Pubs on London Underground Platforms....should they be re-introduced?

I'll have a pint of Pride, a Bicardi Breezer and an Oystercard top-up

This post has arisen out of a totally unrelated comments spat that I had with Jon Justice. We were arguing about me taking pictures of the police, amongst other things - then continued our discussion privately by email - and at the end of the day, we ended up resolving everything and had a much more jovial email exchange.

Part of that exchange was that on Saturday Jon was listening to Radio 4's "Home Truths" where they were discussing moles (the furry underground variety) and Jon said: "then they went on to mention the concept of pubs on the Tube. Apparently there used to be a bar on the platform of Sloane Square station. You could jump from train to pub without touching the platform." Jon thinks their re-introduction would be a good idea as he was trying to get to a pub during the recent attacks - "I was frustrated in my attempts to head pubward by the terrorists. If TfL were to reopen the pubs on platforms, then I could have supped in peace."

Well, I actually knew all about the bar on the platform of Sloane Square as it features very heavily in an excellent novel by Iris Murdoch called - "A Word Child".

Written in 1975, the lead character (who was a bit of a tube fan) seemed to spend half of his life in that pub: "The concept of the tube station platform bar excited me. In fact the whole underground region moved me, I felt as if it were in some sense my natural home. These two bars (Sloane Square and one at Liverpool Street) were not just a cosy after-the-office treat, they were a source of dark excitement, places of profound communication with London......

"The coming and departing rattle of the trains, the drifting movement of the travellers, their arrival, their waiting, their vanishing forever presented a mesmeric and indeed symbolic fresco: so many little moments of decision....The uncertainty of the order of the trains. The dangerousness of the platforms. The resolution of a given moment (but which?) to lay down your glass and mount the next train. But why? There will be another in two minutes)"

Both London Underground platform pubs (and all licensed premises on the Underground) gradually disappeared. The platform pub on Sloane Square was called "The Hole in the Wall" and survived until 1985. It's now a convenience store called "Treats". The one on Liverpool Street, on the eastbound platform of the Metropolitan Line, was known as "Pat-Mac's Drinking Den" and survived until 1978 and is now a cafe.

Apparently, at one time there were over thirty licensed buffets on Underground premises and many were open for out of hours business (All historical information from the indispensable Underground to Everywhere by Stephen Halliday).

The only pub that I know of which is virtually on an Underground platform now is The Railway in Kew Gardens. Formerly called The Flower & Firkin - fancyapint's understated comment on closeness to the tube "you'll see it as soon as you leave the station". Harbottle's pub guide also say "actually a part of Kew Gardens Station".



It used to be my local when I lived in Kew. Regulations of some sort prevent the doors opening onto the platform itself, but you can hear and see trains pulling up from inside the pub. So if you're fast, you can down your last drink and leg it out of the front of the pub to catch a tube (I've done it on more than one occasion).



Perhaps we could do with having pubs on platforms again? I'm not sure what the legalities are, but it'd certainly make life easier for people doing Circle Line pub crawls if nothing else.

Update - guess the booze brand quiz - In one of those freaky weird co-incidences, when I arrived at work my friends were all doing a quiz where you have to guess the brand name of different alcoholic drinks from little pictures of them. We've downloaded the booze quiz here - it will drive you mad, specially as whoever designed it doesn't seem to have a great use of apostrophes.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, August 15, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Top Tube mullet and Crash

Mullets and movies, what could be better?

On the way in to see the truly stupendous film Crash (more on that later), I saw a guy with a brilliant mullet haircut. I love mullets as essentially they are for people who can't quite decide what hairstyle they want and think "I know, I'll have two in one - short on the top, long on the back" and the man below sported a classic example normally only seen on country and western singers and seventies throwbacks.



Now onto Crash - I snapped a picture of the poster at Leicester Square on the way home. I never realised until now that the black and white tiles at Leicester Square are perfect for film advertising, as they look rather like the sprockets on film.



Please believe all of the superlatives on the poster above for Crash. It was one of the best films I have seen all year.

It's totally gripping, has you on the edge of your seats, and yet it is surprisingly funny too (and you can't normally say that of a film about racism). Some may find how all the disparate characters inter-link, a bit contrived, but that didn't bother me at all. For me, the weakest character was actually played by one of the biggest stars, Brendan Fraser, but the rest of the cast were amazing, the storyline always surprising, intelligent and thought provoking - and, well - I can't do it justice here, just go and see the film for yourself. There's a trailer on the film's website here and if you want to read more of my thoughts on it - check out my review of Crash here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, August 13, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Sudoku on the Waterloo & City Line

Yes - it WAS on the Waterloo & City Line



I'm so rubbish at maths I can't imagine a more hideous pastime than sudoku or Su Doku or whatever it's called, but at the moment that seems to put me in a minority of one.

I've seen more people doing sudoku puzzles on the London Underground than I've seen ..... well.... everything lately. More than Harry Potter Readers, more than people doing standard crossword puzzles, not quite more than Metro readers, but it's almost on a par.

Co-blogger, Neil will be pleased to know that he was the very first person that I had ever seen doing a sudoku puzzle (that was only at the beginning of May! - the craze feels like it's been around much longer than that). I didn't understand it then and I still don't now.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, August 12, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Subway maps for your iPod

London Underground iPod subway map!

I haven't got an iPod (but a much cooler & smaller mp3 player & radio!) so I'm not exactly sure how this works, but through various linkages I came across a site where you can download a subway map onto your iPod.



It's not just a little screensaver or wallpaper, but it looks like you can scroll round and view the entire map in sections. So far, in the three days the site's been up, its creator, William Bright, has added Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington and San Franciso and now STOP PRESS he's added London.

On the site William/Little Bill said:

"Next: iPodSubwayMaps goes International!

London, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa?

ps - the London Underground is a nightmare!"

However, following loads of requests he has done London:

"It's done! Finally! This map is the most requested subway map I've encountered yet. I broke the London Underground map into two sections: a map of downtown London, and a full Underground map. This one took two hours to do."

By downtown he sort of means an elongated version of Zone 1 - or in a separate email I received "one that focuses specifically on the craziness that is downtown".

"Go check out the download and enjoy! Spread the word!"

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, August 12, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Intricate graffiti

This made me chuckle. Not that I've ever done it to actually know, but thinking about it, it must be a lot harder to 'scratch' some graffiti words that actually write them with a big marker pen, which is why I was genuinely amazed at the effort that someone had gone to on a Central Line train when I saw this yesterday.


No four-letter rude words, or something equally crude, but just a weird comment on the noise that the doors make. It's the most bizarre vandalistic scribbling I think I've ever seen!

London Underground; Tube Posted by geofftech Thursday, August 11, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Newspapers on the London Underground

Does leaving papers behind count as litter?

The new round of tube safety posters tell us not to leave litter behind. Station announcements are also constantly made telling us to hold onto our belongings and not leave litter. So what's the deal with newspapers then? Whenever I get onto the Waterloo and City line at Waterloo in the morning the carriage looks as though newspaper vendors were having a bun fight in there. Yesterday morning, the DLR at Bank (pictured below) was the same.

I had always thought that leaving papers behind was actually doing a service to your fellow paper-less commuters. Specially in the case of Metro as it's a freebie. Not quite so sure about this now.



Note how the lovely clean seats bear the imprints of the many thousand backs and bums sitting on them. Nice!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 11, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Simon Armitage's Circle Line Poem

How spooky is this?

Through Transport for London's website I discovered that a new Platform for Art Exhibition will be launched in September about The Circle Line. "The locations, history and architecture of the 27 stations of the Circle line have inspired 27 stories; from the roof garden at High Street Kensington to the homeliness of Mansion House; from the cosmopolitan diversity of Bayswater and Edgware Road to the literary icons of Great Portland Street."

Also discovered that on the back of this, a book will be published "From Here to Here - Stories inspired by London's Circle Line" - "The 31 chapters of this book, each by a different writer, explore the territory around the Circle Line's stations and the network that connects them. Through fiction, poetry, memoir and reportage, they bring to life the extraordinary spirit of this complex, demanding, inspiring city." The project has been dedicated to London and the victims of the 7/7 attacks.

Bearing in mind that everything in this book was written before the attacks on the Circle Line. One of poems in the book KX by Simon Armitage is a chilling pre-cursor to the bombings. Here's an extract:

"Northerner, this is your stop. This longhouse
of echoing echoes and sooted glass,
this goth pigeon hangar, this diesel roost
is the end of the line.........

..................................primed
for that point in time when the world goes bust,
when the unattended holdall or case
unloads its cache of fanaticized heat.

Here's you after the fact, found by torchlight,
being-less, heaped, boned of all thought and sense.

.................Here's you on the News,
shirtless, minus a limb, exiting smoke
to a backdrop of red melt, onto streets
paved with gilt, begging a junkie for help."

I spose it's not too spooky really, as I think we've all known in the back of minds that the London Underground was a likely target in a bombing attack. Obviously some people can express these thoughts more eloquently and creatively than most of us.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 11, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Where have all the policemen come from?

This morning's Metro Momento

I'm sure loads of people have been discussing the groups of police we are seeing at tube stations now, where they've come from, why they seem to be mainly chatting, what other crimes might be committed while they are watching stations etc, etc. Diamond Geezer's post had a level of discussion like this and we've been alluding to here too. But in today's Metro there was a great letter from Chris Gilbert in Hertfordshire:

"I have noticed a group of four police officers standing around in a group chatting near the Tube station close to where I work. Maybe this is deliberate, to get the commuters chatting to each other as well? Fortunately, at London Bridge at least, there is a fifth member of the police team, who is presumably in charge. He is always very alert and business-like. He's also healthy, judging by his wet nose and shiny coat."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Ronseal Tube Safety Ad Campaign

It does exactly what it says on the tin

After Transport for London were doing much trumpeting in their press release, revealing their "new poster campaign to boost safety and security", I was wondering what to expect. Well, after seeing it in the flesh at Bank station yesterday, it appears that they've completely avoided any possible confusion, possible spoofing, grammatical errors and have just gone for the safe Ronseal approach.



Branding campaign - One London

But when London wants to really "kick ass" and do some brilliant branding and show the world how top London is (Whatever you want to say about London and Londoners, we are, if nothing else, excellent at our own PR. How else could the East End of London, of all places, host the Olympic games?) - so look no further than the One London campaign. You will soon not be able to move without seeing these ads virtually everywhere in London at the moment:



You'll also find helpful advice on Ken Livingstone's website of how to promote the campaign even further yourself.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Novelist's moving tribute to the bombing victims

Why wasn't he at the Trafalgar Square vigil?

Strangely, only yesterday I was commenting about how Novel 253 was appropriate to the horrific attacks on London, and just now Eddie G from Scotland has emailed me a link to a story on the BBC website where Geoff Ryman, the man who wrote Novel 253, nine years ago, has offered his own tribute to the 52 bomb victims.

At first, the cynic in me thought - "Oh God he's jumping on the band wagon" as his novel is about 253 passengers on a tube train each described in 253 words. At the end of reading his tribute I was in tears (believe me, I do not cry often) as his words completely struck a chord (whereas I felt strangely unmoved at the start of the Trafalgar Square vigil).

It's worth reading the whole tribute, but I will just highlight some parts:

"The most important thing about these people is not how they died but how they lived. All of them were hard-working, decent and loving. That seems to be what most of us are. Goodness is ordinary. Which is why it so often goes unreported."

He then goes on to very succinctly describe the victims drawing on their creativity, their religions, their families, their love, their diversity and their careers (This is where his skill from the book comes into play).

He ends: "I don't believe there are evil people or evil countries, but there are undoubtedly evil thoughts and deeds. They come when we are tired, lazy, threatened or angry - rather like the shooting of that innocent Brazilian man. Everybody has a measure of right on their side and a measure of wrong.

The philosopher Hannah Arendt concluded that evil lay in the refusal to think. One of the things evil cannot face contemplating is variety. It prefers monolithic simplicity. Reality outstrips simplicity through a constant flowering of unexpected lives. Evil thoughts and deeds cannot prevail against it."

Take five minutes and read the tribute for yourself.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Sick Tube Game and Sick Football "Fans"

Tasteless Tube Game & Idiotic Football Chants

Just learnt of two disturbing things in the last five minutes. Firstly, Geoff emailed me a link to a story in The Sun, where there is an internet game called "Mind The Bomb" - "where virtual suicide bombers blow themselves up on the London Underground.

"In the twisted game - called Mind The Bombs - terrorists have boarded trains and you have to stop them carrying out their missions by defusing the explosives.

"If you fail, the fanatics - shown travelling around the London on the famous Tube map - blow themselves to smithereens just like on 7/7.

"Smoke pours from the carriages and ambulance sirens can be heard in a chilling reminder of the terror attacks which killed 52 people."

Sun shock horror hysterics aside - it's a really tasteless idea. In the interests of research I tried to visit the site to find out more about it. (I'm not gracing it with a link you can find it yourself reasonably easily). Firstly there's loads of porn pop ups that greet you, so you know it's going to be a site of good taste. Secondly my browser wouldn't load it, when I refreshed it there was a message across the top saying "Do your part in the war against Terrorism email this FREE GAME to all of your friends, family and associates!" How playing a game like that is in any way doing your bit for the war against terrorism is beyond me.

A spokesperson from the London Underground said : "Anybody involved in the making or viewing of this game would do well to stop and think about that."

Technology site - The Register takes a slightly different view: "We're inclined to agree, although the Sun in its apoplectic state has missed a fundamental point - Mind the Bombs is complete and utter crap. In fact, the only interesting thing about the whole exercise is that a tempting "More Games" link on the site leads straight to listings for online casinos. Naughty, naughty, Mr Fieler (the game's creator)- we wouldn't like to think you are trying to squeeze some cash out of this contribution to the war against terrorism."

Football chants - "You're just a town full of bombers"

Just heard on the radio, that on Saturday, Queens Park Rangers (QPR) fans (based in Shepherd's Bush in West London) were subjected to taunts from Hull fans about the London attacks.

"One QPR fan, called Val, who was at the game, told BBC News: "Suddenly the Hull fans started shouting songs about the London bombings.

"It was really upsetting. We came out of the ground in tears. I couldn't believe it."

Hull's police commander Ch Supt Sean White, said: "I fully agree with the sentiments of anger and disgust.

"We're talking about 30 to 40 shameless cowards who made these chants towards the end of the game. We're just not going to tolerate them.

"We did intervene and made a number of arrests on Saturday. It has brought a great deal of shame to Hull City."

The police are now making an investigation. See the full BBC news feature for more on this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, August 09, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More Tube Fear reported

Today's Metro Momento

According to today's Metro commuters who've been worried about travelling on public transport since the attacks, "are increasingly seeking professional help".

But apparently our wariness of fellow passengers is "a healthy response, according to psychologist Keith Guy an expert in post traumatic stress disorder. He said it would become a problem only when that fear and anxiety started taking over people's lives"

Mr Guy has even compiled a checklist with "tips to help Londoners manage their fears"....."Avoiding situations that make people feel anxious could worsen their stress in the long term".

Maybe it's the carriages I travel in or the times I travel but I can't say I've seen anyone look frightened or wary on the tube since the attacks, or perhaps they are just good at covering it up. I had a bit of a moment last week Monday when we were stuck at Holborn waiting for the train to move on as there had been a problem with the train in front. Normally, I wouldn't have given it a second thought, apart from being a bit riled that I'd be late - but on that day I did begin to think "What if?". A woman next to me was shaking her leg irritatingly but apart from that everyone else looked non-plussed. After five minutes we trundled off and it was forgotten.

However, I can imagine that people who witnessed the bombings or people leaving the sites would be traumatised and totally sympathise with all those people.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Leading on from that Metro have also published a story on 34 year old Dominic Nelder, "Dressed in comedy pinstripe suit, bowler hat and Dr Marten boots", will travel throughout the London Underground from 7am - 8pm "in a bid to ease the tensions that last month's attacks have brought to the Tube".



"He asks that as part of the Say Hello, Wave Goodbye campaign that commuters help Transport for London make travel friendlier by simply returning his greetings. the history teacher, who has had 4,000 goodwill responses so far, said he took inspiration from a woman who wept on her first Tube journey after July 7, only to be comforted by a fellow survivor.

'It's to break the anonymity that helps terrorists and to make people feel less awkward' " the history teacher from North London said. Check out his local paper The Enfield Independent for more on this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, August 08, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tabloid "Tribute" to Robin Cook

EastEnders overshadows Robin Cook's death

Travelling on the Jubilee Line yesterday I sat opposite a guy reading The News of the Screws (sorry, The News of the World) and was saddened to see how much front page space went to Steve McFadden, star of EastEnders, and his latest sex scandal, in comparison to the recent death of former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.



Robin Cook will always be known as the principled politician who sacrificed his political career by resigning over Britain's invasion of Iraq. Steve McFadden will always be known as the porky pain who sacrificed his soap star career by leaving EastEnders in order to find fame and fortune by screwing around and appearing in pantomimes.

Interestingly, the online version of the tabloid rectifies the emphasis and McFadden doesn't even get a mention.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, August 08, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Challenge Podcast

Tube Challenge gathers momentum

Sorry, completely forgot to blog co-blogger Geoff's interview on Pocket Planet Radio waxing lyrical about the charity tube challenge which will be taking place later this month. Have a listen it will give you a good idea about what's going on and why they're all doing it.

I think it's still not too late to join in the charity tube challenge or if you can't take part why not sponsor Neil n Geoff?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, August 08, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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What's in your wallet?

Oystercard / Travelcard wallet contents exposed

I only wish that this was my idea, but the wonderful Anne Marie Maningas from version-3-point-1 decided to expose her Oystercard wallet on her blog and list the huge amount of contents that were in it. When you see the thickness of it compared to an A-Z you'll know there's a lot in it.





What a brilliant idea, I wonder what's in mine? I thought. Well, the outside is pretty well worn:



The inside is below, some things I've not photographed as they are personal business cards - six business cards to be precise, including one of my own from a very old job.



The worrying thing is how fixated with the latter part of 2004 I seemed to be:

2 British Rail credit card receipts dated Nov and Dec 2004
1 Return ticket to Guildford - dated Dec 2004
1 single London Underground ticket to Tooting Broadway - dated August 2004 - complete with doodles TOOTING BDY looked like TOOTING BOY to me, so I wrote TOOTING GIRL underneath (how sad's that?)
1 Gatwick Express ticket - dated Nov 2004 (when I came back from Goa)
My annual Student Travelcard (How did you get one of those? you ask. Well I was a student for some part of the academic year)
My Student photocard
An Underground map for Zone 1
A business card from someone who works for London Underground with a handy Tube map on the back

You'll be pleased to know I've now thrown all the 2004 tickets away. Any further analysis is welcomed.

Try the exercise yourself, again you'll find it's therapeutic or maddening - if you want to blog the results or photograph & flickr them or simply list them, put them in the comments below and then we can all analyse each other.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, August 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

And I have no privacy.....w'oh, oh, oh

With apologies to Rockwell, but that song seems to be our theme tune at the moment on the tube.

I suppose I'm always aware of people watching me on the London Underground itself, as for years I've been looking suspicious trying to take pictures of commuters for the blog without them noticing. Usually the person I'm photographing doesn't notice, but the people sitting next to me often do, and probably think I'm a psycho. But hey it's the Tube, no one says anything (perhaps that will change now).

However, with all the police around at the moment and lots of people checking out the rucksacks of everyone else, now many more of us get that feeling of being watched.

What I have become more aware of is CCTV on the tube, specially as Metro helpfully published an article telling us just how many CCTV cameras there are on the tube. Again, to quote Rockwell "Do the people on TV see me or am I just paranoid?" - certainly people in the control rooms where CCTV is operating see you. There are 6,000 cameras in place on London Underground. "As part of the Public Private Partnerships with Metronet and Tube Lines, this is set to rise to at least 12,000 by 2010. The plans are welcomed by the BTP (British Transport Police), which has 681 officers dedicated to the Tube and around 600 officers patrolling the mainline stations in London.".....

"Acknowledgement of CCTV's importance has come from the top. Andy Trotter, BTP Deputy Chief Constable told last week's meeting of the London Transport Users Committee (LTUC): 'CCTV is essential to our work - we would not have got to where we are today without it.'

Sing a-long now!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, August 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Circle Line Charity Walk

Overground, Overnight, Overcome Cancer

Thanks to Londonist I discovered that on the 16th September as part of the brill Open House London series, there will be a night-time walk of the Circle Line to raise money for Maggie's Cancer Centre.

The charity is "calling Londoners to team-up with friends, colleagues and family to take a sponsored hike over ground, over night to help others over come cancer. To celebrate the remarkable difference that thoughtful building design makes to the lives of people across London, Open House will offer hikers and other supporters an opportunity to see some of London's incredible architecture by night as part of this hike. The Metro Life Hike is sponsored by Metro Shopping Centres and Evening Standard's Metro Life Magazine and supported by London Underground. This means that all the funds raised will go towards Maggie's new London Cancer Caring Centre."

Channel 4's newsreader and all round good egg - Jon Snow is also taking part. Sounds like a great idea and a great cause and I'll probably be taking part (co-blogger Neil's expressed interest), as even I could walk 17 miles without the need to do any training. It will be a great opportunity to take pictures too and when you see the pictures that Rob Gardiner has been taking for his walk the Circle Line photography project, there's some cracking sights to see.

"If you would like to join the sponsored hike on Friday 16 September and/or preview some of London's hidden building treasures by night to raise the money to build a Maggie's cancer Caring Centre please email admin@londonopenhouse.org requesting:

Metro Life Hike 16 September Registration Pack,
and/or
Metro Life Hike 16 September Supporters Buildings Preview tickets"

It's fifty quid to register a team (25 quid for individual entry) and each person has to raise at least 250 pounds. Usual fundraising goodies for taking part, including a free Metro Hike T-shirt. There's also a free pasta party at the start from 8pm and a free Big Breakfast and massage at the finish from dawn! I'm going to try to group a team together, so if you are interested in taking part leave a message in the comments below or email me.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, August 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Welcome from The Evening Standard

London bloggers in The Standard

Welcome if you've somehow managed to find this blog from the feature in The Evening Standard. Little did I know that when I blogged about a small feature in the Metro (The Standard's morning freebie) about the popularity of blogging, that my blog and two of my favourite London blogs - The Londonist and Greenfairy.com would be featured in The Standard Lite and The Standard heavy. Confusingly, they actually referred to my main site - www.goingunderground.net though and called it my blog, so if you've got here, the actual blog, well done and read on......

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 04, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Police stop and search tube poster

Seen at Waterloo station

Doubtless most people have heard about the stop and search policy on the London Underground and the discussions saying that it's unlikely that "white old ladies" would be stopped and that Asian men were more likely targets.

Yesterday morning I actually saw a poster saying that people might be stopped and searched. I was in a rush, so the picture's a bit blurry (also, not helped by the fact that you can't use flash on the Tube)



It said: "To help keep the Tube safe you may be approached by British Transport Police officers carrying out searches. Your cooperation in this exercise is valued. More information will be supplied by the police at the time of the search".

As yet, I've not seen anyone actually being searched though (I don't count my recent encounter with the police), although there were a number of pictures in Metro a couple of days ago with Asian blokes being searched.

Announcements at Holborn

Also yesterday on my way to a quiz night (we performed dismally, I'm ashamed to say) I got out at Holborn and there were some booming annnouncements, as I was travelling up the escalator, in loads of different languages. Most of the languages I couldn't even identify, let alone translate.

I've rattled on and moaned about the Tube not making announcements in anything other than English in the past, but paradoxically I found this really freaky, mainly because they were sooo loud. Initially, I thought the system had been hijacked by someone. I also wondered if I was supposed to be taking any notice of the announcements. Christ knows if they were saying anything important. Has anyone else come across public announcements on the tube in a language other than English, or is this just a test at Holborn?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 04, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Passenger numbers dropped - and Travel Update

Figures on numbers of tube passengers since the London Attacks

A couple of days ago I blogged about the drop in passenger numbers on the tube. At the time it seemed hard to see by what percentage. But the BBC report have just spoken to a senior manager at the tube and say:

"Tube passenger numbers have dropped by 30% at weekends and between 5% and 15% on weekdays, since the 7 July bombings".

And this seems to clarify my earlier thoughts that commuter levels are about the same but tourists and non regular travellers are travelling on the tube less.

Circle Line - Partial Service

Also according to the BBC article, the Circle Line is partially up and running in the rush hour period, with a shuttle service every 20 minutes between 7am and 9am and between 4pm and 6.15pm from today, with the service expected to improve over the next few days. Nothing on the Tube's website as yet to confirm that though.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 04, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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