London Transport Museum Film Collection online

London Transport Musuem have just added a film collection to their online archives. The initial films cover films going back to 1910 up to the 1970's. The musuem says it includes "the classic British Transport Films 'All that mighty heart', along with a lesser-known gem 'Our Canteens'."


Flicking through the eight titles, I was drawn to a film from 1932 showing the 'new' Piccadilly Line extension and seeing how stations that I often travel through now, such as Acton Town and Hammersmith looked back then. You also get to see crowds of thirties commuters (most of the men in hats) boarding the London Underground at Piccadilly Circus & using the ticket halls at Hyde Park Corner.

It's a great collection to browse and dive into, not just for transport buffs, but also to see how film & animation styles have changed over that period.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, January 24, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Weekly strikes on Jubilee Line over Tube pay

You might face some severe disruption on the Jubilee Line from 7.30pm 27th January 2010 and then each Sunday evening from 7.30pm on 31st January 2010. Maintenance workers who are members of the RMT & employed by Alstom are walking out in a dispute over pay.


It's claimed that staff based in Stratford are paid less than "their brothers and sisters elsewhere on the Underground". The pay gap is said to have grown to thousands of pounds.

However, on Wednesday a new proposal was put to the table for the RMT to consider.

Bob Crow the RMT leader said "Despite lengthy talks aimed at reaching an agreement that ensures that Stratford Market depot fleet staff get the same wages as their brothers and sisters elsewhere on the Underground, Alstom have dug their heels in and left us no option but to take decisive action to break the deadlock.."

A TfL spokesperson told the Press Association: "This is a matter for Tube Lines, its contractors and the RMT and we urge them to resolve the matter quickly without any disruption to Londoners."

It's hoped that a decision will be made by Monday.

Update - Jan 27th 2010 - These have been suspended as a new pay offer is now being considered.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 22, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube staff vote for strike action

There was an over 90% majority vote for strike action in a dispute between the Metronet signal staff and London Underground management over the imposition of new rosters for maintenance workers plus handing over work to external contractors & breaches of agreements. The RMT have described this rather more emotively on their press release and accuse London Underground of "unilaterally ripping up agreements, bulldozing through shift patterns that treat staff like slabs of meat that can be pulled off the shelf when it suits managers and of threatening job security through increased use of outside contractors"


The union leader Bob Crow said, of the LU: "It's their bully-boy management style which has forced us into this dispute."

He continued "LUL seem to be hell bent on confrontation by tearing up the Signals Framework Agreement and by unilaterally introducing new working practices which mean they can make people work what hours they like, when they like."

London Underground are denyiing the union's allegations and their chief maintenance officer, Phil Hufton, said striking over rosters was "ludicrous".

He said: "We are planning to introduce a roster covering 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure planned engineering staff are always available. That agreement already exists, but the RMT is trying to tear it up.

"They should stop threatening industrial action at every opportunity."

As yet it's not been announced when the strike action would take place if the dispute is not resolved.

Update - the first of the Tube strikes started Friday 5th February 2010

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 19, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Photo of the Week

Great emotional penalty fare notice spotted by Rowan Beentje while travelling through Green Park London Underground station:


I quite like the way the language is really specific here, as it brings out that nice "jobsworth" official Tube tone "If you fail to hide your true emotions fully or make any attempt to engage with passengers".

I've put in bold where I imagine the emphasis would be if this was ever to become an announcement.

My blog posts will be a bit sporadic over the next two weeks, as I'll be in California for work. I'll be thinking of you & hope your commute & travels aren't too problematic. Whatever you do, make sure you follow the signs about your emotions to avoid the penalty fare.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground & Snow

Woke up to snow again this morning. However, as you can see from the view from my study window, the Tube seems to be coping with the unexpected downfall. For the London Underground, for once, it's the right kind of snow. Good luck getting into work if you're on a mainline line or using London Overground, as there seem to be a number of delays and cancelled services.


Let us know how you get on and how your station or route is holding up with the snow.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Ticket Office Closures

London Underground plans to close or cut most of its ticket offices, and to reduce station staffing by over 1,000 staff. A number of people have sent me a link to petition that's been set up by Janine Booth to try to stop the closures.


It says: "To provide customer service and safety, London Underground stations need more staff not fewer. Popular opposition stopped planned ticket office closures in 2008; now we need the same popular opposition to stop them again."

From a safety point of view, I don't think it's a great idea to have unmanned or unpersonned stations. A number of old British Rail stations have suffered an increase in assaults etc due to de-staffing.

"Leaked proposals indicate that up to 144 ticket offices will be closed and up to 1,200 jobs will be axed, said the Socialist Party website.

"Already scores of jobs around the combine are left vacant, with no intention by management to fill them. Many outlying stations are regularly left unstaffed, which is a health and safety risk for the travelling public - who are already faced with the costliest transport system in Europe."

This is probably one a few times when I find I'm in support of the RMT! If you'd like to sign the petition it's here.

It's also pretty frustrating to find unstaffed stations when you want to ask a question or the Oyster & ticket machines are broken, giving you the prospect of a tiresome explanation at the other end of your journey. I wonder how many people will also use the lack of station staff as a way of dodging fares?

What are your thoughts?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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No Trousers on the Tube 2010

Over thirty brave souls braced the icy temperatures in London yesterday to take part in the first No Trousers on the London Underground event. Although over two hundred people had signed up to be in the London part of the global task, the weather meant that most stayed wrapped up. However, if you were on the Piccadilly Line, between 3pm and 5pm, youd have seen the trouserless travelling between Leicester Square, King's Cross and Earl's Court before going back to Leicester Square.



Rammi took part and is featured in trouserless at King's Cross Tube in today's Metro! Updating on Twitter she said "I was in the 5th carriage for most of the ride, with foreign young people and elderly women giving me evil looks. I think photographers outnumbered the participants"

My wishes of warmth didn't work as it it was "freezing" at the meeting point in Trafalgar Square, where she tweeted "W00t for coldness and mismatched underwear in public view!" However once on the trains it was really hot and packed at King's Cross.



Ryan Millar blogged about the Trouserless on the Tube experience too:

"After the first stop we all awaited the signal from Team Leader Seamus to drop trou. Initially, when the six of us in my carriage all de-trousered, the reaction was mild surprise.

Or the old "Look! Don't look!" gambit.

I just leaned up near the door, at the end of the car. Reading. Finally the guy next to me (after a few stops) asked me why I took my trousers off.

"It's hot in here," I explained.
"But what about them?" he asked, gesturing to the other bare legs in the carriage.
"Yeah, they took theirs off too," I agreed.
For some reason this seemed to satisfy his curiosity.

Sounds like London - I bet everyone else was dying to ask.

There's a great set of photos by idulsukin here.



Rammi also pointed me to the video of a trouser removal at Covent Garden. Hopefully next year it won't be freezing & more people will turn up. Well done to the those who braved it & putting London on the No Trousers Metro map!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 11, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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No Trousers on the Underground 2010

Looking for No Trousers on the Tube 2011 - it's here!

It may be a little bit too nippy or snowy to happen, but so far over 100 people have signed up to the first ever No Pants Tube Ride or No Trousers on the Underground 2010. The No Pants Subway Ride has been running in the US since 2002, starting on the New York Subway by ImprovEverywhere.



I wondered if it would ever make it to the London Underground and typically on what looks likely to be a freezing cold weekend, on Sunday 10th January there'll be people casually travelling around the London Underground sans trousers.

The aim is to be nonchalant and like the US riders to look as though you've just forgotten to wear trousers. The organisers say: "You can wear fun underwear if you like, but nothing that screams out, 'I wore this because I'm doing a silly stunt.' Wear two pairs of underwear if it makes you feel more comfortable. Don't wear a thong or anything else that might offend people. Our aim is to make people laugh, not piss them off."

Good luck to them, and I look forward to seeing any pictures or video on Monday, that's if TfL don't find some way of suing people for public exposure!

Update - Over thirty people went Trouserless on the Tube - see how they got on!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 08, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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What's the best London Underground iPhone App?

Not owning an iPhone, I've never been able to test the various Tube apps that exist for it. But now Londonist, through Andreas (the guy who did the cycling vs Tube test blogged yesterday), has put five Tube iPhone apps through their paces.


He reviews a freebie (Tube Map) and four at 59p (London Tube 09, London Tube, iTrans London Tube and London Tube Deluxe). In principle I love the idea of London Tube (which sounds similar to the Nearest Tube app at £1.19 for iPhone 3GS phones only) as it's the only one that used augmented reality so "using the iPhone's camera functionality you can see an arrow that points you towards the nearest Tube station. However, there is no departure board functionality and the 'points of interest' feature requires additional payment."

Andreas gives London Tube Deluxe his vote. What do you think? Have you used any others or ones with extra bells & whistles like the Tube Exits app?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 08, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Faster by Tube or Bike?

There have been a number of experiments where people effectively "race against the London Underground". Running, by taxi and even walking have all been pitted against the Tube. The latest is an experiment by London cycling blogger, Andreas to see whether you can make several journeys in central London quicker by bike.

I don't think it will surprise many of you to know that cycling won, but what surprised both me and Andreas was by how much!


He said "I made the test as fair as possible by starting and ending the journey standing on the same spot. For tube route planning and estimating journey times I used TfL’s journey planner. Above ground I used Bike Route Toaster to plot a suitable route. I then exported the data to my iPhone which is mounted to my bike using the Bicio bike mount.

According to TfL’s planner the journeys should take:

Swiss Cottage to Covent Garden 21 minutes (Tube) 23 minutes (Bike)
Covent Garden to London Bridge 19 minutes (Tube) Not available (Bike)
London Bridge to Mornington Crescent 18 minutes (Tube) 23 minutes (Bike)

I won't go into too many details of the Tube journey because it will be about as thrilling as walking down a staircase. Which incidentally made up a large part of it."

His bike journey had some technical hitches with his iPhone app, so he ended up going the wrong way to Covent Garden.

The walking bits on the Tube were done at a "brisk pace" and his cycling was "fast but not erratic", wearing normal clothes & not cycling gear.

Here's the results

Swiss Cottage to Covent Garden 28 minutes (Tube) 19 minutes (Bike)
Covent Garden to London Bridge 22 minutes (Tube) 13 minutes (Bike)
London Bridge to Mornington Crescent 30 minutes (Tube) 22 minutes (Bike)

"The bike was on average 33% faster. Someone could therefore save 1/3 off their travel times or in the case of these journeys nearly 30 minutes!

The second big surprise was how inaccurate the TfL journey time predictor is. My guess is it doesn't calculate the time required to get down to the Tube and back out again."

You can read more about Andreas' journeys here.

Andreas says he's going to try it with some other routes and see what the results are. He'd also like to know if you've noticed anything about journeys you make by bike or on foot & how they compare with making them by Tube. I currently don't own a bike but would be worried about the fumes travelling round central London & also getting knocked off.

With Boris Johnson's craze for bikes & the upcoming bike hire scheme, it would be useful to see more experiments like this. Maybe even a Tube map or an app showing journey where it is faster to cycle!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 06, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/01/faster-by-tube-or-bike.html

Tube Photo of the Week

Balham station on the Northern Line suffered an identity crisis yesterday:


Webponce joked that the station "is making a transfer request to the newer more shiny Jubilee Line. Either that or we're part of conspiracy to confuse South Londoners."

Any other spots of London Underground stations or platform indicators misbehaving would be most welcome.

Excellent! Helen Duffett has just sent me the mysterious non existent Putney Green Station showing at Mile End:


She said "TfL don't know how/when it got there!" & has put the reply TfL sent her in the comments! Wonder how long it will take them to change it?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 05, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Picture Quiz

To ease you back into the freezing New Year, I thought it would be fun to post up the photo round of the quiz the London Transport Museum held last year. There are ten London Underground stations in the pictures below:


Two Tube stations have one picture. Five are made up of two pictures and one Tube station is made up of three pictures. 9 and 10 are stand alone Tube stations with the others all mixed up.

There's no prizes, it's just for the satisfaction of seeing how many you can get. Leave the station names in the comments and try not to look at what other people have left.

Have fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 04, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/01/tube-picture-quiz.html

Signs of Christmas on the London Underground

You know it's nearly Xmas on the Tube, when there's a lot more empty seats in the morning. When there's weary shoppers hoping to make it home with their bounty intact (great picture of one such shopper by Mevan Babakar below).


When TfL positively encourage you to take bits of the Tube home with you:


Obviously not pulling up seats or stripping off the moquette upholstery, but giving gifts made with their likenesses. Nice seeing the London Undercover Tube Umbrella on the poster.

When your local station puts its "Festive" opening times up.


Luckily my station is running pretty normally, but don't forget to check out TfL's site for Tube travel over Xmas.

Finally Christmas on the Tube wouldn't be complete without a picture of Santacon.


Great shot of a group/herd of Santae legging it onto the train before the doors shut by Zbigniew Osiowy of Tubephotography.net.

Hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and here's hoping that travel in 2010 won't be too much of a challenge!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/signs-of-christmas-on-london.html

What the Northern Line could have been

Fun short pilot for a TV show called 'Unfinished London'. It's about the incomplete Northern Heights plan for the Northern Line and how its failure affected how North London looks.


Covers similar ground to the Transformed by the Tube talk I went to last month at London Transport Museum. Building the London Underground had a massive impact to the suburbs & literally creates new towns.

Thanks to Will B for sending it on to me and for Jay Foreman for making a good short film, pondering whether we're any worse off because the Northern Heights was never finished.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-northern-line-could-have-been.html

Adless Tube

King's Cross London Underground station won't look like this for long. So James Cridland took a shot of the new recently-opened access tunnel there.


He said "Imagine what it would be like if this stayed like this?".

Looks like an art installation to me and some of the commuters look as though they're discussing something in the Tate!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 21, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube power staff in Xmas strike over pay

Hopefully, this will not have serious consequences for the overall London Underground service, but 100 EDF Power staff will walk out next week over a pay dispute.

The engineers will not work from 8pm on Tuesday 22nd December 2009 to 8am on Christmas Eve. Further action might also take place in the 12 hours from 8pm on Boxing Day.


RMT leader Bob Crow says: "Our EDF Powerlink members are furious at the failure of the company to make a meaningful pay offer. Instead of entering into serious talks they have run to the courts and have wheeled out the anti-union laws in an attempt to shackle RMT. Unless we receive a positive offer this action will go ahead and the consequences for the Underground will be serious."

Transport for London say they're confident that "this action does not present a significant risk to the operation of the Underground."

However, Unite members have been balloted and may be taking the same action as RMT members at the same times.

There is also a separate dispute with LUL Willesden Green Group Station Staff over alleged victimisation of a staff member. "The union has therefore decided to use the mandate for industrial action and our members on the group have been instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between 04:59 and 23:59 on Wednesday 23rd December 2009."

Update: 22nd December 2009 - Unite members will definitely be taking strike action from 8pm 22nd December 2009 until 8pm 27th December 2009. No updates from TfL as yet as to whether this will cause a disruption to services on the Tube. Although Unite say "EDF has failed to reach a compromise with Unite and now there is a high risk that the tube will be brought to a halt at the busiest time of year."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 18, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/tube-power-staff-in-xmas-strike-over.html

Will Tube Lines hand back Tube contract?

Yesterday the Rail Arbiter favoured the London Underground and said that Tube Lines' estimate to complete line upgrades was higher than it should be. Chris Bolt said "I have reviewed carefully the submissions from Tube Lines and London Underground, and taken expert advice. On the basis of my analysis, I consider that a company operating in an overall efficient and economic manner and in accordance with Good Industry Practice – the test in the PPP Agreement – could deliver its obligations at a substantially lower cost than projected by Tube Lines, though not as cheaply as suggested by London Underground."


He's come in with a middling figure of £4.4 billion, whereas Tube Lines wanted £5.75 billion and London Underground believed they should do it for £4.0 billion.

This is only a draft decision though and Tube Lines sound like they might prepared to walk away from the contract. In a press release on their site, they said that the arbiter agrees that London Underground are a "difficult client" to work with.

Currently they say it will be difficult to complete the work at lower figure proposed. Dean Finch, Tube Lines' Chief Executive said "The Arbiter has acknowledged even at this level that LU has a stark choice to make - either to do less work or raise additional finance. However, this document is a draft and we have a further six weeks to make representations which we will do robustly."


So what will happen if the arbiter sticks at £4.4 billion? What if London Underground still say they're not prepared to pay more than £4 billion? Is Boris going to wade in and demand that it's completed at that price? Will Tube Lines seriously walk away from the contract? If so what does that mean for us commuters? Even more delays to the Jubilee Line work? Any improvements on the Northern Line by 2012? Questions, questions, questions.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, December 18, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Philosophy at King's Cross

Taken at the exit of the King's Cross H&C/Metropolitan/Teacup line this morning, by Matthew V.


Is this an instruction to us all? Or just the philosophy of the London Underground in general?

Plus on another thoughtful note, Rammi saw this at Sudbury Hill on Monday:


Let us know if any of your station staff are giving other philosophical offerings or veiled instructions on how to cope with life on the Tube. Perhaps they're competing with each other in an effort to be the most erudite.

Finally, the staff at Caledonian Road decided to use their Service Information board for a rather impressive Christmas message:


Thanks to Yaili for alerting me to this. Have a look at all the effort that was put into it on the large size!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 17, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/tube-philosophy-at-kings-cross.html

Tube Lines' Delays may spread to Northern Line

After a recent media war of words about the finish date for the Jubilee Line upgrade, it appears that TfL now aren't confident about Tube Lines being able to complete Northern Line updates in time for the Olympics. Bloomberg reported yesterday that TfL is "concerned" about Tube Lines meeting the January 2012 deadline for the Northern Line work.


The same Jubilee Line team will be used for the work on the Northern Line. Boris Johnson had written to the Head of Tube Lines demanding assurances of the finish date of the Jubilee Line work. However Tube Lines said in an e-mail on Monday that 'the delay to the Jubilee line does not necessarily impact on the Northern line upgrade.'

This Thursday rail regulator Chris Bolt will issue a draft decision on a related dispute between the London Underground & Tube Lines' about the cost of the contractor's work from 2010 to 2017. London Underground estimates the cost to be 4.2 billion pounds, while Tube Lines says it will be around 5.7 billion pounds.

RMT Leader Bob Crow leapt on the recent disputes as a chance to lay into Tube Lines and hasn't minced his words. He told the BBC:

"Tube Lines should be sacked now, without compensation, before the final death throes of PPP on the underground do further damage to London's transport system.

"This chaos management of an essential service for millions of Londoners cannot be allowed to continue." He believes that the work should be bought in-house (probably giving him even more opportunity to determine when workers should lay down their tools).

The Northern Line is one of the busiest on the Tube & many people are worried about the Tube's ability to cope with the influx of travellers due to the Olympics. So Tube Lines are under a lot of pressure to get work completed on time. At the moment it's early days, but doubtless the battle of words will continue.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2009/12/tube-lines-delays-may-spread-to.html

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
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