How's the new Circle Line?

According to The Independent, the new Circle Line (or lasso line, or spiral line, or @ line) is causing some confusion for London Underground passengers. Writer, Andy McSmith calls it "incomprehensible".


He points out what is making things confusing: "To add to the perplexity, Transport for London (TfL) insists on calling the trains that are going by the long route to Hammersmith "eastbound", although they go south, west and north until they get to Liverpool Street, and then start travelling west. "Westbound" trains between Tower Hill and Gloucester Road, are, in fact, heading east, and "eastbound" trains are heading west. Clear enough?"

What we can only hope are just teething problems, added to the confusion at Edgware Road yesterday:

"At the entrance were notices telling you that westbound trains to Hammersmith left from platform 4, and the "eastbound" trains that took you south towards Victoria left from platform 2. But any unwary passenger who believed the notices and got the first train on platform 2 was likely to be whisked away to Hammersmith, because the train drivers were using the wrong platforms."

A number of comments on Twitter show that the line "sucks" or people are reverting to buses instead. Thanks to Seant666 for the heads up to the Indie article.

Have you used the new Circle Line yet? Has anyone tried getting it to Hammersmith, as that's supposed to be the main benefit of extending the line?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/hows-new-circle-line.html

Farringdon Tube Announcer's running commentary on delays

A disgruntled station assistant at Farringdon London Underground station decided to give commuters a 20 minute blow-by-blow account of delays to the service last week. Apparently his manager complained that he didn't communicate enough so he decided to go all out with sympathy instead.

"Is this what having a nervous breakdown feels like" he said. Not too full of suggestions as to how to speed up the journey his philosophical offerings included: "You’ve got two options – apart from shooting yourself, and who could blame you."


"Once again I do apologise for the disruption to your journey this morning, it has upset me easily as much as it has upset you. Do trust me, that is coming from the heart"

You can hear part of his rant on the Bitter wallet blog.

Thanks to Jon Justice who spotted in the Telegraph.

Interesting that they decided to focus on him telling passengers that they should consider shooting themselves. Obviously it's a better approach than threatening to push passengers off a train.

Have you heard or seen any other drivers or station assistants become so exasperated with the system, they had to let loose?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 14, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/farringdon-tube-announcers-running.html

Roundels Not on the London Underground

Thanks again to all you globe trotters who have been spotting the Tube roundel outside the system.

Adam S was on holiday in Delhi and his friend took the picture below:


Jemimah Knight also spotted the roundel in India at Bangalore


Michael Windsor saw a roundel for Camden Town not in North London by in a shopping centre in Gdansk Poland:


My favourite and one that will certainly have TfL's lawyers jumping up and down was taken by The Londoneer


He said "You're really not going to like this - they clearly have absolutely no shame on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg!"

I love it, please keen them coming and I'll blog the best. You can see more at the growing Roundels not on the London Underground set.

Speaking of Germany, I'm off to Berlin for a few days. Hopefully I'll be able to add a few pictures of the metro system there!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 10, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Robert Downey Jr at Baker Street Tube

Interesting way of promoting the new Sherlock Holmes film. A waxwork figure of Robert Downey Jr has been put on a number of platforms of Baker Street London Underground station looking as though he's waiting for a train.


He was also seen inside the carriage, with commuters naturally looking as though it wasn't out of the ordinary to see him there!


Great photos by Scott Monty and there are more in his Flickr set here and on his Baker Street Blog.

I'm not sure if he'll be there every day. But on the December 14th he's moved to the nearby Madame Tussauds. Thanks to Paul B for the hat tip to this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 10, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Tube Tour

It must be extremely hard to pack more than 150 years of London Underground history into a two hour tour, but the people from Insider London make a great stab at this. Last week, I was treated to one of their guided London Underground Tours, along with fellow London chroniclers at Londonist & LDN.


The tour starts at Farringdon where the first trains ran underground in 1863 and ends with a look to the future at Westminster station.

Rather than ruin the tour by telling you everything that's on it, some of the things you'll experience are discovering which line may have been called the Viking Line, seeing where a "ghost Tube station" is and learning about some of the interesting things encountered when the Victorians were digging tunnels by hand.

As someone who uses the Tube at lot and has been writing about it for years, I was pleased to see some new things to look out for. The tour would a good way for tourists to while away some hours & speak knowledgeably about the Tube when back home. Tube experts or those with a more geeky knowledge may want to get something a little more tailored for their "specialist" subject. But Insider London would be happy to do this.

Naturally, the tours don't run in the rush hour, as we all know how much we love to see groups of people standing around pointing at things on a commute! However, as long as there's a minimum of two people, you can get a tour to suit the day & time that's best for you. There are also discounts for 10 or more people.

If two hours sounds like a breeze, there's a six hour London Underground Epic Tour for the hardcore Tube enthusiast. Although I'd imagine for the next six or twenty eight weekends, there'd be an alternative way of getting from Green Park to Westminster - d'oh to Jubilee Line weekend engineering closures.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 09, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Fox on the Tube

Amazing photograph by Kate Arkless Gray who spotting an urban fox travelling up an escalator at Walthamstow London Underground.


She said "This cheeky chap was snapped at around midnight on 5th December 2009 at Walthamstow Central tube station in London. As I got of my train I'd seen him dashing down the escalator, and when the workmen shoo-ed him back up again he sat near the top for the moment - enabling me to grab these two pics." The other one which shows him in close up is here. Thanks to many people for the heads up on this. As Sizemore noticed it's even standing on the right side of the escalator. Big thanks to Kate for letting me use the picture on the blog!

I've been shocked by seeing foxes in many unexpected places, but never in a fairly enclosed & crowded place like the Tube. This little creature must have no fear.

What's the strangest animal you've seen on the Tube?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 08, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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28 or six more weekend closures of Jubilee Line?

A disagreement seems to have broken out regarding the number of weekend closures required to finish the ongoing improvements on the Jubilee Line. Media reports have suggested that a further 28 weekend closures could be needed, taking us up to halfway through next year. Londonist report that this has led Boris Johnson to wade in to Tube Lines' head with demands as to the true extent of closures that are needed.

Taken by Utku

However, Val Shawcross on the London Assembly has no idea where TfL's figure of 28 weeks has come from: "There has clearly been some kind of breakdown in communications between the two parties, as I met with Tube Lines today and they have told me that they have only requested six more full weekend closures, and even if that increases to accommodate things like training time, it should be no more than ten". (via SE1)

She continued "Rather than a war of words in the press, everyone needs to sit down together to work out a sensible programme so that passengers know what to realistically expect.".

Caroline Pigeon, chair of the transport committee at City Hall echoed this view "The Mayor now needs to call a Tube summit, get all the players round the table, and bang heads together. This must include the owners of Tube Lines, Bechtel and Ferrovial, who pull Tube Lines' strings. These parent companies need to understand a better way of working has to be found. These delays cannot go on indefinitely."

Do you live on the Jubilee Line? Have you been sent anything about the works being extended into the middle of next year? You really have my sympathies. I've only tried to use it for a couple of weekends since the regular closures, so didn't have to put up with too many replacement bus journeys. I'm assuming you can't claim Customer Charter refunds for this as there's already been advance notice?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 07, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Photo of the Week

Great spot by CdL Creative going through Canary Wharf London Underground station. He said "The guy sitting opposite me on the tube was wearing a suit.

Except...


The trousers were completely inside out. Either he was totally oblivious to this or it was some sort of Masonic ritual."

The mind boggles. Even if you're in a massive rush, you'd have to struggle somewhat to put your trousers on inside out.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 04, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Amazing Hair style on the Tube

First time I've ever seen a London Underground member of staff with a hair cut like this.


Bet he never makes a rush for the doors on a crowded train for the worry of getting his hair stuck.


I took this photo while I was on an interesting tour of the London Underground, which I'll blog about later.

But as I held back a little to take this guy's picture, the lady who was running the tour said that she'd been on a Tube journey once where a man with very long hair got it stuck in the doors. He was quite nonchalant about it and said he'd be able to escape at the next stop. Typically though, he was unlucky enough be to trapped on the side where the doors didn't open for a number of stops.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 03, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/mind-mohican.html

New Art Below Tube Campaign

There's a new collection of Art Below posters on the London Underground running up until 13th December. Art Below was set up in February 2006 and came about when two brothers, Ben and Simon Moore, wondered if they could use surplus ad space on the Tube and use it to display friends' artwork.


Ben Moore said "The Tube is an iconic, vast space, plus users are almost immersed in advertising on it, so why not turn ad space into art space,"


It's a great way for artists to get their work seen by millions of people. Submissions are made online and then selected on their contemporary relevance and standard. The poster scheme has also been rolled out on metro systems in Tokyo and Berlin. So far, over 500 artists have had their work displayed

Art Below have secured very central sites including Bond Street, Gloucester Road, Old Street, Angel and London Bridge. Overall they're seen by over 38,000 people every fortnight.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 03, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Amazing & Extraordinary London Underground Facts

That's the title of Dr Stephen Halliday's new book, which he will be signing this Friday evening at London Transport Museum & co-hosting a kitsch quiz as part of the museum's "Lates" series.


Halliday's book "Underground to Everywhere" is one of the most recent definitive books about the Tube, but his new book sounds much lighter and would make a great stocking filler. He gave a great talk which I was lucky to attend a few years ago on the history of the underground.


The quiz starts at 7.30pm and Stephen will be available to sign books from 8.30pm to 9pm.

Also at this Friday's event you can get crafty with The Make Lounge & make magnets and envelopes using London Underground maps and posters. There's also semi-detached bingo (no, I've no idea what that is either), a curatorial tour of the Suburbia exhibition.

Sounds like it will be a really fun night. Tickets are £7 Adults, £5 Concessions and £5 per ticket for each group of 4 or more. Admission for over 18s only. Friday Lates start at 18.45 and go on until 22.00, booking and further details are here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 02, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Travel makes us aggressive

A new report from the London Assembly "Too Close for Comfort" has revealed what many Londoners already know. Overcrowding on the London Underground gives us a "dog-eat-dog" attitude where we turn into "a different animal" in a fight for seats or space on a train.


The report shows there is severe overcrowding on the Tube, with 80% of commuters saying they experience overcrowding which causes discomfort and over half saying they can't get on their first train in the morning. The worst lines for overcrowding are the Central and Northern Lines. At peak hours you'll often find four travellers into a square metre of carriage space.

The report says that people are "going after a seat regardless of who else might want it, ignoring pregnant women and people carrying babies".

People mentally prepare for their journey on auto pilot and psyche themselves up for a packed journey as though they're going into battle, rather than simply travelling into work.

Caroline Pigeon of the London Assembly spoke to The Guardian and said that the report offers suggestions as to how the situation can be improved. In an audio interview she also points to Madrid metro and how they tackle the works of improvements to increase capacity on trains. "If Madrid can upgrade their system without any closures then London Underground ought to be able to do the same". she says. "Too Close for Comfort" criticised the "chaotic" upgrade of the Jubilee Line extension, which has meant that sections of the line being closed for whole weekends several times in the last few months.

The report also calls for a "traffic-light" system in ticket halls so people can judge exactly how packed the trains will be.

What more do you think can be done to ease overcrowding? Is your journey to work overcrowded? What are your strategies to avoid packed trains? Do you travel in later? Walk more or try to use music to put your head in another place?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 01, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/tube-travel-makes-us-aggressive.html

Has the London Underground Map lost its way? - revisited

Yesterday's Guardian pondered what Harry Beck would do with the Tube Map today in the light of the expansion of the Oyster card & a new map to illustrate this.

"What would Beck himself have done? A man of vision as well as courage – and a pragmatist if ever there were one – he might well have recommended something drastic, even iconoclastic: tearing up his own Underground map, and suggesting that we begin again from first principles. No doubt this would be an occasion as emotionally charged as the introduction of decimal currency was nearly 40 years ago, but it might be the only rational thing to do." Thanks to richjm for the heads up.

From www.boardello.co.uk

A few years ago, I went to a talk that London Underground map expert Maxwell Roberts. He had similar thoughts. I wrote:

Max believes we've now got to the state with the map trying so desperately to please everyone (wheelchair access, station closures, partial station closures, zones, future extensions), that it has become a bit of mess. The network has grown so much that even Harry (or rather Henry) Beck would have tearing out his hair.

Now more than ever we can see the tension between the map's need to be legible, usable, attractive and simple and its counter need to convey information. The addition of Cross Rail and the Olympic Line will only make matters worse. Take a look at TfL's own projection of what the Tube Map could look like in 2016 (with Boris's arrival this projection no longer exists) and you'd need a pretty big diary map to cope with that.


What's the solution? If designers went back to the drawing board would they go curvy as Max Roberts recommends?

Max said "So, does this map 'work'? With extra railways on it, the simplicity of Version 1 (his earlier version) has been diluted, and the map needs a bit more mental effort to make sense of it (as for any complex map). I think I have shown that there may well be some mileage in designing maps in this way, but die-hard Beck fans will not be convinced. On the other hand, it's hard to know just how bad the design of the current official map has to get before they would be."


Will the design team board™ have their way with a proposed 2012 Tube map based on Olympic rings (see first image) - they say "recent usability feedback has been very positive." Would going geographical help or hinder? Has the map got so bad it needs a total re-design?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, November 27, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/has-london-underground-map-lost-its-way.html

Extreme Tube Sleeping

The London Underground seems to be one of the better places to sleep in the winter if the following pictures are anything to go by.

Whatleydude snapped this guy going through Maida Vale sound asleep:


He said "What's that? No feet on seats? What about legs? They're ok, right?"

Melanie Seasons saw a pretty dishevelled man on the Victoria Line and said "I've seen people fall asleep on the Tube before, but never face down into their Metro. I don't think the poor guy even got through the second page."


Didn't realise that Metro was that boring!

If you manage to spot any other heavy Tube sleepers on your journey, you should have plenty of time to take a picture. Let me know if you do and I'll add them to this post.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, November 26, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/extreme-tube-sleeping.html

Is Tube investment being cut back?

We've started, so we won't finish, should be the catchphrase at Newbury Park. Although the London Underground fare increases are supposed to "sustain vital investment", Matthew V found the opposite at his local station.


He said: "For the last few months at least Newbury Park has had major construction work to install lifts. Signs went up last week that they are halting the work due to lack of funding, and yesterday there were severe delays for a while due to 'obstruction on the tracks'.


"From the looks of things it might have been to remove some of the tools etc, but the platforms still have massive blue hoardings limiting the space available – which was bad this morning as the station, which is a major hub for the Essex and areas East of London (it's got about 500 car parking spaces), was closed for a while. I'm a little annoyed at this since having lifts would really make the station fit as a transport hub, and would mean I didn't have to keep offering to help women up stairs with buggies (there are no escalators).

Is this just a sign of the recession? Money being diverted to pay increases for drivers? Given the price hikes I've got a feeling it can't be due to general lack of money!"

Has anyone else seen any instances of this? I know that improvements at certain stations seem to take longer than planned to complete. But it seems unusual to say that work is going to be stopped because of lack of funding just before we're about to have a fare increase. Not the greatest timing.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-tube-investment-being-cut-back.html

If you can't film on the Tube....

Build your own version. This is lovely animation for Coldplay song Strawberry Swing by Matt Clark


Thanks to richjm for the heads up for this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/if-you-cant-film-on-tube.html

Should the Circle Line be renamed?

Not that the Circle Line ever looked like a circle, but from December 13th it's going to look even less like a Circle. The extension to Hammersmith will mean that a "tail" will be added to the line. An article in yesterday's Times is already calling it a tadpole. Are they right? Is there a better name for it? Why wasn't the Circle Line ever called the "Bottle Line", which is far more what it currently looks like?


Spiral, corkscrew and tea-cup have been some of the offerings on Twitter, when we were discussing a few weeks ago.


Any more suggestions welcome in the comments below. This is just for fun, as TfL have already said that the line won't be re-named. I'm not sure if they've ever renamed an entire Tube line since the London Underground existed!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/should-circle-line-be-renamed.html

Bob Crow appearing on Have I Got News for You

RMT Leader Crow will be the first trade union official to ever appear on the comdedy quiz show "Have I Got News for You".

He'll be on this Friday and apparently is a long time fan. He said to the Evening Standard "I'm looking forward to an evening of sparring with Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and the rest of the panel. I've sat across the table from some sharp operators in my time, but I know that the Have I Got News For You crew will pose a different challenge altogether."


Luckily there's still just under a month to go before the ballot for the pre-Xmas Tube strike takes place. So that won't be part of this week's news.

It'll be interesting to see how funny Crow is, and how well he'll react to being poked fun at. It's hard to imagine he'll get an easy time from the other panellists.

Ianvisits will be in the audience when the show is recorded on Thursday, so he might be able to give us a heads up on how it all goes. The show will be broadcast on Friday BBC1 at 9pm & repeated on iPlayer if you're in the UK.


Update - Here's Ianvisits's post on how he thought Bob Crow came across. Photo above is from Jimmy Carr who was one of the panellists.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, November 23, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/bob-crow-appearing-on-have-i-got-news.html

Can the Tube save energy?

Travelling through London Bridge London Underground station last night I saw the following poster at the top of the escalators


You've probably seen some of them around too. Escalators are switched off at quieter times of the day to save energy & "help lower the temperature" (not that the temperature needed much lowering in November).

I wonder how many stations this actually happens at? There must be some high traffic stations like Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and Angel which have pretty long escalators. But I'm sure the escalators there are never turned off.

Also why do some Tube stations which are open air and have large glass ticket halls have all of their lights on, all of the time? The Guardian questioned TfL about the lights at Stratford Tube in the summertime & although there was a standard "we're reviewing this" comment, there's no update as to whether anything was done.

Lights behind advertising hoardings on platforms and in corridors also seem to be constantly on & there's no mention of them being turned off at quieter times during the day. This is particularly annoying if there's no ads in them!

Do you have any other suggestions as to how the London Underground could save energy? Have you seen any other energy saving initiatives on networks outside of London?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, November 20, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/11/can-tube-save-energy.html

Weirdest things left on Tube Poll

Thanks to The Huffington Post & The Times who'd picked up on a post I wrote a number of years back on some of the weirder things left on the London Underground. It's in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Lost Property Office

Not exactly sure what the thing above it - but thanks to Lost Property Office for sending it!

The Huffington Post have made a poll out of the top items. They said: "Little explanation is given to how or why these things might have been left on public transportation. The mind boggles. Let us know what you think is the weirdest, any ideas as to why it might have been left there, and things you have left/seen left behind on public transport."

So far the skull is coming out on top as being the weirdest thing. Feel free to disagree!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, November 20, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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