructions? I suppose if you're going to get fined for drinking on the Tube, you may as well get fined for enjoying something like a Margarita rather than a can of Fosters! See my earlier post about the evil Foster drinkers flouting the Tube alcohol ban.
Guardian writer Dave Hill who was at the meeting said on his personal blog, that Hendy
"explained that it was all the fault of TranSys, the EDS/Cubic partnership that runs the Oyster system under PFI (Do I sound as though I know what all this means?). Hendy said the incidents showed a "lack of understanding" by TranSys of the thing they're meant to be operating. Gives you confidence, doesn't it? He'll be "seeking recovery" from TranSys of the estimated £1 million lost in the two cock-ups."
Good to hear that we won't be paying for it (hopefully - I imagine that it was the real Peter Hendy saying this and not the MySpace one) and thanks to Dave Hill for giving me the heads up to this.
UPDATE - Dave's put up more of the the rest of the TfL Board Meeting here.
Thanks to a random Twitter conversation this morning about dancing zombies and social media dance offs and Web 2.0 Musicals, I can't get Jack Penate's, top train song Torn on the Platform out of my head
He was also at Lovebox although we must have missed him do this as we missed the beginning of his set then got bored with him and wandered off so something else. How fickle!
The best thing were some noise reduction headphones. Not from Sony (as pictured above) but from Etymotic. I'll be reviewing them later once I've ordered a set to try out on the London Underground, as I am sure I am deafening myself by turning up the volume unnecessarily loud to over compensate the Tube noise.
Following that we sped along to London Blogger's Summer Party which was sponsored by Stella Artois. Fortunately Stella had the good sense to not just supply as with Stella itself as I would have been in less of a fit state to write this post.
In addition to the drinks and six trips on their airship - Star over London - as prizes for the best reviews of London pubs, they gave us some Stella glasses and USB keys which you can see modelled below:
There seriously were too many bloggers there I know to mention you all by name, but you know who you all are. I had a fab time chewing the fat and thanks to Jason Mical who arranged all of the stuff from Stella and to Andy Bargery for keeping the monthly London Bloggers Meetups going really well and finding a great venue with a lovely riverside view.
Must improve my camera skills or drink less in order to take better shots! There's a few more photos here, but I imagine, as sure as bloggers are bloggers, there'll be more pictures popping up on London blogs soon. Peter Marshall has added a load of pictures to the summer party pool.
Which leads me to his brilliant post on Gordon Ramsey from the C4's The F Word and a review of breakfast at the Maze Grill in Mayfair. I'm not going to quote anything from it, as you really need to read it. Funny thing was the breakfast did remind me of some of the breakfasts that Richard Moross & Russell Davies prepared.
Moross & Davies were the Hares of Nom Nom Nom and a classic case of concept over substance. Excellent concept but poor execution, mainly because they spent more time in drinking milkshakes in the sun and didn't leave enough time to finish off their minimalist breakfasts. But thankfully, unlike Ramsey, at least they weren't charging £26 for a "full" English breakfast!
In March 2008 security weaknesses in the Oyster card were discovered by Professor Bart Jacobs and others from Radboud University, Nijmegen.
The BBC give a good summary: "The weaknesses centre on the chip, called the Mifare Classic, that sits at the heart of the contactless card system. As well as being used on 17 million Oyster cards, the Mifare chip is used by about 1bn smartcards worldwide, and is the basis of the Dutch Rijkspas card.
Many organisations, including governments, use Mifare technology as a secure entry system for buildings. Given the many millions of cards in use Prof Jacobs held off publishing details about how the information on the chips can be copied and used. It told the Dutch government and NXP about its work to give them time to harden systems against the attack.
Despite this, NXP sought an injunction to ensure the details of the attack would never be aired. The case went to court in Holland and now the court in Arnhem has overturned the injunction citing local freedom of expression laws." Thanks to Dav for first alerting me to this.
So that's all well and good, but what do Transport for London feel about the freedom to share how to hack the Oyster card? A spokesperson said:
"Transport for London remains confident in the security of the Oyster card system. We take fraud and the security of personal data extremely seriously and constantly review our security procedures."
"Any fraudulent card would be identified within 24 hours of being used and blocked. Using a fraudulent card for free travel is subject to prosecution and we would seek to enforce this wherever possible."
We'll see what happens in October when the research will be published by Professor Bart Jacobs (love that he's called Bart - it's just what you'd imagine Bart Simpson would do if he grew up to be an academic) & his mates.
Jerome Bowes, a station assistant at Elephant & Castle station, was sacked for defending himself against the assault from a passenger who had already been involved in a fight. According to the RMT union, neither the Metropolitan Police nor the British Transport Police felt that there was anything to arrest Bowes for.
The fight took place on New Year's Eve and RMT leader Bob Crow said:
"Jerome Bowes was sacked for defending himself against an attack from behind from someone who had already been involved in a fight on the most volatile night of the year, and that is unacceptable,
"Neither the Met nor the BTP found any cause to arrest Jerome, who was walking away towards a place of safety when he was assaulted, and it beggars belief that LUL has seen fit to dismiss him.
"The message London Underground seems to be sending out is that defending yourself against violent assault is to be regarded as a disciplinary offence, and it is no wonder that our members are angry and disgusted."
It's a fairly tricky one this, as just because the police didn't feel that Bowes should be arrested, doesn't necessarily mean that LU aren't within their rights to sack him.
The fairness of this is a different matter. London Underground told the BBC that "We do not tolerate any assault, verbal or physical, on staff or passengers." There's even posters about it on the Tube (see above). However, they go ahead and sack a man for defending himself against a violent attack. Now that to me, and presumably to the 100 striking staff on the Bakerloo line, seems wrong.
Last week I saw two women (pictured above - who really looked slightly similar too), both reading Patrick Gale's Notes from an Exhibition. I couldn't resist taking a picture as I've never seen complete strangers reading the same book side by side like this before.
On Saturday I spent the day with my old college friends and we were talking about book groups & I showed them this photo. Two of them had read the book. One of them was in love with Patrick Gale and thought the book was fab. One was a bit sceptical about book groups as she felt that there was a worrying level of competitiveness in them and that people felt that they had to devise fantastic pitches to get their book selected to be read. Then a further worry of coming up with intelligent questions to get the discussion going. Add to that another worry about finding something smart to say when you'd read the book, to her equalled nightmare which took all joy out of reading.
I disagreed as I belonged to a large London Book Group for about 18 months and I never felt we had that level of competitiveness displayed. We read some great books and I discovered books that I now love which I might never have discovered without the book group.
When I see a lot of people reading the same book on the Tube, I often use that as a recommendation of sorts. Or I feel like giving a thumbs up or a big smile to someone who's reading a book I've read, or even something by the an author I like.
I'm a Paul Auster fan, so really wanted to ask the bloke reading New York Trilogy above, what he thought of it.
Rob HinchliffeQype's Community Manager told me about a great blog which shows what people on the New York Subway are reading - Underground Reads. Garth Wolkoff is going round watching what people are reading on the Metro and asking them for a quick review or even asking for a picture of the traveller with their book.
It's a great idea and creates an online book group of sorts. One without any competitiveness and no pressure to actually read the books if you don't want to.
What do you think? Do you read books a lot on the Tube or do you stick to papers? What happens when you see people reading the same book as you - have you ever asked them about it - or like me do you just smile to yourself, happy in the knowledge that you're in a secret London Tube Book Group?
I also saw a bowler hat MOO sticker on the Oyster card reader at Liverpool Street just as I swiped myself in, but was too knackered to take a photo.
Bit worried that Angelsk's Fail Whale combined with the bowler hat sticker on the Oyster card reader may have caused Friday's Oyster card Failure on the Tube. You never know how these things work!
Oh and a quick reminder, it's closing day today for the Onya bag competition. There have been some fab entries so far, but if you haven't entered you've got till 11.59pm this evening (British Time) to have a go. KThxbai.
There's some great conversations / discussions / rants that take place in these little green cabins (pictured above) around London where cabbies take their breaks.
You can read my review Cab Driver here. Watching the film (which is now on BBC's iPlayer) may knock away some of your opinions of taxi drivers, or may just confirm them even more - who knows? Next Saturday it's Tube Night. Enjoy.
Just woken up with a minor hangover (thanks to the MOO party) to hear the news that the Oyster card system has failed again & all the gates are open on the Tube, meaning free travel. Buses aren't affected this time. Now considering we were told the chances of this happening were slim and it's now happened twice in two weeks, shows that something's err ... wrong.
Here's a reminder of what happened on the 12th July when the Oyster card system failed. That was on a Saturday when fewer people travel, but still it was reported that anything from 40,000 to 100,000 passengers had their cards corrupted and travelling on the London Underground the following Monday was a bit rubbish for those commuters.
Pay as you go cards are borked today, so don't touch the readers with them, even if you see the gates open on the Tube.
So if you have an Oyster card listen out for more news and keep an eye on TfL's website - although at the time of writing 7.30am there's nowt, nada, nothing on the Transport for London site to show any problems. Perhaps they were all at the MOO party and are suffering a bit this morning too.
When sending this photo to me, Dave said "Where's the SWAT team then, eh? It's not the drinking that pisses me off, it's the lack of enforcement of an unenforceable law.
Bah."
Looks like the police may have been too busy chatting to their new Stormtrooper mates to notice.
"The innovative new concept uses digital TV screens built into the armpits of shirts. It was developed by deodorant manufacturer Right Guard as the ideal way to market its products.
A hired team of 'Pitvertisers' was sent out into the streets of London to test the new medium.
Passers-by were reportedly amazed by the new marketing tactic - some were clearly impressed; but others thought it the pits".
As soon as I heard about this I thought it was an April Fool. But you're sposed to believe Ananova aren't you? By the time the third person had told me about it and muttered about photoshop, I thought, they don't really need photoshop for this and could easily get a couple of people from the office to stage the shot on the Tube.
But good for them, they've managed to convince a number of other sites that the technology exists including Engadget, WatchingTVOnline, Crunchgear, ubergizmo and gizmodo. I'm sure many others are also reporting that it's a real trial.
Thanks to Jon Justice, Webponce & Wayne Z for being the first three to alert me to this.
If someone from Right Guard would like to invite me to see this "trial" in action and to see the product brief, rationale & business case for it I'd be more than happy to eat my words.
In the meantime you might find the people from ImprovEverywhere or Spacehijackers having a go at convincing people that any ads in people's armpits would be good for the Tube or subway.
We spend enough time looking at people's armpits in the rush hour perhaps the guys from Right Guard aren't so mad after all. Or perhaps they'd be better off sponsoring some of the straphangers (above) which are now part of the London Transport Museum's exhibits.
I'm going to Lovebox today which is the first of my summer music festivals this year. I like my creature comforts too much & won't do any festivals involving camping. Spending some days in big parks listening to music without all the wellington boot & trench foot & communal showers & cleaning your teeth in a field stuff is fine by me.
The only thing I have to "worry" about is wondering whether the London Overground will be running OK so I can go to Highbury & Islington and then get a bus (unfortunately not like the loved up one on the postcard below) to Victoria Park, or whether I have to take the London Underground to Mile End & walk. Even though TfL's site shows no problems with the London Overground today, I've not seen one go past my house - so currently can't trust it.
In the spirit of Love, I was given a bundle of Onya bags by the lovely guys and gals at Onya, for no real reason other than changing a link I had to their Australian site to the UK site, when I blogged about Kew Gardens going Plastic Bag free. So they gave me the bags as a thank you - which is remarkably sweet of them.
So I'm sharing the bounty & giving them away. If you want to do your little bit to "Love the Planet", use fewer plastic bags and have a tiny but super strong bag instead there's three ways you can get one.
1. Have a look at yesterday's entry about the London Transport Museum. There's an error in one of the photos - if you're the first person to spot the error I'm thinking of, you get an Onya backpack.
2. Goldfrapp are playing at today's Lovebox, hopefully they'll be performing Happiness, which is my new favourite track of theirs. (Update to say they "performed" Happiness at Lovebox was an understatement - it was mind blowingly mad - photos from Lovebox here) Who's the best dancer at the end of the video & why? Person I think has the best reason gets an Onya original bag.
3. That leaves two bags. I'll get Onya involved in this one. Just tell us why you want an Onya bag. The two answers that me & Onya like the most will get an Onya original bag each.
Leave your answers in the comments below and you've got till 11.59pm UK time on Sunday 27th July for your answers. Please leave an email address or a blog address or some way for me to get in touch with you too.
If you want to return the love - a vote for Team Bank would also be much appreciated - cos we're losing Ahh, no worries we came 2nd in the end! Thanks for voting!
So knowing Zimena and her dogged determination for finding characters (like cabbie turned counsellor Len Fox) and getting them to tell their stories rather than doing a "love fest" on the transport itself, I had a feeling that Cab Driver was going to be good. The audience in the Cubic Theatre at London Transport Museum (brill moquette on the seats) weren't disappointed. It was funny, touching, sad, informative, thoughtful, uplifting, ridiculously sweary (it was a film about cabbies), musical and basically brill. You can see it for yourself on the 26th July 2008 on BBC4.
It's the middle part of her "Transport Trilogy" made with the support of the London Transport Museum. Tonight at 9pm on BBC4 you can see a repeat of her film on London's Routemaster or double decker bus as part of Bus Night. Next Saturday, it's Cabbie Night and then on the 2nd August it's a repeat of Tube Night, with me.
But back to the Museum, they're continuing with their trend of amazing design values by working with people like Ted Baker who's produced a whole lot of T-shirts & accessories for them.
There's a Ted Tini cocktail in his honour too and last night we had a few "Where 2 Guv" cocktails in discounted to £4.50 each for the Cabbie evening.
You can also buy umbrellas with "I don't go South of the River" on them.
For a museum that's about transport it's as much a museum about people and their lives and their stories. I chatted with Wendy Neville the museum's Communication Manager after the film. She was fascinated with us as bloggers (I went along with L J Rich & Anna Mondo - from Team Angel fast catching up with my Team Bank - in the recent L T Museum Flickr Scavenger Hunt) and wanted to learn more about why we did it. But for me it was great to hear about their plans for more events, more story telling (including some Carry On stars - can't wait), more travellers from the past in character, and another outing of the 1938 Art Deco Tube in August.
Of course if you like, you can still salivate over the old trains, Tube carriages, buses, horse & carts, old cabs etc etc. The iconic fonts, designs, posters, maps and signs are all there too - displayed really creatively as we found on our first Flickr Scavenger Hunt there. But I do love the human part of the museum, the cocktails, the chunky chips and the connecting with people from the past.
"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
So knowing Zimena and her dogged determination for finding characters (like cabbie turned counsellor 
