London Underground ETA Boards

Could Tube Estimated Time of Arrival be improved?


Last night I was on my way to see Max Roberts talk about Maps after Beck (more on that tomorrow) and I lazily changed at Liverpool Street to go one stop to Aldgate East. When I was there the ETA platform boards, rather than giving the amount of minutes to the next train, simply displayed "delayed". This isn't really very helpful and wasn't something I'd ever seen before. SK who also came to the talk gave me an explanation as to why this only happens around Aldgate East, but this morning my pea brain can't remember the reasons.

But yesterday Richard Cameron emailed me a related question:

"I wonder if any of your readers happen to know if there are any webcams pointing at any of the overground section of the Tube? I live on the District Line, which TfL's "ETA" web site doesn't cover. Rather than spending yet more interminable hours waiting at Chiswick Park station - many of which would shake any man's faith in the existence of a God - it would be nice to spot the damned train a little further up the line, and then be able to leave the office just in time to stroll onto the platform as it actually arrives.

Of course, maybe the existence of such material which could be used to derive sensitive information (like an actual train "timetable") would be deemed of such potential use to terrorists that it should be outlawed by the Government at once? Who knows?" I imagine Richard's theory is correct, but maybe not.


Or does anyone have any other theories as to why the Tube's ETA boards only cover a limited amount of lines? It's been the same five lines for months and as I travel on the Piccadilly & District Lines I feel very left out.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, July 12, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Yet another Tube Challenge

Faster than a speeding subway train

Superman Returns very soon and I remember the first Superman film where young Clark Kent had fun racing trains. A number of years ago an event took place in London every April called "Beat the tube race"

A chartered surveyor called Richard Guthrie, thought it might be fun to outrun a Tube train. Eccentric Britain wrote: "A group of determined young professionals, wearing braces and pinstripes, board a Victoria to Wimbledon train, get off at South Kensington and sprint like hell down the Fulham Road to try to get back on it at Fulham Broadway. 1.6 miles and four stops down the line".

We are talking a District Line here with its constant stops between stops and delays, but very few people managed to beat the Tube. However, Alantan found a video where a group of students tried a similar idea with a SPT subway train in Scotland

"You are on the Glasgow underground (subway), travelling clock-wise. The journey time between Buchanan St. and St. Enoch is approximately 55 seconds. Hmmm. On the surface it's a downhill journey, down the busiest shopping street in Glasgow with 2 road crossings. Can you get off a train at Buchanan St. and back on the same train the next time it stops at St. Enoch?"

Well it's not totally man against subway, but watch the video (wmv or mpeg4 - the wmv only seems to work for me in IE) to find out if they did it. I particularly like the lazy Jamie Cullum soundtrack as the subway is ambling along, compared to the frantic music when the student is racing against it outside.

Back to the Beat the Tube Race, the author of Eccentric London reckons they would stood more of a chance cutting across "the Circle Line from Farringdon down to Blackfriars where you can virtually see the other end. You could do it on crutches, or pogo sticks and still beat the train".

Not that I'm suggesting that you try to outrun trains on a regular basis, but are there any other parts of the London Underground network where you think you would be able leave a train, leg it and then catch the same train again?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 11, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Moquette Quiz

And the winners are.......

It appears you do know your moquette even though the Jubilee Line appear to be cheapskates and use Piccadilly line moquette on certain trains, and the Bakerloo line moquette has also been seen on the Victoria Line, just to confuse the issue.

The answers to the tube seat upholstery quiz were:

1. Metropolitan Line
2. Central Line (only now seen on dog coats)
3. District Line
4. Bakerloo Line
5. Northern & District Lines (or pencil cases)
6. Central Line
7. District Line
8. Jubilee Line
9. DLR
10. District Line
11. Circle/Hammersmith & City Line
12. Piccadilly Line

Also the first four designers of moquette were Marion Dorn, Norbet Dutton, Enid Marx and Paul Nash.

I decided to give some bonus surprise prizes for inventive moquette names to Munks, for Carpet Chaos, Bapps, for Sea of Sharks and Rich for Autumn Fleet, but the winner of the Mind The Gap socks is Jonny Lyon.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 11, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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This is Davina from Big Brother please do not swear

Swearing on the Tube gets you fined

You may have already seen this story in Metro or from The Register and it originated from Jo who writes for Londonist. She wrote

"My friend Phil and I were going through a metal detector on the way out of Highbury & Islington Tube on Friday evening around 8.30pm, on our way to a gig. Phil, who has a degree in physics, said to me in a low voice that the metal detector was a "piece of shit that wouldn't stop anyone". Obviously, someone was listening, as all of a sudden, half a dozen policemen jumped on him and hustled him over to the corner of the Tube station, where he was detained for about 20 minutes for the grave crime of swearing in public, and fined £80 for the privilege. For swearing! On the Tube! "

As Jo rightly says: "If it's such a crime, then I owe them about a million pounds, as swearing on and at the Tube is the only way to deal with the pain of having to travel on the dratted thing every day......

The police were f**king rude, too, and treated Phil like he was a hardened criminal - they were really aggressive, and clearly wanted him to lose his temper so they could charge him with something worse. They said repeatedly he was very close to being arrested. For the terrible crime of swearing and calling their machine a piece of shit - which, as a physics graduate, he actually knows about."

This is the second story I've heard of someone being pounced upon near the Tube by police, just for something they happened to be saying. I'm with Jo in agreeeing that yes the police ought to be out trying to find terrorists, but using the word "shit" when referring to a metal detector, hardly warrants six police and twenty minutes of their time.

I wonder what sort of recording equipment they have at Tube stations now? If you can get fined for saying shit in a low voice, like Jo, I feel that I - and thousands of others - would be fined a shed load of money for the amount of times we swear about the Tube. Jo beleives the fact that they were in Goth clothing may have been a contributory factor, but you never know.

So Big Brother is not only watching you but listening to you on the Tube too. Next time you feel the urge to swear when the Misery Line is up to its normal tricks, count to ten instead or perhaps come up an alternative swearword like err... Ian Blair instead (second thoughts that's hardly likely to go down too well with his law enforcers).

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, July 10, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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July 7th - one year on

My thoughts on 7/7


Today you are going to see & hear lots and lots and lots from a variety of news sources, blogs and websites about July the 7th. A number of people have asked me what I would blog about with the anniversary of the bombings and there's almost too much too blog. So I will try to be brief. This time last year I was blogging virtually every half an hour trying to keep people informed. Then for about a month following the horrible day virtually every day's post was about the aftermath as the London Underground had changed so much.

So one year on and how has the Tube actually really changed? It hasn't. Obviously as a city we needed to go back to "normal". We needed to stop looking suspiciously at people with rucksacks, or beards, or men of a particular race. We needed to stop being anxious every time a train got stuck in a tunnel. We needed to travel on the Tube with the same "freedom" and in the same numbers that we did in the past. We needed to stop seeing pictures of people in Bermuda wearing "We're not afraid" T-Shirts.

However, the threat of another terrorist attack on the Tube remains as strong today as it did a year ago (many thanks to yesterday's badly timed video release of one of the 7/7 bombers, saying that this was just one of a string of attacks). The Government have been paying lip service to attempts to keep people safe on the Tube with talk of scanning machines and more CCTV. Although, as we know, none of this will keep us totally safe. If anyone had an answer to preventing another attack on the London Underground, they would be a rich person.

July 7th changed me in a variety of ways, but fortunately I am still alive to be able to think and talk about those changes. Hopefully this blog is able to make people think a little more about the Tube journeys they share with 3 million other people every day - the good things & the bad.

I would love to hear whether you changed your behaviour on Tube as a result of 7/7 or if it affected you in a particular way, or any personal thoughts on July 7th that you'd like to share.

Today, there will be a national two minute silence at noon to remember the 52 people who were killed. There is also a memorial service at Queen Mary's Gardens in Regent's Park from 6pm. Floral tributes can be left from 8am. Also tributes will be placed by relatives and friends of the dead at the five sites of the bombings. Memorial plaques naming each victim will also be unveiled at each site.

Let's hope that today will mainly be a day without blame, or finger pointing. A day to remember those who lost their lives and also a day to support all those who were seriously injured, both physically & mentally. Ordinary commuters whose everyday Tube or bus journey turned into a nightmare. Please take some time out for the two minute silence.

Thank you.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, July 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube People Quiz

What's in a name?

A two part quiz this Friday.

1. Name ONE of the people below - three points for being the first person to guess one of names correctly, one point if you give the same correct guess as someone else (so get in quickly to get those points - and don't be a swat and give more than one name - you know what happens!)


2. Give names of up to two stations on the Tube map that has a person's first name in it - eg Royal Albert. The station name can be longer than the person's name - eg Debden. Popular abbrievations of names can be used - eg Deb in Debden. You can also use anagrams of the staton name - eg Dawn is part of Kew Gardens. You get a point for each name (please don't give more than two) and a bonus point for not giving the same name as someone else.

To enter leave your email address and/or blog/website with your answers in the comments below. Please leave all your answers in one entry and you can only enter once! You have until 23.59 GMT, Sunday 16th July to make your guesses.

The people with the most points will go into Neil's paperclip selection.

And the prize for the lucky selectee - it has to be a copy of "What's in a Name?" - a fab little book which give the origins of the name to every London Underground Station. which explains the origins of every London Underground Tube & DLR station name. It's also got 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.

Good Luck!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, July 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's this Friday's look at our slaves to fashion on the Tube or people with their own personal style when it comes to clothes.

The Last of the England Shirts

Taken last Saturday when England got knocked out of the World Cup. Let's hope that these shirts get knocked out the these ladies' wardrobe


I've never been wild about women wearing football shirts and I think with this picture you can see why.

Platform Shoes 1

Someone is bound to like these (obviously apart from the woman wearing them), but goodness knows why


There's a lot of velcro attachments going on with these things (she's coming out in sympathy with her male friend on the left). But hers look like trainers that got mixed up with some 1970's style patent leather red platforms with a nod back to school plimsolls as well.

I don't think the black lace skirt does her any favours either.

I'd like to finish with some brilliant guest entries

Twiggy Dungarees


Nice shot by Fimb of a guy with some short dungarees. Fimb said "I know crop trousers are rather fashionable, but crop dungerees, with knee length socks?! I chased him all round Waterloo trying to get a decent shot after we saw him on the Tube (but not in a position that I could easily takes pics) It looked much better from the front, but the escalator shot was all I could manage!"

Platform Shoes 2


This couple were taken by Martin who said "They are dressed in what could probably best be described as "goth chic", but the fella's shoes really caught my attention. Mainly because they appeared to be more like planks of wood than shoes. Part of me likes to think he made them himself, but it's more likely that he paid a
hundred quid for them."

Words fail me!

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, July 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Shower Curtains?

Where are they?????

I have lost count of the amount of times people have asked me where they can buy a shower curtain with the Tube map on it. New York have subway map shower curtains, but where are London's? They certainly used to exist as I saw them from a link in meish's blog many moons ago (link unfortunately broken and I can't retreive it from archive.org)


There must be a market for them to go along with the very expensive tiles. So if anyone knows whether you can still buy them, please, please let me know. Or better still if you're a shower curtain manufacturer get in touch with TfL and see if they'll give you a licence to produce them - you'd make a mint!

In the meantime perhaps those looking for one can improvise by sewing some waterproof London Underground map aprons together.



UPDATE - at last London Underground Tube Map shower curtains are available

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, July 06, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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The return of Oystercard Online Journey History

It's back

Well it appears that suspicious partners will be able to spy on their other halves again, as thanks to Martin, I learnt that once again if you have an Oystercard you can see 8 weeks of your journey history online. That's if you use pay as you go or auto top up.

You may remember that in February the national press had reported the more irregular use and strangely enough around the same time, Transport for London withdrew the facility to view your account online.

The website used to say "At present it is not possible to view your Pre Pay journey history on our website. You can check your Pre Pay journey history at the multifare ticket machines at Tube stations or you can get a printout from the Tube station ticket office. Both of these options will give you details of the last eight journeys made."

You could also get a printed statement if you sent your password to TfL by post.

Maybe they've now worked out a more foolproof way for Pre-Pay data to only be accessible to the Oystercard holder (although bear in mind that lots of partners know each others passwords - or at least could make a good guess at them). But hey, it is a handy feature and it seems weird to take it away just because some people were using it to spy on others.

Anyway, enjoy it while it lasts, as you might find the feature mysteriously disappears again.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, July 05, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground T Shirt

Commuter Clothing

It's not the Tube Fashion Victims come early, but it was quite strange to be on the Tube and looking across at a T Shirt with some people on it sitting in a line in a very familiar way.


I looked more closely and realised it was a group of Tube commuters on his T Shirt. It hasn't come out in the picture at all but they are passing through Brixton Station.

It really reminded me of the Frida Kahlo picture of commuters on a bus that I saw at Tate Modern exactly a year ago.


Certainly makes a change to the bog standard Underground T shirts with the Tube roundel on them!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, July 05, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Is it really getting too hot for the Tube?

Ken Livingstone warns of Tube closures due to heat

The Evening Standard must have been jumping up and down with glee when Sheriff Ken said he believed that in the future London would have to close some Tube lines because they would be too hot to travel in.


Ken said "You reach a point where the underground will become literally intolerable and you could face the prospect of loss of life." Although he's offered hundreds of thousands of pounds as a reward to find workable air conditioning for the underground, it sounds like the heat will eventually defeat the system. He believes we will have to resign ourselves to closures "if the temperature goes up faster than we fear it's going to".

Personally I think the only way there would be loss of life would be if people were stuck in the tunnels during a heatwave. But as getting stuck in tunnels for more than a couple of hours is becoming increasingly more frequent, perhaps Ken has a point.

We discuss intolerable heat on the Tube, year after year after year, but is the solution really to roll over and admit defeat like this? Surely there must be some systems somewhere in the world that we can learn from?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Never knew The Who were trainspotters

The Day We Caught The Train

I wonder if The Who actually tried to find some a driver's view video of the Underground when they were planning their performance at Hyde Park Calling on Sunday.


Neil, me and a couple of our friends joined thousands of others to see The Who at Hyde Park Calling. I imagine The Who wanted to keep to their sixties roots, so perhaps that's why we were treated with some vintage railway footage rather than a driver's eye view of the Jubilee Line or the DLR.

I was initially quite surprised to see the train driver's eye view film making up the background to "Who are You?". Although not so surprising when you recall the lyrics of the song:

"I staggered back to the underground
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwin' punches around
And preachin' from my chair .......

I took the Tube back out of town
Back to the Rollin' Pin
I felt a little like a dying clown
With a streak of Rin Tin Tin"

Does anyone know where the Rollin' Pin is or what it refers to?

Like most bands from London or writing songs about London, at some point in time the Tube is going to feature. Although there seemed to more of a trend with this in the sixties or with Mod/sixties sounding bands like The Jam. The Tube represented (and still to some extent represents) a hip and trendy, urban London. Throwing in London Underground references is kind of short-hand for saying "We're a bit edgy & street-wise". Although I'm sure Roger Daltry & Pete Townshend have done more than their fare share of Tube travel in the past.


By the way, one of the support acts Ocean Colour Scene performed their signature hit, The Day We Caught The Train - see how the links are not just thrown together.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Misery Line Music Video Quiz Results

And the winner is........

Mmm this quiz seemed to stump everyone (including me!)

I was hoping that someone would show such out and out confidence in answering or that a number of you would give the same answer, that the result would be obvious. Not so.

However with the aid of Stephen Knight (who's more of an expert in these things than I am) I can reveal the answers as follows:

1. Mornington Crescent
2. Mornington Crescent
3. No firm idea to be perfectly honest!
4. C69/77 stock
5. Edgware Road (District Line)


I tossed a coin to get the winner as there was only a choice of two and Alantan wins the tin!

If you feel like watching the video (Be There by Unkle featuring Ian Brown) to come up with absolute and firm proof as to where picture 3 is - feel free.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More than 30 people killed in underground crash in Valencia

Subway crash in Eastern Spanish City

This afternoon at least 34 people were killed and more than 20 seriously injured when a speeding underground train ran off the tracks and overturned

"Two train carriages derailed and toppled over in a tunnel just before entering the Jesus underground station after a wheel broke on a curve at about 1 p.m., officials said."

A survivor from one of the carriages described how he made his escape through a door window.

"There was a bang, some very strange noises, everything shook and I passed out. They told me when the firemen came. I don't know how long they took, but that's when I got up". From Yahoo News

I travelled on the underground in Valencia about two years ago and my sympathies are with the families of the dead and also wish the injured a good recovery. Spain is still very shaky following the train bombings by Islamist extremists that killed 191 people in Madrid in 2004. However, this appears to have been a tragic accident and doubtless more news will be uncovered as the day progresses.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, July 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Snakes on a Plane! Samuel L Jackson on the Tube

First "John Travolta" now SLJ

On Friday I saw a man who was the spitting image of Samuel L Jackson. We all had to decamp from our Piccadilly Line train at Barons Court (which was screwed along with loads of other lines) so I managed to grab a picture.


When I heard him talking on the phone, he sounded decidely un-Samuel L Jacksonish, but it was weird spotting him, so soon after Audrey spotted his Pulp Fiction side-kick Vincent, when she'd only been watching the film that weekend. Perhaps if you think enough about celebrities their lookalikes might magically just appear on the Tube?


If you manage to spot any real celebs on the London Underground or failing that good celebrity lookalikes, I'd love to see or hear about them.

I haven't seen a celeb on the London Underground for ages now, which is weird considering I use West End Tube stations daily. Unless you count Gita who used to be in EastEnders who was in my carriage a couple of weeks ago.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, July 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Moquette Quiz

How well do you know London Underground Tube Seats?

Three parts to this Friday's quiz.

1. Rather than naming all twelve please just name TWO of the lines that the seat upholstery comes or came from. Any smart alecs "Saying, Miss, Miss, I know all of them" and naming all twelve, or more than two, will have to stand in the corner and find their answers mysteriously evaporate. There is however, a bonus point if you don't give the same answer as the person immediately before you.


2. Name one of the very first people who designed some moquette for London Transport. Again, you get a bonus point if you don't give the same answer as the person just before you.

3. Moquettes don't appear to have names, which is rather sad. So please come up with your own unique name for one of the moquettes pictured above. It will help if there's some connection to either the line or the pattern, so no points will be given for names like Bert or Fred or Jim. The more inventive the better!

As usual the people who get most answers correct will go into Neil's paperclip selection.

To enter leave your email address and/or blog/website with your answers in the comments below. Please leave all your answers in one entry and you can only enter once! You have until 23.59 GMT, Sunday 9th July to make your guesses.

And the prize, a lovely pair of Mind The Gap socks, so if you think of putting your feet on the seats on the Tube (heaven forbid), you can display your sockwear with pride.

Have fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, June 30, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's this Friday's look at our slaves to fashion on the Tube or people with their own noticeable look when it comes to clothes. There's a bit of a lurve thing going on this week with people wearing T-Shirts inviting some personal attention. Still anything's better than football shirts at the moment.

Playboy Girl

Hugh Heffner would be proud of this lady


Fortunately she was just leaning against the pole rather than doing a dance around it.

Kiss Me Quick

I'm pretty positive this guy wasn't a tourist and I'm sure someone will tell me that Kiss Me Quick are a trendy new band that are making it big on the Net or somewhere


In any case he didn't have "Or Hug me Slowly" on his back.

Hugs Not Drugs

Unlike the young man below, who was wearing a very Peace and Love orientated T shirt


I wish I'd been able to take a proper picture of him though, as he had the most amazing, just got out of bed, back combed, Shockwaves, hair style. The picture also doesn't show his purple star "Christmas Cracker" bangle very well.

Tattered Bum

How many more varieties of tattered jeans are there?


Although you can't see it in the picture very well, she had her travelcard in this back pocket, so I just hope the pocket doesn't wear even more, otherwise she'll be in for a bit of shock at the barrier.

Yeti Uggs

I know that we've hardly been having a heatwave in London, but is there any need to wear these Womble/Yeti Ugg boots in late June?


In fact let's scrub late June from my last sentance, is there any need to wear them at all?

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, June 30, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Counting on the London Underground

Sesame Street's The Count would be pleased

I often see a lot of blog entries from people where they count things in a sort of Bridget Jones Diary type of way. You know the score - number of cigarettes smoked today 12, number of crisps eaten 18, number of pounds lost 1, etc. I can't say I've ever been particularly interested in counting things since I have been at school. However someone sent me a link to an interesting "watchers" project where a number of things in south east London have been counted, with pictures taken to represent them.

A station assistant at Bermondsey London Underground Station must have been fairly bored and he counted the number of people hurrying through the station in one day.


It was only 41. Which really doesn't seem a lot to me, but I suppose as it's not in an interchange, or maybe no one is in a particular rush for anything at Bermondsey. However as I have no idea how many people in total pass through Bermondsey Tube I'd never really know if 41 is a lot.

If you're travelling by Tube today perhaps you might consider counting something, on the way in or home, so we could do a comparison. Obviously, we haven't all got the time to stand at a Tube station for a whole day to count things, so here's a few workable possibilities:

Number of people reading Metro in your carriage
Number of people standing in your carriage
Number of people listening to an iPod, walkman or some other personal stereo in your carriage
Number of people with rucksacks in your carriage
Number of posters that have been graffitied (is that a word? - but you know what I mean) in your carriage
Number of pigeons on your platform

If there's anything else you'd like to count or make a suggestion for people to count, feel free and leave in the comments below. Thanks muchly.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, June 29, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Wembley, Wembley Quite Contrary. How does your garden grow?

Pinner, Pinner, no longer a winner...

No I haven't gone entirely mad, but summer's here and that means it's time for that special date in London Underground's calendar. It's not the announcement of this year's "Staying cool on the Tube campaign" or Sheriff Ken's prize for inventing air conditioning on the Tube. But the London Underground Annual Station Gardens competition is underway. Hoorah, hoorah, hoorah.

I know that many of you who travel on the Tube will think that a "station garden" is a platform that's been cleared of all the tin cans, crisp packets and pigeon droppings. You might be forgiven for thinking that a garden is some moss that's grown up between the cracks in the platform or some weeds or buddleia trees that have been allowed to take over the sidings. But no, there are 33 entrants in this year's LU Station Garden competition which is double the amount from last year.


Southfields is one of the stations that has entered, and it came 2nd in the Cultivated Garden section last year. The competition is to reward "employees who go beyond the call of duty and spend much of their free time creating a pleasant and colourful environment for their colleagues and the travelling public to enjoy by planting and keeping Underground station gardens."

Although Southfields is nothing like a garden compared to the winner from Pinner in 1966, which was so resplandant with its 3,000 plants and flowers you can hardly read the station's name.


Pinner is sadly no longer in the running and a number of other prize winning station gardens from 1966 seem to have fallen by the wayside too including Kilburn, Hammersmith (did it ever have a garden?), Moorgate, Barons Court, Finchley Central and Snaresbrook.

But hats off to the following stations whose station gardeners upkeep the gardens in their own free time and only receive an allowance to buy seeds and plants: Baker Street, Bank, Bermondsey, Canons Park, Chesham, Cockfosters, East Acton, Earl's Court, Elm Park, Epping, Farringdon, High Street Kensington, Highbury & Islington, Leytonstone, Loughton, Notting Hill Gate, North Acton, Northolt, Northwood Hills (last year's winner), Queensbury, Rotherhithe, Shepherd's Bush, South Kensington, Rickmansworth, Ruislip Gardens, Southfields, Stanmore, Stratford Market Depot, Surrey Quays, Watford, Wembley Park, West Ruislip and White City.

Most of them, as you might expect, are in the more suburban outer zones of London. But it's good to see Baker Street, Earl's Court, Shepherd's Bush (although the mind boggles with Shepherd's Bush - maybe they've had an influx of containers since I was last there), Bank and High Street Kensington. It goes to show that it's not just the "leafy" suburbs that have keen station gardeners.

Do you have a station that you think should have entered for its horticultural displays? Or is your regular home or work station amongst this year's entrants? Or do you think there's a forgotten station somewhere that could benefit from some Ground Force treatment? Gunnersbury would be my favourite as it looks more and more like the hideous concrete carpark that surrounds it and is in desparate need of something to brighten it up.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Cycles on the London Underground

Where to get on yer bike

Someone emailed me to ask whether you could take bicycles on the London Underground. I knew that there were some stations where you could and some where you couldn't, but I didn't realise that this also depended on the the time of day.


So I looked at the cycle map and also the list of lines with the restrictions and I was puzzled by a number of things and wondered if you could enlighten me.

Not being allowed to take a bike at all on the Waterloo & City Line makes sense, (not that anyone can do much on the Waterloo & City Line at the moment anyway), but why no bikes at all on the DLR? I'm positive that I have seen people with bikes on it, so is that only a fairly recent rule?

The Victoria Line is entirely underground, so I imagine that might be the reason why you can't take bikes on it, but how come you can use bikes on the sub surface section that of the District Line? Is it anything to do with the depth of the stations there?

Is the rule of not carrying bikes in peak hours due to the amount of space they take up or for some other reason? If it's a space issue, why then are people allowed to carry enormous suitcases the size of small camper vans? Or large rucksacks? Particularly the people who seem to forget they have a rucksack on their back and insist on pirouetting through the carriage, knocking over people who unfortunate enough to be standing behind them.

I'm confused, please help!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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