Old Street Station & Tube puking

Had an enormously entertaining time (first thai food then pub) with some friends on Friday night and we all ended up going home from Old Street station:


Sizemore & others (Rob, STML, Bookpirate Ben, Lyn, Jessa and Mecca) were going back to his & Jess's place to look at their kittens, but I decided to bail out and head straight home.

I took the shot above after a few drinks, so I was amazed to see Old Street, on the roundel sign, coming through quite well.

About 10 minutes later Sizemore took a picture of an alternative scene at Old Street.


Sizemore said "The guy was puking for a looooong time. The carton (at his feet) was passed to him by a concerned passer by but he was too far gone to take it. THEN he got on the same Tube as us. When we got off a new set of concerned passengers were asking him if he was OK. I think he threw up on them.

And then there was the smell from an entirely different part of the Tube to contend with."


Like Mecca, I wonder whether this was all part of "the big stink"?

Marie F aka Tiger's Hungry, had a similar pukey experience on Wednesday night. She wrote: "I don't know how many people have seen Armando Iannuci's Tube Tales 'Mouth' segment - but it comes to mind quite vividly when I recount last night's journey home post the Forgetting Sarah Marshall screening.


She continues: "It was 11pm going eastbound on the Piccadilly line - around Leicester Sq. She was an amiable looking blonde lady (in hindsight maybe a little green around the gills) - that was until just she opened her mouth and projectiled the contents of her stomach across the end of the carriage.

"After an initial few moments of gawping most of the carriage quickly herded down the other end covering their mouths and offering the occasional insightful 'oh that's gross' - but I was happy to see other sympathetic travellers fumbling in their bags to offer her tissues (to her testament I think it was genuine 'not wellness' to blame rather than booze). She quickly departed at the next stop leaving a gaggle of tourists scrabbling to relocate their sick laden luggage.

"Yes the smell was bad for me, but at least it wasn't as bad as enduring what happened to the poor guy who got on at Holborn. Hastily boarding the carriage he lost his footing and after a few moments scrabbling about in the mess ended up on bended knee in the epicentre of events. To quote the experience in his words 'Oh f**ing lovely'. Yet he still valiantly took a hit for the team and stayed on the little end of carriage perch to warn fellow boarding travellers of the perils that lay within - and thankfully there was only a few future slippy near misses.

"Some nice guy offered him tissues to clean his trousers up, I had no tissues- so I just evilly laughed. It didn't really feel appropriate to take photos of the misfortune - but there is an artist's impression of events." (above)

Ah the joys of London Underground travel.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 20, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Terminal 5 Spoof Song could be real record

As some of you know I'm not a great lover of Heathrow Terminal 5, so it was with some joy that I learnt from Metro that a spoof song mocking the airport, has been played on the radio, is an internet hit and could be made into a single.


"The Terminal 5 Song is delivered in a rap style with lines such as: "It's the biggest terminal we've ever seen, It's a bigger disaster, you all know what I mean."

The song & video were dreamt up by Tim Soong, whose wedding plans were disrupted after British Airways lost his luggage last year, including bride's wedding dress and best man's suit. The mixture of repressed Englishness with the rapping works well and I like how other countries such as Greece, France, Spain & The People's Republic of China are mocked up using somewhere distinctively London looking.

The chorus is "I went down to get my bags, but I'm in France, and my bags are still in Terminal 5, Terminal 5, Terminal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" Repeat with other countries instead of France.

You can get a free mp3 download of the song here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 20, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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TfL paycuts from Boris

"Boris Johnson has pledged to shake up Transport for London, where more than 100 staff pocket more than £100,000 a year, if he becomes mayor".


Johnson said "Hard working Londoners will find it shocking that this many executives inside of TfL are earning so much money."

A TfL spokesperson obviously fought back claiming the executives were worth their salaries. He said: "This year's annual budget of £7.8 billion is the equivalent of a top 50 FTSE 100 company."

Mmm I wonder what Boris earns?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 18, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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ASLEF protesting at Three & Out Premiere

Have ASLEF members not got anything better to do than hand out leaflets of protest against the premiere of Tube movie Three and Out?


The film premieres at Leceister Square on Monday and some trains drivers will be saying "down with this sort of thing", as led by general secretary Keith Norman, they believe that suicide is no laughing matter.

They will be handing out leaflets at the premiere which say "We hope you enjoy the movie tonight, but please remember that for train drivers like ourselves, deaths on the railway are never funny."

You may remember Aslef were up in arms about this before. "The row has increased after three people died on the railway lines this week: a couple in Essex and a 66-year-old woman killed after getting her foot stuck on a pedestrian railway crossing."

Keith Norman, general secretary of Aslef, said yesterday: "Last year 249 bodies ended up under trains. Of these, 194 were classified by the Rail Safety and Standards Board as suicides or suspected suicides.

"Behind each of these is undeniably a terrible and tragic story of loneliness and despair. The union's specific concern is a secondary victim - and that is the driver."

The film makers are naturally disappointed that ASLEF have reacted in this way. They added that everyone involved in the movie was aware of the "heartfelt issues that the film raises", and that filming was carried out "in close cooperation with London Underground".

Having seen the film already I would totally agree, the film doesn't laugh at suicide but actually makes you wonder how far you would go to carry out a certain action.

Update 18th April - from BBC's site - Lead actor Mackenzie Crook was asked: "if he was anticipating a backlash, Crook said he was more concerned "about seeing chewing gum on the end of my nose".

"I don't expect to be pelted with eggs or anything like that," he continued when asked if he had any concerns about using the Tube in future.

He did admit, however, it was "disconcerting" to see his face featured so prominently on the promotional material."

Good on Mackenzie Crook!

Update 19th April - Very interesting development "Keith & Barry" have left a comment to this post of something that's purporting to be an apology from LU MD Tim O'Toole to his staff about Three & Out. I'm assuming "Keith & Barry" are LU staff. The memo sounds authentic enough to me and not a spoof from someone posing as Tim O'Toole.

As "Keith & Barry" say, funny that LU were happy enough to take production company's money for shooting parts of the film on the London Underground itself. Also as O'Toole says the ads that are now running all over the network don't contravene any of CBS Outdoor's standards so they can't pull them (were also quite happy to take the revenue from the ads too), without risking any more bad publicity - for themselves - in my opinion.

It seems to be slightly errr ... weird to be apologising to staff now, and not to have thought about this in advance. Presumably, they didn't know that ASLEF would take such a massive disapproval of the film (forget for the moment whether ASLEF saw the film or not).

If the memo is a spoof I take back my thoughts above. But if it isn't Three and Out is getting more and more interesting as a film by the moment!

Update 23rd April - Get to see a copy of the leaflet that ASLEF handed out at the premiere plus red carpet pictures of Mackenzie Crook & Gemma Arterton.


Update 25th April - Three and Out is released nationwide. Later that evening Three and Out film makers announce they plan to sue LU for Tim O'Toole's comments.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 18, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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1938 Art Deco Tube train outing Sunday 20 April 2008

Thanks to a colleague I've just learnt that this Sunday the fab London Tranpsort Museum are arranging a number of special trips on 1938 stock train. The trains leave Ealing Common station at 11.07am, 1.07pm and 3.07pm. The round trip takes approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.

"The elegant interior, with varnished wood, red and green finishes and art deco lampshades, has a warm and cosy appearance."

Tickets cost £26 (£22 for concessions) and must be booked in advance on 0207 565 7298.


I may well try to go along to this as I don't live far from Ealing and I LOVE the general 1920's 1930's Poirot era so it would be a great opportunity for some pictures and that "luxury" Orient Express feel.

May also be nice for Kris & her son who are flying over from Hawaii (weirdly enough the setting of the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall) today, so will see if they are up for it too.

Update - they are on for it so the three of us will be going on Sunday - really looking forward to it. We'll be on the 3.07pm train. Plus I must say a massive thanks to the Community side of the London Transport Museum who gave me one free ticket for this for helping to arrange the Flickr meetup there.

PS: Next week I will do a full update post from our Flickr Mini LT Museum Meet Up & mini competition at the museum, as they winning photos are now on the museum's website.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 17, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Review & Bloggers Preview Screening

Many thanks to Sizemore for the invite to me and a number of my blogging friends to go and see Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. If you're in London you many have seen the ads featuring our very own Russell Brand gracing the sides of buses:


I must admit, I wasn't expecting a lot of the film. I think Russell Brand is funny, but couldn't really imagine him playing anyone else other than Russell Brand. Plus I
had actually never seen anything the other lead actors, Jason Segel, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis had been in (although apparently they're very famous in the US).

In a nutshell the film calls itself a "romantic disaster comedy" and is about one guy - Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) trying to get over the heartache of being dumped by Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). She dumps him for Brit rockstar lothario - Aldous Snow, played by - you've guessed it - Russell Brand.

The film was absolutely hysterical - really laugh out loud funny, as the small screening of 30 odd bloggers testified (that's odd in number rather than odd, odd - but then again...).

Right from the start and as you can partly see from the trailer below, Segel's character gets dumped when he's butt nekkid. You think the camera will pan down the naked Segel and then tastefully stop to prevent offending the viewers. But no, it goes all the way down, (he's bollox naked) making the audience share Segel's humiliation & embarrassment. He refuses to dress thinking that she wouldn't have the gall to dump him in that way - he's wrong, she's a shallow actress does the dirty deed, leaving him sobbing (something he does for much of the film).

Russell Brand plays himself basically, and it works perfectly for the film (except Brand isn't really a pop star). Producer Judd Apatow said: "After we met Russell, we tailored the part to who he is. He has this very flamboyant nature, and we knew we had to turn his character into a rock star, because he looks so good in leather pants. Russell was the find of the century.... oozing with undeniable sexual energy and rock star good looks .... I realised he was the dude. We did a complete rewrite for him."

I loved the comedy of the US not quite getting the Brits. We're not all like Russell Brand, but we possibly are a bit more "sexually free" than most Americans (I know that's a generalisation but bear with me). Sarah Marshall dumped Peter because she was seeing Russell Brand's character. When Peter finds out for how long he goes mad, and says something like:

"You can't go out with another girl's guy over here. We have a different set of rules. You can't keep behaving like a European".

There were lots of deliberately funny Brit accents coming out from the US characters. We laughed with Brand, as he rolled his eyes and says: "Is that supposed to be a British accent".

You'll see in the trailer below that when Paul Rudd's surfing coach hears Brand speak for the first time he says (adopts rubbish Cockney accent) "You sound like you're from Lahndahn!". To an audience of London bloggers that was music to our ears.


The screening at the private Soho Screening Room was not without its comedic moments. Towards the end of the film, the screen went blank. We thought it may have been part of the film, but then like getting stuck between tunnels on the Tube, the wait in the dark was a bit too long. We laughed nervously and people began to turn on mobile phones to get some light into the room. After about three minutes of joking and laughing amongst ourselves order was restored & the film continued.

Thanks to LJ, Francine, Sandrine & Poppy for being my guests. Mecca also wangled herself a place from Sizemore and brought along some nice people from MOO. Also nice to catch up with James Whatley, Darika, Katie Lee, WarriorGrrl, Tiara Diamond, Londonfilmgeek, & Imajes (& others I didn't catch up with) who may well all be blogging & reviewing too. Overall it was a rocking film and a rocking night, as many of us decamped for food & bevvies afterwards.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is out in Lahndahn and the UK from April 23rd.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 17, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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A London Commuter's Breakfast

I never eat a proper breakfast on weekdays, as I'm usually in too much of a rush and it's just a bad habit that I've got into. The photo below shows my "breakfast" this morning:


I wonder how typical it is of most Londoners' breakfasts on weekdays? A cup of tea or coffee. A probiotic drinking yoghurt or something else that can be glugged down very quickly. I see people on the London Underground all time just drinking coffee or juice or Red Bull or Coke. A few people munch on a croissant or a pastry from a coffee shop. The odd person here or there might be lucky enough to have a bacon roll or sarnie.

The Guardian had an interesting supplement on Saturday which was a guide to The Bigger Breakfast


TimeOut did something similar last week. Sometimes I wish my breakfast looked more like the one above, but how many people can afford to have a lovely breakfast like that every day? The alternative is cafe or caff. The supplement looks at all sorts of places where you can get a good breakfast. There are loads of reviews from a couple of my London blogging & Flickr mates - Russell Davies & Malcolm Eggs (and his reviewers - who have some amazing names!). Both of these guys are really funny, have been blogging for years and they clearly have a love of food (in particular breakfasts). It made their reviews for The Guardian a great & fair read.

But help me out this morning. How typical is this breakfast cafe culture? Tell me what you had or are about to have for breakfast. Was this typical of your normal weekday breakfast? Did you make it yourself or did you buy it in a shop or cafe? Are you going to wait until you get into work and have breakfast at your desk? Does your employer have a canteen or do they provide a kitchen with free brekkie stuff & fruit (mine does) or do you have to bring in your own bread & cereals, jams or whatever? Ta muchly!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Bob Monkhouse now (a)Live on the Tube

Early last month, CBS Outdoor, the people who manage the ads that you see on the London Underground, announced the winners of their Underground Writers Competition. The overall winning campaign was the concept of comedian Bob Monkhouse talking to commuters after his death from Prostate Cancer. Well, every pun intended, the ad is now alive and well on the Tube itself.


It was fab to see it actually on the Tube, which was part of the prize for the agency that created the ad - The Communications Agency.

Bob Monkhouse (who died in 2003) was an all time great comedian - the godfather of the cheesy joke who had enough of a sense of his own cheesiness to survive (just about) into the 21st century. He left a living obituary as part of a TV ad as knew his prostate cancer would kill him.

The underground treatment works perfectly with Bob pushing up daisies and making jokes about the Northern Line. "To cut a long story short I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and two years later I was dead (It's a bit like travelling on the Northern Line only quieter)".

I said it before and I'll say it again, it's a brill campaign. How many of us will ever be lucky enough to continue to make people laugh after we've died? How many of us will know that we're also raising awareness of how to fight the disease that killed us, at the same time?

Seeing the ad in the flesh brought up a mixture of emotions in me. I genuinely get upset when comedians die. There's not enough laughter in this world & I can honestly remember where I was when I heard that many comedy legends had died.

The ad made me think of all the people I know who have died of some form of cancer. It made me think of all the people I know who have died. It made me think about my own death. Yet Bob's cheery face pointing out at me from the grave, making a corny joke about having a finger inserted in his nether regions, made me silently chuckle too.

Rest in peace Bob & keep cracking jokes while you're 6ft under.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Men only subway carriages?

Only in Japan. One of these days I will stop doing these "only in Japan" posts, but the commuters & behaviour on the subway system there, never ceases to amaze me.


Some time back I blogged about the false straphangers that were selling like hotcakes in Japan. They were designed to combat the constant allegations of female groping on the subway there, and so that men could show they had something in their hands other than a woman's arse.


Thanks to a regular commenter Jon, I learn that this has been taken one step further and the idea of men only carriages is being campaigned for.

Japanprobe report on an article in Mainichi Daily News "The recent arrest of an Osaka couple for trying to set up a middle-aged man by falsely accusing him of fondling a woman train traveler has large numbers of salarymen shaking in their boots at the thought of being blackmailed by crafty commuters looking for a quick buck. This has heightened calls on railroad companies to set up sanctuaries where men can travel in peace, safe in the knowledge that they won’t be accused of molestation.

Most railroad companies say they consider the issue a serious one.

'It's true we've received over 20 formal requests for the establishment of men's only carriages since the false accusation arrest (early last month). But actually, we've been receiving requests for theses carriages for a long time now. It's not something that has started recently,' a spokesman for the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau, which runs the city's subway network, tells Weekly Playboy.

But the outlook for men’s only carriages seems dim.

'We get a lot of requests for them and take note of these, but we have no plans regarding carriages exclusively for men at this time,' a spokesman for the East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) says.

Keio Electric Railway Co., which back in 2000 became Japan's first railroad to introduce women's only carriages, also has no current arrangements in place to correct the gender imbalance on its routes."

There's even a book on the subject of false molestation claims and its author, Masaki Ikegami told Weekly Playboy

"It's a sad situation that men have to do a banzai cheer (raise both arms skyward) while commuting (to avoid touching anyone else). Male commuters have got to look after themselves by taking such steps as avoiding standing close to carriage doors, staying well away from female commuters and never being directly behind a woman riding a train. There are loads of people out there who have been falsely accused of groping female train travellers. I have repeatedly called on train companies to set up carriages just for men so that we can offer relief to all those with worries."

It's interesting that this all comes from Weekly Playboy magazine. Wonder if the guys who read it are looking for tips on how not to get accused because they are the very guys doing the groping?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Celebrate The Victoria Line is working all day

Brill photo from Martin Deutsch


It would have been even funnier coming from the Northern Line.

Martin is certainly king of the London Underground Temporary Notices group on Flickr.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Marathon & "Northern Line" Magazine

Very, very regular readers who've been with this blog some years (amazingly there are a few of you left) may remember that I used have a working relationship with the London Marathon and had to attend the expo there for a number of years. In 2004 it led to some strange posts about Train Tourettes Syndrome, Elephant & Gibberish and Rhinos on the Tube.

Later today, I'll probably be watching the London Marathon from my sofa, feeling sorry for my hard working ex colleagues & current friends who'll be cheering on the runners come rain, snow, hail or shine.


So it was nice that another ex-colleague sent me a copy of a fab looking little magazine called the other side. Its rather snappy subtitle is "The cut and thrust of the Northern Line (not a pirate mag) Foisting its way into your heart."


There's the mag pictured next door to my Saucony trainers purchased at the 2004 London Marathon Expo and still going strong (probably through lack of use more than the quality of the brand).

The other side is a bit like smoke london but tries to focus on the Northern Line - a challenge in itself.

Apparently "The Other Side began following a conversation with an elderly gentleman onboard the number 73 bus regarding the London Lite. His exact words were 'I wouldn’t wipe my arse with that drivel.' And lo the Other Side was born.

Not only telling you where to go and what to do along the Northern Line, but also entertaining you as you get there. No more will you have to turn to the tabloid hackery of the gutter press to wile away those infuriating minutes when you're stuck in a tunnel. Now you can open a copy of the lovingly fashioned Other Side and the frustration will melt away!"

This month's edition carries a feature called "Wee Here" - "We've all been there, the Tube pulls into Tottenham Court Road and you're busting for a wizz. It's still at best, a four minute walk to the exits. Then it's decision time; where to go, is it that desperate that you resort to the McDonalds bog or can you hold your bladder long enough to make it to the tranquillity of the Oxford Street department store WCs. ....".

There's stuff on the mayoral elections, and a three page feature on Brit film Son of Rambow. It's wowing the critics at Sundance and is released in the UK next week. The director Garth Jennings is interviewed & Spaced actress Jessica Hynes (formerly Jessica Stephenson) also stars in the film and gives her views on writing & a possible Spaced reunion.

Even though the London Marathon takes the cover spot, the writers are less than impressed with the event "On Sunday April 13th, watch a bunch of ruddy idiots run for ruddy charity and show how amazing they are. Go on. Boost their ego and laugh at the fools who dress up in suits of armour and fall over. If you're lucky a smarmy celebrity will sick their guts up trying to impress the world."

However, you get the opportunity to "Sponsor our ruddy idiot who claims she's running 26 miles for dogs."

If you would like to contribute they are looking for new writers. Like most mags of this size I imagine they won't be able to pay you - but you get valuable exposure which could lead to something else.

Overall it's remarkably like the Northern Line - it's miserable, yet quite funny. It's not exactly polished and could do with some improved finishing, yet it sort of does the job. In magazine terms that's keeping you entertained on your commute. In Northern Line terms that's getting 206,734,000 passengers sort of from A to B each year. I wish them both well.

UPDATE - A few pictures I liked from Sunday's London Marathon:

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 13, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mike Figgis' Soho Composites last day

Today's the last day of Mike Figgis' Soho Composites at the Photographers' Gallery.


You may remember that I wasn't impressed with the last piece of Figgis' London content that I'd come into contact with. It was the rather strange "Considerate Londoners" film for Transport for London that was supposed to show how if Londoners thought about each other a bit more, the whole world - or at least the top deck of a London bus - would be a better place.

I wrote "I love Mike Figgis and thought that Leaving Las Vegas was amazing, but I really wasn't convinced by this film. I wonder how much artistic / creative licence Figgis was given for this, and whether the TfL powers that be turned it into a film made by committee..... It seems a waste of Figgis' talent specially as I bet he wasn't that cheap to hire."

Really pleased to say that Soho Composites was excellent. If you get a chance to go to the gallery today, it's well worth a visit.

"Well known for experimenting with the creative process, Figgis is spending one week prior to the public display intensively photographing in this central London location, and continuing during the week of the exhibition.

The images will be produced and printed on-site over the course of the week, in a temporary studio space within the gallery. These photographs will then be presented on the wall with Figgis adding and subtracting from the previous day's display."

I was pleasantly surprised to see a certain book in the Photographers' Gallery bookshop next door:


Always nice to see something in a bookshop that you helped to produce (I was chief researcher for the book).

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 13, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Liverpool Street Station 6pm Rick Astley - watch out US

I know a number of you saw my little plug for the Rick Astley flash mob / rick roll / rick mob / rock mob / rick rolling, call it what you like, last week. So it's tonight. Literally, I don't know, tens, hundreds, thousands of people will be at Liverpool Street Station shaking their snake hips and singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" to Mr Astley's 1980's masterpiece.


I'm excited. The Americans kind of think they invented flash mobbing at stations - with their No Pants Subway Days and Frozen at Grand Central Station. They're a bit miffed that Rick Astley is taking the limelight at the moment. I was having a drink with Joel Veitch this evening (like you do - sorry I'm such a fan of the dancing penguins and kittens. Waving at LJ, Piero, Matt, Jerome & Nik too) and he pointed out that the BBC had interviewed him about Rick Rolling earlier that day. They dismissed it as a "daft craze".

But back to station flash mobs - that's hundreds of people meeting at an appointed time to do something - anything - the thing is they all do the same thing at the same time. Let's not forget that Victoria Station has been the home to several flash mobs.


Here's another from Victoria station. What about the Circle Line Parties? Eh, Eh. The UK & London can do them too.

I've never seen so many advance notices for a station flash mob in the UK before. It's been on the radio - in fact I'm hearing it on Heart FM as I type this blog post. It's being twittered. (here's me on twitter) Going round on emails. Everything.

The staff at Liverpool Street Station are certainly going to have a fun time.

UPDATE They came they saw they Rick Rolled


From Whatleydude's live blog of the event. Expect to see tons of different views of this on YouTube and any other video sharing site.

The video re-mix below by Rickrollerz rocks. Remember there was NO MUSIC at the actual event so they put this together by taking footage from loads of different people singing to song with their lips moving to exactly the right parts to the song.


I particularly like this picture from Orhan* and his description:


"The crowd, under the electronic board, at exactly 6pm started singing a song by Rick Astley called "Never Gonna Give You Up" to the bemused looks of the commuters watching the spectacle from the balconies, and around the concourse area. After about two minutes singing the crowd disappeared,and everything was back to normal again."

Mmmm really sounds like there was a lot of disruption to hard working commuters by a "bunch of slackers" then. See some of the comments below if you'd like to know what I'm referring too.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 11, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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IKEA take your Tube Map sponsorship to next level

Last month IKEA sponsored the latest version of the London Underground Map (although with Bank / Monument shenanigans another one will be on the cards soon).

However, I wish they would follow the lead of their Japanese counterparts and sponsor and furnish a whole train:




Thanks to Jess & Ian who sent me a link from Pink Tentacle about IKEA's latest initiative. "The Swedish Furniture giant IKEA has converted the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom before the April 14 opening of a new retail outlet at Port Island. The redecorated train, which features a colourful exterior, bright upholstery and fancy curtains, will carry passengers in style until May 6."

That rocks. Please, please, please IKEA do this in London. I'd almost enjoy travelling on the Tube if you did.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 10, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Can the Nothern Line learn from Japan

Hot on the heels of the above story is another - only in Japan - subway story. Check out the video to see subway staff zealously helping to ease the overcrowding situation.


Like me, Matthew who sent the link in doesn't think this happens any more, but I'd be willing to be proved wrong.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 10, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Genius Subway Ad for Wonderbra

Many thanks to Sizemore for sending me the following picture from Singapore's MRT stations.


It plays on the yellow safety line which you have to stand behind to make sure you don't get hurt by oncoming trains or are not so close you could fall. A second yellow "Wonderbra" line implies that if wearing one of their bras you'll need to stand even further back as your boobs will be so much enhanced!

Perhaps it should go alongside the following warning or saucy invitation at Penrith station

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 09, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Time Out London Pub Quiz - MOO stickers arrived!

As I head off to Edinburgh for a couple of days, I remembered that I hadn't put up a picture of the MOO stickers that I made with the left over beer money from the Time Out London Pub Quiz where our team triumphantly.... err ... came last.


My rubbish pictures don't do them much justice here, but they look pretty good in the flesh. The 90 will be divvied up between the team very well and for five quid plus postage they were a bobby bargain.


I should have got more and in fact I've just discovered there's an even bigger incentive to get more, as for all of April you can make MOO stickers with your own favourite photos and get three packs of MOO stickers for the price of two! Result.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, April 07, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Even more Snow on the Tube

Getting slightly tired of this snow business now. You might think the London Underground looks good in the snow, but it's the 6th April. It's not supposed to be snowing in London. It's the London Marathon in a week or so's time, I remember watching that in a heatwave - now everyone's going to be wearing snow boots at this rate.

Tomorrow I fly off to Edinburgh for work (sorry carbon footprint). That's going to be fun and games if the weather is like this. The only good thing about this morning so far is that we haven't got an April Tube Strike. Hoorah!

UPDATE If anyone has any snowy pictures from London & Greater London Boroughs you might want to add them to a Flickr group that's been created called Snowday London

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, April 06, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Bank Monument interchange in photos

Hoorah, now that we haven't got the Tube Strike to moan about, let's have a look at subject you have been discussing in quite some depth all week.


If you look at Flashboy's photo above you'll see it all: confusion, overcrowding, boredom, fuzziness - that's it - the Bank / Monument interchange problem.

Flashboy said: "This isn't the really bad bit of overcrowding... I couldn't take a picture of that, because I couldn't move my arm."

Check out what he says on the flickr page to the photo below:

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Flashboy himself has made a post on the whole situation at Bank which makes for interesting reading too. There's also an update.

Luckily I don't have to use it, so you'll notice I've been pretty quiet in the comments (most unlike me I know), but you've been doing such a sterling job at discussing this all week I'll leave you to it. Carry on making any further comments there, unless you want to use this post to comment purely on Flashboy's photos or his post. Thanks.

Related articles

• No interchange at Bank and Monument stations [via Zemanta]

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, April 05, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Thousands trapped on London Underground

Around 5,000 commuters were stuck in Tube trains for around three hours last night when the entire Jubilee Line suffered a power failure. Nine Jubilee Line trains stalled at around 6pm on Thursday night, following a loss of power at the Jubilee line control centre in Neasden, north-west London. The passengers were walked through tunnels to get out.


The BBC spoke to one commuter who was on the trains who sounded remarkably calm about it all "We were getting regular communication from the driver, but he had no way of finding out what was going on. He was getting frustrated too.

"Some passengers did try and prise the doors open as after an hour or so as it was very stuffy and you really felt like you couldn't breathe."

She added that people shared food around and were happy to give up seats for others.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said: "Staff from across the Jubilee and Northern lines were called in to assist with the detrainment process.

"Emergency services were called as is standard in these type of situations. However, no customers required medical assistance."

The trains started running again at about twenty to nine at night.

If you were on one of those trains last night, I'd love to hear about what you felt. Many thanks.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 04, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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