Tube Sick

I was interviewed by Londonist over the weekend as part of their new series featuring London bloggers. The final question they asked me was whether I'd ever been sick on the Tube. I thought, that's a cool, yet yucky question for me (although later found out it's one of their signature questions). Thankfully, I've never been sick in a London Underground carriage. Although you can see my full answer in the interview here.

Fortunately I've never seen anyone throw up inside a Tube carriage, which is surprising as I travel around quite late & in trains where there's been much drunkeness. Even on the final Circle Line party before the ban on public transport booze, I didn't see anyone puking there.


However, I remembered that Marie F aka Tiger's Hungry, drew a little cartoon to illustrate what happened after she saw a woman throwing up on the Piccadilly Line one night.

"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)

Marie also pointed out that Armando Iannucci's Tube Tales 'Mouth' segment came to mind quite vividly. For those of you who aren't eating, you can see the short film below, which is a pretty colourful view of a late night Tube trip.


Err, welcome to blog Londonistas!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 12, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Fancy Dress Party

Many people have held private fancy dress parties where you have to come dressed as a Tube station. That doesn't mean you cover yourself in crisp packets, graffiti, advertising posters and have a pigeon under your arm. You dress up as something that sounds like London Underground station name. However, I've just learnt of a public Tube fancy dress party on the 31st January.


It's organised by Bringstuff who say "We want you to come dressed as a visual interpretation of a Tube station - a blacksmith with a large hammer for Hammersmith, a manchester clown for Piccadilly Circus or James Bond for Bond Street etc"


"You get the idea, so be as creative as you can, with one exception. NO ANGEL COSTUMES - Angel Islington is off limits as it would be rubbish if everyone turned up in the same costume. "

Full details are on their website & entry's free before 10pm. If you're looking for ideas for Tube Fancy Dress party costumes, there's lots in the comments of the aforementioned post, or you might want to suggest some of your own.

I might be tempted to go along covered in mouldy ham representing a station I change at a lot on the District Line. Although that's a tad unsociable, so I'd probably dig out an old duffle coat, grab a small suitcase & a jar of marmalade and learn Peruvian for the evening.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 09, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Energy Saving Subway Station

Following on from yesterday's post on the London Underground's green products, I came across an interesting story on Current about an energy saving subway station in Tokyo.


Tadao Ando, the designer of Shibuya Station, told Wallpaper magazine "It's composed of a central void contained inside an egg-shaped shell and aims to reduce the station's dependency on air conditioning equipments by letting the outside air blow into the underground space, creating a natural ventilation system that is energy saving."

As the London Underground has very little dependency on air conditioning equipment (mainly because it currently doesn't have any - apart from comedic giant fans), I doubt whether we'll be seeing this in London any time soon.

Ando made some interesting points about orientation in the subway & how spatial improvements could help this:

"The existing underground stations in Tokyo are generally very confusing, generating a sense of disorientation, making it very difficult to find your way and getting around. This is due to the fact that it is very difficult to recognize your own position in relation to the street level's world and in addition to the constant shift of direction you are forced to make in the labyrinthine underground world. In order to help people's orientation in this underground world, giving them a sense of spatial perception and improving the functionality of the station, I created a 15 metre central void from concourse level B2 to the platform level B5, and wrapped it all up within a symbolic egg-shaped shell."


The station design looks amazing although not sure what the mirrored parts would do to my sense of spatial perception. Environmental blog Planet Green n Pink said "The idea behind the design was to keep a continuous flow of energy moving smoothly. That translates to a positive experience for the traveler and very good Feng Shui."

Good Feng Shui & a positive energy experience on your commute, please can have some Japanese design on London's Tube stations.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 09, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Eco friendly Tube products

Looks like the London Underground are doing their bit to help people get a little greener with some new products launched for their shop. Mags put me on to these Envelope Angels after seeing them as a Secret Santa gift in I like.


"They're labels you stick over the address on a used envelope to make it shiny enough to use again. They come in two models, original angelic and London Underground issue (above). They're really nicely designed - the box acts as a dispenser which you can refill, and Blue Marmalade, the people who make them are so nice they'll even recycle the plastic stickerbacks for you."

The Tube one is illustrated with a stretch of the Northern line leading to Angel station, and carries the slogan: 'Another journey for every envelope'. Hopefully it's a better journey than an average one on the Misery Line! They're only £5.86 for a pack which contains 100 "To: Labels" and 100 "From: labels". The company's tip is to include a label pair within each envelope you send and pass on the idea to those you mail.

Blue Marmalade also make some very cool looking pendant lampshades. They're made from single sheet of recyclable material and when they light up reveal the Tube map illuminated in their folds.


The lamps which are £24.27 come in Classic styles (for high ceilinged rooms) & Intimo (for more intimate settings!). They can be used with energy saver bulbs and bulbs up to 100W.

Apparently the fold-out design means there's not much waste during production and the material is also recyclable. Based in Edinburgh, Blue Marmalade aim to be as green as possible, and say that harmful chemicals and manufacturing processes are removed from their designs.

Trent Jennings from the company said: "The Underground map represents British graphic design at its best; it has strong functionality but also great visual impact." I think it's a great idea for a lamp and I'm sure it will be gracing my lounge very soon.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, January 08, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Future of Blogging on Working Lunch

Later on today I'll be live on BBC2's Working Lunch talking about the future of blogging. Not sure if I can trust the BBC's laptop to do live blogging this time, but it's nice of them to ask me on again. Thanks to everyone on Twitter yesterday who responded to my plea to borrow a crystal ball & give me their thoughts on the future of blogging.


You might have heard about the death of blogging or probably more accurately the rise of microblogging (like Twitter, videoblogs & Facebook status updating), but I think it's just mainly a case of blogging growing up and becoming mainstream. Like Johnny Rotten advertising butter, blogging's become less "subversive" or "rock n roll" and more mainstream. With the millions of people who blog now, that's bound to include people (and businesses) who blog for difference reasons and financial gain is bound to be one of them.

Ultimately that's going to get lots of early adopters or people who started blogging five or six years ago (like myself) muttering into their keyboards, saying "Ah blogging's not what it used to be" or "Blogging's rubbish these days, with companies and brands getting on board". But for me it's doesn't have to be a case of doom & gloom.

True there are now millions of blogs but readership of blogs isn't falling. What will probably happen is that numbers of blogs will continue to rise, but the lifecycle of those blogs will be much shorter.


In the past to make a blog "work" (whatever that means) all you had to do was have one. But now with millions of blogs competing for attention it takes time, effort, engagement with the people who read it & evidence of some passion & interest in what you're doing. Otherwise, you'll get bored, your readers will certainly get bored, people will stop reading & linking to your blog and you might wonder why you do it. That can be said for anyone who blogs - small businesses, brands, personal blogs, celebrities or journalists.

Some blogs are influential and can touch a nerve (when I started blogging in early 2003 I never expected TfL, Tube Lines, London Transport Museum & some of the London press would pay so much attention to this blog). Some bloggers can certainly give mainstream journalists a run for their money. If blogs are written well and have interesting content, they can help companies build a good relationship with their customers, but none of this happens overnight or in isolation from other online communication.

Kevin Marks a software engineer at Google, used to work for Technorati (the major index for blogs) & wrote a post about the whole "death of blogging" debate which summed up what I'd been thinking for quite some time. "Blogging's not dead, it's becoming like air". He said: "the old blogging crew are still around, they're just blogging less than those paid to do so a dozen times a day. Not because they are less interested or engaged, but because there are now many new ways to do what we used blogs for back then."

That's my thoughts for this morning, and they could well change by the time I get to the BBC! I'll update this post later with a link to the programme. I'll be joined by Robert McIntosh who'll be talking about how Twitter has helped his business. He kindly hosted a Twitter Wine Tasting at his house last year, where tasted wine & discussed it (in 140 characters or less!) with other Twitterers in the US. Again something I certainly never expected to be doing when I started blogging!

UPDATE - Ended up talking more about Twitter - like the introduction by Declan Curry. "Apparently blogging is dead, all the clever clogs are now Twittering!" Declan's an active Twitterer, so I'm spose he would say that ;-)

It was interesting that at the end Simon Calver, Chief Exec from Lovefilm, who was also on the show, agreed with my point about companies needing to blog & use online communities to monitor what customers think about their services.

If you're in the UK you can see our appearance on BBC iPlayer.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 06, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Baby girl born in Tube Station

You may have seen the news over the weekend that a baby girl was born at Kingsbury London Underground station in December, making her only the 2nd recorded Tube birth in 84 years.

Dawn out of EastEnders waters break on the Tube

Transport for London said that there had only been one other birth recorded on the London Underground. The first baby was born at Elephant and Castle station in South London in 1924. An urban myth at the time had her named as Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor (her initials spell TUBE), but she was called Marie Cordery (or possibly Mary Ashfield Eleanor Hammond, after Lord Ashfield who was Chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board at the time).

On the 19th December 2008, Julia Kowalska's waters broke on the Jubilee line and she got off the train at Kingsbury station but went into labour on the platform.

A TfL spokesman said: "At 9pm the station supervisor received a message from the control room that a woman on a northbound Jubilee line train was complaining of stomach pains. A few minutes later the station supervisor went to the platform and found the pregnant woman having contractions and called an ambulance.

"The woman, accompanied by her sister, was wrapped in a foil blanket to keep warm and taken to the supervisor's office, where the ambulance crew delivered a healthy baby."

However, Jerry Springer says that he was born at East Finchley Tube station during an air raid in 1944. He's pretty famous, so how come he's not known as the second baby to be born at a Tube station? Or do people giving birth when the stations were used as air raid shelters not count?

It's unlikely that we'll find out much more about baby Kowalska as some reports have her mother down as homeless, whereas others say her mother lived with her sister. I was hoping she might have Kingsbury or Jubilee as a middle name.


It is amazing that more children aren't born on the Tube. I see some very heavily pregnant women travelling on the London Underground, and with all of the movement & overcrowding you'd think that would bring on more contractions.

EastEnder's character Dawn (in the first picture) had her waters break on the District Line, & she was stuck in a tunnel. I thought that would be the first fictional Tube birth. But they rushed her to hospital in the end.

So it seems unlikely that you'll have to use any midwifery skills on the Tube, as Tube births are apparently few and far between.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 05, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Fares Rise by 6% today

Amongst the general rise in rail fares across the country, London Underground and bus fares will today increase by an average of 6%.

Fortunately, the £4 adult cash fare in Zone One of the Tube (which already pretty high in comparison to other major cities' subway systems) will be frozen. However, fares in other zones will go up from £3 to £3.20. The lowest adult cash fare on the DLR rises from £1.50 to £1.60. The BBC has a summary of the new fares and the full changes are on TfL's site.


However, if you're on benefits, travel off peak, are elderly or disabled you'll see some advantages. There's a new off peak period running from 9.30am to 4pm with reduced Tube & DLR fares. There will also be half-price bus and tram fares for Londoners on Income Support, plus the Freedom Pass for the over 60s and disabled passengers will have the off-peak use restrictions lifted, which means that the elderly can travel before 9.30am. Fun for them in the rush hour, I know, but I often see elderly folk after 9am, getting caught out & looking really sad that they can't use their passes.

The general rail fares will hit the many commuters who use non TfL networks to get into London, with some tickets going up by more than 11%. From today, regulated fares, which include annual season tickets, will be going up by an average of 6% and unregulated fares, which include off-peak tickets, will be rising even more - by an average of 7%.

Just as an example, if you have an annual season ticket using Southeastern railways for the Gillingham-London route, that will go up by 10.2% & will cost you £3,020. More examples can be found here.

Customer watchdog body Passenger Focus, have been quoted across many national papers today saying that rail travellers would "shudder and shiver when they find out the scale of some New Year fare rises".

Their chief exec, Anthony Smith, said "Fare rises that hark back to a time of high inflation and spiralling energy costs look very out of kilter.

"In addition, the perpetual tinkering with ticket restrictions ensure back door fare rises continue. Yet again, many long distance passengers will be pushed into paying higher prices or locking themselves into rigid advance purchase, one train only fares. As an immediate action we call on ministers to open discussions with the train companies to limit the range that regulated fares can go up. Big rises simply cannot be justified in more normal times let alone the current economic climate."

Obviously the both London's Mayor & rail companies are quick to defend the increases saying they allow for greater investment in services. Johnson said the rise is "sustaining the massive investment we are making to upgrade the Tube, build Crossrail, and tackle congestion on our transport network."


Michael Roberts from the Association of Train Operating Companies, told the BBC that "Fare changes this year will help pay for 265,000 extra services, all against a background which is determined by government policy to reduce the call on us as taxpayers."


Unsurprisingly, he added that the fares: "actually in our view strike the right balance between trying to ensure a reasonable level of increase to fund in return much improved services".


If (which is a very, very, big if) we see improved services, that'd be great. But the fact is that every year we see above inflationary fare rises and every year, our journeys hardly improve. Statements from Johnson & Roberts become an annual hollow spin and you'll see on the news today many commuters saying "Yeah, yeah, let's see some changes then". I doubt this year will be any different, but I'll be more than happy to be proved wrong. Until then we'll continue to grin & bear it and see rail travel as a necessary inconvenience.

Prepay or Travelcard Calculator - For a number of years now James Cridland has made a cool little tool that can work out whether an Oyster card prepay or a Travelcard is better value for you. He's just updated it with the new fares. You simply answer a few questions about your yearly travel, press a button and that's it. My annual travel card is definitely better value for me, but it's not the case for everyone. Try yours here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 02, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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CBS Outdoor Tube Ads on Tube Advertising

One thing's certain that I will be spending a lot of time staring at London Underground ads while waiting for the Tube at Hammersmith. Fortunately CBS Outdoor have decided to give us something lengthy to read for the wait.


Their new ads promoting err ... ads are based on life's certainties. With the main certainty that there will always be Tube advertisements to read for the "three minutes while you wait for your train". That's more than slightly hopeful for people heading to Richmond waiting for a train at Hammersmith. (Regular readers know my theory that there are always substantially more District Line trains bound for Ealing Broadway, but I digress).

I quite like the way it says that maybe you can strike up a conversation with the person next to you about the ad. "Then again maybe not". Yep that's pretty certain. This is the Tube after all.

Further along the platform, there's another ad in a similar vein, with the certainty that this Christmas you'll have been given a present that makes you think "I'd rather have had the cash". That Brad & Angelina will have beautiful babies & that Friends will be showing on TV somewhere in the world and other certainties.


I'm sure these ads will drive me up the wall after I've seen them for the umpteenth time in the New Year. But for now, I like them.

Perhaps there are others with more London Underground related certainties on them. The certainty that there's a reason for a seat being empty on a crowded train. The certainty that our fares will increase again this January. The certainty that I will sit next to or opposite someone who says the wise words "Cheer up love things could be worse".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 30, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Christmas Tube Times

Looking for 2010 Christmas Tube Times - visit this post

It's a Saturday service on the London Underground today and after 7pm trains will be running less frequently than normal, with Sunday closing hours. Or as Rachel Clarke heard a driver say "the trains are going to bed early tonight before Santa arrives". On Christmas Day as usual there will be no service at all on the Tube.



Great photo of the current Xmas times poster from D J Damien

Boxing Day will have a reduced Sunday service on all lines, except the Jubilee Line won't be running at all, right up until 28th December for planned engineering works. There's also engineering works on the Metropolitan Line on the 26th December with a full line closure. Additionally, no service on that line between Uxbridge/Northwood and Aldgate between 27th & 28th December.



Full details of the Jubilee Line works are on Tube Lines site. George Clark, their Chief Engineering Manager said:

"After looking at all the options with London Underground we jointly decided that the best time for a full closure is over Christmas as it causes the least disruption for commuters. It is vital that we fully test the new system to check that services can run smoothly and safely before passengers come on board. Unfortunately this can only take place during a closure of several days.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, but the closures are necessary in order to deliver a faster and more efficient Jubilee line in the long-run."

You can find complete Christmas & New Year timings on TfL's site with details of the replacement bus services that will be in place to cover the Jubilee & Metropolitan Line closures.

Don't forget as well, there'll be free travel on the Tube, bus, tram & DLR from
11.45pm on New Year's Eve until 4.30am on New Year's Day. I haven't managed to see who's sponsoring that this year. In the past it's been drinks companies and last year was Nat West, but with the credit crunch, it's amazing we'll be getting free travel at all.



Thanks to the booze ban there'll be no alcohol on public transport in London, although the Japanese have gone the opposite way and are holding drinking parties on their streetcars. Thanks to Jon for the heads up on this.

Parties running until December 27th have already been fully booked. "A special streetcar leaves Toyohashi Station at 6:25, slowly navigating its way through 9.4 kilometers of track while its passengers party. Each party car holds 15 to 26 people, and as the name Odensha suggests, passengers eat warm oden while they drink beer."

That's all the updates for now. I hope you all have a great Christmas break and whatever journeys you make will be as smooth as possible.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 24, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Father Christmas (es) on the Tube

At last, someone has found the real Santa on the London Underground. Mario Mitsis took this great picture of a very jolly Father Christmas, who looks like he has his own beard, at Tottenham Court Road Tube.


This year's Santacon was held on a very wet Saturday and there didn't seem to be as many photos of the London Santae as normal.

However, Marques Kirsch found a non-Santa outcast standing amongst the Santas on their sleigh .. err sorry... Tube, travelling to their annual meet up.


There's also some more rather orderly, Santae going down the escalator at Notting Hill Gate Tube:


If you spot or have spotted any other Santas on the Tube, let us know. Hopefully the credit crunch hasn't got to Father Christmas on the London Underground this year and maybe I just haven't seen as many as I normally do.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Blurb Book Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered the Future of the Book competition earlier this month. It followed a session that me, Billy Abbott and Chris Meade ran at Amplified08 on the Future of the Book and an interesting debate at Channel 4 on the Future of Reading.


Blurb very kindly donated five £20 vouchers for people to create their own books. All you had to do was tell us why you'd like a Blurb book and what you would do with it.


It was a tough call for Blurb to choose, as the entries were all really good. However, drum roll, the winners are:

Sara Maternini - "I would love to make a cook book from my blog (http://saramaternini.com/kitchenpantry/), or even a travel book, of all the travel we made and wrote about! And I even started a new food blog, in Italian and it will be cool to get a book even out of that one."

Robert MacIntosh - "What a great idea - I've toyed with simple photo book ideas but I have often wondered about putting together a book of my wine photos of Rioja with my thoughts on the region from my blog http://wineconversation.com/ - like a printed blog I guess.

However, I was also intrigued by the idea of publishing my grandfather's memoirs so my kids can read them. He wrote a lot during his life and collected loads of photos, but never completed the task.

Wonder if I'm truly creative enough? I guess there is only one way to find out."

Gaetan Lee - "Well the best bit about user generated books is the variety of content that could be put into a book.

I have been tinkering with the idea of making up some photo books from my flickr stream www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee for ages... mainly as a ego-gift to myself.

However, if I was to make a book about 3-4 years ago I travelled around the world in a six month get away from life... during which time I stopped and stayed in USA/Fiji/New Zealand/Australia/Singapore/Japan - http://gaetanlee.blogspot.com/

The problem is that both of these would be probably private ventures.. I would need to think a bit more carefully about a more 'public' book for sale... I have a feeling that are quite a few photo books out there... so I would have to think of something original."

Melinda Seckington - "I would love to make a book of my blog and photos
My blog: http://missgeeky.com
My photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mseckington/

If I ever had more time, I would make a book of my mother's recipes. She's got tons of different recipes, that I still can't "recreate" myself and I would love to make this book together with her."

Benjamin Ellis - "The Blurb stuff looks wonderful! Over the last few years I've been blogging about productivity (some of that is here). I've noticed that the biggest productivity problem is that we tend to procrastinate. I've even been putting of writing this comment!

Well, what better way to procrastinate than by looking at photographs. So I though I might make a book from my posts and from the photos from my Flickr stream that others seem to like. That way I could give people something that would let them procrastinate whilst they learnt not to procrastinate. If you see what I mean."

Congratulations to all and you'll receive an email later today with your voucher. You'll have plenty of time to make your books over the Christmas holidays and we'd love to see the finished books. Thanks again to Blurb for the prizes.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 22, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube lift plunges at Hampstead Station

Around 15 commuters had a worrying experience in a faulty lift at Hampstead London Underground station last Sunday. Shortly after 10pm the lift they were in plummeted almost 200ft down the shaft. Hampstead Tube has the deepest lift shaft on the system.


The Ham and High paper reported: "Roger Juer, 63, was trapped in the lift during the accident, which he says was like something from a Hollywood horror movie.

"It was the most frightening thing I have ever experienced. The girls in the lift were screaming and several of us thought that was it. We thought the lift was going to smash into the ground. I tried to bend my knees a bit so my legs might not break when we landed."

Fortunately the lift stopped just before reaching the bottom.


"A telephone in the lift was tantalisingly visible behind a locked panel, which couldn't be opened, and although they banged on the alarm button there was no response from staff at the station. After the group had been hammering on the lift walls and screaming for help for several minutes the doors eventually slid open and they rushed out to the platform."

Luckily no one was injured and Mr Juer made it to the local pub as quickly as he could in time for last orders to calm his nerves. He said:

"It's not acceptable - and it's not the first time there have been problems with the lifts in this station. Transport for London need to reassure passengers that if there are problems they will be able to contact staff to tell them something is wrong."

Thanks to Ian for giving me the heads up to this.

The only consolation is that at least this didn't happen at Covent Garden station. To be stuck in the lift with Loyd Grossman's voice on continual loop giving you directions to the Piazza and the London Transport Museum would test human endurance.

The Hampstead and Highgate Express contacted Transport for London, but at the time of going to press, no one was able to comment. Hopefully, by now TfL will be in a position to let people know what happened & do all they can to prevent this or something more serious from happening again.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, December 20, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Please Do It at Home Commuter Campaigns

The Japanese like the Brits are now having to be reminded of good manners when commuting The Daily Telegraph recently reported. "Britain's train passengers are routinely told to keep their feet off the seats and turn down their MP3 players, but Japanese commuters have never had to be reminded of such basic good manners. Until now, that is."


Thanks to Jon for pointing me to this story, specially as tonight's the big office party night of the year, so expect to see quite a few people like the above on the London Underground.

Back to the article: "Five years ago, it would have been unthinkable for passengers on Japan's crowded trains to witness a female office worker applying make-up on her way to work. But now, grooming in public is commonplace. Standards are falling so rapidly that Japan Railways has just launched a poster campaign urging women to "Please do it at home" – put their make-up on, that is."


Regular readers to this blog will know how I feel about putting make up on, on the Tube and I still can't see how this is the height of bad manners. Guess I'd better not visit Japan then!

The article continues with Toshiko Marks, a professor of multicultural understanding at Shumei University having her say about standards dropping.

"I first saw a young woman applying her make-up on a train about five years ago but now it is an everyday sight. I even see people on trains eating food that has a strong smell, such as noodles, which means everyone has to put up with it."

Isn't that the main difference between make up putting on and eating smelly food? Most people in a carriage will have to endure or envy the smell of food. If you don't like watching me put my make up on, which isn't really that stomach churning, close your eyes, read a paper or an advert or don't look at me.


Professor Marks continues with the implication that the posters are now part of a Nanny state. "Parents used to have time to teach their children respect – we could actually call it common sense – but mothers and fathers now both have to work and are too busy to nurture and raise children in the right way".

She concludes with something that's also common in the UK: "People say they are frightened they will be attacked if they get involved in a situation. And that leads to another great Japanese tradition: pretending that if you can't see anything, then nothing is happening."


Of all of the Please Do It at Home series, my favourite is the one above aimed at large ruck sack carriers.


Only time will tell, whether the cartoons will make any difference to behaviour in Japan. In the meantime I'll look forward to next year's iteration of the cartoon characters telling us how to behave on the Tube.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 19, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Subway Bank for Credit Crunch

If you're counting the pennies right now, but have a spare £45 you might want to buy a cute piggy bank modelled on Japan's Yamanote subway trains. Thanks to McBazza, for sending me the link from Gizmodo. Whenever you put in money, the train plays a random melody from a Yamanote station.


I love the copy from Gizmine which is selling the trainbanks "(Each station has its own pleasing melody, allowing your subconscious mind to track where you are while you sleep, and waking you up just in time for your station!) The headlights come on at the same time. "

The image of people wandering onto trains with piggy banks held to their ears like ghetto blasters, is a bit hard to swallow. But perhaps you could give a pile of coins to a fellow commuter and ask them to load up the bank while you sleep.

If anyone could work out how to get the same mechanism in my London Underground money box, I'd be most grateful. My money box was a fair bit cheaper than the trainbank above and had the added bonus of being filled with toffees.


Perhaps it could be triggered to say "Mind the Gap" or "The next station is Cockfosters" and other melodious things at the drop of a coin.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 18, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Stockwell Tube Ad Placement ruled indecent

The ad for the film Righteous Kill placed at Stockwell London Underground Station, where Charles de Menezes was shot dead after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, has been ruled as breaching decency guidelines.

You may remember from a blog post in September that its tagline read: "There's nothing wrong with a little shooting as long as the right person gets shot."


The Advertising Standards Authority said: "We understood the siting of the poster at the station was unintentional, but nevertheless considered that the text... had the potential to cause serious offence in that location". There's more on this at the BBC.

Although the poster was eventually removed at Stockwell it was still there when members of the inquest visited the station in September.

Film distributors Lions Gate said "We considered that most people were likely to understand that the poster reflected the content of the film and the quote was intended to be wryly humorous".

In the light of everything that happened at Stockwell it still seems weird to me that the poster was ever put up there in the first place. I'm sure the advertisers bought the ad space of the whole line, but maybe CBS Outdoor, who sell London Underground advertising space, should flag up particular stations which have violent associations.

As we all know, the Tube have a rather prudish attitude to posters in general & in the past have banned ads that show a bit of bare flesh, so it's amazing that this happened. However, it's good to see this decision from the ASA about true decency standards & insensitive positioning.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 17, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Win a London Railways Poster

Maxwell Roberts, creator of the wonderful Curvy Tube Map and author of Underground Maps After Beck has two new posters on sale in the London Transport Museum. One's of London's railways based on a drawing by Henry C. Beck who's responsible for the famous London Underground map we use now. The other is based on Beck's design of the Paris Metro map.


Max has kindly offered two of the large format posters if you can answer the following question based on Henry Beck's design of the Paris Metro map.

"The poster for sale at the London Transport Museum is actually Henry Beck's second attempt at the Paris Metro. His first one, which the RATP turned down, was created around 1949. It is shown in Ken Garland's Book 'Mr Beck's Underground Map' (Capital Transport, 1994).

What really really important Metro station is missing from Beck's first attempt?"



Leave your answer in the comments below. The first correct answer will get the London Railways poster, and also the Paris Metro poster above. However, even if you're not first with the right answer, anyone who makes a guess or leaves an interesting comment will go into a prize draw to win two posters as well. Don't forget to leave an email address, blog or website so I can contact you if you win.

You have until 11.59pm UK time on Monday 22nd December to enter. Best of luck and thanks again to Max for kindly donating the posters.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More signs of Xmas on the Tube & Twinterval

Christmas party season is full swing on the London Underground now. Last night I was at Twinterval - think of it as an "office party" for people who Twitter in and around London. On the way home, we saw a group of rather merry people with an office chair who were about to attempt to negotiate it through the gates at Oxford Circus.


Not sure if it made it through in it end as the guy pictured above decided to sit on the chair just outside the barriers.

If you happened to be around the West End last night and noticed a number of people on the Tube with bright pink party bags, with some err.. interesting gifts. They'd have been coming back from Twinterval.


Thanks to the fab Girl With a One Track Mind who was one of the main party organisers, along with Amanda for giving us entertaining reading for our journey home. There's a few more pictures from Twinterval on my Flickr set. It was great seeing loads of Twitter people last night and lovely to put some faces to the avatars & Twitter names.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Mood Swings

Want to tell everyone on the London Underground how you're feeling? Just in case your face doesn't quite sum up the joy of Tube travel on a Monday morning, you might want to get hold of a set of "Tube Mood Swing" stickers.


The seller on Etsy rather formally describes the stickers & could have used a spell check on one of them, but I like the general idea:

"Whenever you partake in a journey within London's 'Underground' subway system you'll undoubtedly experience a vast range of emotions generated from the experience. Riding the 'Tube' is not for the faint of heart and is certainly a character building experience and here I have presented a 3 piece set covering a range of 36 potential feelings (12 moods for each print), that more often than not compels a passenger to feel at least several times per ride."

They're not all moods or feelings and the set would work a lot better if they were. It's definitely missing "Frustrated" and "Impatient". He could also do with more of the warning ones like "Wear Deodorant" and "Shut your Legs". Although perhaps some of them are designed to be sneakily stuck on other commuters.

If you've any other Tube Moods that you've experienced or think people should display on their journey, let us know.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 15, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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A Wish for the Tube & Spinvox Wishing Well

If only the London Underground would really produce stickers like this. The lovely Whatleydude from SpinVox was travelling to Covent Garden for the launch of their Wishing Well installation and spotted the following:


Obviously he had to take a picture of it and send it to me. He said "The best part was, after I took the photo, the couple behind me tapped me on the back and offered me their laps!"

It's great how spoof stickers like this can make people lighten up on the Tube. Sometimes if the po faced "Do not do this" or "Priority Seating" stickers were a bit friendlier, it might not lead to nasty stares or moody arguments or worse if people were then reminded they were breaking Tube etiquette. It's simply having a bit of regard for your fellow passengers & a touch of humour can work to promote this.

Whatleydude invited me and a number of other bloggers to Covent Garden to see the SpinVox Wishing Well which is on the piazza there, just a stone's throw away from the London Transport Museum.


It's a lovely idea as you call a number and leave your wish. Your wish is converted to text and then gets projected onto the walls inside the wishing well.


It's hard to describe being inside and seeing all the wishes from wishing for world peace to wishing your flatmates would do the washing up more often. So it's definitely worth a trip yourself to see the colours, movement and sounds that go along with them inside the shiny triangular well.


A number of school kids went along when I was there, all with their mobile phones, and all completely transfixed. I'm not sure what happens to the wishes at the end of installation and I'll certainly be popping in with a few more end of year wishes for the London Underground.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 12, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Spooks on the Tube

No, this isn't about ghosts on the London Underground or even ghost stations on the Tube, but the BBC1 drama series Spooks. I understand it's a very popular show, but to be honest, I've never watched it until today. However, I heard from a couple of people, Nick Cooper (who runs the fab London Underground on Film & TV site) and Fourstar, that much of the last episode was filmed on the Tube.


Over to Fourstar who said "I was interested in the use of disused Tube tunnels in the final episode of 'Spooks' this Monday.

The team has to run from Liverpool Street to London Bridge but cannot go above ground as they are being hunted by Russian snipers, so they break into a side door at Liverpool Street and find a (conveniently) disused platform which leads to the tracks. From there they find a maintenance tunnel which brings them eventually to London Bridge where they open a locker to get the file they need (are there still lockers at London Bridge?)


"Artistic licence aside, it was good to see - they even ran through a parked train at one point, disturbing a sleeping homeless lady."

Nick thought it was "unintentionally hilarious" and Fourstar wondered "if the journey would actually be possible (via Bank, presumably??)"

I've no idea, but like Fourstar I liked seeing the real London Underground being used rather than just a mock up. If you're in the UK you can watch the full episode of Spooks on BBC iPlayer here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 12, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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