28 or six more weekend closures of Jubilee Line?

A disagreement seems to have broken out regarding the number of weekend closures required to finish the ongoing improvements on the Jubilee Line. Media reports have suggested that a further 28 weekend closures could be needed, taking us up to halfway through next year. Londonist report that this has led Boris Johnson to wade in to Tube Lines' head with demands as to the true extent of closures that are needed.

Taken by Utku

However, Val Shawcross on the London Assembly has no idea where TfL's figure of 28 weeks has come from: "There has clearly been some kind of breakdown in communications between the two parties, as I met with Tube Lines today and they have told me that they have only requested six more full weekend closures, and even if that increases to accommodate things like training time, it should be no more than ten". (via SE1)

She continued "Rather than a war of words in the press, everyone needs to sit down together to work out a sensible programme so that passengers know what to realistically expect.".

Caroline Pigeon, chair of the transport committee at City Hall echoed this view "The Mayor now needs to call a Tube summit, get all the players round the table, and bang heads together. This must include the owners of Tube Lines, Bechtel and Ferrovial, who pull Tube Lines' strings. These parent companies need to understand a better way of working has to be found. These delays cannot go on indefinitely."

Do you live on the Jubilee Line? Have you been sent anything about the works being extended into the middle of next year? You really have my sympathies. I've only tried to use it for a couple of weekends since the regular closures, so didn't have to put up with too many replacement bus journeys. I'm assuming you can't claim Customer Charter refunds for this as there's already been advance notice?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, December 07, 2009 Permalink

Tube Photo of the Week

Great spot by CdL Creative going through Canary Wharf London Underground station. He said "The guy sitting opposite me on the tube was wearing a suit.

Except...


The trousers were completely inside out. Either he was totally oblivious to this or it was some sort of Masonic ritual."

The mind boggles. Even if you're in a massive rush, you'd have to struggle somewhat to put your trousers on inside out.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, December 04, 2009 Permalink

Mind the Mohican

First time I've ever seen a London Underground member of staff with a mohican hair cut.


Bet he never makes a rush for the doors on a crowded train for the worry of getting his hair stuck.


I took this photo while I was on an interesting tour of the London Underground, which I'll blog about later.

But as I held back a little to take this guy's picture, the lady who was running the tour said that she'd been on a Tube journey once where a man with very long hair got it stuck in the doors. He was quite nonchalant about it and said he'd be able to escape at the next stop. Typically though, he was unlucky enough be to trapped on the side where the doors didn't open for a number of stops.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, December 03, 2009 Permalink

New Art Below Tube Campaign

There's a new collection of Art Below posters on the London Underground running up until 13th December. Art Below was set up in February 2006 and came about when two brothers, Ben and Simon Moore, wondered if they could use surplus ad space on the Tube and use it to display friends' artwork.


Ben Moore said "The Tube is an iconic, vast space, plus users are almost immersed in advertising on it, so why not turn ad space into art space,"


It's a great way for artists to get their work seen by millions of people. Submissions are made online and then selected on their contemporary relevance and standard. The poster scheme has also been rolled out on metro systems in Tokyo and Berlin. So far, over 500 artists have had their work displayed

Art Below have secured very central sites including Bond Street, Gloucester Road, Old Street, Angel and London Bridge. Overall they're seen by over 38,000 people every fortnight.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, December 03, 2009 Permalink

Amazing & Extraordinary London Underground Facts

That's the title of Dr Stephen Halliday's new book, which he will be signing this Friday evening at London Transport Museum & co-hosting a kitsch quiz as part of the museum's "Lates" series.


Halliday's book "Underground to Everywhere" is one of the most recent definitive books about the Tube, but his new book sounds much lighter and would make a great stocking filler. He gave a great talk which I was lucky to attend a few years ago on the history of the underground.


The quiz starts at 7.30pm and Stephen will be available to sign books from 8.30pm to 9pm.

Also at this Friday's event you can get crafty with The Make Lounge & make magnets and envelopes using London Underground maps and posters. There's also semi-detached bingo (no, I've no idea what that is either), a curatorial tour of the Suburbia exhibition.

Sounds like it will be a really fun night. Tickets are £7 Adults, £5 Concessions and £5 per ticket for each group of 4 or more. Admission for over 18s only. Friday Lates start at 18.45 and go on until 22.00, booking and further details are here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, December 02, 2009 Permalink

Tube Travel makes us aggressive

A new report from the London Assembly "Too Close for Comfort" has revealed what many Londoners already know. Overcrowding on the London Underground gives us a "dog-eat-dog" attitude where we turn into "a different animal" in a fight for seats or space on a train.


The report shows there is severe overcrowding on the Tube, with 80% of commuters saying they experience overcrowding which causes discomfort and over half saying they can't get on their first train in the morning. The worst lines for overcrowding are the Central and Northern Lines. At peak hours you'll often find four travellers into a square metre of carriage space.

The report says that people are "going after a seat regardless of who else might want it, ignoring pregnant women and people carrying babies".

People mentally prepare for their journey on auto pilot and psyche themselves up for a packed journey as though they're going into battle, rather than simply travelling into work.

Caroline Pigeon of the London Assembly spoke to The Guardian and said that the report offers suggestions as to how the situation can be improved. In an audio interview she also points to Madrid metro and how they tackle the works of improvements to increase capacity on trains. "If Madrid can upgrade their system without any closures then London Underground ought to be able to do the same". she says. "Too Close for Comfort" criticised the "chaotic" upgrade of the Jubilee Line extension, which has meant that sections of the line being closed for whole weekends several times in the last few months.

The report also calls for a "traffic-light" system in ticket halls so people can judge exactly how packed the trains will be.

What more do you think can be done to ease overcrowding? Is your journey to work overcrowded? What are your strategies to avoid packed trains? Do you travel in later? Walk more or try to use music to put your head in another place?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, December 01, 2009 Permalink

Has the London Underground Map lost its way? - revisited

Yesterday's Guardian pondered what Harry Beck would do with the Tube Map today in the light of the expansion of the Oyster card & a new map to illustrate this.

"What would Beck himself have done? A man of vision as well as courage – and a pragmatist if ever there were one – he might well have recommended something drastic, even iconoclastic: tearing up his own Underground map, and suggesting that we begin again from first principles. No doubt this would be an occasion as emotionally charged as the introduction of decimal currency was nearly 40 years ago, but it might be the only rational thing to do." Thanks to richjm for the heads up.


A few years ago, I went to a talk that London Underground map expert Maxwell Roberts. He had similar thoughts. I wrote:

Max believes we've now got to the state with the map trying so desperately to please everyone (wheelchair access, station closures, partial station closures, zones, future extensions), that it has become a bit of mess. The network has grown so much that even Harry (or rather Henry) Beck would have tearing out his hair.

Now more than ever we can see the tension between the map's need to be legible, usable, attractive and simple and its counter need to convey information. The addition of Cross Rail and the Olympic Line will only make matters worse. Take a look at TfL's own projection of what the Tube Map could look like in 2016 (with Boris's arrival this projection no longer exists) and you'd need a pretty big diary map to cope with that.


What's the solution? If designers went back to the drawing board would they go curvy as Max Roberts recommends?

Max said "So, does this map 'work'? With extra railways on it, the simplicity of Version 1 (his earlier version) has been diluted, and the map needs a bit more mental effort to make sense of it (as for any complex map). I think I have shown that there may well be some mileage in designing maps in this way, but die-hard Beck fans will not be convinced. On the other hand, it's hard to know just how bad the design of the current official map has to get before they would be."


Will the design team board™ have their way with a proposed 2012 Tube map based on Olympic rings (see first image) - they say "recent usability feedback has been very positive." Would going geographical help or hinder? Has the map got so bad it needs a total re-design?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, November 27, 2009 Permalink

Extreme Tube Sleeping

The London Underground seems to be one of the better places to sleep in the winter if the following pictures are anything to go by.

Whatleydude snapped this guy going through Maida Vale sound asleep:


He said "What's that? No feet on seats? What about legs? They're ok, right?"

Melanie Seasons saw a pretty dishevelled man on the Victoria Line and said "I've seen people fall asleep on the Tube before, but never face down into their Metro. I don't think the poor guy even got through the second page."


Didn't realise that Metro was that boring!

If you manage to spot any other heavy Tube sleepers on your journey, you should have plenty of time to take a picture. Let me know if you do and I'll add them to this post.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, November 26, 2009 Permalink

Is Tube investment being cut back?

We've started, so we won't finish, should be the catchphrase at Newbury Park. Although the London Underground fare increases are supposed to "sustain vital investment", Matthew V found the opposite at his local station.


He said: "For the last few months at least Newbury Park has had major construction work to install lifts. Signs went up last week that they are halting the work due to lack of funding, and yesterday there were severe delays for a while due to 'obstruction on the tracks'.


"From the looks of things it might have been to remove some of the tools etc, but the platforms still have massive blue hoardings limiting the space available – which was bad this morning as the station, which is a major hub for the Essex and areas East of London (it's got about 500 car parking spaces), was closed for a while. I'm a little annoyed at this since having lifts would really make the station fit as a transport hub, and would mean I didn't have to keep offering to help women up stairs with buggies (there are no escalators).

Is this just a sign of the recession? Money being diverted to pay increases for drivers? Given the price hikes I've got a feeling it can't be due to general lack of money!"

Has anyone else seen any instances of this? I know that improvements at certain stations seem to take longer than planned to complete. But it seems unusual to say that work is going to be stopped because of lack of funding just before we're about to have a fare increase. Not the greatest timing.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Permalink

If you can't film on the Tube....

Build your own version. This is lovely animation for Coldplay song Strawberry Swing by Matt Clark


Thanks to richjm for the heads up for this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Permalink

Should the Circle Line be renamed?

Not that the Circle Line ever looked like a circle, but from December 13th it's going to look even less like a Circle. The extension to Hammersmith will mean that a "tail" will be added to the line. An article in yesterday's Times is already calling it a tadpole. Are they right? Is there a better name for it? Why wasn't the Circle Line ever called the "Bottle Line", which is far more what it currently looks like?


Spiral, corkscrew and tea-cup have been some of the offerings on Twitter, when we were discussing a few weeks ago.


Any more suggestions welcome in the comments below. This is just for fun, as TfL have already said that the line won't be re-named. I'm not sure if they've ever renamed an entire Tube line since the London Underground existed!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Permalink

Bob Crow appearing on Have I Got News for You

RMT Leader Crow will be the first trade union official to ever appear on the comdedy quiz show "Have I Got News for You".

He'll be on this Friday and apparently is a long time fan. He said to the Evening Standard "I'm looking forward to an evening of sparring with Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and the rest of the panel. I've sat across the table from some sharp operators in my time, but I know that the Have I Got News For You crew will pose a different challenge altogether."


Luckily there's still just under a month to go before the ballot for the pre-Xmas Tube strike takes place. So that won't be part of this week's news.

It'll be interesting to see how funny Crow is, and how well he'll react to being poked fun at. It's hard to imagine he'll get an easy time from the other panellists.

Ianvisits will be in the audience when the show is recorded on Thursday, so he might be able to give us a heads up on how it all goes. The show will be broadcast on Friday BBC1 at 9pm & repeated on iPlayer if you're in the UK.


Update - Here's Ianvisits's post on how he thought Bob Crow came across. Photo above is from Jimmy Carr who was one of the panellists.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, November 23, 2009 Permalink

Can the Tube save energy?

Travelling through London Bridge London Underground station last night I saw the following poster at the top of the escalators


You've probably seen some of them around too. Escalators are switched off at quieter times of the day to save energy & "help lower the temperature" (not that the temperature needed much lowering in November).

I wonder how many stations this actually happens at? There must be some high traffic stations like Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and Angel which have pretty long escalators. But I'm sure the escalators there are never turned off.

Also why do some Tube stations which are open air and have large glass ticket halls have all of their lights on, all of the time? The Guardian questioned TfL about the lights at Stratford Tube in the summertime & although there was a standard "we're reviewing this" comment, there's no update as to whether anything was done.

Lights behind advertising hoardings on platforms and in corridors also seem to be constantly on & there's no mention of them being turned off at quieter times during the day. This is particularly annoying if there's no ads in them!

Do you have any other suggestions as to how the London Underground could save energy? Have you seen any other energy saving initiatives on networks outside of London?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, November 20, 2009 Permalink

Weirdest things left on Tube Poll

Thanks to The Huffington Post & The Times who'd picked up on a post I wrote a number of years back on some of the weirder things left on the London Underground. It's in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Lost Property Office

Not exactly sure what the thing above it - but thanks to Lost Property Office for sending it!

The Huffington Post have made a poll out of the top items. They said: "Little explanation is given to how or why these things might have been left on public transportation. The mind boggles. Let us know what you think is the weirdest, any ideas as to why it might have been left there, and things you have left/seen left behind on public transport."

So far the skull is coming out on top as being the weirdest thing. Feel free to disagree!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, November 20, 2009 Permalink

Transformed by the Tube - Oliver Green Talk

Last night I attended a fascinating talk at the London Transport Museum on how the London Underground transformed and in some senses actually created suburban towns between the 1st and 2nd World War. It's always good to see a full lecture room, and even better when the room is filled with people of all ages and a roughly equal mix of men & women.


Oliver Green began with a quote from George Orwell on the "huge peaceful wilderness of outer London" and how few people actually admit to living in the suburbs. Much of the theme of the night was really how the suburbs aren't actually suburbs when they get a Tube station, as they change into this place that's neither town or countryside. There's a difficulty of marketing a place as the peaceful place to live, when at the same time you want to say it's really easy to get to the City. However, much of Transport for London's advertising tried to do that.


The poster of Golders Green, which was the first Tube suburb was a good illustration of this. You had the father still in his work clothes having time to tend his idyllic garden just after work & enjoy time with his wife & baby. Yet the London Underground can be seen in the background.

Golders Green was an example of how the area changed within about five years of the station being built. A shopping centre, theatre & cinema also helped the transformation.


This was a good contrast to Ickenham, which hardly became a thriving suburb. I used to pass through Ickenham each day when I went to Brunel University & travelled into town on a work placement and even in the eighties, I hardly saw anyone get on or off the station.


Green showed a beautiful poster from the 1920's which again tried to show how once a Tube station existed, housing and a town soon followed. No words were needed to put across this message.

Yet there was still this problem of keeping an idyllic suburban image. Once your town's built up it's not "the country" any more. People building houses often gave them a mock Tudor facade, with fake wooden beams. However, the stations were all modern.


It was interesting that when stations like Morden were built, there were cheaper "workman" tickets before 8am. So people used to queue from the early morning & then hung around in central London before work. Green said that the picture above showed the really long orderly queue (top right) and that Morden was victim of its own success. "It had the beginnings of the Misery Line, even before that term was used", he said.

Here's a picture of the wooded area of Arnos Grove before the Tube came along, with a rather basic sign showing the area was reserved for the Underground.


These early stations along the Piccadilly Line built by Charles Holden were based on a library design from Stockholm. Holden called them "Brick boxes with concrete lids", but now they stand out for their art deco design and are all listed buildings.


I loved the image of Southgate Tube station at night. It really looked like a spaceship illuminated in the darkness.


Again Green showed some Tube advertising at the time. Transport for London's principle was that a timetable wasn't needed and only the frequency of the trains was shown.


The problem of not knowing what image to portray to travellers was highlighted by the posters above. Transport for London used one of their best artists, Edward McKnight Kauffer, to produce a very modern (at the time) poster which just advertised the extension of the Piccadilly Line. Yet the poster on the left was less striking and more factual. "It's as if they weren't sure what customers would respond to best, so they tried everything", said Green.


An area outside of King's Cross station was known as the "African Village", due to the chaotic mixture. But amongst that chaos, a show house was built (see the house in the front to the left), so you could compare this to the calm place you could live if you moved to the suburbs.

Green also showed the first printed example of Beck's Tube map. The map has always had the river on, just as marker rather than having any geographical relation to how the river runs through London.


He advised us to pick up copies of the current riverless Tube map. "They'll be collectors items. The mayor's guaranteed that the river will be back on the next ones, so this current ones will be worth something", he laughed.

Green ended his talk with a look at Queensbury station. The name of the station came as the result of a competition where the public could win a few bob for naming it. The name of the station then became the name of the town that grew up around it. It was a great way to show how an area owed its whole development to the Tube.


Hopefully some other people will write about Green's talk as I've not covered everything we learnt in the hour. All of the pictures I took on the night are in this Flickr set - Transformed by Tube.

Thanks to Oliver Green and London Transport Museum for putting this talk on and I'm looking forward to the next in the Suburbia series which will be on Betjeman & Metroland on January 19th 2010.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Permalink

Winners of Blurb Tube Photo Competition

It was a tough decision but Blurb & their agents chose five winning entries who will get voucher worth £30 to make their own book. Thanks to everyone who entered the competition. London Transport Museum also liked a number of the entries and may well be in touch about getting permission for some to be used in an upcoming exhibit.

But for now, congratulations to the five winners:



Westminster by Threadweavle



Tube Roundel by ianvisits



Jubilee Jam by Chutney Bannister



Under the watchful eye by routemaster_fan



London Underground 002 by brenz1989

Blurb's agent will be in touch by email with the winners & if you manage to create your book before the end of the month, you'll get be able to take advantage of a 20% discount & free postage meaning you get even more with your £30 prize.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Permalink

London Undercover Moquette Umbrella

Today was the perfect wet day to try out my London Undercover umbrella. I looked like a comedy commuter when I left my house though as I opened it ridiculously quickly & turned it inside out in the wind. This was great for exposing the moquette design to everyone down my street, but not so great for keeping me dry. Luckily, the umbrella is made of really sturdy stuff and I was able to turn it back the correct direction & make it to the station in an unsoggy state.


The "Commuter" umbrella has a double layer of pinstripe design and 1970's London Underground District Line, Circle Line Tube and Bus seat moquette design. It's a collaboration between fashion brand London Undercover & Transport for London (just in case anyone thought TfL were about to sue them for using the design.


London Undercover said: "The perfect canvas for expression, the design aims to encourage people to enjoy and take pride in what is, an indispensable, quintessentially British accessory. In keeping with the British ecological ideology, the umbrella is made using recycled materials."

There's some lovely detail in the handle and on the press stud on the little tag that you wrap the umbrella back with when closed.

At £60 it's not the cheapest umbrella in the world, but if you spend that much on it, you're less likely to leave it on the Tube. It would also make a pretty good Xmas present for the commuter that has everything!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, November 16, 2009 Permalink