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Thursday, March 05, 2009

Roundels & Wraps Not on the Underground

Weirdly after visiting
Chilango's great new burrito restaurant in Upper Street last night, I found that Jo T had sent me a wrap based Tube roundel she spotted in Frankfurt.

Wrap and More by Jonanamary

She said "I saw the following bagel/sundry baked goods shop in Frankfurt-am-Main Hauptbahnhof and thought of you!"

Robert McIntosh, also had a "saw this and thought of you" moment when he was on of his wine tours of Spain.

Speakers Corner taken by Robert McIntosh

This is from Logroño in La Rioja wine region. However "Speakers Corner" seems to be a quite popular case for err.. borrowing the Tube roundel as it was spotted in Ghent in Belgium by Andrew:

Ghent in Belgium by Andrew

Miles away from Europe, Dave P spotted the following roundel gracing a general store in Johannesburg.

Roundel in Johannesburg by Dave P

Thanks to all who sent in the pictures and if you spot any other roundels not in their regular home on the Tube, please send them to me. I'll add the best to the ever growing Not on the Underground Flickr set.

Returning to Chilango, I just wanted to thank TikiChris and Qype for inviting me to a great night of Burritos and Tequila last night. I'm a big fan of Chilango having visited their Fleet Street branch with TrustedPlaces for a Day of the Dead party last year.

Warriorgrrl and Chilango Bag Reserva Jose Cuervo Tequila Utku's Chilango Hat

After quaffing a fair amount of good quality Tequila from Jose Cuervo, I'm hangover free, so the woman who was giving us some lessons in the art of Tequila tasting was right. More pictures on my Burrito & Tequila set.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 05, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/03/roundels-wraps-not-on-underground.html

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Underground Erudition

I love it when the London Underground shows that it's run by people rather than a bunch of androids. Thanks to
Mags for sending me to a picture by Intolerator who saw some waggish Tube staff, had been entertaining with their temporary "service information" signage.

Underground Erudition by Intolerator

As Intolerator said "Nice to see a bit of personality mixed with education on the Underground - this was at Stamford Brook station.".

The care and attention with this sign rocks. Note the little circles that dot the "i's" and the arrows that just point to the "born this day" dates. Only some words are underlined so that we're really supposed to pay attention to those. The randomness of the facts, putting the publication of Huckleberry Finn, with the first cow to ever fly and be milked on an aircraft is also a delight.

If anyone else passes through Stamford Brook, let me know if they do this every day and if you get a chance to spot them, please take a picture.

Dan Hon also saw a particularly random, yet lovely, sign at Warwick Avenue Tube Station.

Warwick Avenue by Dan Hon

Wonder if was one of the things that made life for Duffy particularly hard when she wrote Warwick Avenue? "When I geeeeeet to Warwick Avenooooo, Please watch out for the cheese signs ooooon the Tooooobe".


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 04, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/03/underground-erudition.html

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Transport in Miniature Scavenger Hunt

Just reminder that this Saturday 7th March, the London Transport Museum will be holding a photographic Flickr Scavenger Hunt as part of their
London's Transport in Miniature Open Weekend.

Abbey Road Model Tube Station

It's held at the Depot at Acton, which only has a few Open Weekends each year. "The depot, which is normally closed to the public, has over 370,000 objects including 70 road and rail vehicles, signs, models, photographs, engineering drawings, uniforms and original works of art used for the Museum's celebrated poster collection."

Please email The Communities Team at London Transport Museum to see if there are still places left, but please register by Friday 6th March if you want to take part. Full details of the Scavenger Hunt are on the following Flickr Group.

Alternatively if you'd just like to come along to the Museum Depot it's best to book tickets in advance and call 020 7565 7298 to avoid the queues.

There's a lot of fun stuff there including rides on the Depot's miniature railway which features steam and electric trains, trips on full size heritage vehicles - including the 1950s prototype of the Routemaster bus (the RM1), and tours of the poster and artwork stores led by Museum curators.

Miniature Railway photo by Toby Bryans

For adults the tickets are £10.00, Seniors, £8.00, Concessions/Friends £6.00 and accompanied children under 16 & TfL staff get in free. The tickets are valid for both the 7th and 8th of March.

To The Trains - Acton Museum Depot Open Day taken by Fimb

My friend Billy Abbott aka Cowfish is one of the Flickr Scavenger Hunt old skool crew putting the clues together for the hunt. He said "I’ve called together my elite team of scavenger hunt organisers (the ones that like trains and buses just that little bit too much, at least), and Paul, Anna and I will be putting together a list of hard clues, obscure pictures and tortured puns (the last task probably sitting on my shoulders due to the relative levels of shamelessness in our merry band - them: some dignity left, me: wearing 90s nu-meeja glasses) to puzzle and potentially confound the bunch of people that come to play." More details on his blog post.

I'm kind of looking forward to being tortured and hope to see some of you there too.


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 03, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/03/transport-in-miniature-scavenger-hunt.html

Monday, March 02, 2009

Blackfriars Tube Station closed until 2011

No London Underground services from Blackfriars today until late 2011, as the Tube station is closing as part of Network Rail's Thameslink major upgrade programme. Once the work is completed the station will have a large ticket hall, refurbished platforms, improved access to them and step free access at both interchange and street level.

Blackfriars Tube Station by 18percentgrey

Richard Parry, LU's Director of Strategy and Service Development said: "During this time, District and Circle line services will not stop at the station and customers are advised to use nearby Temple and Mansion House stations."

The work will also bring a station entrance on the South Bank and overground platforms stretching across the Thames. The new platforms are to accommodate new 50% longer 12 car trains. Full details are on the Tube's website.

Blackfriars by Tazetc

Blackfriars Tube station opened in 1870 and is one of the oldest stations on the system. It's been influential to Tube fancy dress parties as you can see from the picture above. Also Neil Gaiman had an order of monks called the Blackfriars in his TV series and novel Neverwhere, where many characters were based on London Underground station names.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, March 02, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/03/blackfriars-tube-station-closed-until.html

Friday, February 27, 2009

3D Tube Map and Mr T

If you've ever wondered what the London Underground Map might look like from above ground, the guys at
Digital Urban have created a 'quick and dirty' flythrough of the map in the video below:


London Tube Map Traditional Layout from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Taking this one step further, they've morphed this with plasticine look of the lines into a Google Map.

"The routes on the interactive image below illustrates a work in progress produced so we can easily identify the errors". Here's a screengrab, so visit Digital Urban's site to see it in action

Screen Grab of 3D Geographical Tube Map

There are a few errors here and there but it should only need a few tweaks to be near a complete version which can then be morphed and changed as needs be."

You can also also see the 'Google Maps' version in full screen. There's more about their mapping here.

Many thanks to Ianvisits for the heads up to this.

I love a lot of these creative visualisations of the map and seeing the geographical map from this perspective is leaps on from Simon Clarke's original Geographical Map that it was based on.

One person who's used to hanging out of helicopters and is very used to seeing in air city scenes is Mr T. Last night I was lucky enough to meet him as part of his Snickers Get Some Nuts tour.

Mr T Pitying Some fool

Mr T's Snickers Car

Typically my camera ran out of battery juice during the night, but there's a mixture of pictures from my Canon and my cameraphone in the following Mr T in London set. You'll also spot Craig out of the very first Big Brother in some of them!


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 27, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/3d-tube-map-and-mr-t.html

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Boris Backs Bakerloo Extension

With Tube boss,
Tim O'Toole's resignation yesterday, Boris Johnson pledged an extension to the Bakerloo Line on the London Underground. At the Mayor's Question Time London Assembly member Val Shawcross asked what Boris had done to help the regeneration of Elephant & Castle station at the end of that line. Ms Shawcross told the Mayor that his record on the Elephant & Castle was one of "delay and delay and delay" and as a result Johnson has promised to visit it.

Tim O'Toole Resigns

Last year Johnson first suggested using tunnelling machines purchased for Crossrail to extend the Tube in South London once the east-west link was finished.

However Shawcross listed the Mayor's neglect of this area in South London and said

"Everything you have done with regard to the Elephant & Castle has stalled that major regeneration scheme: you dropped the tram project, you stalled ... the replacement of the dangerous fast roundabout and appalling underpasses, TfL have stalled on the discussion with Lend Lease and the council about the cost for the Underground station and the whole project cannot be signed off until that information is provided."

So Boris has agreed to do visit the area as long as Ms Shawcross also comes along her bicycle! He said: "Insofar as you are correct that TfL are the major blockage in delivering what we want to see at the Elephant & Castle then I will certainly do everything in my power to remove the blockage."

See London SE1 for more on this.

An extension to the Bakerloo Line would certainly help the great "North / South divide" as the Tube is certainly lacking in stations south of the river.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, February 26, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/boris-backs-bakerloo-extension.html

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

London Underground Boss Resigns

Tim O'Toole, the Tube's Managing Director, has resigned and will be returning to the US.

The official reason given for O'Toole's resignation is that he wants to spend more time with his family back in the US. However, as the
Daily Telegraph says "they have always lived in the US during Mr O'Toole's six years at LU and, until now, he was happy to return at regular intervals to visit them."

Tim O'Toole TfL Prss shot

The unofficial reason for the resignation is that it's part of a growing row over the multi billion pound shortfall in the public funding for the Tube's upgrade.

Ken Livingstone was quick to show how this is a blow for Boris Johnson, who would have been relying on Tim O'Toole's experience and skills to ensure that as much of the upgrade as possible survived.

Livingstone said "I find it the most unbelievable incompetence and lack of interest in the lives of Londoners for Boris Johnson to lose one of the best public servants London has seen.

I want to thank Tim for his service to our great city. His unique personal qualities and professional talent, which won the hearts of all who worked with him, will be sorely missed.
"

Peter Hendy, London's Commissioner of Transport echoed Ken when he said O'Toole would be missed and said:

"Tim has led LU to its highest levels of performance while carrying record numbers of passengers - all at a time of great change as billions are invested to improve the Tube. His leadership was exemplified by getting London moving again so quickly after the terrorist attacks of July 2005. We will greatly miss him as a colleague and I will miss him as a friend".

TfL's website said his role will be advertised shortly.

Thanks to Brian Pigeon for giving me the heads up or rather beaks up to this.


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/london-underground-boss-resigns.html

Recycling Metros on the Tube

Metro are trying another approach to tidy up the London Underground in the mornings, by running ads encourage commuters to recycle their papers rather than "desert" them.

Recycle your Metro ad in Metro

However, it didn't seem to be working that well yesterday, as I saw the usual pile of Metros (with this very ad in them) on the little ledge behind the seats on the Piccadilly Line.

Discarded Metros

I must admit that I used to regard it as a personal service to my fellow commuters to leave my Metro behind for others to read. However, with londonpaper in the evening, I always recycled it.

Metro Sordid Affair - Recycling Ad

I bet Metro also use copies "passed on" in their total readership figures. But since I've seen the paper "mountain" in a number of Tube carriages, I always take any paper away with me.

Metro & other free-sheets have tried a number of initiatives to stop people leaving papers behind, from sponsoring recycling bins outside Tube stations in Westminster & a few stations in outer zones to getting staff on the London Underground to make announcements about taking your papers with you.

Piccadilly Line Litter

Apparently London Underground commuters left behind nine and half tonnes of free newspapers behind every day and that was just on the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines.

Tube Lines said "There has been a huge increase in the numbers of free newspapers being left on trains; typically 9.5 tonnes are picked off trains each day now, compared with three tonnes in the past".

Maybe the new ads in Metro will work with some people, but it certainly didn't make much difference with some of my fellow commuters on the Piccadilly Line.


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/recycling-metros-on-tube.html

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Fly the Tube

Someone looks like they were a bit troubled on the London Underground heading to Heathrow, if the scrawled message on following ad is anything to go by.

Heathrow Tube Ad by Utku Can

I was at the Football 3's soft launch with my friend Utku who works for Mint Digital (great idea to turn their meeting room into a pub, by the way) and he showed me a photo he took on Sunday.

The ad was extolling the virtues of Tube as the best way to fly, but someone else reckoned that getting a train would be better than flying. Maybe it was a message about saving carbon footprints rather than a speed issue though.

Either way, the ad about Heathrow reminded me of an London Underground ad from the Seventies, which promoted the Tube as "The only way to fly".

Fly The Tube & Clamped Tube Ads

So I grabbed my Underground Art book and sure enough, the ad, with it's very Seventies looking typeface, was there. As you can see, it's next to another more striking ad showing a clamped Tube.

The ad on the left is from 1984 & refers to when wheel clamping was introduced. "The absurd image of a clamped Tube train makes the advantage of Underground travel immediately obvious" wrote Oliver Green in the book.

However, as I live reasonably close to Heathrow, I usually take the opposite approach and take a taxi rather than a Tube to the airport. It's faster for me as I don't have to faff around with my luggage on a packed Tube or deal with interchanges. But loads of people do get the Tube to Heathrow rather than the Heathrow Express. I've never taken the Heathrow Express, but I have missed a flight through being stuck on the Gatwick Express, so I wouldn't see the train as the "only" way to fly.


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/fly-tube.html

Monday, February 23, 2009

Inspector Sands in Action

In the last couple of weeks I was reminded that not everyone knows who Inspector Sands is. My friend Jemimah was evacuated from
Queensway Tube station a couple of weeks ago due to a small fire.

Queensway Station Small fire by Jemimah Knight

In true British fashion everyone left the station in an orderly fashion. Jemimah said "People were more curious than panicked. Over the tannoy we first heard "There is a good service on the Central Line" which mildly amused most of us. Then there was a repeated tannoy message asking for Inspector Sands again and again. If I was paranoid I would have thought that was code - it was certainly a recording rather than live tannoy call. Then we were told to please leave the station."

Another friend's brother, Alex, had similar experience of repeatedly hearing an announcement for Inspector Sands at Earl's Court Tube late one night. He said in his blog:

"This was getting really creepy. A dark platform with hardly a soul anywhere and a dismembered voice eerily repeating the same message over and over in the exact same manner.

Since it sounded like it could have been a recording, and by now my curiosity was well and truly piqued, I Googled the phrase. I expected to get no results, assuming that it really was a staff announcement, albeit a strangely delivered one.
"

After Googling he learnt that it's a coded phrase (which I actually thought a lot more people knew about) to alert staff to a fire alarm going off but without having people running around Dad's Army stylie saying "Don't Panic, Don't Panic"

"Smart. A bit more research and I found some TfL staff saying that it usually means a fire alarm has been tripped and 90% of the time it's a false alarm. There's even a couple of theories on the origin of the name Inspector Sands. "The use of the word "Sands" may be a pun on the fact that staff must investigate and reset the alarm system before a set period of time elapses, as might be measured in a sand-timer, and the station systems automatically switch to a fail-safe evacuation mode. Alternatively, it may reflect the fact that sand can be used to put out fires."

Apparently the Sands name came from theatre evacuation code. Mr Gravel was the code name for a bomb alert. But Inspector Sands is pretty common now, I wonder why don't TfL don't have another code name for the fire alarm being triggered?

It must be a bit awkward if your surname is Sands and you work for the London Underground. Does this mean that you could never be promoted to "Inspector" level? Otherwise you'd be making your way to the control room quite a few times under false pretences.

I'd also like know if there are more coded Inspectors who are called for on the London Underground? Like making an announcement for Inspector Ash if people are seen smoking on a platform, or asking for Inspector Boris if there are people drinking on the Tube?


; Posted by Unknown Monday, February 23, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/inspector-sands-in-action.html

Friday, February 20, 2009

Chiltern Railways welcome kissing

Following the sad
snogging stoppers at Warrington Bank Quay station, Chiltern Railways have decided they welcome kissing with open arms.

Kissing Welcome at High Wycombe Station

The poster at High Wycombe station above says: "Unlike other train companies, we would never dream of banning kissing at our stations."

In fact they want to encourage love and romance and are running a competition to promote the romance of railways "where fond farewells and emotional reunions take place, where relationships start with a glance and even, in the case of our Marylebone station last November, where one passenger will propose to another over the public address system!"

"To show that we are dedicated to spreading a little love around our stations, we are asking our passengers to send us a photograph of them kissing at one of our stations. From Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone, we've got lots and lots of picturesque stations, perfect for that romantic moment."

"The couple in the winning photograph will win free travel to and from London and a romantic champagne afternoon tea at London's exclusive Landmark Hotel. So pucker up and get snapping!"


You've only got till the 3rd of March to get snogging & shooting. Full details of entry are on Chiltern Railways' site.

Kissing Welcome at High Wycombe Station by huggs2

They've certainly got a point about the romance of railway stations. Even St Pancras International commissioned a statue of a kissing couple for the centrepiece of their station. Good luck to Chiltern Railways as it's a good way of saying one in the eye to Virgin Trains who issued the no kissing zones.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 20, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/chiltern-railways-welcome-kissing.html

Underground Overground

Big Wombling Free

If you struggling to keep the kids entertained this half term, today sees the launch of
The Big Womble. It's a project which aims to recycle and reuse unwanted furniture (like the Wombles did back in the day). At Wimbledon College today there's a whole range of events including furniture painting & fixing and an auction for some celebrity cast offs including Barbara Windsor's footstool and a butcher's block from Tony Robinson.


Here's a map to help you make your way there. Activities start at 2pm and run till 6pm.

London Transport Museum

Also the London Transport Museum is running a number of half term activities including the rather sound instruction to "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" on 21st February.


"When a friendly bus driver takes a break from his route he leaves the audience with one simple instruction, "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!".

But, the cute blue pigeon is very clever. He begs the audience to let him drive the bus while the bus driver is gone. He pleads, whines, bribes, and even sings a song to get his own way - he wants to drive that bus!. Will he, won't he? ... the suspense is too much.
"

Pigeon on Tube Seat - Hammersmith & City Line

There are two shows at 12.00 and 15.00. Just don't let Brian Pigeon know about them, otherwise he'll be hopping on the Tube pretty sharpish to get in on the act. His sweary antics aren't really safe for kids.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 20, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/underground-overground.html

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Chance to win an Acer Aspire Netbook

You might have seen a number of ads on the London Underground about shrinking the city. They're all for a new "pocket concierge" service from BT, called
BT Myplace. It's a free WiFi enabled directory in Westminster, so if you register your personal preferences (including favourite grub, hobbies, type of shops), you can find nearby recommendations based on those favourites and their location.

BT Myplace Tube Ad

Very kindly they're going to offer readers of this blog the chance to win an Acer Aspire One netbook. All you have to do is register with BT MyPlace, which will take you to the competitions page, click "Enter" next to Win in Westminster, find the Going Underground link, and answer the following fiendishly easy question:

What's the name of the disused Tube station at Aldwych?

BT MyPlace will pick the winner and I'll announce who the lucky person is as soon as I know it.

My Acer Aspire One Netbook

I wouldn't be able to enter the competition but those who know me personally, know how much I bang on about my wonderful Acer Aspire Netbook. It's a fantastic little computer which is really unbelievably light, has a nice keyboard for people with normal or chunky fingers like me, picks up wifi very well and is a brill back up laptop if you're on the move.

Good luck with the competition.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, February 19, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/chance-to-win-acer-aspire-netbook.html

Metronet Report four months late

Don't hold your breath if you're waiting to hear what went wrong with Metronet, as a National Audit Office report on it is four months behind schedule.

Metronet, was the private-sector consortium contracted to renew and maintain two-thirds of the Tube, and went into administration in
July 2007.

Boris and Metronet

The people at the National Audit Office (NAO) can't agree on who was at fault for the collapse. Some of the NAO blame London Underground for bad handling of the contract, whereas others put the fault at the consortium behind the company, which included Balfour Beatty and Atkins

The Independent report that a source said: "Discussions in the drafting are trying to take the view on how much the collapse was to do with Metronet and the London Underground." The report is now expected to come out by Easter.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, February 19, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/metronet-report-four-months-late.html

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tunnelling Underground & Crossrail Lecture Tonight

Sorry about the short notice, but if anyone's interested in the challenges of tunnelling underground and the issues facing Crossrail there's free lecture tonight hosted by the Royal Society.

Crossrail begins by ianvisits

Professor Robert Mair from the University of Cambridge will be discussing the following:

"Urban congestion is a serious problem in many cities, so the creation of underground space and in particular the development of underground transport is environmentally essential. How can tunnels be built in ground sometimes as soft as toothpaste? What can go wrong? Will buildings above be affected by subsidence? What else is underground already that might get in the way? Geotechnical engineering, the application of the science of soil mechanics and engineering geology, plays a key role in answering these questions."

This lecture is free - no ticket or advanced booking is needed. Doors open at 5.45pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

If anyone goes and fancies doing a guest blog post for me, it'd be much appreciated as I'd like to know how a lot of this new tunnelling is going to work.

Full details are on the Royal Society's site and apparently there will be a live webcast of the lecture too.


; Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/tunnelling-underground-crossrail.html

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tube Graffiti comes to Kew

My friend and neighbour Richard from
Essential Travel, took a picture of a fairly rare sight on the District Line. Yesterday a graffiti'ed Tube pulled into Kew Gardens and it certainly took both him and me back to those 1970's images of New York subway trains where graffiti was part of the paintwork.

Graffiti Tube at Kew Gardens Station by Richard H

He thought that the London Underground had some rule that a train wasn't allowed to go in service, if it had been hit by graffiti. I'm not so sure. Admittedly I don't see a lot of trains around with graffiti on them, or perhaps it depends on the level of graffiti, before a train's taken out of service.

When I was in New York last Autumn, I visited the New York Transit Museum and they were so anti graffiti (or perhaps so proud of the crack down on it) that they wouldn't show any carriages with graffiti, even from a historical perspective.

John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever - Pre Graffiti Crackdown

The closest they got was this iconic image of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever sprawled in a subway carriage.

All the subway shots were filmed inside the museum and one of the guides remembered chatting to Travolta when he came in.

People still have very strong opinions about graffiti on trains (and graffiti in general). It's regarded as street art in some circles. People like Banksy have certainly popularised the idea that urban art is not only that (ie artistic) but that it's also worth a pile of money. I know a number of people who thought that the Tube Carriage offices in the sky were just an art installation and not real offices.

Walking to the Offices

Perhaps there ought to be some places where graffiti artists can spray away to their heart's content. Maybe they'd be less inclined to climb onto lines overnight and spray trains.


Having this discussion before, Jon Justice found a video of some reverse graffiti, where a guy used dirty real life canvasses and left clean images on them. It's like a more artistic way of writing "clean me" on a dirty white van.


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/tube-graffiti-comes-to-kew.html

No kissing station zone

Hopefully the killjoy sign at Warrington Station wasn't put up on Valentine's Day. The station has now been separated into "kissing" and "non kissing zones" as part of a £1 million refurbishment.

No kissing sign at Warrington Station

Colin Daniels, chief executive of Warrington's Chamber of Commerce said: "It is a fairly congested station and ideally what we want is for people to come here, drop someone off and move on. But that wasn't always happening and people were lingering and causing delays.

"With these 'no-kissing' signs we are pointing out that we don't want people doing that right outside the front of the station. If they want to linger and say a longer goodbye they can do that in the 'kissing zone' where there is a limited amount of parking.
"

Radio 4 have a brilliant interview with Ken Gibbs from Virgin Trains who's trying to play down the story and suggest it's just a light hearted way of getting the message across.

I don't know why they didn't get the Japanese in for the signage. They wouldn't have messed about and would have come straight to the point. Kissing leads to well .. err ... you can see what it leads to below.

Subway sign in Toyko

Sadly the priority seating sign above turned out to be a spoof!

However, I wonder who's actually going to enforce the "no kissing" zones in Warrington? How long will it take for TfL to catch onto this idea and have "no snogging" signs on the Tube?


; Posted by Unknown Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-kissing-station-zone.html

Monday, February 16, 2009

Roundels Not on the London Underground

Haven't had a post for Tube roundels spotted in unfamiliar habitats for a while, so luckily London Underground's lawyers can set their sights on other things. This round take us to Hong Kong with a spot from regular visitor Graham O'Mara

Photo by Graham O'Mara

He saw this in a local shopping centre. "It was located on the "underground" floor of a shopping complex in Kwai Fong, Hong Kong". I spose being underground means they thought they had license to use the roundel.

From Hong Kong to Mexico - Julio spotted this from a local electrical supplies store which used the roundel in Tijuana.

Roundel - Tijuana, Mexico taken by Julio

Over to Sydney, Erk Pod spotted the roundel in a Westfield shopping centre

Kids Central - Westfield, Sydney taken by Erk Pod

Apparently the children's shop didn't have a railway theme, so not sure why the roundel logo was appropriate.

The final one isn't a current roundel spot, but I like that someone somewhere thought it was once a good idea to make a shirt and a pair of culottes or Twiggy trousers covered in roundels.

Model in roundel clothing

Thanks to I.P for sending this one through. If anyone can speak Russian you'll find out its origin. It was taken by Norman Parkinson.

Thanks to all who sent them in. The set of Roundels not on the Underground is here and please feel free to mail me any you spot on your travels, and I'll try to get round to blogging the next ones sooner.


; Posted by Unknown Monday, February 16, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/roundels-not-on-london-underground.html

Friday, February 13, 2009

Twestival 2009

It was great being on the Tube yesterday to see
Twestival on the front cover of Metro. In a nutshell Twestival was a big global party for people who Twitter, set up to raise money for Charity : Water.

Twestival Metro Front Cover

Over 200 cities took part and I'm pleased to say that was one of the few major tech / Web 2.0'ie events that was set up from London.

Loads and loads of people helped to put the event together, but Amanda Rose deserves extra special kudos for hardly getting any sleep & making sure it went truly global.

@monkchips @amanda - London Twestival 2009

She is a lovely understated person too and hopefully we be able to sleep soundly again.

A number of you who read this blog were at the London event last night, so it was great to meet many of you in the flesh, croak at you (as I've almost lost my voice) & put some faces to the avatars. Even if some of the faces were a little err.. peculiar

@edent @robingrant @qwghlm @flashboy - London Twestival 2009

The rest of my photos from London Twestival are here, but there will be gazillions of Twestival pictures from around the world to see too.


; Posted by Unknown Friday, February 13, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/twestival-2009.html

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Flickr Scavenger Hunt at Acton Depot

See the Tube run like clockwork and get the chance of winning a prize, as the London Transport Museum are holding another Flickr photographic Scavenger Hunt. However, for the first time this will be at the Depot in Acton. It's part of the
Museum Depot's London in Miniature Open Weekend which runs from the 7th - 8th of March.

Abbey Road Model Tube Station 3

"You can test out your creativity by solving the clues to capture things both big & small in this fun setting. Prizes will be on offer as well as a chance to contribute to the Museum's growing photographic collection. To sign up please email communities@ltmuseum.co.uk Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis."

The Scavenger Hunt takes place on Saturday 7th of March and full details of timing can be found on the following Flickr Group which it's worth joining to show interest, but please also email The Communities Team at the Museum if you want to take part.

Abbey Road Model Tube Station 2

I've not been to the Museum Depot for a few years (here's when I was at the Transport in Miniature Open Weekend) so am looking forward to the hunt. The clues are being put together by my friends Cowfish, Mondoagogo and Blech (aka Billy, Anna and Paul) who are Flickr Scavenger Hunt aficionados so I'm imagining there'll be some inventive & challenging clues, with some great photographs at the end.

Hope to see many of you there.


; Posted by Unknown Thursday, February 12, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/flickr-scavenger-hunt-at-acton-depot.html
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