Location based Tube Game - Chromaroma

If you're one of the people who enjoys playing Foursquare, you could be interested in a new location based game about travelling on the London Underground, launching late this year. Chromaroma was presented at City Hall this morning at seminar on The Possibilities of Real Time Data.

"Chromaroma is a type of location-based top-trumps. You collect places, identities, modes of transport and passengers as you travel around the city; discover and investigate mysteries attached to different locations and build alliances with fellow passengers that share your journeys."

Chromaroma Visualisations from Mudlark on Vimeo.
It'll be interesting to see what type of "alliances" will be built and might show commuters being a lot more friendly in a gaming environment than in the flesh! Although we might find the opposite to be the case. Moody commuters might find this an opportunity to virtually fight people in a race to be King of Cockfosters, for example.

There was some discussion over privacy aspects in the presentation at City Hall. The game currently scrapes journey history data from pay-as-you-go Oyster users who've already subscribed to the game.

"We have just switched on a blanket privacy policy that gives users the ability to choose which players they want to view their travel data and which they don’t, following the Facebook model. This is obviously essential in a game based around sharing location. Although pinpointing players exact locations is impossible, 1) because it is only based on station entry and exit and 2) because of a 48hour lag between actual journey and journey history being published by Oyster. But looking at journey histories over time it is possible to track patterns of travel and likely times in certain places and surprisingly you can quite easily work out a users approximate place of work and home manor.

Have we created a stalking app and unleashed a litigious monster?" he producers Mudlark ask on their blog.

Do the privacy aspects worry you, or do you think you could tactically use them to your advantage? To build up effective gameplay is it essential that people can see the travel strategies of competing players - otherwise it's like hiding chess pieces!

As the game is still in development, the guys behind Chromaroma would be interested in whether you'd actually play this. Would it make you more aware of the time you spend walking or using public transport? Would it benefit how you used the Tube, or do you just see it as a game?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, April 19, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/location-based-tube-game-chromaroma.html

Two public transport approaches to volcanic ash

Kudos to London Underground for going for the slightly more dramatic way of announcing that there were disruptions to flights due to volcanic ash from Iceland.


I like the use of "drifting" that's almost poetic for the Tube. Although not as dramatic as the headline on Metro's Independence Day style "The day the skies stood still" front page today!

Compare that to the much more formal notice at Liverpool Street station referring to flights in and out of Stansted Airport:


Interesting how National Express decided to include the British Airport Authority in this notice, probably to give it more strength.

Good luck if you planning on flying from the UK in the next day or so.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 16, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/two-public-transport-approaches-to.html

MetroTwin Interview & Tube Mouse

Thanks to MetroTwin for interviewing me for their blog. They found a fantastic picture of a mouse on the London Underground from Dan's Photos.


Try as I might, I've never been able to get a picture of a rodent on the Tube, as the little blighters are always too fast for me.

Check out the interview if you want to see where I think the best places to spot Tube mice are & other stuff about grapes, suicides and Hitchcock!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/metrotwin-interview-tube-mouse.html

Frank Pick & Ambrose Heal - Notes & pictures from London Transport Museum talk

Last night I went to the London Transport Museum's talk by Oliver Green on Frank Pick & Ambrose Heal. Both great proponents of design in the 1930's I was intrigued to see what links there would be between the London Underground's Managing Director and the chairman of one of London's best known furniture store.

A major concern was they both believed that objects, be they furniture, trains, posters or shops, shouldn't just be produced quickly, but had to look good – nothing need be ugly, was the slogan of the design association (the DIA) they were both founders of.


I'm going to focus mostly on the things about Frank Pick I learnt (it's an Underground blog so no surprise on my focus), but the narrative behind Ambrose Heal was just as interesting.

Pick's London Underground was on the verge of bankruptcy when he joined in 1912. There were not enough passengers to pay for the vast investment that had been put into the system - "Sounds familiar" - Green joked, so Pick's initial task was to get people to think about using the Tube more often. Posters were the best way at the time to do this & passengers numbers grew under his management.


Here you can see a slide with posters promoting the London Underground as way to get directly to the seaside. If you picked up the District Line from Ealing Broadway you could take a train to Southend on the Essex coast. Only the other day I saw a quiz asking for the nearest Tube station to the seaside – funny to think that in the days you could get to coast by Tube more people would have known what it was!

In the 1920's the London Underground was the most progressive transport system in the world. "Light years ahead of mainline railways, Pick ensured the new stations followed radically new designs", said Green. Pick developed these with Charles Holden (another member of the DIA) and they concentrated on easing passenger flow & were much influenced by Dutch & Scandinavian architecture. You can see the large amount of glass that was characteristic of Holden's work at Sudbury Town which opened in 1931.


It's difficult to see from this picture, but at the back of the station was a poster aimed at "British Children" and encouraged them to go to a toy exhibition in Charing Cross Tube station. Pick made sure there was a regular exhibition at Charing Cross, usually with a design bias.


It was interesting to learn that Arnos Grove station was a scaled down version of the new city library in Stockholm.

Although Pick was responsible for radically transforming the London Underground's design he never received any plaudits or honours for his work. Well, at least not from London. Pick was however recognised with an award by Stalin for his consultancy help with the Moscow Metro in 1932.


We were shown this amazing picture above where Pick & other London Underground bigwigs were invited over to Germany in 1935 to attend a concert celebrating the centenary of the German railways. "Here's another organisation pretty good at corporate identity", said Green as he pointed out the Nazis on the right side of the room, with the "foreign guests" on the left. Hitler and Göring are in that picture too.

Even at the outbreak of the war Pick was still encouraging people to use the Tube to get to the countryside. A popular poster had the headline "Don't worry about the Germans invading the country, do it yourself by Underground".

Around this time he commissioned a children's booklet as a fundraiser for the troops, called The Underground Alphabet. Green highlighted the rather jolly U for Underground (the first picture in this post).

It would have been interesting to see Pick's influence throughout the Second World War, but unfortunately he didn't live to see the end of the war. He survived a near miss when a neighbour's house was bombed. But left the Underground in 1940 – effectively forced to take early retirement caused by ill health through working too hard. Sadly he died the year after.

Green believes the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990's saw a return to Pick's design values. I think the whole audience was pleased to hear the London Transport Musuem are considering a permanent tribute, to honour his work in the next few years. Although as Green says like Sir Christopher Wren, his legacy is all around us on the Tube we see today.

Look out for Oliver Green's next talk on the 11th May which celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Moscow Metro.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 14, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/frank-pick-ambrose-heal-notes-pictures.html

The Tube is run by cats

Anyone trying to look at the Transport for London website last night would have found themselves being entertained by our feline friends. It looks like a webmaster was playing around with the URL http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/ and for some reason thought it would look good with cats. This was live from about 8.30 last night for around two hours.


The link normally goes to main London Underground website and within seconds, hundreds of people were taking screengrabs & Tweeting as they couldn't believe cats had invaded the Tube!

Ben Smith said "Although it looks like a test site (the main TFL site doesn't link to it) I vote all TFL sites should be like this."

Benjamin Ellis, who took the screengrab above said "I saw hundreds of people mention it, probably got more page views than the normal TfL site ;)"

Maybe the Tube is run by fat cats after all!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/tube-is-run-by-cats.html

Design Excellence for the Masses - London Transport Museum Talk

On Tuesday 13th April 2010 the London Transport Museum will be celebrating two design heroes from the early 20th century in an illustrated talk. The hour long talk, "From the sublime to the ubiquitous" will be given by Oliver Green. It will focus on Frank Pick, the chief executive of London Transport in the 1930's and Ambrose Heal, who founded Heal's furniture store.

New Johnston Font photography by Andrew Black

Both were founder members of the Design and Industries Association & talk will explore how each applied the DIA's slogan "Nothing need be ugly" to all aspects of their work.

Green argues how this slogan went well beyond the promotion of their own companies and encouraged a new appreciation of the importance of design in everyday life. Frank Pick was given responsibility for London Underground's publicity in 1908 and commissioned its famous Johnston font. He asked Johnston for a font with 'the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods' while 'belonging unmistakably to the 20th century'.

Oliver Green's always a great speaker (I last saw him at the Transformed by Tube night) and this should be an interesting presentation. Tickets can be bought in advance here or reserved by calling 020 7565 7298. It starts at 18.30 at the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden Piazza and admissions charges are: Adults £8.00; senior citizens £6.00; students £4.00.

UPDATE - The London Transport Museum have very kindly offered a free pair of tickets for the talk. Just email me or leave your answer in the comments or @AnnieMole me on Twitter with the name of the nearest Tube station to Heal's flagship store on Tottenham Court Road. We'll announce the winner on Monday!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/design-excellence-for-masses-london.html

Perfect T Shirt for Tube Travel

Sometimes there's something about the daily London Underground commute that can only be expressed in one word.


I think this T-shirt, spotted this morning, says it all.

If I'd have been one of those over jolly people who always insist on telling people to "Cheer up, it might never happen", I would have done. Although I get this feeling this guy might have said "It already has".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, April 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/perfect-t-shirt-for-tube-travel.html

Circle Line suspension caused by 1980's computers

If you were one of the people delayed by yesterday's Circle Line closure put it down to 1980's computer "burn out". A London Underground spokeperson blamed "antiquated assets" for the most of the line being suspended throughout the day. An IT error led to the signal problems, although this morning's signal failures were unrelated to "Back to the Future" style computers.


TfL told IT Pro "Our engineers worked through the night to repair the problems which caused yesterday's suspension but a new problem developed this morning.

"The bottom line is that it's exactly these kind of antiquated assets that we're seeking to replace with the upgrade programme we’re carrying out at the moment."

In January it was announced that SAP-based TfL is preparing to sign an extensive range of framework agreements, totalling a potential £70 million and covering IT services. I'm not techie enough to know how much of this will be signal related, but hopefully with a 70 million quid investment we might be lucky for the lines to see some computers that were made this century.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 07, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/circle-line-suspension-caused-by-1980s.html

East London Line - soft launch - 15th April

London Reconnections are reporting that the new East London Line (ELL) is likely to be open for a period of limited passenger service referred to as a "live testing operation" from 15th April 2010.

More photos from Londonist's tour here

"During this period, services will run between New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction, Mondays - Fridays only. There will be no early morning or late night services, with a 7am - 8pm pattern (or thereabouts) running. Full evening and weekend services will begin on the official opening date."

The full service is due to open on May 23rd. Once it's fully up & running, Transport for London estimate that around 100,000 people to use the service daily. As the line offers a link between parts of London that have long needed good transport connections, it should be a success.

One of the more important questions, is posed by Londonist: "It does, however, pose a significant hazard to pub quiz-masters and London Underground trivia hounds: should London Overground be counted as a proper Tube line or not?" More crucially, will it be included in the Tube challenges, where people try to visit every station on the network in the shortest possible time?

UPDATE - looks like this soft launch might not be happening until next week now - London Reconnections

UPDATE - The soft launch of the East London Line eventually took place on the 27th April 2010

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 07, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/east-london-line-soft-launch-15th-april.html

Circle Line cooled by Large Hadron Collider?

According to the Independent the London Underground have been approached by particle physicists to install supercooled magnets and collision detectors at strategic positions on the Circle Line. Cern believes it build a successor to the Large Hadron Collider within the Circle line by 2020.


"Although there are still considerable technical problems to overcome, such as a geo-magnetic "kink" in the circuitry at Edgware Road station, Cern is quietly confident that it will be able to convince London Underground of the merits of the scheme, which should result in the first air-conditioned underground line as a spin-off of installing supercooled magnets below ground. The idea was initially mooted in the mid-1980s as an alternative site to the 27km tunnel below Geneva but the idea was dropped."

Mmmm! The Independent article first published yesterday, claims to have talked to a a spokesman for London Underground who said the proposal 'is not as foolish as it first seems: "It has merits." '

Judge for yourself whether a Professor Lari Polof or Doctor Olaf Priol was involved in the discussions which "would mean that two beams of protons would be travelling in clockwise and counterclockwise directions at 99.999999 per cent of the speed of light, within feet of Circle line passengers stuck in perpetual immobility."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, April 01, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/04/circle-line-cooled-by-large-hadron.html

RMT holding strike ballot over Tube job cuts

Looks like last week's negotiations with London Underground haven't worked, as thousands of Tube workers are to be balloted for strikes in the ongoing row over job cuts.


Bob Crow, leader of the RMT said the Union would host a public meeting on the cuts on Wednesday.

Nothing on the RMT's site about this at moment and no statement from London Underground.

Around 10,000 Tube workers will vote in the coming weeks on whether to take strike action. It could be timed hit the run-up to the general election, expected on May 6.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/rmt-holding-strike-ballot-over-tube-job.html

Tube issue open letter ahead of strike deadline

Unions have given the London Underground until 5pm tonight to abandon plans to cut 800 jobs, otherwise they will ballot to go on strike. Ahead of this Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer at LU has written an open letter laying out their commitment to Tube safety. LU will be holding a Company Council meeting with all of their Trades Unions, today where they will be briefing them on the proposals.

The letter stresses that ticket office purchases have declined sharply in recent years, due to the success of Oyster card, while LU passenger numbers have continued to rise. See the graph below:


Collins writes: "Let me be absolutely clear – safety is at the heart of our vision to transform the Tube and we make the following commitments to all of our customers and staff:

1. There will always be staff present at every station to help customers

2. All stations that currently have a ticket office service will continue to have one

3. There will be no compulsory redundancies

We are proposing to reduce ticket office opening hours because our customers are just not using them as much as they used to. Use of ticket offices is down around 50 per cent on five years ago. Today, only 1 in 20 journeys starts with a visit to the ticket office and this number continues to decline. 80 per cent of all Tube journeys are now made using Oyster.

So we don’t need or want our staff to be stuck behind glass in under used ticket offices; we want them out on our stations where our customers need them – on platforms, in ticket halls and at gate lines."

Bob Crow, RMT leader, is putting safety at the heart of the matter as he knows this will gain more sympathy than purely striking over job cuts and said "We have already warned that the cuts that are being planned by TfL will turn tube stations into a muggers paradise and it now appears that the company are speeding up the process and are already leaving stations unstaffed, or babysat with just one member of staff, without any consultation.

That is a scandalous dereliction of duty and it is only a matter of time now before TfL and Boris Johnson have a tragedy on their hands as a result of their cavalier disregard for public safety."

Collins letter says: "In addition to our ongoing commitment to having staff where customers need them most, there are also more police patrolling the Tube network – 700 officers – than ever before. This helped to reduce crime by eight per cent last year. While one crime is always too many, there are now just 12 crimes per million Tube customer journeys.

We’re also installing more and improved CCTV cameras on stations and trains, to more than 14,000 in years to come, to help us look after you.

All of this must be done in a way that delivers the best possible value for money for Tube customers and taxpayers.

It’s a fact that, like any public service, we have to be as efficient as we can, particularly in the present difficult economic times. It’s true we are reducing the number of staff we have overall; but by putting our staff in the areas they are most needed, we can do this without affecting your journey or compromising your safety."

The full letter will be on TfL's website soon. We'll know by tomorrow whether these efforts and the discussions with unions will be enough to stop the strike threats.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 25, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/tube-issue-open-letter-ahead-of-strike.html

What will Crossrail uncover?

Last night I attended a great talk & reading by Iain Sinclair & Rachel Lichtenstein at Clerkenwell Tales book shop. They are both great writers of London's history & their recent works look at Hatton Garden (a stone's throw away from the shop) and Hackney. Both have an extensive knowledge of the area around Farringdon & Rachel feels she can "smell the farmland & hear the River Fleet", when she walks around the area. Iain brought up an interesting question

"I wonder what history will be dug up or uncovered in the Crossrail construction & will any of it be preserved?"


Apparently where possible "archaeological sites will be preserved in situ; otherwise they will be excavated and recorded" say Crossrail.

The company acknowledge that it has the potential to encounter some really important and interesting archaeology across the route including prehistoric, Roman and Medieval artifacts. But will they go as far as the Athens subway and display what is found in the stations?




The audience in the shop were quite sceptical about this happening, but agreed it would be great to see.

So far some human bones which are 200 to 300 years old were found in an exploratory borehole close to the planned Farringdon Crossrail station on Charterhouse Street. A Crossrail spokesperson said "They probably came from the former burial ground at St Sepulcher’s Church, which had a workhouse attached to it." However, there's little chance they'll be on display at the new London Underground station, as they were tested for bubonic plague. Once tested, they will be re-buried in consecrated ground or kept in the archive of the Museum of London.

London Reconnections wrote that "Anthrax can lie dormant in spore form for centuries, but if disturbed it can spread through the air. When the Metropolitan Line was dug in the mid 19th century, anthrax spores were released, killing several people. The bacteria that causes bubonic plague may also survive, and dealing with ancient remains is an occupational hazard for rail projects in the City."


Interestingly, both Iain and Rachel talked about the massive change Crossrail will bring to the culture of the area, which reminded me of last year's Transformed by Tube talk at the London Transport Museum. In fifty years from now, will we be musing nostalgically, about the little newsagents, bars, shops and KFC outlets, that have been cleared by Crossrail?

I learnt last night that Farringdon Road used to have a daily book market on it (about 20 years ago & evocatively described in Iain's book White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings) and there's clearly no evidence of that now. I was happy to hear that people like Iain & Rachel are still uncovering the history of less famous London streets and long may it continue.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-will-crossrail-uncover.html

Roundels not on the London Underground

There's a food and drinks bias to this round of roundels spotted outside of their original home on the Tube. Firstly Jemimah Knight found a brilliant spot of a puntastic restaurant sign in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi


I like how they've added a trademark to font & imagery on the sign. This is either them being super cheeky or a case where they've actually got permission from TfL to use it!

Charlie spotted the less imaginatively named "Underground" cafe while on holiday in Na'ama Bay, near Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt last week.


Finally, to complete the round up of Tube eateries, we have Soho 8 in Hong Kong, spotted by James B and taken by g189


Thanks all. It seems that the roundel is popular choice for eateries, pubs & bars including Damon Albarn's famous bar in Reykjavik.

Please keep the photos coming and I'll blog the best. It's nice to know that you're still thinking of the Tube when you're on your holiday! You can see previous sightings of the travelling roundel at the Roundels not on the London Underground set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/roundels-not-on-london-underground.html

Tube Pic of the Week - Dirty Tube

I haven't seen too many white van "wash me" style scrawlings or "reverse graffiti" on the London Underground. So it was a nice surprise to see one that made me chuckle this morning.


Wonder how long it will take to get cleaned off? I'm assuming that Tube trains don't get a daily wash!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 22, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/tube-pic-of-week-dirty-tube.html

Tube Ad of the week - Love your Lady Garden

A rare occasion where London Underground's advertising censors haven't got their knickers in a twist about what might offend us, poor easily offended commuters. You've probably seen a spate of ads on the Tube with slang terms for "lady bits" , with just the intriguing tag line loveyourvagina.com


CBS Outdoor, the people that oversee the ads on the London Underground, seem happy with Lady Garden, Fru Fru, Coochie and VaJaJa being flashed around the Tube. Yet the minute an ad that vaguely reminds us of graffiti - or actually has original graffiti re-added, it's ripped down in an instant.


Luckily, in the approval board room no one thought it was a worry for parents to have to explain to their kids what a Lady Garden or a Coochie is.

At least the ads are not encouraging us to whip our lady bits out on the Tube and this is an encouraging sign of CBS Outdoor not being as prudish as normal.


By the way, you might be quite surprised if you click through to loveyourvagina.com - it's a product that divides opinions with women. However, it's advertised in a fun way and there's even a tag cloud to find the UK's most popular name for a vagina. Depending on where you work, it might not be safe for the office!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, March 19, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/tube-ad-of-week-love-your-lady-garden.html

Tube Ticket Office Closure Document Leaked

There have been a number of rumours about a document which showed TfL's plans to close a number of London Underground ticket offices. Last week LU stated again there would be no ticket office closures. However, yesterday's Mayor's Question Time, the question of office closures was put to Boris once more. His reply: "The first and most important point to make is that no ticket offices will be closed, alright? They're not going to be closed."

Picture on poster being used by union TSSA in demo at LU's headquarters

At which point a document put together by London Underground on the 10th March was revealed which proposed closing the following:

Jubilee Line - Canary Wharf (East), Waterloo (Main – Excess), Waterloo (Shell), Wembley Park (Bridge Road)

District Line - Earl’s Court (Warwick Road), Aldgate East (East), Cannon Street

Central Line - Chancery Lane (Saturday), South Woodford (West), Woodford (West), Monument (mentioned but TfL claim this is a typo)

Bakerloo Line - Charing Cross (Trafalgar)

TfL have confirmed the document is genuine said that all closures would be open to consultation.

There's also some weird decisions around opening hours at major tourist hubs like Heathrow, Victoria, Euston and King's Cross - see BorisWatch.

London Reconnections has done an excellent job of highlighting the keypoints of the document.

Labour Assembly Member Navin Shah who has been a long time campaigner against ticket office closures told the BBC:

"Boris Johnson has misled Londoners. These documents released today show that he was not telling the truth. Several ticket offices will close, others will close for most of the week and large numbers of offices will see their opening hours drastically cut. Nearly five hundred ticket office staff will be lost under these Conservative cuts and many stations will feel less safe and less friendly as a result."

Torytroll concludes: "Asked about the Mayor's comments today a spokesperson said:

"This Mayor takes his promises to Londoners extremely seriously. Every station that has a ticket office will continue to have one."

Even if there's nobody actually in them".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, March 18, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/tube-ticket-office-closure-document.html

Circle Line, the new Misery Line?

TfL have confirmed what most commuters thought about the extended Circle Line, there are longer waits between trains and fewer trains. It's now the worst performing line on the network. Since the changes to the London Underground line in December, the frequency of Circle line trains has been cut from seven to six an hour and there's a gap of 10 minutes between trains.


I took the above picture of the platform indicators, this morning while I was waiting as normal for the Circle Line to move at Aldgate station. Richard Parry, LU's iterim Managing Director told the Evening Standard's Ross Lydall "that passengers should have to wait on average much more than five minutes - assuming they arrive midway between trains. The "worst case" would be a delay of 11-12 minutes". Sadly I see more than the worst case in the picture above. Many commuters report that the situation is worse at Edgware Road, with up to 20 minutes wait for a train.

Murad Qureshi, a Labour member of the London Assembly, told the Evening Standard: "As someone who welcomed the operational change, I'm very disappointed. There doesn't seem to have been a better service as a result.

"I think the problem is still Edgware Road station. The Circle is the one service that seems to go down immediately when anything happens on the District, Metropolitan or Hammersmith and City [lines]."

Less reliable and more delays

Parry tried to play down the bad performance and said: "What people forget is that the service wasn't as good as what people want to remember," Mmmmm, is that true and is that even a good way of justifying a supposedly 'improved' service? What are your memories of the old Circle Line? What are things like for you on the new line?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 17, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/circle-line-new-misery-line.html

IKEA furnish Paris Metro platforms

First Japan, now Paris. IKEA have kitted out four Parisian subway stations with their sofas and lamps for two weeks. The main point of the publicity is to demonstrate the quality and strength of IKEA products through the ‘bum test’ of thousands of Parisians. There's more behind the campaign at the PSFK blog


If you're going through St. Lazare, Champs-Elysées Clémenceau, Concorde, and Opéra Metro stations, you'll have a comfortable rest on the platforms. Just hope that the Parisian homeless don't catch on to this too quickly, as IKEA may find they'll also be testing whether their sofas are stain resistant.

There's a great set of pictures on Flickr by Les Favoris where you can see commuters spending more time looking at the sofas rather than actually sitting on them. Thanks to FreshPlastic for finding the IKEA links.


After IKEA in Kobe, Japan put their furniture in train carriages (see above), we just need IKEA in the UK to get in on the act. It would make that wait for your delayed London Underground train, much more bearable.


It's only one step on from the current round of Homebase TV ads where a station in Carlisle is decorated! Come on IKEA, London awaits.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/ikea-furnish-paris-metro-platforms.html

Tim O'Toole may return to run Tube Lines

London Underground's former managing Director has had preliminary discussions with Tube Lines about possibly becoming the contractor's chief exec. This could be interesting as O'Toole strongly criticised Tube Lines while he was in office. Perhaps it needs someone like him to help the current acrimonious disputes between LU & Tube Lines.


Tube Lines hasn't had a permanent chief executive since February 12, when Dean Finch resigned & became chief executive of National Express. Tube Lines, which works on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, has been the sole surviving contractor since July 2007 when Metronet went into administration. Tim O'Toole left the London Underground in April last year and returned to Philadelphia to spend more time with his family.

David Begg, Tube Lines' chairman, says he had the highest regard for Tim O'Toole's reputation. But added: "I haven't offered Tim O'Toole a contract, so I cannot say whether or not Tim O'Toole is coming."

However according to the Evening Standard a Tube Lines spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that we are in contractual negotiations with Tim O'Toole over the chief executive's job. We are hoping to conclude these discussions soon."

The FT said that Boris Johnson declined to comment, although they believe that Tim O'Toole has also held discussions with him.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, March 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/03/tim-otoole-may-return-to-run-tube-lines.html