Panorama TV programme replays Stockwell Tube Shooting

Stockwell London Underground Reconstruction

On tonight's Panorama there is a reconstruction of Jean Charles de Menezes' last moments, which will show that he was NOT running from the police and he was NOT wearing a padded jacket as we were all originally led to believe. From reports I have heard on the programme it's not an issue of finger pointing or apportioning blame, but an attempt to investigate the "shoot to kill" policy and try to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Panorama is on BBC One at 9pm tonight and also features exclusive inerviews with Met Police commanders and filming of CO19's firearms' team training.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Improving the Underground means more Weekend Disruption

Same Story, Different Spin

The early editions of yesterday's Evening Standard were screaming about the amount of delays and chaos we should expect on the Tube next year, whereas the London Underground sent out a press release saying that £10billion is being invested in London's Transport system with half of it being spent on the London Underground.


"Commuters have been warned to expect severe delays on some London Underground lines over the next year as billions of pounds worth of improvements begin." say the Standard

"The improvement works will inevitably result in some disruption for passengers, but information and alternative travel options will be available." say the London Underground.

"Starting next month, sections of the Northern line will be closed virtually every weekend for the rest of 2006 and the Waterloo & City lines will be closed for five months from April 1. And about 50 stations will have improvement works." say the Standard.

"We recognise that the Northern Line's performance is not as we would like, but we are looking forward to Tube Lines taking this opportunity to accelerate the amount of track renewal work undertaken." said the Service Director from the London Underground.

Unfortunately, as commuters we have to grin and bear it, as there's no other way for improvements to be made to the system. As London Underground say, if you're travelling at weekends check out the Tube's website at www.tfl.gov.uk/tubeworks before travelling.

However, every Monday the Tube will be issuing a Transforming the Tube media bulletin, which will "summarise all the forthcoming weekend's work and provide links to more detailed information." - such as this schedule of station closures for the next six months.

The main disruptions include - Regent's Park station on the Bakerloo Line being closed for a year from July 2006, for modernisation and lift replacement works; 15 weekend closures on the Central Line from April; major closures each weekend on the Northern Line from April, partial suspension on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines for about six weekends from November 2006; more closures on the Piccadilly Line between Acton Town to Uxbridge and Cockfosters to Wood Green / Arnos Grove closures from May and just in case you thought the Victoria Line had escaped, Brixton station will be closed and the line will terminate at Stockwell from 8 to 17 April 2006 and there will also be 15 track closures at the northern end of the line. Currently the Jubilee Line looks like the only line with no weekend disruptions or closures!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Model Tube System

When the London Underground runs like clockwork

On Saturday I saw the only time when you can safely say that the Tube runs like clockwork.


Shame the all the trains were running from a fictional station though!


Abbey Road is a model London Undergrond station which was one of the many miniature railway lines on display at the Museum Depot in Acton where the London Transport Museum had an Open Weekend.

The next two pictures show the scale of the models, and not an invasion of giants over London:




These models (by Metro Models) were featured on the last TV series of The Tube and they were incredibily detailed and obviously painstakingly researched and created.

This was my first time at the Museum Depot at Acton and I was amazed at how crowded it was. Admittedly there were a large collection of men there who could be only be described as errr, ...... trainspotters who were poring over the models and stalls selling photographs of trains, buses and railways, and old timetables. However, I was as geeky as everyone else at the end of the day and spent some time buying old books on railway ghosts, a cheesy looking horror story / thriller set on the railway, a social guide to trainspotters and a double sided, 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Waterloo station during the 2nd World War and post war time for just three quid!

Me and Neil also bumped into fellow Tube Relief Challenger, Chris Preswell, who was leaving as we arrived, and regular commenter Fimb and her husband - pictures from him here. Fimb managed to out geek us all by asking the guys in the shop intricate questions about a particular model bus series she is collecting.

UPDATE - Regular commenter and Tube Relief challenger SK was also there and has some pictures of the abandoned Space Train Project - it's about making more space in the Tube carriages, not running them to outer space, some 1938 stock, some 1930's Q stock and rows and rows of old station signs.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Centenary Tube celebrations & DLR extension rumours

Bakerloo Line is 100 years old

Ian (when he should have been changing nappies of his newly second born) sent me an email saying "Have you noted that this year marks the 100th anniversary of a few tube stations.... Covent Garden, Marylebone, etc.. Last year, the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines were 100 years old. I presume the prehistoric rolling stock is part of some kind of celebration."

Well, according to the London Underground, the Bakerloo Line is 100 years old this year and on Friday 10th March there is an open day at Oxford Circus station where you can find out more about the centenary. I think I'd agree with LU on the centenary being this year as Baker Street to Lambeth North opened on the 10th March 1906.

In any case I bet that Leslie Green , the architect who designed a lot of the stations on the Bakerloo Line would be pretty surprised (had he still been alive) to see his stations still looking remarkably similar 100 years later.

Talking of old rolling stock, we heard at the Acton museum that there were plans to bring some 1933 Tube trains back into action for the Olympic Games. There are also pretty strong rumours according to Modern Railways magazine, that the Docklands Light Railway may be extended to Charing Cross by making use of the old Jubliee line platforms (thanks to Steve Everett for that). This is also confirmed by alwaystouchout who has more. The extension may also include re-opening Aldwych station! - see the tubechallenge forum.

Any more thoughts on the re-opening of old parts of the Tube most welcome.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Picture Competition

And the winner is.......

Ah, it's quite nice to have a clear cut winner to the competition for once.

I asked where the following pictures taken and there was a bonus point if you could also guess what the person in the second picture was doing:





Anthony "Underground Masker" Smith was the only person who gave the correct answer to both parts: "The first picture is at Leicester Square. The sign is in the window of the control room opposite the Piccadilly line ticket barriers (between exits 1 and 3).

The second picture is of the end of the hallway between the Bakerloo platforms at Paddington. The man is operating a Greathead tunnelling shield. He appears to be moving one of the panels that expose the rock face. Either that, or he is actually using a pickaxe or something to do the tunnelling - but if he's doing that, then they haven't drawn it very well. It doesn't look like he would achieve much leverage in that posture!"

Well done Anthony, let me know if you want either What's in Name or a stick of Tube rock as your prize.

The prize for the next Friday competition will be something I bought at the Acton Depot Museum and it's not going to be one of the many "Way out" and "roundel" stickers they were selling for 10p!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Transport Model Exhibition this weekend + City Hall Open Weekend

London Transport in Miniature - 4th - 5th March

Sorry I should have blogged about this earlier to give people more advance notice, but this weekend, the London Transport Museum Depot at Acton is holding an exhibit of models of London's Transport. You can see "professional and amateur modellers' layouts ranging from five to twenty feet in length and from '00' gauge to '0' gauge for the working layouts" That may as well been in Greek as I have NO idea what the stuff about gauges meant!

Also "large or small, scenes are depicted right down to the finest detail and cover all modes of London travel from Underground trains and trams to cycling and walking."


"Family activities over the weekend include rides on different miniature trains (including steam trains) using the Museum's own track, craft workshops for children and dressing up to be mini transport workers." Let's hope they don't teach them how to go on strike too!

Me and Neil may be popping down (although we haven't booked). Remember that this weekend engineering works mean there are no trains between Earl's Court and Acton Town (the nearest Tube to the Depot - nice timing guys), so if travelling by public transport you'll need to "travel via the Central Line to Ealing Broadway and change for the District Line to Acton Town"!

Opening times: 11.00 - 17.00 (Last admission 16.00) - and you can find out how to get there here

Admission (tickets valid both days): Adults £6.95, Concessions £4.95, accompanied children under 16 go free. For full details click here. Have fun.

City Hall Open Weekend

Speaking of Open Weekends, London's City Hall is also open to the public this weekend. Londonist are very excited about this: "This weekend is one of a selected few when London's City Hall gets opened up to the public. Home to the GLA and dear Ken since 2002, opinion on the asthetic pleasure of the buliding is always under discussion. We think it's pretty snazzy and hear the view across London from the top is pretty spectactular even if they have rather pretentiously named the top floor 'London's living room'."

I can confirm the view from the top is spectactular and while I was on an overnight Circle Line Walk for Maggie's Cancer Charity last September, I took the following picture of Tower Bridge from City Hall at about 5am and we all spent an hour or so there watching the sun rise. It was an amazing experience!


Londonist continues: "Most excitingly you'll be able to visit the bottom floor - home to the London PhotoMap. Made up of 200,000 photos taken from above, this is a detailed aerial view of the whole of Greater London. Man, this is like a live action role player, who really likes google maps, dream! They even let you stand and run about on the damn thing!

We are geeky and excited. You should be too! Last entry is at 4.30pm on each day, so don't miss out." More details here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, March 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's this week's regular look at commuters spotted on the London Underground who could be considered to be slaves to fashion, or people who have taken a trend (or something they thought was trendy) and "made it their own" - with apologies to Louis Walsh off X Factor. There's a bit of a theme this week as it's all mostly to do with footwear and ladies jeans.

Overworn Boots

To be fair this next picture isn't a fashion victim as such. You know when you have a pair of shoes you like so much you just wear them and wear them. Well, I think that must have happened with the lady below



If you look at the toes of her boots you'll see holes or areas that have been worn away. Quite how she managed to do this is anyone's guess. Perhaps the pointed toes were so pointed that she kept bashing them into things. I'd imagine that it would be quite hard to get them repaired.

Metallic Bag and Blue Socks

Regular readers know of my personal hatred of metallic bags. (Please, please, please fashion designers stop making the things, they are hideous). However, what I found interesting about this woman is the glittery bright blue socks worn with the round toed brown shoes. An errr, ..... interesting colour choice!



I particularly like the way her metallic bag reflects the brightness of her socks too.

Lacy Jeans

To say it's fairly cold in London right now, is an understatement, so quite why this woman chose to wear jeans with holes deliberately cut into them is beyond me. In fact, not quite sure why she ever bought them in the first place, I just think the lacy pattern doesn't work in this example and it's quite hard to actually say why. But perhaps you'll have other opinions.



Technically she's not a Tube victim as she was on South West trains, but hey ho, I thought I'd include her anyway.

Malteser jeans

Quite possibly the most hideous pair of jeans I have seen in some time. Let's ignore the "Ugg" style boots - I can almost excuse them as it's sooooo cold right now. But nothing can excuse someone buying a pair of jeans where it looks as though they have pieces of Maltesers stuck on them.



The mind truly boggles, specially when the whole ensemble was accessorised with a Gucci bag!

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Map in Top 3 Design Icons

Vote for the Tube Map

Yesterday the three finalists in the Great British Design Quest were announced and London's "iconic" Underground map has made it into the final three.


You have until Sunday 12th March to get your votes in, and the winner of the Great British Design Quest will be announced on The Culture Show on BBC Two at 7pm on the 16th March.

Amazing that all three finalists are transport related and that a "regional" design like the Tube map has made it into the final. Original designer of the map, Harry Beck would have been proud!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More "Metro's" - Free Newspapers on the London Underground

More free news is good news

Yesterday Associated Newspapers Ltd, the people who publish Metro (and The Evening Standard & The Daily Mail) gave up their exclusive rights for free morning and afternoon newspaper distribution on the London Underground.

This means that the road is open for more free newspapers to be distributed and according to London Underground's Press Release "This is good news for London as additional revenues generated by any new contract will contribute to the upgrade of London's transport system being carried through by TfL's £10bn 5-Year Investment Programme".

It's very good news for late commuters like me who travel in the tail end of the rush hour as often the Metro dispensers are empty by the time I get on the Tube and I have to make do with "left overs". It will be interesting to see which publishers decide to respond to the tender to produce more free papers.

By the way, I must thank Metro for adding this blog to their "Pick of the blogs" section on their revamped website. Through that I discovered their two other picks Generic Title (some very funny reviews of Tesco basic products) and City Hippie (how to live a greener and more ethical life), which are cool reads!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Catching "Criminals" on the Tube

Fare dodging and Mr X on the London Underground

In Monday's Metro there was a feature with figures on how many people fare dodge and London Underground prosecuted 6,427 people who had "purposefully set out to avoid buying a ticket". I do overhear a lot of sob stories from people who claim to have forgotten their travelcard or Oystercard. I suppose in situations like that you bite the bullet and just pay the fine - but can you actually claim the £20 back if you really have forgotten your card and you can prove that you had bought it when you get back home?

The feature continued saying that "The Tube is patrolled by 280 ticket inspectors and supported by 681 officers from the British Transport Police. In the last year they have issued more than 43,000 penalty fares." The conclusion was that it's difficult to get away with dodging your fare. However, I would argue that it's much easier to do this late at night particularly if you're travelling on suburban lines which often leave the barriers open and unmanned. Richmond is a classic example.

Strangely enough there is a board game called Scotland Yard where you play the role of detectives trying to catch Mr X who for some bizarre reason uses a selection of public transport including the Tube to make his getaway.


The players can only move from one location to another if they have a ticket of the correct type. You get three types of "ticket": bus, taxi and underground and have to work together to trap Mr X. Tube Tales had a good short film - Grasshopper - about a group of ticket inspectors and transport police "chasing" criminals around the Tube, so perhaps the whole scenario is not that unusual.

In reviewing the game Funagain Games says "To plot a move demands ingenuity, wile and the proper fare. No ticket... no ride! Try to plan your route several moves in advance to avoid getting hopelessly stranded or cornered.

Taxi, bus or underground? You decide which route is best for fleeing or for following when you play Scotland Yard, the detective game of "fare" play!"


Thanks to Magpie Moon who took the above picture for emailing me and reminding me about the game.

Also in Toronto people play a live version of the game every two weeks each summer. "One guy named Mr. X runs around Toronto's transit system in a bright yellow shirt, while three or more guys in red shirts try to find him using the clues he gives at every third stop he makes. The three detectives are coordinated by dispatchers who tell the detectives where they think Mr. X might be and how best to block him off." Check out the following site to find out more.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 02, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Where has all the commuters' chocolate gone?

Cadbury's Chocolate Machines are closed for safety reasons

Like many people who use the Tube every day you might have been wondering why for the last few weeks most of the Cadbury's chocolate dispensers on the London Underground have been out of order.


Martin Deutsch not only wondered but decided to email London Underground to find out why. He forwarded me on their response which had a massive disclaimer at the bottom saying that it shouldn't be reproduced in any shape or form whatsoever on pain of death, blah, blah, blah. But basically the gist of it was that they have been turned off for safety reasons while they were being checked out.

I wondered just how unsafe a chocolate dispenser could be, and had visions of the machines shooting out molten hot bars of Whole Nut or Caramel bars so that your hands were burnt when you picked them up. Or that they should have had those warnings like you get on McDonalds Apple pies or cups of coffee - Warning these contents are hot.

Fortunately the guys over at the tubechallenge forum had been debating the subject and it's not ALL chocolate machines as I had originally thought, but those on "section 12" which have underground platforms. According to an anonymous commenter on "On the District's blog" - "smoke was pouring out of the one at Oxford Circus a few weeks ago so LUL have had them all isolated if they are on a section 12 (underground) station."

So in a nutshell it looks like some of the machines have been overheating, which is obviously a potential fire hazard. How the fire is any less worrying if it's on an above-ground station is beyond me, but perhaps London Underground felt that overground commuters' need for choclate was greater and outweighed the fire risk!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Temporary sign seen at Russell Square Tube Station

This is why I love London

Alex just emailed me a picture of a sign seen at Russell Square last night, where someone had been having fun with the magnetic signs showing service levels:


Priceless!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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What do the names Lou, Kitty, Walter & Anne have in common?

Naming things on the Tube

Since I changed jobs I've not had to face the prospect of the forthcoming Waterloo & City Line closure. The line that I used to use each day will be closed for five months from the 1st April for "much-needed engineering improvements that will deliver increased reliability of services, an increase in capacity and improved journey times." So it was good to learn from SK that Metronet, who are carrying out the improvements, have been having some fun and games with names.


Four new battery locos which will be used to haul materials and plant along the one and half mile line, have been designed and built to deadline - "in just 17 weeks". This in itself appears to have been the cause of much celebration at Metronet and the locos were given names to honour the occasion - Walter, Lou, Anne, Kitty. Can you see what they did there? Just in case you haven't got it yet, if you say the names together quickly they sound a bit like Waterloo & City.

"Metronet's Chief Programmes Officer Stephen Hall said: 'This is the first piece of work to have been completed in the programme; it's fundamental and extremely important to see it delivered on time.

'This sets the pace and says, "This project is under way now," and we are determined to deliver for our customer London Underground - and Londoners.' "

Now that Metronet have christened their "babies", let's hope that little Walter, Lou, Anne & Kitty get on with hauling stuff about as quickly as they can and don't decide they need too many nappy changes or throw unexpected tantrums and stop working!

While we're on the subject of naming, do you have any pet names for trains or other vehicles? My first car - an old Vauxhall Cavalier - was called Vivienne. It's a bit of a shame that Tubes don't have names like some National Rail trains and anonymous numbers instead. I would like to call the trains on the Northern Line "Mary, Mary" - because they're quite contrary!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London's Lost Tube Schemes

A book review

Regular contributor, SK, also kindly wrote a good book review of one of the books that was suggested in my 24 Days of Christmas - Tube related gifts. So over to him:

"London's Lost Tube Schemes by Antony Badsey-Ellis is one of the newest books available about the history of the London Underground. Instead of writing about the lines that were built, this book is about the many lines that were planned, but never built, between the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 and the outbreak of World War I.

Some of the lines that were planned would have been very useful these days. Interestingly, many of the proposed lines would have served Hackney, which is today still very poorly served by the tube. If some of these lines had been built, then the tube map may have been very different, and the newer tubes such as the Victoria and Jubilee Lines may never had been required. Yet some of the other proposals seemed rather crazy. One being the Kearney High-Speed Tube, which seemes like a hybrid
tube-monorail-rollercoaster. Other crazy ideas included a giant passenger carrying version of those pneumatic tubes that are sometimes found in banks and offices.

This book also answers many questions that many Tube fanatics may be interested in, such as why does there appear to be underground junction tunnels at South Kensington on the Piccadilly Line, and why does Holborn, again on the Piccadilly Line have such an odd layout?

The book is very thorough on its subject matter, and has plenty of interesting diagrams and maps. Although this book sometimes is verging on having too much information, I would recommend it to anyone who has a keen interest either
in the history of the Tube, or an interest in what could have been."

Cheers for that SK. When I was in the travel bookshop Stanfords over Christmas I heard a number of people ask for the book and it certainly sounds like a good read.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Strike Latest - ASLEF & RMT call off 2nd March strike

tube strikes off

Well it looks like here's one thing that Mayor Ken's suspension won't effect, as both the RMT and ASLEF have called off the industrial action that was planned on the Tube for this Thursday 2nd March.

ASLEF said "talks had progressed to the stage where taking action would prove unhelpful and could adversely affect the discussions. ASLEF has no desire to disrupt London's travelling public unless it is absolutely necessary."

Today, a London Underground spokesperson said: "We are pleased that ASLEF are to recommend that this Thursday's planned Tube strike is called off, following constructive talks with London Underground.

"We have maintained throughout that the best way to resolve all issues is through discussion and consultation. ."

and just updated

"We are pleased that, following constructive talks held with RMT yesterday, they have called of this Thursday's strike."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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What the Japanese Metro can learn from the Tube

Toyko delegates coming to learn about......

How to keep a happy and strike free work force? How to ensure your subway system is the most expensive in the world? How to keep one of your lines in its own time zone - eg the Northern Line? How to stop people from spoofing your maps?

Well no. A team of delegates from Toyko are coming to London to learn about busking! Yay, London Underground have found something that they think the Japanese can learn from. "Six Tokyo Metro delegates, including Fusao Koike, Deputy Manager of International Affairs, will join senior LU officials on 1 March for a day-long visit of the Underground network, when they will get the opportunity to learn about the implementation and running of the scheme, and to discuss it with real life LU buskers."



The guy in charge of the Tube's busking scheme, Steve Charlick said of the visit: "We feel truly honoured that they have chosen our scheme on which to base their own."

"The London Underground busking scheme sponsored by Carling began in May 2003, after LU managed to change the laws and the bylaws to make busking legal on the Underground.

"The scheme has gone from strength to strength, and we now have nearly 300 licensed buskers providing passengers with over 3,360 hours of entertainment each week." Read the full story here.

Let's hope that on Wednesday the buskers polish their guitars, violins, didgerdoos and boom boxes and get out their best collection of songs.

Speaking of buskers you can check out one of the first "legalised buskers" who was interviewed on Radio 4 a couple of weeks ago. "When London Underground organized and formalized the tube busking situation in the early new millennium, Stephen was encouraged to take part in the TfL initiative and, figuring that almost all of his Blues heroes had used busking as an organic marketing and promotion tool, he enthusiastically took up the reins and the chance to broaden the Blues appeal to a much wider potential audience." from Stephen Dale Petit's website Guitararama. Thanks to Ian for telling me about this.

Perhaps now that Toyko are interested in busking we'll have buskers going on world tours as well as selling CDs and doing promotions for film companies!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Stop.....................Hammertime

MC Hammer's Blog

Nowt to do with the Tube (well unless you count Tube Fashion Victim - 3's MC Hammer influenced jeans) but through Gia I found out that MC Hammer has a blog - which she introduced with these wise words "How You Know That Blogs Have Gone So Far Mainstream That They've Gone Retro"

It's given me a great laugh for the last half hour. He only started it in February and he's using the free version of blogspot which is cool. I particularly love how he puts up pictures of his meals at fast food outlets. It rox!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Love on the Tube - Part Two

Have you found / made love on the London Underground?

Regular readers may remember a couple of weeks ago that a guy from the University of Westminster was going to interview me for a radio show (Smoke Radio) about whether it was possible to find love on the Tube. I waxed lyrical about my little knowledge on the subject, general lack of eye contact not making it easy, but how the proximity between people on crowded trains can lead to some "interesting" situations.

Amongst the people featured in the piece, there's a guy who said he fell madly in love with a stranger he saw on the Tube "she actually took my breath away", people who said they'd be too shy to chat up people, plus a guy who got married as a result of meeting someone on the Tube.

The producer, Mark, even managed to find one girl who admitted to making love on the Metropolitan Line, between King's Cross and Harrow on the Hill. She and her then boyfriend were in a carriage with eight other people in it (although they were both pretty drunk at the time). "After a bottle of vodka I really didn't care. Vodka's an evil thing, I can't say no", she said. Also the love making didn't appear to require a lot of effort: "It's surprising that you don't have to move at all while on the train, it does it all itself!"

If you have a spare ten minutes you can listen to the piece here (towards the bottom of the page). It's is nicely mixed with some chillout music and a poem from one of Mark's friends, about people's eyes meeting across a crowded Tube, or that James Blunt moment, as I like to call it.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, February 27, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mayor Ken Livingstone Suspended for a month

Sheriff Ken Suspended for Shooting off

Not exactly Tube related but such a shocking story that I had to blog it and you never know it may well effect any negotiations about the next London Underground strike which as far as I know is still scheduled to take place on the 2nd March. "London's mayor has been suspended from office for four weeks for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard".

"The ban is due to begin on 1 March, but Mr Livingstone's representative said he may appeal to the High Court."

Check out the BBC for the full story and it's absolutely all over The Standard now.

Speaking of Ken, someone had rolled out an old game that was made about his wish to get rid of all of London's pigeons - "In light of Ken's recent announcement to prevent avian flu and stop feeding London's pigeons. We thought you'd like another little look at this old chesnut".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, February 24, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Friday London Underground Competition

Where were these Tube pictures taken?

Regular readers may know that the last (and only time) I was in the States was last November when I was in sunny San Francisco. So how did I manage to take a picture of this New York Subway sign for Times Square Station?


I took it yesterday somewhere on the London Underground, but where exactly did I take it? It's a bit blurry as I couldn't use a flash and I was also a fair bit away from the sign when I took the picture, so I didn't arouse the attention of London Underground staff.

The location of the next picture below is probably easier to identify. However, there's a bonus point if you can also say what the man on the tiles is doing as well which station it was taken at.


As usual one guess only please and please leave both guesses at the same time. To enter leave your answer in the comments below along with your email address and/or your website / blog address. The competition closes on Sunday 5th March at 23.59 (GMT). In the event of a tie, Neil's paper clip selection will be used to select the final winner.

And the prize, a stick of London Tube rock, or if you're looking after your teeth, a copy of What's in a Name - a fantastic little book which explains the origins of every London Underground Tube & DLR station name. It also has a lot of other information including the year the station opened, and the name changes that have since occurred. Plus black and white photos of many of the stations or their immediate surroundings.


Enjoy!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, February 24, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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