Cutting Remarks

The hottest day of the year so far (Friday), and I found myself nosing around the small mews-like backstreets of London looking for the tube.

Why? Well, in many a tube-history book, I always kept reading about where the District & Circle line has been built inbetween Bayswater & Paddington, there had been a cutting made underneath some houses, and during construction, two houses had been taken down to allow the cut & cover tunnel to be built beneath, and to this day - a false house front had been put back in its place so as to disguise it.



The houses in question are at numbers 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens, in the cute back streets of Bayswater, but having made all the effort to go there to get a photo of it - it's quite disappointing.
I think I was having visions of being able to look through a crack or gap and see down onto the tracks, but instead everything is sealed nicely and painted over.

The car parked in the 'drive' at the front had also been there for several months without being moved judging by the amount of bird-poo all over it.

Not to be out-done, I took a gentle stroll along the side roads towards Paddington itself, walking down the roads which I figured would be on top of the tube line. And sure, enough - just as I was passing this innocious looking wall here, I heard the distinctive rattle of a C-stock type train from somewhere down below.



Being 6' 3" helped here as it meant that I could peep over, or as in this instance hold my camera over the wall and take this picture just as the train went past.



So all those moments when you're travelling on the Circle line and a ray of daylight suddenly bursts in for a second before you get plunged back into darkness ... this is one of those gaps.

There must be more of them dotted around the system, and I went in hunt of more of them up by Paddington station itself, but couldn't find any.





The Green line here shows the path of the track below the streets. You can see where it intersects with Leinster gardens east of Bayswater. The wall over which you can look down onto the tracks below is in Craven Hill.

This physical map also throws up another one of my favourite anomalies about the topological differences between Beck's map and real life.

If you're travelling from (say) Liverpool Street and want to go to Paddington to get a mainline train, most people would probably travel to Notting Hill on the Central Line and then go two stops north/east on the Circle/District. Whereas it's actually quicker to get out at Lancaster Gate, and walk the 3 minutes it takes to get to Paddington station from there.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Monday, May 30, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Quick question?

Northern Line tunnel size

Everyone seems to think I know lots of stuff about the Tube, but I don't really, well not much useful stuff anyway. But I'm sure you can answer this question from my old colleagues:

"We were arguing about the various lines at lunch today and one of the guys started rambling about the Northern line, and how he seemed to think that because the carriages seem smaller to him, the tunnels of the Northern line must be smaller in diameter than those of, say, the Piccadilly or the Central. The rest of didn�t believe him, but who knows......is he right?"

Well is he? I'm off to have a Solero and sit in the garden.

Phew wot a scorcher - part two

Yay - The Standard are able to use their favourite headline

THOUSANDS IN TUBE HELL

as three tube trains got stuck in a tunnel at Baker Street. It's no laughing matter though really as it is absolutely sweltering today. The Standard report:

There was panic as the trains became jammed near Baker Street when a set of points buckled in the heat. More trains were stuck in a knock-on effect.

Five ambulances were put on stand-by as distressed passengers rang the emergency services from the carriages. "It was chaos, people were in a real state," said one LU worker.


The ordeal, which lasted up to an hour, came as the temperature in London reached 31.1C - almost 90F - on what is the hottest day of the year so far."

Expect to see lots of station staff running around in very hot uniforms putting up signs about remembering to take bottles of water on the Tube with you.

In the meantime, I think the sun has gone to culture secretary Tessa Jowell's head as she reckons London definitely has the best transport infastructure to cope with the 2012 Olympics. Hmmm, has she travelled on the Tube recently?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, May 27, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Blimey what happened this morning

Severe delays everywhere

Fortunately I have today off but heard on the radio just now that loads of the lines had severe delays this morning due to signalling problems, signal failure and in ones instance "passenger action" - I love that term, as it always makes me feel as though the passengers are going on strike or having some sort of demonstration about the service (that'll be the day)

Anyway check out the real time travel delays (sorry) - travel update boards for more on this and expect The Standard to be trumpeting away in full force and demanding explanations tonight.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, May 26, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Phew wot a scorcher

It's going to be hot

Yesterday when I got into work I moaned so badly about how OUT the weather forecast was as it was miserable and wet at the start and only warmed up later in the day. Today is supposed to be a fabulously hot day and supposedly we have a heatwave on the way, which means lots of alarmist Evening Standard headlines like the one below



I love Standard headlines and DarrenS has been making a collection on the best ones. Not surprisingly the Tube features in quite a few of them.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Jubilation!

TFL officially announced yesterday what we all knew had been coming for a while ... there will be a seventh car added to Jubilee liine train from January 2006.

Full press release from TFL here

They're also bringing in four new trains, but the line will be closed completely for five days in December between Christmas and New Year whilst the platform extension work is carried out.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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No swearing on the Tube

Share Anthony's tale of woe

A cautionary tale from Dustmeister Anthony:

"Yesterday morning, I was exiting St James's Park tube station on my way to a quantum physics exam. I had a cold, so my head felt blocked up and I felt thoroughly tired. On the stairs out of the station, I was stuck behind a trainload of rush-hour people. I should have tried to get on at the right door, but the train was so full that I just went right to the front. I saw a couple of policemen (sorry, I should use the PC term [geddit?!], police officers) walking along the opposite platform towards the ticket hall. It felt like my revision had been futile and this was the end. Destroyed by physics. Dropped under severe quantum pressure.

Eventually, i reached the ticket barrier and chose my gate. Approaching the gate, the bloke in front put his paper ticket in, but it didn't work, and I had already touched the Oyster card. The gentleman in front went straight through the gate on my ticket, and that was the last straw.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I said, a little too loudly.

The policemen were standing on the other side of the barriers. One of them turned around.

I tried walking further into the ticket gate, but it closed on me. Walking toward the gateline SA, who appeared to be smirking, as if he knew what was going to happen next, I explained, "He went through on my Oyster card," and touched the card on the reader beside the open gate where he sat. He motioned me to go through. The policemen had taken up battle positions on the other side of the gate.

"Excuse me, sir, could I have a word?" one asked. He brought me aside.
"Certainly," I replied.
"You can't use that kind of language in public, alright? It could get you arrested."
"Yeah, OK. Thanks."

He then let me go. That set me up nicely for my exam. Thanks, Transport Police.

And the fare-dodger?

As far as I could tell, he got away!

Morals: Don't swear in public: travel on the Tube for free instead!"

My two pennyworth on this is that the policemen must have been pretty bored (or Anthony was wearing his dustmask and they thought he was a danger to the public). If I was cautioned for the amount of times I said "Oh for fuck's sake" on the tube, I would be spending my days with Kat Slater, languishing in jail.

Plus, what's the Oystercard error code for "someone blags their way in front of you" or "tailgates" (I think that's the official term) you?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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No smoking

Was the irony lost?

I wonder if the person sticking up this "No smoking" sign felt any sense of irony or saw any type of joke?



Thanks for Dave from Funkypancake (who took the original picture) for pointing it out and wondering if the words "And that means you too Sherlock...." should have been added to the sign.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, May 23, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Zone 1 Challenge

A good time had by all

Congrats to the winners of yesterday's Zone 1 Challenge and the results (well, the top 4 out of the 18 teams that took part) are below:

1st Hakan & Patrick (66ft under) - 2h 56m 51s - How come two guys from Sweden managed to do this faster than the locals I'll never know?
2nd Erin & Peter - 2h 57m 5s
3rd Geoff 'n' Neil (they're not miffed - seriously) - 2h 57m 24s
4th Anthony (Dustmeister) & Adham - 3h 1m 59s

Here's a couple of pictures of the drinks in the pub afterwards.

Excellent T shirt from the Tubers - Tubas



And no entry would be complete without a little bit of dust:



From an outsiders point of view it was all good fun, even though I only turned up for drinks at the end. I particularly liked the way credit was given to all of the challengers including last year's winner, Steve Paull plus to Jack Welsby who was the previous all stations record holder.

Other highlights were not being able to escape Anthony selling copies of his CD (two quid a bargain), megaphoned announcements by Neil n Geoff as each person left the pub, Neil n Geoff's frequent insistence that they weren't trying to win, and the bemused look of the barmaid trying to clear the tables of loads of tube maps and used dustmasks.

There's now a full report of the day on Geoff's site n Neil will be reporting in full when his piccies are back from Jessops - although some cool black and white pictures on Neil's blog. You might also want to check out the discussions on the Tubechallenge forum.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Saturday, May 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Late night nutter

Shut your legs

Coming back from a free Faithless rave last night (fantastic evening, free booze, free gig what more could a girl want), I was on one of the last trains from Piccadilly Circus. It was one of those carriages where there weren't two spare seats next to each other, but I motioned to my friend to sit in the seat opposite, but for some reason she preferred to hover by the door. So into the seat oppososite comes tall grey suited man with an umbrella who sat with his legs as wide apart as his possibly could, and just to complete the picture and add to the laddish pose, popped his small umbrella between his legs.



This cartoon from an old Metro says it all really. The poor girl who was sitting next to him made herself as small as possible and scrunched up against the glass barrier. He was giving her rather.....well....er...strange looks, for most of the journey, so she did well to avoid eye contact and generally ignore him.

Some money fell out of his pocket, probably due to the strain on his trousers with his legs thrust so far apart. So then he pulled the rest of it out and counted it on one of his outstretched legs. There were some crumbs amongst the money, so he decided to eat those. The effect was particularly charming.

Fortunately he got off at Earls Court, but unfortunately the girl sitting next to him got off there too. I only hope he didn't hassle her on the way out.

So come on guys, I know he was extreme, but why the need to sit with your legs open on the tube? It's nothing to do with height cos I've seen short guys do this. And it's not just lads or nutters I've seen a huge number of blokes who feel compelled to sit legs akimbo.

While I'm in moaning mode - earlier in the month I moaned about annoying ring-tones including the hideous Crazy Frog ring-tone, so for anyone who hates them, enjoy this anti crazy frog link (be warned contains strong language)

Finally, good luck to the zone one tube challengers who set off at mid-day. At least it won't be as hot as the day you did it on last year. See you in the pub later.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, May 20, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Concern, CS Gas, Closures and Cake

Happy Thursday

Too much doom and gloom on the Tube at the moment, despite yesterday's figures about increases in travellers and trains (however you want to look at them - good debate guys - keep the comments coming in)

Anyway looks like we're getting nearer to industrial action on the east end of the District Line from the 23rd May due safety concerns. Yobs have been pelting trains with bricks and stones and according to union Aslef attacks on the line have increased by 50% over the last year. Staff think that striking is the way to go here whereas LU say they're doing as much as they can to tackle safety. It's grim whatever. More on this on the Beeb's site. UPDATE - This has now been called off....hoorah!

Also Dustmeister Anthony Smith sent me a link which reported of some CS gas being set off at Ealing Broadway station yesterday. Fortunately no one was hurt and there appeared to be no sense of panic. Amazing. I would have been totally freaking out, but I spose you wouldn't actually suspect gas immediately and just think, "urgh, funny smell, better get a move on". More on this on the subdued report on the Beeb's site. Plus a much more alarmist report from The Standard (now there's a surprise)!

Just to add to the happiness it appears that my line the Waterloo and City line which is used by me and 39,999 other commuters each day could be shut between four to six weeks. Sections of the Northern Line would also be closed for months to clear a backlog of repairs. More on this in the Standard.

On a happier note, it's the Zone 1 Tube challenge tomorrow (with many regular visitors and contributors to this blog taking part - including Neil, Geoff, Anthony Dustmeister, Chris Green & Stephen Knight). It starts at 12noon OUTSIDE Oxford Circus tube station in Argyll Street. And if you're not taking part, there will be drinks in the Horse and Groom, Great Portland Street at the end (from 4pm/5pm????), with cake provided by Helene. Hope to see you there to congratulate the winners, and listen to tales as to why the losers lost.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, May 19, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Record numbers use the Tube this year

976 million passenger journeys

Whether we love it or loathe it, we seem to be using the Tube in increasing numbers as London Underground published figures yesterday saying that there was a 3% increase in travel.

According to yesterday's press statement "LU also ran more trains then ever before, clocking up a huge total of nearly 70m kms - That's the equivalent of 1,735 times round the world, or 90 trips to the moon and back."

Sometimes on the District Line it can feel as thought it would be faster to travel to the moon and back or do a round world trip.

Speaking of round the world trips, I must report on that photographic exhibition that was on/may still be on at Piccadilly Circus where a woman catalogues how many miles she's been travelling on the tube and then sends a postcard of her in the equivalent place she could have been too if she's travelled in a straight line - like Brighton or Edinburgh or whatever. Cool idea.

Anyway Sheriff Ken is patting himself and the team on the back as result of the figures: "We all know that years of neglect have taken an enormous toll on the Tube's performance, but these figures show the new management team are starting to make real progress."

The statement continues: "In addition to providing more Tube service, the quality of service has also improved, for example by giving passengers more information on how the Tube is running.

Passengers have clearly noticed, as LU customer satisfaction scores have improved and are also at record levels."

See it's official - The Tube is Good.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Healther to travel by Tube, says new report

OK Dustmaster what do you have to say?

Woke up this morning to be greeted by the news that it's better to travel by London Underground than on the road.

A team of "experts", writing in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found "any harmful minerals were well below levels allowed in the workplace.

The number and size of dust particles was measured at various Tube stations and in drivers' cabs and then tested for toxicity levels.

Compared with outdoor air, the researchers found that dust levels were high in mass on the Underground, but low in terms of particles.

The researchers said that weight-for-weight the risks from Underground dust were much more comparable to iron oxide welding fumes than to particles in the air outdoors."

Well there you go then. Anthony you have no need to wear your dustmask anymore.

The boffins from the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, concluded "risks of serious disease of the lungs or heart from exposure underground would be very low, and probably difficult to detect,"

"Above ground you will breathe traffic fumes, below ground less of that but some iron oxide."

They said Tube commuters at risk from dust inhalation should not be seriously concerned, but that efforts to reduce dust concentrations should continue.

Read more from the Medical News Today. Now how's that for an official source.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Bags of fun

What happens when an apparantly un-owened bag gets reported to LU staff? Can any of those of you that read this explain?!

Going home last night I found myself on the eastbound platform of the Central Line at Oxford Circus, and spotted this - a bag seemingly owned by no one just sitting there.





So I had the "Do I ignore it, or report it" dilemma (but took a photo of it so that I could blog it!), and had decided to ignore it and was merrily making my way to the Bakerloo line platform when a wave of guilt hit me thinking "Well supposing it IS more than just someones old bag of stuff" and despite the fact that there are big cheery posters telling you to report these kinds of things - I still felt like I was a bit silly reporting what was a harmless bag of crap when I made like a good citizen and reported it to the nice SA up at the barriers.

"Thanks" he said, "I'll get it investiagted" and was then momentarily phased when I showed him my picture of it that I had on my camera.

I sped down to the Bakerloo to get the train home, but just wondered who or what would have actually investigated that bag in incidents such as this. Would he have looked at it himself? Got the station supervisor to do it? Or asked the Transport Police?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Sunday, May 15, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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This, that, the other, something else, and a bit more.

My turn to also blog having not done for a while - but no childrens books for me, just a few intruiging things that I'd been meaning to pick up on for a while.

Was at Piccadilly Circus yesterday, so that I could make a note of exactly where the 'secret' stairwell is between the Northbound Bakerloo line platform and the Piccadilly Line platforms, and I can tell you exactly where it is - third carriage down, fourth door back!

Ok, so it's not exactly secret - but from the Bakerloo side there is NO sign that says 'Piccadilly Line' or anything - you have to explore it for yourself. Try it the next time you want to make a swift change from Bakerloo to Piccadilly. If you're coming from the Piccadilly Line, then it's the second carriage, second door no matter which direction you're travelling in! And then up the steps and you'll see it to your right.

Whilst at the station, I also remembered to check out this excellent view - something you don't often see - the two Bakerloo line platforms side by side which you don't normally realise is there because the dividing wall is in the way. And yet walk up to the northern end of the northbound platform and you can look back down upon the southbound.

There were new system maps up and about too, with Queensway nicely crossed out - and I even took in a trip down the Central Line just to make sure the train didn't stop (it didn't), but I did see three confused people stand up to get off ... and then panic a little when the train didn't stop until in a moment of niceness, I told them to change at Notting Hill, go one up to Bayswater and they're in the same place.

The Wembley Park works are obviously still causing confusion as I spotted a whole bunch of these stickers about the place clearing up which train people should get for the Met line.

Also - rather amusingly - I discovered that my work (BBC) pass confuses the Oystercard barriers!

It uses the same technology and the gate reader things you've put a card against it, registers something, but then gives an error 76 (anyone know what that is?). My Oystercard though failed to register the BBC touchpad though for letting me into the building. Pah.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Saturday, May 14, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Then and Now

Hi folks,

I haven't posted in a while on here but I was reading my nephew's Thomas The Tank Engine storybook earlier and felt compelled to offer Uncle Ken a foolproof way of dealing with delays and cancellations on the tube.

The story I came across goes like this:

One morning, The Fat Controller was hard at work when The Stationmaster appeared at his desk. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sir," he said, "but one of our passengers is demanding to speak to you!"

A red-faced man greeted The Fat Controller outside his office. "I want to make a complaint," he said angirly. "This morning's train was late. What are you going to do about it?" The Fat Controller apologised, "I will look into the matter right away, Sir."

"We always try to provide a Really Useful service for our passengers. I will make sure this doesn't happen again!" he added. The Fat Controller went to The Yard to speak with the engines. "Lateness is something I will not put up with!" he said.


In the afternoon, The Fat Controller made up new timetables that would make the engines run on time. "There will be no excuses for lateness in the future!" he thought.

At 6 o'clock, The Fat Controller had finished his work. "I've solved today's problem," he said. "I think I deserve a Really Long Rest!" So he finished his tea, picked up his hat and headed off home in his blue car.

The End

Forward wind 50 or so years and the story would have gone something like this:

One morning, The Jobsworth Station Manager was telling a staff member off for being one minute late for work when when a Station Assistant appeared at his desk. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sir," he said, "but seven hundred of our passengers are demanding to speak to you!"

Seven hundred red-faced commuters greeted The Jobsworth Station Manager outside his office. "We want to make a complaint," they said angirly. "Every morning our train is late. In fact, come to think of, EVERY train is late ALL day and is usually overcrowded and crawls very slowly to its destination. What are you going to do about it?"

The Jobsworth Station Manager sighed and said, "I'm sorry Sir, you'll have to apply to our Refunds and Complaints department who will be happy to furnish you with form FCUK1 which, upon completion, should be sent to the processing office in Durham. From there, it should take approximately 6 to 8 weeks for your claim to be verified, by which time I and my fellow LU employees will have ceased to care owing to our extremely anal nature and our propensity to go on strike at any given moment if we feel we are being unduly harrassed by members of the travelling public, thus making us overly stressed out and unable to complete our duties to the satisfaction of all concerned."

"We always try to provide a Really Useful service for our passengers but due to chronic underfunding of the network in the last 100 years, we cannot guarantee that the service will run on time or that your train will be less than 10 years old and not have enough room to swing a cat in. I can't promise this won't happen again - in all honesty it will happen again this evening and then tomorrow morning and so on and so forth until a train derails, whereupon we will suddenly take an interest in safety and pretend to be doing something about it for a few weeks to allay the public's fears. This will result in line closures and replacement bus services - your London Underground tickets will be valid on local bus routes." he added.


In the afternoon, The Jobsworth Station Manager made up new rules for the staff such as "no smiling", "no speaking English" and "no Sir, you can't take your bicycle on the tube" that would make everyone's life as needlessly difficult as possible, in order to give himself a sense of his own importance. "There will be no excuses for anyone to have fun whilst travelling on the Underground in the future!" he thought.

At 5 o'clock (and not one second later), The Jobsworth Station Manager had finished his work. "I've solved none of today's problems by complicating the matter further," he said. "I think I deserve a Really Big Payrise!" So he finished his tea, picked up his hat and headed off home in his blue car, before being stopped by the police for driving in a bus lane and not having paid his congestion charge for the last 6 weeks.

The End.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, May 12, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Underground Masker (Stand on the Right please) Tube Challenge Song

Listen and Enjoy

A very large file welcomed me this morning in my in-box, but it was well worth it. Not sure how many of you know that the next Zone 1 Underground Tube Challenge takes place on the 20th of May. Obviously Geoff n Neil will be taking part, but other regulars to this blog including the .....how shall I say it..........slightly deranged .........Dust man Anthony Smith. Anthony has penned a magnificant song in honour of the occasion. Underground Masker Stand On The Right Please (District Line Dub) - It's a long download but go for it - you'll be humming the catchy riff for the next hour.

In case you fancy singing along (or you haven't got headphones in the office), here's the lyrics:

"Welcome to Tube Challenge Club
It's the District Line Dub!

Come Tube running with the Underground bandits!
Bring a mask and a packet of biscuits
Bring your log book
Bring your plasters
I'm the man, King Challenge, the Zone One MASTER!
The blaster!
The Master Masker!
Compared to me there's nobody faster!
I'm on a Tube race, I won't mess around
That's why you're on the surface and I'm underground!

COMIN' AT YA!
On a Jubilee train!
Stanmore to Baker Street's the route in my brain
I'm the Theydon Bois boy, I'm the Ruislip Ragamuffin
Snoop Grenny Greenwich, gonna knock out your stuffin'
From Edgware to Epping, that's what I do
I'm on a Tube Challenge, I'm telling you!
COMIN' AT YA!
Changing lines with my expertise!
Escalator tourists, stand on the right please!

Chorus:

(Tube challenge) Stand on the right please
(Tube challenge) Get out the way. x4

Doooown in the deep-level, what do I see?
A Bakerloo driver who's looking right up at me.
I say "What?" I say "What?" I say "Queens Park?"
H&W's the stop-for-me
I'm the champ'ian!
The Marylebone man!
If I don't do all stations then nobody can
I need Wembley!
I'm the Zone D Thunderer and
You, Mr. Driver, are a Bakerloo blunderer!

A big white train comin' up from the GROUND
I write in the logbook as I travel northbound
I run overground
From Ickenham to Ruislip
And head down to Heathrow international flight-strip
A Guinness World Record is what I need
It's all just a question of running at speed
It's all just a question of travelling with ease
So 'scuse me, out the way, stand on the right please.

CHORUS

When your train's on time and you're ahead for a while
Smile, smile, smile, it's an Underground trial
But if the train's late,
Keep your head straight,
And take the first service from Notting Hill Gate
I'm a focused machine when the signal turns green
I can cross platforms quicker than you could ever dream
Like a beast released from Aldgate East,
For the sake of the record, stand on the right please!

CHORUS ad nauseam"

Cheers Anthony. It's a classic.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, May 12, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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It'S NOT fair

Why do I always sit opposite these people

Coming into work this morning I thought I was sitting opposite a character from a sci fi film or book. He had obviously tried to blend in with commuters by wearing a brown pin-striped suit, trendy glasses and had nice smart haircut. The only thing that made me think sci fi and wonder if he would spontaneously combust or "meltdown" was that he had some green gunk coming out of his nostrils. No matter how hard he sniffed, which he did pretty frequently, the green gunk continued to make its appearance. I didn't have a tissue on me, as I would have seriously offered him one as I was beginning to feel quite ill.

Poor guy though. I'll never forget when I had a massive sniffing fit on a train (no gunk or streaming), but someone had obviously had enough and thrust a tissue into my hands. I was pretty mortified, but at least I didn't look like an alien.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, May 09, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Just like buses......

Three turn up at once

To those of you who occasionally look at the "blogs that mention mine" section to the right (yeah, I did this before the term blogrolling was phrased) you might have noticed some blogs from people who actually work for London Underground. The one by District Dave has been up some time and isn't really a blog. But in the last month there must have been some sort of blogging section added to the LU staff rule book, as we have three (count 'em) three blogs by tube staff - two station assistants (The Station Master - and The Station Cleaner) and a District Line driver.

All three have been running for just over a month and they give a good insiders' view about what it's like to work on the Tube. So as with this blog they get their fare share of drunks, delays, posts about uniforms, posts about station and drivers' announcements, posts about "Baby on Board badges", posts about people travelling to Kylie concerts and all sorts of other day-to-day stuff. How long they will continue I don't know (especially as The Station Cleaner seems to be having a dispute with the powers that be at the moment), but they're all good reads and The Station Master posts some cracking pictures sometimes (see the one below for example)



I'm sure they won't mind me saying (well they probably will, as they read this blog), but they all provide quite a contrasting read. The Station Master is generally upbeat and, like this blog, covers general tube trivia and odds and sods as well as his daily job. The Station Cleaner is more political and cynical (well he sounds like he's having a tough time right now) and District Line driver's is also fairly upbeat too.

Enjoy.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, May 09, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/05/just-like-buses.html

Oystercard tool

Pre-paid - is it right for you?

As many of you know I keep pretty quiet about Oystercards cos I haven't got one. Geoff has one now and he seems to be making the most of it and I think Neil has always had one. But I was sent the following email from James Cridland who's built a little something that means you might be able to work out whether it's worth your while getting one:

"Annie... did you know...

...if you just commute between zone 1-4, it's cheapest to just get an Oyster pre-pay card. It beats everything else - including an annual travelcard. Sometimes, an Oyster pre-pay also beats a monthly travelcard too - for zones 1-6, you could save yourself over a grand by moving from monthly travelcard to Oyster pre-pay.

I've knocked together an Oystercard calculator to help people see the relevant costs - a fiendishly ugly page, but quite interesting, nonetheless. Hope you enjoy it. I might smarten it up one day.

Have fun"

Well I actually do commute between zones 1-4, but because I use my travelcard a lot on weekends and bank holidays and on my holidays itself - the calculator didn't seem to make pre-pay any cheaper than my annual card - also cos I get a mainline train from Richmond they don't accept Oystercard Pre-Pay on it anyway. But I'm sure it will be helpful for other people, and thanks for sending it in James.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, May 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/05/oystercard-tool.html

Rabbitting on the Tube

Giant Rabbits

Sometimes when you're faced with images like this on the tube it can ever so slightly freak you out.



Dave from funkypancake, sent me this piccy and said:

"Here's what greeted me at one stop on the Central Line. Was it just luck the poster and the doors just aligned like this? It did look quite fanastic planned or otherwise!

Thankfully there were no people in the way so I managed to capture the moment in all its glory.

I've no idea what the poster is advertising."

I used to get welcomed by a similar image of a giant baby (advertising Child Trust Funds) looking through the windows when I got on the tube at the DLR at Bank.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, May 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/05/rabbitting-on-tube.html

Ticket holders......a new trend

From New York to London

Quite some time ago I spotted that the New York Subway had some specially designed clothing and jewellery based on their Metro tickets or tokens. The item I most liked was a pair of pretty hot boots with a little plastic pocket to hold your metro ticket. Bizarre place to put a ticket and I'd love to see people faffing and hopping around at the barriers pulling out their tickets.

So imagine my surprise when on Bank Holiday Monday, during a little mini bloggers meet to see H2G2 (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - see reviews by Neil and Chz), Helene from stroppycow, told me how on the way in she had seen a couple of guys on the tube playing Tetris on their mobys, mirroring each others movements like an old married couple, but one of the guys had his travelcard tucked into his sock. Eagle eyed Helene had even taken a picture of this.

Anyone else keep their travelcard in their shoes or socks? Perhaps I'm missing a trick.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, May 04, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/05/ticket-holdersa-new-trend.html

Mind the Gap Ringtone v Crazy Frog

Which would be more annoying?

Someone sent me an email asking where they could get hold of a Mind The Gap ringtone. I'm sure there's not a site where you could officially or even un-officially download one, but aren't there some whizzy mobile phones around that can just record any sound you like and then you can use it as a ringtone. In which case you'd just need to stand at a station like Bank or somewhere else where there was a particularly noisy rendition of Mind the Gap and then Robert's your mother's brother.

There's even some ringtone making software around where you can transform any CD track or mp3 into a ringtone for your mobile phone.

I think you would then incur the wrath of anyone who was within striking distance of you whenever your phone went off. Particularly, if you were on a train at the time. In time this ringtone could potentially become even more annoying that the "popular" Crazy Frog ringtone, which fortunately I've never heard outside of a TV set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, May 03, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/05/mind-gap-ringtone-v-crazy-frog.html

Refurbished ... almost

I got a tip-off a few days ago that one - perhaps both - of the completely refurbished District Line trains would be out and about in operation on the Olympia to High St. Ken shuttle all day yesterday.

So I headed off to Earl's Court and loitered about, all eager with anticipation, to find that this wasn't the case, but instead one of the trains did have the one carriage that had originally been refurb'd out. So you can see here what eventually they'll all look like when they're done.





They've got nice new shiny green grab poles, modified seats, plus digital displays (not pictured) which tell you the next station, etc... Plus the doors now have a warning beep, unlike just sliding shut unprompted as they do at the moment.

I'm quite sure someone will post in the comments when we can expect to see the whole refurbished trains out and about ...

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 28, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/refurbished-almost.html

A new take on arm-rests

Would these catch on?

I'm gradually catching up on emails I've been sent over the last two weeks and am loving an email I was sent recently by Zhang Zhi a Chinese student studying design in France.

Amongst other things he (apologies if you're a woman Zhang) said:

"My project for graduating is related to the improvement of the interior of public vehicles, mostly subway and buses..... I'm fascinated by the stations of Jubilee line which is like science fiction.....For my project, the main direction is to improve the comfort, physical and psychological. About the physical one, I work on how to improve the comfort of people standing in trains. I've sent some pictures that I've made and I'd like to have your suggestions"



Well it almost looks like a prop on Celebrity Wrestling, but you never know maybe padded or shaped armrests for people standing might catch on. Does seem to take up quite a bit of room though.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 26, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/new-take-on-arm-rests.html

Smelly Tube, Smelly Tube, What are they feeding you?

Tube Smells

A request from Neil Lee which hopefully someone will know the answer to:

I don't suppose you know why the Jubilee line smells of manure? I always travel from Paddington to Southwark, and its not particularly nice.

I would like to ask the same question of the East London Line from Shadwell to Canary Wooolf - the very few times I've had the pleasure of travelling on it, the carriages themselves stink of urine or something else really gross. Why is it just these bits of the Tube that smell?

Years ago there was an experiment to waft pleasant smells through the Underground system - "a fresh, watery floral bouquet of rose and jasmine combined with citrus top notes. Tiny touches of fruit and herbs give way to strong woody accents and a hint of sweetness in the base." or something to counteract the "interesting collection of odors in stations, reflecting all aspects of London life, some nice, some not so nice.". Apparently it worked better in Paris. The London Tube fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James Park, Euston and Piccadilly stations on 23rd March 2001. It was taken out of action on 24th March 2001 as it was making people feel sick. Pity.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, April 25, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/smelly-tube-smelly-tube-what-are-they.html

Expecting the worst

Covering the usual situations

Great picture taken by Dave from funkypancake of a display board he saw on Friday at Moorgate.



I suppose it could be argued that these were just leftover signs because so many "Good service" signs were already being used, although that's probably me being generous.

Update - BTW if anyone wants a definition as to what delays are check out The Station Master's blog.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Sunday, April 24, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/expecting-worst.html

ETA Boards Bug

An amusing five minutes

After my little rant in yesterday's comments I'm not apologising for using a dreaded three letter acronym (TLA arrrgggghhh) - but I think everyone knows that ETA is Estimated Time of Arrival and Geoff blogged about the ETA boards that you can view online which show, from the comfort of your computer, when the next Jubilee or Bakerloo line train will be arriving.

Dave from alwaystouchout pointed out that someone on the london transport newsgroup, discovered there's a little manipulation that can be done:

Spot the deliberate mistakes when you're looking for the times from the following stations:

Westminster

Stanmore

Canary Wharf



Oops - basically if you put any old name at the end of the long address at the moment it will put that "station name" in the title for the results. Ahh, you can have, well......seconds of fun making screen grabs of these and sending links to your friends. Enjoy, before the bug gets fixed.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, April 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/eta-boards-bug.html

Map translations

I just noticed today that on the TFL map site, they've added 'Translated versions of tube map'. For one moment, I got all excited thinking that all the station names would appear in foreign languages too, before realising that "Oxford Circus" is still "Oxford Circus" whether you're English, French or Arabic!

But other bits of the map have been translated, and they're quite novel to look at, here's a bit of the Arabic one.





They're doing them in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Gujurati, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Turkish, Vietnamese and Spanish.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/map-translations.html

Tube Tunes

I should start by saying that this will probably only work for you if you have Apple's iTunes software installed on your computer.

Quite bizarrely, on the day that I updated a page on my own website here of a comprehensive list of all 'tube related' tunes - i.e. songs which mention the underground, or underground stations, I notice on the iTunes music store that they're selling:

"I *heart* London", a collection of London based songs which feature many wierd and wonderful songs, many with tube stations in the title!

Ever heard of the band 'Faces'? No, me neither, but apparantly they have a song called 'Richmond'. This and other such London Tube-esque delights are all available for download. I've just got a copy of a song called 'Notting Hill Gate' which I'll now be humming to myself the next time I'm waiting there for a bleeding District line train to arrive!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/tube-tunes.html

Canary Woolf

Next tube in 26 minutes?

You probably know I use the DLR each day and just as you come down to the entrance to the line from Bank, there's a massive sign which proudly boasts that there's trains running to Canary Wharf every five minutes. I only need to go one stop so it's pretty immaterial to me how many trains go to Canary Wharf as I can get any train. The platform indicator said the next train was bound for Lewisham in 4 minutes. After three minutes passed it changed its mind (if platform indicators have minds) and the next train was one for Canary Wharf in 26 minutes.

We all piled on and the driver (yeah, yeah, I know there aren't drivers on DLR trains), train operator or whatever ever the official term is for people who work on the DLR, said rather wryly "This is the Canary Wharf train and hopefully we will be leaving sooner than in 26 minutes".

It hung around for a minute or so and then started to leave and stopped. DLR guy then sighed over the tannoy "To whoever has their bag in the doors, please just pull the bag out of the doors, so we can leave in less than 26 minutes. It's simple isn't it? Yes? No? Yes?" (I think he was related to either Marjory Dawes or Geoff). He was having a bad day, but we finally left.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/canary-woolf.html

Theydon Bwaaaas

"I think LU should promote it more", I wrote the other day when commenting on how they hadn't made much about the fact that off-peak and after 7pm, the most you'll pay for an Oyster Prepay single is just �2.

So I was pleasantly suprised when I saw a specially written sign telling people just that - the fact that it would be cheaper for them to get an Oystercard.

And where did I see this ... King's Cross? Oxford Circus? Victoria? One of the many busy and bustling hubs of the tube? No! At Theydon-bleeding-Bois, many miles out of town on the Central Line in the depths of Zone 6.

I went there for two reasons. One because, being say to me "Oh so you've been everywhere on the tube then" (world record holder 'n' all that), and whilst, yes, we've been through every single station, I've never got out at a lot of them to see what's there!

So after meeting Quin Parker when doing his Zone 6 thing last weekend, I felt the urge on my day off to travel out to somewhere that I'd never got out at before, and Theydon Bois was just that station.





And I'll tell you this .. there's not much there! Except a car park, and a country lane, oh and the cute station itself, along with the ticket seller eyeing me up suspiciously as to what I might be doing there on a drizzly Friday afternoon.

As part of my on-going quest to make a note of a carriage/door position for every single station (Fifth carriage, third door down going north if you're interested) I made a note of that as well, took a couple of photos, and then scooted back into town.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Saturday, April 16, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/theydon-bwaaaas.html

Dancing beans and rasta hats

Two mysteries to be unfolded

I should have put a "bollox to all this, I'm off to ExCEL" message on the blog as from Wednesday I was off at the London Marathon Exhibition until Saturday, so no time to blog properly. However, I wanted to leave you with two requests/puzzles (and Geoff is kindly keeping you all entertained while I'm otherwise engaged).

Following the Tube's announcement that new uniforms are being introduced over the coming months (blogged last Thursday), I found out that 100 to 150 Rasta hats are also being produced in the new Tube colours and material. But has anyone ever, ever seen a Rasta station assistant or even driver for that matter? Anyone? And if you have where?

Also there's apparently another London Underground Quiz doing the rounds. I've not been able to find it on t'internet, but someone emailed me to say:

"I am doing a quiz which features forty questions leading to underground stations as answers. I have completed thirty nine but I am stuck on the last one. Some of the clues feature in your on-site Tube quiz but any help with the following would be greatly appreciated.

�Site of dancing beans�

My nearest guess is Bounds Green but it does not really fit."

I'm way too tired at the moment to think of this for more than five minutes, but I'm sure someone out there has the answer.

Off to bed now - early start followed by another 12 hours on my feet smiling at people.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 15, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/dancing-beans-and-rasta-hats.html

50p mystery

Once again, I'm opening myself up to the risk of people saying "But we already knew that!" but being a new user to Oystercard - I didn't, and I bet there are some of you that didn't know this either.

At the risk of being stalked, you can see from my Oyster card usage screen below that I travel between Wimbledon and White City a lot, which is a Zone 3 to Zone 1 journey.

According to the TFL website this should cost me �2.50 to do this, but no! Look closely and you'll see that at certain times it only cost me �2.00.






Puzzled by this I asked the guy at the ticket office who explained that if you travel using PrePay Oyster after 7pm in the evening (as my journeys were) then it becomes even cheaper. The most you'll ever pay - even on a Zone 1 to Zone 6 journey - is two quid! Good eh? And if you ask me, LU don't publicise this enough, so I thought I'd do it for them here.

Anyway, I picked up a 'fares' leaflet at the station which did indeed confirm this if you scrutinised it enough, and then went back to the TFL website (which I think is badly organised and very confusing to use) to find the same info and eventually after much digging around managed to do so - but it's not that obvious.

Looking back at my usage screen, all the �2 journeys are indeed after 7pm in the evening ... except for one! It still think there was a Wimbledon to White City journey made on Friday 25th March at 11.48 in the morning (you can see it in the picture above), and it still only cost me two pounds. I have no idea why.

Do I owe someone 50p? :-)

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 14, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/50p-mystery.html

I know the tube is meant to be hot in the summer...

... but, it's not really summer yet is it?

Couldn't resist another candid photo on my way in on the Central Line this morning. This chap was wearing, well - they were more swim-wear really than proper shorts really, and I just found myself thinking "Er.. that's very nice mate, but it's not really hot and summery yet is it?"

He got off at Shepherd's Bush.

I'd betcha anything he was either an Aussie or a Kiwi :-)

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/i-know-tube-is-meant-to-be-hot-in.html

District Trauma

I have to say, that as a somewhat seasoned tube-traveller, it probably pissed me off me more that most when I don't make a smart move on the tube and miss my train. But it's not my fault when LU don't help your case either.

Coming home last night on the District, there appeared to be no Edgware Road - Wimbledon service, even though there were no announcements that anything was wrong, and the 'Good Service' signs were all in place.

I ended up taking a Circle Line train to High St. Ken which is rapidly become my least favourite station, all due to the confusing and mysterious Platform 4 from which Olympia trains sometimes arrive at, and leave from.

That's right four platforms (Have a look for it next time you're there!), which is really unobvious as it's tucked away hardly signposted at all. In fact, there's a big permament sign that says "All Olympia Trains Leave from Platform 3". Next to that there's a changeable sign that lights up saying "Next train to Earl's Court leaves from platform..." and tells you which platform.

Well last night, about me and 20 other people thought we'd been clever by thinking that we'd get the Olympia train from Platform 3 to take us round to Earl's Court, only to then realise and see that it left from Platform 4 - the train beside us.

Getting to Earls Court then involved getting the next Circle Line train to Gloucester Road instead, and then a westbound District, where - ironically - a train then came down from Edgware Road heading for Wimbledon. I was just about to get on it when a train came in on the adjacent platform also going to Wimbledon. Oh no - not this again! The old "Which one will win the race to the signal" dilemma, which I've lost before.

I took my chances and opted for the non-Edgware Road train. I got on and sat down, to be then vaguely aware of a guy talking loudly to a station assistant on the platform. I think he was probably berating him about the lack of Wimbledon service, and why he didn't know which train was going to leave first.

The guy (a Travelling Worker on A Train, or 'TWAT' for short) got on the the train and ... "Yeah, and you're an igorant bastard" he said back to the SA, who then seemed to politely reply with something I didn't catch. "Ah.. don't be such a fucking wanker" said Mr. Twat which made everyone in the carriage look up at him.

I left it a couple of stops and then took a candid photo of Mr Twat-man. Anyone know who he is? I just wondered. He got off at Southfields.

At least our train 'won' the race though, despite leaving Earl's Court a couple of seconds later. We got to Wimbledon first, althought I missed my South West Trains connection by three minutes, and had to wait almost half an hour making me much later than normal getting home. I didn't swear at anyone though...

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/district-trauma.html

Dust, anyone? Dust? Dust?

Dust closes Waterloo & City Line.

Had a slightly convoluted journey this morning as I heard on the radio before leaving home, that the Waterloo & City was closed. I hoped that by the time I had arrived at Waterloo that it would have re-opened, but nah, no such luck, it was still closed. However, the board had the slightly worrying sign outside saying that it was closed due to "Dust".

I wondered quite how much dust would have to be on the tracks or whatever, to close the actual line down (admittedly the line is only a small piece of track running between Waterloo and Bank). A few weeks ago I had been sent an anonymous "in the public interest" email which in a nutshell talked about dangerous levels of pollution and asbestos and other nasties found on the Waterloo and City line. The anonymous person had apparently sent the report to me and other London bloggers and sites to bring it to the public eye. I didn't blog it at the time as I thought it was a bit weird and possibly the long report was an elaborate (but dull) wind-up.

But now I'm not so sure. Searches on t'internet reveal nothing (apart from a pretty old story on the Beeb). But they wouldn't as the report I was sent was supposed to be "leaked" or not for the public eye. Has anyone else heard anything about dust levels on the Tube - or have the fluffers gone on strike on the Waterloo and Shitty Line? Our resident dust expert Anthony Smith will surely have something to say about this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, April 11, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/dust-anyone-dust-dust.html

My Station

This sounds like something Microsoft would brand. "My Tube", "My Underground" or similar.


Introducing ... YourStation.co.uk where you can click on the cheerful coloured blob that represents your station, or maybe just a point where you were passing through on your journey and had a story to tell about it.


Go and have a look and you'll see what I mean - just don't let it detract you from reading this blog too much!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Monday, April 11, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/my-station.html

Tube Flip Flops

I wish I had smaller feet

My only ever so slightly flippant comments about the old London Underground uniform becoming a collectors item yesterday, followed by Mark Garth's comments about expecting to see the uniform on ebay, has meant that I've just had a quick look on ebay to see what's available.

Despite my love of t'internet, I must be one of the few people I know who has never bought or sold anything on ebay. I've looked on it loads of times. I think I even registered on it once, but never got round to bidding or getting my credit card out or resurrecting an ancient PayPal account. But I think I may well sell the London Underground jumper from yesterday's post.

The trouble with putting London Underground clothing in the search in ebay is there's a brand of shoes called London Underground. So when you think you might be getting some real Tube Doc Martins with the tube roundel on (see PixelDiva's pic below), you end up with the other London Underground Doc Martins.



As yet I've not seen any staff clothing on ebay, but in the search came across these cool Tube flip flops.



Unfortunately, I have really big feet (size 7 or even an 8 in some shops), so I wouldn't be able to squeeze my tootsies in them. But anyone who has size 5 feet you have three days to nab them. Just right for the balmy weather that's heading our way this weekend.......

Watch this space for when I get round to sorting out ebaying the jumper.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 08, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/tube-flip-flops.html

How long does it take to build a tube station ... ?

... a lot less longer than it does to replace the lifts at them, I bet.

Didn't something like this happen at Elephant & Castle recently? When that was first built, it took six months, but when E&C was refurbished it almost two years or something silly.

I can't help but think that the scales of time involved with Queensway are also a bit screwed - they're closing it for a year as from Sunday 8th May (although it's interesting that the article on tfl.gov.uk says that it will be open in 'Summer 2006', and summer to me means June/July/August which is therefore OVER a year long) just to replace the two lifts that are inside.

A year to replace two lifts? Really? Ah ... and it's being done by Metronet. The same people that brought you yesterday morning's rush hour delays and disaster, that was branded 'Embarassing if not disgraceful' by Bob Kiley.

Oh well, at least it will make my journey between Oxford Circus and White City a few seconds quicker, as the train will slow down but not stop as it passes through.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, April 07, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-tube.html

New Tube Uniform

In the next few months the sky blue/turquoise blue/tube blue (no idea how to describe this blue) uniform will be a thing of the past and new navy blue uniform will be gracing the bodies of London Underground workers.



According to the LU "The first staff to wear the uniforms will be on the Central, Waterloo and City and Bakerloo lines on April 25. The uniform change will be completed by July 4......The latest update takes advantage of new and improved fabrics, as well as incorporating modern clothing classics, such as a fleece and polo shirt." I actually thought I'd seen them in advance of that date, as yesterday I saw a woman outside the Waterloo entrance of the Waterloo & Shitty line wearing a reasonable blue fleece. It wasn't quite navy, but certainly looked different from the normal tube blue.

Years ago I remember that Jeff Banks was brought in to design the new uniform for LU staff, but as he was also responsible for designing the Brownies new uniform, I suppose it was no surprise the staff ended up looking a bit like grumpy Thunderbirds puppets.

Not sure who the new designer of the uniforms is, but if their idea of "modern clothing classics" is a fleece and a polo shirt, we should be in for some great trendy apparel. But don't worry we'll only have another five years to put up with the design.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, April 07, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/new-tube-uniform.html

Top Photo

Sorry still haven't got round to getting my camera sorted out with batteries and the DLR and Waterloo and Shitty Line are probably filled with people who would sue me if they saw me taking piccies of them, but came across a cool tube picture today on flickr taken by adamh who says "I almost got the face lined up correctly!":



I also like the woman with the baseball cap on the left who looks like her head is about to fall off.

More public london underground pictures from flickr here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/04/top-photo.html

Moving ads on moving stairs

Thanks to the Londonist I discovered that Viacom Outdoor (the people responsible for ad placements on the Tube) are going to trial animated posters on escalator walls, showing different advertisements depending on the time of day and update the content remotely. Tottenham Court Road or TCR to those of you that love acronyms will be the first station to "benefit" from this.

As Will from the Londonist says though:

"The really chilling aspect of this story emerges when you consider what sort of products and services escalator ads endorse. To be specific: we're talking, mostly, West End musicals. Soon you will be forced to watch extracts of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as you ascend and descend."



Jon Lewen, account director for digital at Viacom Outdoor, said the escalator panels would enhance consumers' experience of advertising on the Tube and provide new creative opportunities for advertisers.

"We are committed to exploring new and innovative ways to capture and captivate London Underground users," he said.

Capture us eh? I think the Tube capture us every day during umpteen thousand signal failures. Perhaps they should pipe through some ads for anti depressants and beta blockers, during the times we are "captured" while the drivers are making their tannoy announcements. They'd sell a shedload.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, March 31, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005/03/moving-ads-on-moving-stairs.html

ETA Jubilee

I noticed today (ok, I had someone tell me!) that the 'ETA' service on tfl/tube website is now up and running for the Jubilee line as well as the Bakerloo which was the first one to have it.

This is the system that presents the information that you get on the platform dot matrix screens onto your webpage, so you can see where and in how many minutes the trains are due.

This is the information (real time updated!) at Bond Street for example right now:

Bond Street


Visit the ETA page at tube.tfl.gov.uk/eta

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Saturday, March 26, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Sunday Service Friday

I've had to come into work today (Good Friday), and was convinced that today the regular trains would be running a Sunday Service and got to the station with a minute to spare .. only to find that I'd missed the train as it was in fact running a Satuday service. Arse!

Anyway, I was highly amused (and annoyed at yet again not having my camera on me) to look at the posters on the train this morning, and there was one which was a recruitement poster for South West Trains, saying what a company and happy place it was to work for, whilst there was one immediately next to it saying that six memebers of train staff get assaulted per day, and we're out to get you.

Uhh.. surely someone should have spotted that and not put them side by side?

Anyway, I'm having fun playing with my Oystercard at the moment (as mentioned by Neil below) and have already managed to confuse it my going on the tram at Wimbledon and forgetting (despite mass publicity) to Oyster 'in' on the tram platform.

Now I didn't know you could do this (cue: sarcastic comments from people that have had pre-pay for ages), but you can check your journeys at a ticket machine, which I think is really cool, like this:





Now I live in Epsom - on National Rail, outside of Zone 6, but have discovered that is IS cheaper (off peak) to buy a day return from Epsom to Wimbledon, and then use my Oystercard from Wimbledon to White City where I work. But of course, this means that I have to go OUT of the barrier with my NR ticket, and then back IN the barriers with my Oystercard! Just to save 60p a day.

Final thought: Neil and I were at Baker Street the other night, and I took this picture which is right next door to the entrance. Point is .. what is or was meant to be opening last year, and clearly isn't ?! Anyone?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Friday, March 25, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Buffy the Sleep Slayer

Coming back on the Tube late last night after seeing 5 x 2 at the Curzon and was on the Piccadilly Line from Leicester Square trying to have a bit of a nap. All was well for a couple of stops, when I felt someone's elbow moving very quickly against my side, which was disconcerting to say the least. I opened my eyes ready to aim a Paddington bear hard stare at the person next to me and wondering what the saw-like movement was. It was a bloke, who I initially thought was filing his nails. But no, that would have been a bit too conventional. He was buffing his nails with a Body Shop buffer. I have never, ever in my life seen a bloke buffing their nails (certainly not in public). I found it fascinating.

Some people really freak out when they see people (usually women I must add) filing their nails on the Tube as the nail-dust flies all over the place. But at least buffing is fairly deposit free. I'd love to know who he was going off to see at that time of night, but he would have arrived with the most immaculate and shiny nails ever.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Oystermess

Ooh, my first post on here for a while (but as I said before, I don't live in London at the moment so my tube experiences go as far as buying Smarties).

Anyway, an Oystercard question which myself and a couple of others were discussing in the pub last night when Geoff got out his brand new pre-pay Oystercard that he'd just purchased.

First, let me set the scene.

I live outside Zone 6 and use Thameslink to get into London. Thanks to the new capping which is being introduced to pre-pay Oystercard fares, I worked out that if I use a PPOC (get used to the acronym people) inside zone 6, then LU will charge me up to the price of a 1-6 Travelcard if I make multiple journeys (I think I've got that right).

So, I could buy a paper ticket to Boundary Zone 6 and then use a PPOC inside the LU zones. But Geoff pointed out that in order to buy a ticket to boundary Zone 6 and then use a PPOC inside that, I would need to be physically able to board the train at the first station inside Zone 6 on Thameslink (which is Elstree and Borehamwood).

But the trains I get from my station don't stop there. The line is split into two services - slow and fast. My station is serviced by fast trains which run fast (duh) from St. Albans to West Hampstead. I would have to change at St. Albans and get a 'slow' train to London which calls at Elstree. I am led to believe that if I did that then a PPOC would be accepted on Thameslink between Elstree and wherever I get off.

I'm trying to work out if it would be cheaper to buy a paper ticket from my station to Boundary Zone 6 and then use a PPOC on the tube OR keep using a paper travelcard from my station for the whole thing.

Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Don't you get tired of being a dick?

What a kerfuffle

Walking down a broken escalator at Bank to get the DLR this morning, me and another guy were slightly surprised to see another guy walking up the same escalator. He passed me on my right hand side muttering away to himself and went slap bang into a rather bigger guy behind me. "Wotch it mate", said the guy behind me. "Don't you get tired of being a dick?" said the muttering smaller guy, seemingly unaware that he shouldn't really be walking up a broken escalator when the normal up escalator next it it was chugging along upwards quite happily. Fortunately, the larger guy decided to ignore this question, even though many other questions relating to his parentage and his general IQ were put his way. Happy Mondays - a minor altracation and it wasn't even 9.30 am.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, March 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Daily Mail readers re-joice

Is this just at my Tube station?

I thought that I had badly mis-judged my timings going to work this morning when I saw people at the top of the stairs at Richmond station at the Evening Standard stall selling papers. But instead of the lunatic that frightens most people to death screaming "STTTAAAAAAAANDAD", there were a couple of guys selling The Daily Mail. I know they're owned by the same company, but is this going to be regular? Maybe it's just Richmond. Maybe Associated Newspapers will be taking over the entire Tube network soon. Metro and the Standard are at least "London" rags, but the thought of the Daily Mail being the last paper I could possibly buy if I have a second to spare before running to the train doesn't really do a lot for my morning. Perhaps I was dreaming and in the meantime I'm going to have a diverting five minutes at the Daily Mail-o-matic headline generator.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, March 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Real time service updates, step by step

Good morning. It's early and today upon arriving at work (at 7am), I found that the promised office moved that we'd been told would happen at the weekend has gone ahead (we cynically predicted that it wouldn't), and I've managed to find a desk which has a working telephone, computer and has a view of the TV (we get to watch BBC News 24 all day, which is ok..).

More importantly though, I'm by the window and I now looking directly down onto where the Hammersmith & City line crosses over the Central Line - just where trains come in and out of the tunnel by White City.

The Central line trains 'whistle' everytime they come in and out of the tunnel, and the H&C has that nice familar 'clackety clack' sound as it rumbles past. So yes, I can sit and look at tube trains all day, and have a fair idea on how well those two lines are running.

So for real time service updates on those two lines - who know who to call, right? (And no, it's not "Ghostbusters").

Also, can I mention a slightly bizarre thing I saw at the weekend. I travelled up the Victoria line to Seven Sisters to go to the Tottenham match, and I had to duck and half avoid a guy who was getting out of the carriage as I was getting into it at Vauxhall .. and he was carrying a 7 foot long step ladder! Umm... surely that can't be allowed can it? "Not in the current climate sir, step ladders contravent Section C, Paragraph 12 of Things-You're-Not-Allowed-To-Carry-On-The-Tube" etc.. etc..

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have felt the need to blog it, had it not been for the fact that on the way back down, I changed at King's Cross and as I walked to the exit, that was a (different) guy standing by the doors of the next carriage down ... who also had a stepladder with him!

What the hell is this - "Bring a step ladder for half price on the tube day", or something? Bizarre. I've never seen someone carrying one before, and then I see two on the same day on the same line.

Right, better go and do some work then.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Monday, March 21, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Oystercrash

Did anyone else see this? I've been on holiday - that's my excuse, and only my reading up on some of what happened whilst I was away for two weeks did I discover that the Oystercard system crashed last Friday, meaning that lots of pre-pay users had free journeys to work in the morning.

The fault occurred when the size of a computer file - sent every day with the latest information about which cards had been disabled - had caused the Oyster readers to fail. So come on - own up! Who got free journeys to work last week?

Read the full story on the BBC news website here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Friday, March 18, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Where have all the stations gone?

Test yourself

Just received the following email from Roger Lewis: "I'm looking for an underground map with the stations blanked out so I can test myself - do you know where I could get one?" I'm not exactly sure what Roger is testing himself for, perhaps there's a new initiation test for London Underground staff or would be station assistants.

However, being a fountain of all Tube knowledge I happened to know that our very own Geoff had spent minutes of fun creating just the map that Roger was looking for here



As Geoff said on his funny tube maps page: "I did this one myself! Why? Because I thought it would an excellent test for when my mates are pissed down the pub one night. A blank tube map! See how many stations you can (correctly) fill in within ten minutes."

Now there's a challenge.....

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, March 17, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Holiday Snaps

The most unlikely place to see the London Underground roundel ... ? Durban, South Africa.

I'm used to seeing place names and places in the UK mimic a London Underground sign (e.g. there's a clothes shop up in Manchester which name escapes me right now, but I know uses the classic symbol as it's shop signage), but I was pleasantly pleased/suprised to see this one whilst on holiday in SA recently.

It's in the 'Pavilion' shopping centre, about 10Km west out of central Durban on the N3, it it would appear to be a traditional english pie shop! I didn't buy any (it was too hot), so I just took the photo and scurried off before someone mugged me for my camera.




I can also recommend a couple of good 'tube' related books as your own holiday reading .. first is Ian Marchants Parallel Lines which is a travel journey around the UK in general, but contains an amusing chapter where he goes out to travel on as much of the tube in one day as he can. His weak bladder, caffeine and nicotine addiction don't make it easy for him though.

Also on my recommended list is the excellent Underground London - Travels Beneath the City Streets by Stephen Smith, which talks about sewers that you can ride your bike down, the governments secret network of escape tunnels and of course the good old tube system. Oh, and me and Neil get a mention as well with that world record thing ...

Anyway, available at all good bookshops near you, and Amazon of course.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Anonymous Thursday, March 17, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Another Circle Line "Party"

Circle Line Knitters

I don't know what it is about the Circle Line but it gets more than its fair share of weird and wonderful parties. I know a few knitters from the States (Wendyknits and CreatingTextiles) link to this blog which is flattering but puzzling, but perhaps now I know that there is a link between knitting and the Tube. Helene/Stroppycow sent me a link to a wonderful site of a group of knitters called Cast Off and a link to some pictures of a "knitmeet" they had on the Circle Line.



In all my Tube travel I've never seen even one person knitting on the Tube, although I believe it's quite common and I've seen people on British Snail knitting. I would have loved to have seen the whole carriage knitting - must have puzzled the tourists (or anyone for that matter).

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Sunday, March 13, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Film Location Tube Map

Sainsbury's Going Underground

Not that I'm usually in the habit of promoting Sainsbury's - but just received a pretty good email from them about their new monthly DVD package (nice offer - might do it) but they had this nifty tube map showing the DVD's they have on offer with the locations on the tube map that the film was shot at.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, March 09, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Leaked reports and grilled bosses

You can't really, have opened a London paper today without knowing that there's a whole raft of repairs that are way behind schedule on the Tube.

By now 30% of old tracks were supposed to have been replaced, but to date only 4% have been.

Targets have been lowered for the lifts and escalator renewals - "revised down" seems to be the positive Tubespeak for this one.

Only 10 out of 31 station refurishments which should have been completed by the end of this month look likely to happen.

Tube bosses are going to be given a public grilling at a meeting in City Hall tomorrow by the London Assembly's Transport committtee. Chairperson Lynne Featherstone is "shocked" by the report and Tim O'Toole - LU Managing Director and the private firms that look after the Tube - Tube Lines and Metronet will be made to account for the figures.

Apparently we've got to "grin and bear it" and apparently things aren't as bad as the nasty report has made out.

If you want to read the full doom and gloom check out the BBC's site.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, March 09, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Baby on Board

Badges so mums-to-be can get a Tube seat

Personally I think it's a great shame when some people think they need to wear badges in order to be given a seat on the Tube when they're pregnant. But that's where we are from an item in today's Metro and this evening's Standard.

I am genuinely amazed when people don't offer their seat to pregnant women. I know that sometimes you can get carried away with your book or paper or you just end up staring into space and don't notice. But if you're not going to notice someone's large stomach in your face, how are you going to notice a tiny white badge with "Baby on board!" and the tube roundel logo?

According to a recent Tube poll the vast majority of people (92%) think that seated people should offer seats to pregnant women without being asked. However, a similarly large amount of people (85%) said that a woman should ask if she needs a seat. Not sure how those statistics quite tally, specially when you then throw in a confusing 78% of pregnant women who say they never asked when they needed to sit down.

Someone from London Underground said that "although people feel seats should be offered to pregnant women, no one is communicating. Therefore creating a visual prompt could help. Offering a badge gives pregnant women the option to identify themselves to other customers as someone who may require a seat. This eliminates potentially embarrassing situations."

If someone offers me a seat I must admit I never take offence, I just take the seat. If I was fat perhaps I might take offence as they may think I'm pregnant. But that's not a crime, is it?

Sometimes I offer seats to clearly pregnant women and they say no. I then spend about 15 seconds thinking "bollox to you then", but then I get on with my life. It's not the most embarrassing thing in the world.

My mate did a piece for BBC London News last year to flog her Tube book and she stuffed a cushion up her jumper and was filmed trying to get a seat. Just to make it even more obvious that she was "pregnant", she carried a Dr Spock baby book and huffed and puffed a lot, and still sometimes didn't get a seat. If LU think the badge may make a big difference that's great. The byline for the picture of the badge says "Wear the badge in a visible place and you'll get a seat". Don't count on it!

The spokesperson also said "We want to find out if pregnant women will find these badges empowering, encouraging them to ask for the seat they need. We also want to find out how their fellow Tube passengers will react when they see the badges, encouraging them to offer a seat when they know it will be appreciated". A final decision on distribution of the "Baby on Board" badges will be taken once reaction to the trial has been gauged.



Perhaps they should bring out badges for the elderly saying "Oldie on board", or people with crutches "Broken leg on board".

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, March 07, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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A view of the Tube from New York

New Yorker Cartoon

Continuing with the New York theme this week, still being blown away by Travis's daily photoblog of the subway there, and he asked whether I had seen an article from last year's New Yorker about Bob Kiley and whether "the former CIA agent who saved New York's subway could get the Tube back on track". I had been kindly sent a copy by Richard Carreno of Junto Ezine, but I'd never got round to blogging about it at the time.

I love the cartoon below with the back of Tony Blair's head and a not too brilliant likeness of Gordon Brown.



The thing about this is the wild view of people who use the Tube. I know it's a cartoon and therefore there's some amount of caricature in it, but when was the last time you saw someone in London wearing a bowler hat? How many people in London wear flat caps too, unless they're doing the Guy Richie/Will Young thing?

The general gist of the New Yorker feature is that Kiley has a tough time on his hands and similar themes including Kiley's initial surprise at how everyone quietly puts up with the delays and overcrowding is shown in an article from SFGate. Can't say I've been particularly impressed by Bob Kiley to date. Perhaps I'm missing something.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, March 03, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Security posters

Reporting suspect bags gets you shouted at

I went out to Baker Street last night and going up the escalators noticed the variant of the security posters that will be appearing across the Tube. (They don't seem to have made it to the DLR and Waterloo and City Line yet)

The funny thing (or not at all funny really) is that when a passenger stopped a train because she had seen a suspect bag, she was badly told off for holding up the Tube at Bank station - see the Evening Standard. Not the greatest piece of PR the week the posters were launched.

It's bad enough having the general English - "well I don't want to be the one to make a fuss" attitude, "someone else will report it" without having Tube staff shout at you and telling you to get back into the train when there's a dodgy bag on board. Nightmare.

BTW - general question and I'm sure people will say "of course you can - eejit", but can you get through to 999 on your mobile phone if you are sub surface or in a tunnel?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, March 02, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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