Welcome to the fun, "irreverent & informative", award-winning London Underground Tube Blog.
Click here for other London Underground guidance. Contact me here

Going Underground's Blog
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Annie Mole's, webmaster of Going Underground, daily web log (blog).
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, THE fun and informative BOOK about travelling
on the London Underground.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Sardine Commuter on packed trains

What if it's too busy for Sardine Man to get on?

Yesterday
Transport 2000 re-started their "Sardine Man" campaign to highlight some of the most overcrowded train journeys in England & Wales. They aim to encourage the Government to increase capacity and relieve congestion on the railways. I'd to see him pressed up against commuters on the Tube.

Sardine Man on North London Train from the London Paper

The Top Ten (with percentages of over capacity) only included one route into London so all of you out of towners have my sympathy if any of these are part of your daily commute:

1. Durham to Newcastle (7:59 train): 88%
2. Cambridge to London Liverpool Street (8:02 train): 85%
3. Eccleston Park to Liverpool Lime Street (7:53 train): 85%
4. Cardiff to Maesteg (17:21 train): 78%
5. Humphrey Park to Manchester Oxford Road (8:14 train): 75%
6. Morpeth to Newcastle (8:00 train): 58%
7. Barnsley to Leeds (7:31 train): 57%
8. Sheffield to Leeds (7:14 train): 53%
9. Sutton to Luton (16:33 train): 50%
10. Northampton to Birmingham New Street (7:00 train): 45%

As a number of animals (or non humans) are blogging now (pigeons & dogs), it's no surprise to see that SardineMan has his own blog. His entry for the 26th March has a surprising start:

"It's Monday morning. It's 8:30am and like millions of Britons I've not long wiped the scales from my eyes, so I can be forgiven for being a bit bleary. But casting another fish-eyed look over the carriage confirms what I first suspected – there are empty seats on this train!

Wait a second... this train's EMPTY!

Does that mean my one-fish odyssey across Britain’s most crowded rail routes is over before it's begun?
"

But we learn that he's headed out of London and is studying trains that are "off lease" and have been shunted into storage:

"If trains on commuter routes in the South East are packed, what's all this rolling stock doing in the sidings? Shouldn't it be out there getting used by the train operators so that there's more space available on trains? The idea of rows and rows of empty carriages lying idle just seemed ridiculous.......

As I survey the carriages glinting in the spring sunshine all I can think about is those poor, unfortunate commuters I saw this morning. I'm sure they’d have appreciated a few extra carriages on their train.

I head for a hostelry nearby and order up a pint of Coddingtons with a Skipjack Daniels to chase. Yes, yes it's only mid-morning but us fish have to keep well-oiled – and I need to sit down and figure this out!

I am Sardine Man – hear me bore!
."

He then goes on to explain "no growth franchises" which train operators received in the nineties in the rest of his blog post. Watch out for his next post and if you're on any the overcrowded routes see if you get a picture.


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 27, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/sardine-commuter-on-packed-trains.html

Monday, March 26, 2007

St John's Wood mock attack

St Johns's Wood Tube station photo by Flambard

Yesterday, the only Tube station that has nothing in common with a mackerel had a deadly gas attack simulation to see how quickly toxic substances would spread in a real terrorist situation. Scientists released harmless sulphur hexafluoiride (a gas used in tennis balls) into parts of the station and then meausured air flow and penetration levels. The station was open as normal during the exercise and apparently will be repeated this coming Sunday.

Just in case you were wondering "The St John's Wood trials were announced earlier this month by Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander who made clear the tests were not a reaction to any threat increase or a measure to enhance security at Tube stations." according to the report on 24 dash

A Department for Transport official said: "We want to be able to find out how quickly the substance moves around and where it goes to.

"St John's Wood was chosen as a typical Tube station with just one way in and out and with one up and one down escalator."

Were you around the station at all on Sunday and did you notice anything?

I wonder if the experiment will be repeated on the trains themselves though. I caught a really sulphuric whiff of something on my Piccadilly Line carriage this morning. But in true Tube form, no one else showed any signs of noticing the rotten egg smell - which fortunately disappeared after a minute or so.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, March 26, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/st-johns-wood-mock-attack.html

Thursday, March 22, 2007

July 7th London Bombings Arrests

Three men have been arrested in connection with the July 7 London bombings

The first significant arrests have just been made in connection with the July 7th bombings where 52 people were killed on the London Underground and a London bus.

"They were arrested by Scotland Yard officers from the force's Counter Terrorism Command. Two men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested shortly before 1pm at Manchester Airport when they were due to catch a flight to Pakistan. A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds shortly after 4pm." from
Yahoo News

The suspects were taken to a central London police station to be questioned. Searches were underway at five houses in the Leeds area and two premises in east London, the police said.

No one has yet been charged in connection with the July 7th attacks, in which all four bombers died.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 22, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/july-7th-london-bombings-arrests.html

Oystercard Wallet Designs

Tired of your blue wallet?

If you want a new look Oystercard wallet or even a new look Oystercard, pop along to
Badoyster.co.uk
Bad Oyster

Badoyster was recently launched by Ben & Tim who said "After decades of putting up with the diabolical underground service and the heavy handed tactics employed in the switch-over to the new Oyster system enough was enough. We'd succumb to the pressure and buy Oyster cards... but only if we got to re-brand them to show what we thought of the 'service' we were being forced to pay an extortionate amount of money for."

Currently you can choose from Sardines, or a Roulette design - "Every day on the tube is like a game of roulette. What excuse will it be today? The excitement never ends!". But hopefully they'll create more designs in the future.

Thanks to Cath for initally giving me the heads up on this.

Also if you feel like doing your bit for charity and want a designer wallet, on Sunday Oxfam launched some exclusive designs for the wallet that have "have totally transformed the ubiquitous travel cardholder, which has become an iconic symbol for modern city dwellers."

Oxfam Oystercard Wallets

You can buy them for £4.99 from Oxfam's Notting Hill and Westbourne Grove stores in London or get them from Oxfam's eBay store for a limited period. Alternatively, you can get one for free if you sign up to the I'm In campaign through Oxfam's street teams, who will be on the streets of London from Monday March 26.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 22, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/oystercard-wallet-designs.html

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Preview TfL's new website

90% of visitors are looking for travel information!

TfL website preview

In what will be a surprise to no one, ninety per cent of visitors come to TfL's website looking for travel related information. I'd be quite interested to know what the other 10% are looking for. Although, I imagine there's a number looking for jobs and careers. You'll be pleased to hear that the Transport for London website is getting an overhaul sometime this month, basically making it easier for you to find that travel related info.

We can be thankful that the horrible ticker tape of Travel Delays is dying a death and that service updates are going to prominently positioned on most pages of the site. Also the refunds section looks like it will be a little easier to find, as I've lost count of the amount of times my colleagues have asked for that link.

It's surprising that only 20% of visitors come to the site looking for a Tube map, as if I was a betting woman, I would have put the percent much higher than that.

Overall, it looks a lot cleaner and I'm sure the larger top navigation buttons will were built with accessibility in mind. Hopefully, the new search powered by Google will pull up the most relevant results as the current search facility isn't great and I rarely get the results I'm looking for on the first few entries.

Sadly there's no user generated, trendy, Web 2.0 features though. I'd love to drag and drop round items that were most interesting to me. Maybe one day we'll see something approximating a message board or at least an online polling facility. Even if they were worried about publishing the results immediately it would give us the impression that we could have some input on the site.

Check out the animated walk-through with polite audio commentary, which hopes we find "the new website a great experience".

Anything else you'd like to see on TfL's site if you were giving it an overhaul?


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/preview-tfls-new-website.html

Monday, March 19, 2007

Waterloo & City Line Mobile Trial

Almost on an annual basis we're promised mobile phones on the Tube. For me, it's not going to make a huge difference as half of my journey is overground and I'm used to hearing - "I'm on the train", or "Just about to go into a tunnel so can't speak". But for the more subterranean of you, I wonder if it'll be more of a help or hindrance. 45% of the Tube's network is below ground and out of current mobile network coverage.

Photo by Alexander Boden

In an LU survey of 1,007 respondents conducted in February, 34% said that if it were available they would be very likely to use a mobile phone in all parts of the Tube, including trains and stations. A total of 22% said they would be fairly likely to use a mobile, 19% not very likely, however 23% said not at all likely.

Around a year ago Tfl said "It is our intention to commence a trial at a small number of Tube stations in late 2007 with the aim of introducing mobile phone and new technology provision at stations from summer 2008."

Last week it appears that the technology was trickier to install and it's been delayed by another year "The earliest the trial will begin is in April next year and if it is successful, will be extended across the Tube network. LU said the earliest date mobile phone coverage could be extended across the Tube network is mid-2009."

The Waterloo & City Line will have a six month trial so if you want to hear lots of conversations about people's bonuses and how stressed and over-worked they are you know where to head. Or not.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, March 19, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/waterloo-city-line-mobile-trial.html

Friday, March 16, 2007

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Once again Friday's look at Tube Fashion Victims, TFV's or travellers spotted on the Underground who could be considered as suspects for a fashion police line up.

This week's with the brighter weather we've had there's been a number of spots of the cardinal sin of shades worn inside.

Love Shades

We were underground on the Tube here, so there really isn't a need to keep your shades on, unless you want to spread some lurve to the person sitting next to you

Love shades


Oversized shades

Definitely a Nicole Richie / Posh Spice / Lindsay Lohan oversized frame or aviator goggles look here. We hadn't quite gone underground when I took the picture, but when we went underground she kept the shades on and carried on reading.

Shades inside

Dog Bag

I did a double take when I first saw this as I initially thought it was a dog wearing a leather coat:

Dog Bag

Sadly it wasn't.

That's it for now. The previous set of victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, March 16, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/london-underground-fashion-victims_16.html

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Dangerous Tube Door

2nd most dangerous door on the Tube

It doesn't quite have the same frightening edge to us commuters as
this, but as a member of staff I'd think twice about bursting through this door at Leicester Square Tube.

Tubelines Dangerous Door

Particularly if I was desperate for a loo break, didn't have any earphones on me and PPEmart were fresh out of PPEs.


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/dangerous-tube-door.html

Monday, March 12, 2007

BBC4 Tube Night

An evening of TV Tube goodies

BBC4's Tube NightIf you watch BBC4 you've probably seen the trailers for Tube Night which is a full evening of treats from the BBC's drama and documentary archive (including Underground Ernie & vintage Dr Who - the BBC built sets of stations and tunnels which were so realistic that London Transport accused them of sneaking a film crew in without authorisation) plus a rarely seen 1950s gem about night workers from the vaults of Transport for London. The programme was commissioned following the success of last year's Bus Night and has been produced by the same team - Lone Star Productions.

Robert Elms will be hosting the night from 8pm on Sunday 18th March (Mother's Day) and look out for Arena at 9pm with a cast of key characters including me! I spent a day with director Zimena Percival & the production team on this last year and am (sort of) looking forward to seeing the resulting five minutes.

Londonist imagined that I'd be "drooling over this kind of evening in front of the TV", however I'll be hoping that I don't look like too much of a nutter, as we filmed some fairly silly looking parts as well as the more serious aspect of the blog's reaction to July 7th. "Her apparently flippant website became a nexus for all things underground on July 7th. Annie shows us the world she opened up before and after the atrocities of that day."

However, the rest of Arena looks fascinating and will begin 150 years ago in a Victorian London of slums and gaslight and come up to the present day with yours truly. I'm particularly looking forward to this part "Dr Peter Collett - presenter of Channel 4's Bodytalk and one of the original psychologists on Big Brother comments on the unique, sometimes downright weird behaviour to be found on the Tube".

If you have any Tube stories you'd like to share for Tube Night on the BBC's site please fire away!


; Posted by Unknown Monday, March 12, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/bbc4-tube-night.html

Friday, March 09, 2007

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

It's Friday and time again for the TFV's or Tube Fashion Victims, commuters spotted on the Underground following a trend or with their own special take on a trend. This week's theme is one that Oscar Wilde would be proud of...... handbags.

Bag Jewellery

I've seen a lot of women with various key rings or "jewellery" attached to their bags but never quite as many as this lady's.

Bag Jewellery Overload

Perhaps her aim is to have more on the outside of the bag than there is on the inside.

Crown Jewels?

I'm not sure if the latest trend in bags has anything to do Helen Mirren's success with The Queen, but there's a growing amount of women carrying bags with crowns on them.

Crown Jewel Bag

I thought it might have been an overseas trend originally, as these girls had come in from Heathrow and were speaking in a language I didn't recognise. The girl opposite also had a matching bag.

But I saw another one on Tuesday and this woman was sans luggage and wearing some street shiny Reeboks, and had a wearied regular commuter look about her.

Crown Jewel Bag

Can someone please explain these bags? Have they replaced the metallic bags of 2005/2006? I'm assuming they're a "knock off" or replica of some expensive design. I could only spend so long looking at designer bags on The Bag Lady Blog without feeling demented. I only managed to spot a few bags with smaller crowns on them - most notably one with a fly wearing a crown, so someone, somewhere must be responsible for these crowns. Who is it?

That's it for now. The previous set of victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, March 09, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/london-underground-fashion-victims.html

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Filming on the Tube

Hot Fuzz and Passenger

TfL are waxing lyrical about parts of
The Good Shepherd being shot on the Tube. If you've seen it or plan to TfL say "look out for the scenes featuring Matt Damon and Michael Gambon in an Underground station (Aldwych) which is doubling up as an air raid shelter ......The design team from Universal Pictures took a couple of weeks to create the set to make the station look like a 1940s station being used as an air raid shelter..... Filming was complete within two days. And within a week, it was as if they’d never been.’

Hot Fuzz trailer

Marc spotted that the trailer for Hot Fuzz features a miserable looking Simon Pegg in a tube carriage. As I've not seen straphangers like that for quite some time, I'm presuming it was filmed in a set or at the London Transport Museum. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Also perhaps you can identify which disused station was used for this video "Wicked Man's Rest" from the band Passenger.

click to watch the video

click to watch the video

Stewart B sent this to me and it looks very similar to the tunnel in the Prodigy's Firestarter which was filmed at Aldwych.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 08, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/filming-on-tube.html

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Some things never change

District Line DelaysI've really had a record fortnight of making Customer charter refund claims on the District Line.

It felt a bit like Groundhog day. I left the house in the morning and there was a film crew outside my local Indian restaurant. Got to the station - District Line screwed. Returning home at the end of the day, the District Line was still screwed, but at least the film crew had moved their position by 20 yards and were now outside my local chippie.

It was heartening (I think) that the drivers sounded as fed up as all the passengers this morning. On leaving Gunnersbury we had the following warning of the short sharp stop the train would be making, just so we could actually get anywhere. You'll note more than a touch of exasperation and "let's get a move on" in his voice as he says "Mind the doors".

When we got to the next station at 9.30 our driver kindly reminded us of just how delayed we were. "This train should have been here at 9.11". This makes filling in your customer charter claim so much easier.

Throughout the day my Twitter Tube Tracker told me that the District Line was still screwed between Turnham Green and Richmond

Twitter Tube Tracker

At Leicester Square I was greeted with the image at the top of this post. So more than ten hours later the line was still screwed due to the earlier delays at Gunnersbury. I'm not sure why the "MINOR DELAYS" warranted capital letters though, perhaps minor delays are somehow seen as more important than severe delays. Who knows?


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 06, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/some-things-never-change.html

Monday, March 05, 2007

Commuting Sleeping Jacket

Where can I get one?

I can fall asleep virtually anywhere and I've lost count now of the amount of times I've fallen asleep on the Tube. However, it appears that some people need help falling asleep on public transport and
Matthew Gale has designed a jacket purely for that purpose:

He said "During research I learned that people can sleep when their bodies are held in a rigid state as opposed to only a soft and yielding state - similar to most beds. I applied this concept to the Excubo jacket - a jacket that transforms into a firm and protective shell around the user."

Excubo Sleeping jacket in Metro

Excubo is Latin for "I sleep outside", and it doesn't just hold you upright (handy for fellow passengers) but it also serves as a duvet, sleeping mask, mittens and a pillow. Gale, from San Franciso, came up with the idea after watching fellow commuters struggle to stay awake.

He's now in talks with manufacturers to mass produce the jacket to sell around the US and the UK.

Looks like they are clearly needed for these people:

Sleeping on the Central Line

Oops
That was a jolly jape from his "friends" - they just poured water on him while he was sleeping - he hadn't wet himself

Full set of Sleeping Tube Commuters here.


All the sleeping jacket guy needs is a partnership with the guys who produce the "wake me up at" stickers and he's onto a winner.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, March 05, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/commuting-sleeping-jacket.html

Saturday, March 03, 2007

London's Transport in Miniature

See the London Underground running like clockwork

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"....whatever that means.


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."

The weekend will also feature rides aboard the Museum's own miniature railway, plus craft activities for all the family.

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.

Here's a report from the last time I went.

Have fun.


; Posted by Unknown Saturday, March 03, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/londons-transport-in-miniature.html

Thursday, March 01, 2007

RMT calls off Tube Strike

If you're looking for news on the
April 2008 Tube Strike please click here

Although there was a three-to-one vote in favour of strike action on February 19 by RMT's 6,500 London Underground members, you'll be pleased to hear that threatened strike has been called off. LUL have agreed to the four per cent wage increase, with no strings attached.

The RMT's site says "the breakthrough was due to the fact that the union's LUL members had shown they were not prepared to be pushed around."

Union leader Bob Crow added: "Management's decision has, at last, opened the way for the implementation of last year's pay deal. If London Underground management had not attempted to attach strings to the deal in the first place then we could have drawn a line under this matter more than a year ago."

The three-year agreement runs from April 2006 to April 2009 and provides for the following pay increases:

* Year 1 (payable from April 2006): 4 per cent
* Year 2 (payable from April 2007): RPI+0.5 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)
* Year 3 (payable from April 2008): RPI+0.6 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)

All Underground staff are also eligible for a bonus of £250 or £500 each year if customer satisfaction targets are met or exceeded. Ah that's just reminded me to put in my second customer charter refund claim of the day, but I digress.

Sheriff Ken said "This three-year agreement is great news for both Tube passengers and staff and is a real landmark achievement. Passengers will benefit from the stability provided by the first three-year deal for all staff in the history of the Underground."


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 01, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/03/rmt-calls-off-tube-strike.html

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Walkers Tube Map

No, crisp giant Walkers haven't decided to sponsor the Tube Map, but a group of postgraduate students from Central St Martin's College of Art have put together a map for zone 1 which shows the
walking distances between London Underground Stations. It's a pretty impressive project which they only had a week to put together and they managed to meet their aim of "creating a buzz about a topic to affect positive change."

Detail from students' map - click to enlarge


Tube map "fans" may remember that in 2003 rodcorp put together a map of the entire network, which showed when it would probably be quicker to walk rather than take the Tube and there's obviously comparisons to be made.

Detail from rodcorp's map - click to enlarge

The students hope that their project will cut overcrowding on the Tube and encourage more people to switch to a healthy & environmentally friendly transport alternative - ie walking. Whereas Rodcorp's map points out that in a number of cases it's simply quicker to walk and he sees it as "an interesting exercise".

Students Walking Tube Map - London Lite - 26th Feb 2007Rodcorp's map (which was mentioned on BBC London News) is based on station to station distances, whereas the students spent one week walking between Tube stations and noting how long it took.

Sara Palocios said "It was a very hectic week and we were really tired by the end of it." She admits that some timings may challenge slower walkers and says they were calculated on a "moderate speed". "For example I walked between High Street Ken and Notting Hill Gate in 12 minutes at quite a fast rate. It's not a relaxing walk but as if you were in a bit of a hurry".

The students were featured in London Lite and The Evening Standard yesterday and have been handing out the maps at Holborn Tube. According the papers they now plan to patent the map after making some changes to deal with copyright issues.

Coincidentally, coming home last night I noticed that Flora are running a campaign on the side of buses with the message "Could you walk it quicker?".

Picture taken by Blech

Apparently they are on taxis too. But I wonder if the Tube would ever be brave enough to carry this type of advertising wrapped around a whole train?

There are a number of posters in carriages encouraging people to walk between Leicester Square & Covent Garden mainly to ease congestion rather than for speed or health reasons though. Perhaps if Rodcorp's and the students maps become more popular, we may find TfL endorsing the maps in some way or even creating official versions. Although I'm sure there'd be various legal riders on the map about when the walking was carried out and no end of argument about how fast an average walker walks.


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/02/walkers-tube-map.html

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Tube Delay Refund Record

Customer Charter RefundTfL pays five million quid in three years

I often wondered how many people used the Customer Charter refund for delays on the Tube and now I know. Yesterday figures were released which showed a record number of claims for delays on the London Underground. The total number of claims almost doubled from 261,725 in 2004 to 447,626 last year.

The Metropolitan line had the highest number of complaints last year, with 97,773 passengers applying for refunds, up from 60,853 in 2004 - but down from 111,504 in 2005.

The Central line was also poor with 92,336 refunds last year, compared with 58,783 in 2004, and surprsingly the Northern line was third on the list with 56,805 claims, compared with 29,755 two years before. Perhaps delays are such an everyday occurance on the Misery Line that it becomes a normal part of the journey and regular commuters can't be bothered.

The number of refunds claimed from commuters using the Piccadilly line more than doubled, from 25,282 in 2004 to 51,619 last year.

The Waterloo & City line was the only line to show a fall - but that's probably because it wasn't running for much of the time and was closed for five months.

Stephen Hammond, MP for Wimbledon and the Conservative transport spokesman who uncovered the figures said they showed the Mayor was not delivering value for money.

He said: "Ken Livingstone talks a great deal about his £10billion investment plan for London transport. These figures show just how little he has achieved with all that money. The Mayor's council tax precept keeps on rising and fares have gone through the roof but commuters' journeys just get worse."

According to the Evening Standard TfL were unavailable for comment. I would urge people to keep claiming when they get delayed. Less than half a million claims in a year is still a drop in the ocean considering there were 971 million passenger journeys in 2005/2006. This year I've already received £20 from the Customer Charter refunds for delays on the District Line and it's not even two months into the year. It takes about three minutes to make your claim and at the moment the refunds have come back within a few weeks.


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 27, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/02/tube-delay-refund-record.html

Monday, February 26, 2007

Not on the London Underground

Roundels not on the Tube

Thanks to
Jon Allen for managing to spot a very realistic looking Abbey Road in Seoul. He said "It's for a cafe/bar in the Apgujeong district of Seoul."

Abbey Road Soeul


Also Lewis' spot in York, means that TfL's lawyers won't have too far to travel if they think this is an infringement of the use of the roundel:

York pub map


Lewis said: "Slight rip-off of the Harry Beck classic here; showing locations of various pubs in the York area. I think the lines are supposed to be bus routes, but they're numbered and coloured wrong if so..."

Thanks to both, and please, keep them coming in so I can add to the growing Flickr set.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, February 26, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/02/not-on-london-underground_26.html

Friday, February 23, 2007

London Underground Fashions Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

It's Friday and time again for the TFV's or Tube Fashion Victims, commuters spotted on the Underground with their own special look.

Backwards Coat

A guest post this week snapped by
John Spier at Kings Cross

Backwards coat taken by John Spier

He said, "It appears to be a coat with the buttons on the back!". Which begs the questions - did it have matching buttons on the front? Or perhaps there were no buttons on the front and she was going for the straitjacket or rather straitcoat look.

When your man bag's too small

Nice Metrosexual look going on here:

Man bag too small for gloves

Gucci designer belt, check. Calvin Klein underwear showing at just the right level, check. Over shoulder man bag, check. Box fresh white trainers, check. Woolly gloves hanging from belt. Erm, not so sure.

I suppose it puts you in a bit of a quandary when your pockets are too small to hold your gloves. Particularly if you don't want any disturbance to the smooth lines of your skinny jeans or denim jacket. But why didn't he put them in his man bag? I could be doing him a disservice here, as it might not be a man bag, but a camera bag. Although judging by the rest of the metrosexual look, I think my first instinct is correct. Perhaps it's an unusual winter version of the hanky code.

That's it for now. The previous set of victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 23, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/02/london-underground-fashions-victims.html

Metro's Brit Blog Awards

Metro's Brit Blog AwardsSpeaking of Metrosexual

If you picked up yesterday's Metro you'll see that they are running some awards for the best British Blogs. Bless their little cotton socks as Metro suggested a number of blogs including this one as possible nomination fodder.

They said "With millions of blogs out in the wild, picking out 'the best' is simply impossible (and obviously, we don't want to influence your nominations for the awards). But here's some British blogs that a lot of people like, that we like, and we think you might too".

To nominate the blogs you like or submit your own (there are eight categories Arts and Entertainment, Fashion, Sport, Politics, Travel, Technology, Youth, and Weird & Wonderful) visit this link.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 23, 2007 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/02/metros-brit-blog-awards.html
NEWER POSTS ........ OLDER POSTS