Planned Tube Strike Heads to Court

Last minute legal action begins this morning to halt the 48 hour strike due to take place with Tube Lines maintenance staff. The potential strike is due to disrupt three of the busiest London Underground Lines, the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly from 7pm this evening, 23rd June. However, the contractor, Tube Lines, is going to the High Court to challenge the legality.

RMT leader Bob Crow is undeterred and said "Despite this legal challenge, the 48-hour strike remains on.


"RMT will defend its position in the court against this latest attempt by an employer to use the full force of the anti-trade union laws to override a perfectly bona fide ballot."

The RMT claims TfL has failed to give its members assurances on jobs, pay and conditions once it takes over the Tube Lines contract. However, a TfL spokesman said: ‘This is an existing dispute about pay and conditions and not about the proposed transfer of Tube Lines to TfL.'

In the meantime, a planned 72-hour strike by RMT members on the DLR from 4am today was called off following a new pay offer.

Watch out for news reports on the result of the court action later today. However, even if the strike takes place, London Underground states it "intends to operate a full service to customers across the whole of the network, including on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, throughout the duration of the strike and all stations will remain open."

Update - The Tube strike remains in place as the High Court refused to grant an injunction to prevent the stoppage. Mr Justice Tugendhat said he had reached a "clear view" that he should not grant an injunction but gave no immediate reasons for his decision.

Bob Crow, said: "This is a massive victory, not only for the RMT and our members, but for every group of workers who stand and fight against job cuts and attacks on working conditions.

"The strike goes ahead and will be solidly supported. We expect major disruption across the network."

However, they will all be returning to court on July 9 for a one-day hearing to fully consider whether to grant an injunction ahead of the next planned strike on July 14.

TfL are still confident in running a full service between this evening and Friday 7pm, and said "The action does not involve London Underground employees, including station workers and Tube drivers".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/planned-tube-strike-heads-to-court.html

Live Map of London Underground Trains

No sooner than TfL have opened up their API with no restrictions, some clever developers have got to work to make a real-time Tube Map, showing all the trains on the London Underground network. The yellow pins are stations and the red ones are trains moving in approximate real time.


The map was built over a weekend at Science Hack Day, by Matthew Somerville with the help of Frances Berriman and James Aylett.

Hat tip to @benmason and @michald for letting me know.

If people can build tools like this this in a few hours, it certainly bodes well for future apps, now that the data is freely available. As Matthew says "Woo, thanks TfL! Now how about it, National Rail? Open train data is good for everyone."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, June 21, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Celebrate London Transport Museum's 30th Birthday

Thirty years ago London Transport Museum was opened by Princess Anne and this weekend, if you're an early bird, you can gain a 1980's entrance price. The first 15 guests on Saturday 19th June and the first 15 on Sunday 20th June can gain entry into the Museum for just £1.40 - the price in 1980.


There's also a limited number of Bruce Rowling ‘Museum sketchbook – picturing our project’ books being given away to lucky visitors while stocks last. The sketchbook has a collection of wonderful illustrations of the plans for the Museum when it was clsoed for two year for refurbishment & re-opened in November 2007.


London Transport Museum opens at 10am at the weekends and standard admission is £8. If you can get your Dad there early it might be a nice treat for him (or persuade your kids to take you there) for Father's Day.

There's a new exhibition - Overground Uncovered: Life along the line - which celebrates the new East London, London Overground line. The line is London's first major public transport development for over ten years and connects Dalston Junction with New Cross, New Cross Gate, Crystal Palace and West Croydon.

For nostalgic bus fans, London Transport Museum's 1950s prototype Routemaster bus RM1 will be on the Covent Garden Piazza in front of the Museum from 11am Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 June. The bus will be open to the public to view and climb on board.

Full details of the birthday activities are on London Transport Musuem's site including a birthday Tweet competition. Catch up with their Twitter account over the past week to enter.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, June 18, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/celebrate-london-transport-museums-30th.html

Tory Group wants Driverless Tube Trains

Update  - October 2011 - Driverless Trains on a wider TfL agenda

In a bid to save money on wages and to prevent stike action, a Conservative group on the London Assembly has called for all London Underground trains to be driverless. BBC London have published a memo where the group say:

"Driverless trains offer a safer, faster, more efficient level of service. Such a system would end the strangle-hold militant unions have on the city's tube network and seriously curtail their ability to bring London to a standstill.....

"With the recent decision to bring Tube Lines under the control of Transport for London, this is the time to switch to a completely driverless train network."


Naturally RMT leader, Bob Crow has responded quickly and said: "What will happen in a terrorist attack, a derailment or a massive signal failure, is you could have 600 or 700 people trapped down the Tube with no driver - there would be utmost panic.

"I don't think the travelling public will put up with that.

"Under normal circumstances I would be tempted to dismiss this leaked report as some kind of a joke, cooked up by anti-union fantasists, but in the current climate of cuts and attacks on public services we are taking it very seriously and it will be resisted.

"It may well be that some junior politician is simply flying a kite to make a name for themselves, but RMT will not sit back and allow this lethal and unworkable idea to gain any traction whatsoever."

It does appear that this memo was purposely designed to wind up Crow, as even though the Victoria and Central lines are automatically operated, there is always a train operator in the cab. A TfL spokesperson said "Having a member of London Underground staff on a train helps give reassurance to passengers, ensures prompt opening and closing of doors, speedy boarding and alighting of passengers and departure of the train."

Don't forget, unless any discussions happen, we've got the first of two 48 hour Tube strikes starting next week on Wednesday 23rd June 2010 and running until 18.59 on Friday 25th June 2010. It's with Tube Lines so should only seriously impact the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines. However, the RMT say the strikes will have "severe consequences" across the entire London Underground system.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, June 17, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Reopening Disused Tube Stations - a step closer?

There's a strong interest in uncovering the past on the London Underground. The walking tours of Brunel's Thames Tunnel were extremely popular and over-subscribed. Last month, vintage ads from the 1950's discovered at Notting Hill Tube received tens of thousands of views and excited blog posts. Now, Ajit Chambers from the Old London Underground Company may be getting step further to his mission to re-open 26 old abandoned Tube stations.


Disused passageway with vintage 1959 posters, Notting Hill Gate Tube station © London Underground
I first blogged about his aim in September 2009, when he said his plans had been "warmly accepted" by the Mayor. Since then he's progressed some more as Dave Hill wrote on his blog for The Guardian yesterday.

Possibly hoping that Chambers would go away, Boris Johnson and his economics director Anthony Browne encountered him in an audience for small businesses.

Chambers said "I met with Anthony and Boris a year ago to let you know that I designed a company that will make £40 million for London. The company has now been built, we have found funders; we are using the same engineering teams that are building Crossrail to open these stations up as tourist attractions and venues. I would like your help to get into the first three venues as soon as possible."

He'd spoken to a health & safety consultancy that works for the Tube. He has an investor who's prepared to put half a million quid into the business. He claims there's a business model to turn the disused and abandoned stations into tourist attractions and venues for corporate events.

Down Street disused Tube station in Mayfair by Ewan-M
Johnson asked "Are we saying that the consortia that you can put together, they will cover the cost of remediating the stations and doing them up and making them compliant?"

Chambers said it was and that "I am in contact with Coca Cola and Vodafone's Head of Communications, and the Olympic Portfolio Director in order to pour in that cash tax-efficiently. Also, it means that the government can lease these sites to me and still make money for TfL from them".

Anthony Browne agreed to follow up the ideas and Chambers has a meeting set up with the Mayor's office in the next couple of weeks.

Peter Watt (formerly of TimeOut) met Chambers last year and testifies to his determination. He wrote yesterday "I hope he succeeds. Londoners have a tremendous thirst for the mysterious parts of the city that lie beneath their feet – the weekend opening of Brunel’s Thames Tunnel earlier this year proved to be extraordinarily popular – and a dedicated museum to Subterranean London would be possibly the most exciting to happen in this city ever (although I may be biased in this view)."

I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but know it would be extremely popular.

Watt believes Chambers has the will to succeed with this venture: "Chambers is determined, as Boris and Browne are soon to discover, and I would never bet against him. 'I’m not going to give up,' he told me. 'There’s no stopping me. And as soon as people realise that they seem to come on board pretty quickly.'"

As I said last year, I wish Ajit Chambers every success and will be following his progress with great interest.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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TfL lift restrictions on data

There's going to be a lot of happy developers today, as TfL have announced they are lifting all restrictions on the commercial reuse of their data. Hopefully this means that travellers will see a lot of new creative apps (including mobile tube apps) to help us get around London.


The future by idrewuk
Chris MacLeod, Director of Group Marketing in Tfl implies that today's announcment is just a beginning with openness of data and said: "I hope that our announcement will result in new relationships between the open data community and TfL/London’s Datastore. We know from international experience that the majority of smartphone apps built on public data are focused around the reuse of public transport data

"TfL accepts the developers need to recover their costs and derive a return from their time in creating new applications.

"This move will ensure that developers will be able to produce products independently and provide customers with a wide range of up-to-date applications and services.'"

By using TfL's Developers' Area web developers can get hold of a number of data sets and feeds to live London Underground/Tube travel news on London's Datastore.

Information on bus routes, bus stops and data from London Underground's Rolling Origin and Destination Survey will be added by the end of June.

The London Datastore currently hosts travel-related data sets including: Station Locations, Oyster Ticket Stop Locations, London Underground Signals Passed at Danger (SPADs), TfL Investment Programme and TfL Business Plan.

They said: "We welcome your feedback so let us know your priority datasets and don’t forget to follow @londondatastore (on Twitter) to keep up with alerts of further datasets to follow."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Overground Announcement Overload

Travellers on the London Overground were "treated" to every single announcement possible on their journey last week. Vinylpimpuk took "the London Overground on 5th June from Hackney Wick to Camden, and the voice on the train decided to announce everything it was ever told to say. This is after 4 months of closure for engineering works!"


Goodness knows why the driver couldn't turn these off, or at least turn the volume down. Unless he or she wanted to "celebrate" travelling after closure, with TfL's version of the World Cup's vuvuzela!

Thanks to Daniel N for sending this to me!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, June 14, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/london-overground-announcement-overload.html

Northern Line offers God Service

Eagle eyed photographer Ian spotted a reason why the Northern Line should no longer be called the Misery Line.


Higher power by Deepgreen2009
He said "A train indicator at Waterloo London Underground station reveals high level intervention on the Northern line!"

Now that's an example of premiere service! Unless it's referring to the upcoming Tube strike which will affect the Northern Line and we'll need God's help to get through the days.


If you see any more misbehaving train indicators please take a picture & send them my way.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, June 11, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/northern-line-offers-god-service_11.html

RMT set two Tube strike dates

For those looking for the Tube Strike Dates for November 2010 onwards.

Not RMT related, but ASLEF tube drivers will be striking on December 26th 2010

Following the 90% majority vote for Tube walk outs, two dates have been announced for strikes by Tube Lines maintenance workers. Staff will not report for work between 19.00 hours on Wednesday 23rd June 2010 and 18.59 on Friday 25th June 2010. The second strike will be from 19.00 hours on Wednesday 14th July to 18.59 hours on Friday 16th July. Although Tube Lines only covers the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines, the RMT say the strikes will have "severe consequences" across the entire London Underground system.



RMT leader Bob Crow said "We have given TfL, and their newly-acquired subsidiary Tube Lines, plenty of opportunity to give us assurances that staff won't take the hit for the failure of the privatisation project.

"They have failed to give us those assurances, leaving us with absolutely no option but to announce these strike dates to protect both our members and the safety of the travelling public."

Good news if you support Brazil, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, Ivory Coast and Korea as they're all playing afternoon matches in the World Cup on the 24th and 25th June! You might be able to use it as an excuse to "work from home".

As yet Transport for London have made no comment on the proposed strikes.

Update - RMT have now announced a three day walk out on the DLR in a row about pay. It will co-incide with the June strike and start on the 23rd June

RBob Crow said: "Our members will not be bullied by management into taking on more work without being properly compensated."

The DLR members work for Serco, which called their demand "opportunistic"

Update 23rd June 2010 - the DLR strike has been called off and Tube Lines are going to the High Court to challenge the legality of the Tube strike.

For those looking for the Tube Strike Dates for November 2010 onwards.

Not RMT related, but ASLEF tube drivers will be striking on December 26th 2010

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Etiquette poster needed

Do you feel we need more signs on the London Underground which tell people how to get on and off trains? You'd think it would be simple, but when crowds are concerned, there are still some travellers that have no idea about letting people off the Tube first before they get in.

Toronto newspaper The National Post is also tired of this behaviour on the subway. They've produced a brilliant poster which they encourage people to follow and print.


"We here at the Toronto Transit Civility Commission are firm believers in foresight and its necessity in keeping the system running smoothly. That’s why today’s official TTCC, unofficial TTC poster is about planning for, and managing, your body as a train moves into a station. It may seem obvious, but some people only dimly recall their physics lessons about two objects being unable to occupy the same space at the same time."

I wonder how many people have printed it off and stuck it on the subway over there? Do you think we should have similar designs for the Tube? Something like the above would make a great cross platform London Underground ad.

The newspaper also ask for readers to send in other "transit peeves/grievances/peevances" for future campaigns and posters.

What posters like this do we need on the Tube? I definitely think people should be advised on how to travel with large rucksacks. It's long been a personal bugbear that travellers often forget they have these on their backs on the Tube.

Hat tip to Jamillah Knight for discovering this via Chip Zdarsky!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Photo of the Week

Excellent capture by @webponce as the London Underground look for a modern day Cinderella:


Cinderella lives in Balham by webponce
As Matthew said it would have been lovely to have heard this over the Tube public announcement system "Will the lady who lost the slipper yesterday, please speak with the supervisor. Your Prince Charming awaits." Wonder if it fell down the gap?!

Update - There definitely seems to be a shoe issue at Balham Underground as last night, webponce saw another sign there.


Now, it's Ruby Slippers by webponce
He said "First there was Cinderella, now its Dorothy who has lost her footwear at Balham station. Tomorrow, I'm holding out hope for either Rapunzel's wig, a bail of straw left by some Porcine builders, or perhaps a trail of cookie crumbs all the way back to Morden.

More importantly, who loses a shoe and doesn't immediately report it?"

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, June 07, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/tube-photo-of-week.html

RMT vote for Tube Strike

More than 90 per cent of the RMT voted to strike over the “continued threat to jobs and safe working conditions and in support of a decent pay increase this year”. This follows the end of PPP (public-private partnership) where TfL took control of Tube Lines last month.

RMT Leader Bob Crow pictured on the Tube last month

No date for the strike has been announced as yet. Tube Lines are hoping that talks can avert the strike. A TfL spokesperson said "We have tabled an acceptable pay offer and we remain committed to continuing our negotiations and avert strike action which would cause unnecessary disruption to the travelling public."

An RMT spokesman told City A.M. that Boris Johnson could have stripped Tube Lines of its contract without buying shares. Shareholders were paid £310m for their equity & workers fear this will lead to delays in upgrades & pay freezes. The RMT believe that shares hadn't been bought the upgrade work could have been carried out at a fraction of the cost.

Looks like we're in for a summer of strikes as BT workers unanimously backed a strike ballot over pay after rejecting a two per cent rise. The British Airways cabin crew dispute continues as Unite has increased strike pay for staff on the picket lines, as talks between the two are postponed.

Update - Two Tube strike dates in June and July have now been set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, June 07, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/rmt-vote-for-tube-strike.html

London Journeys - Value of Time

Art on the Underground held an excellent public discussion at City Hall about London Journeys. I went on the spur of the moment and there were some wonderful random nuggets of trivia, art, design and practical information about 'passenger flow'. It opened with David Lawrence who looked at the recent history of design on the London Underground.


Can you guess what the image above is?

He spent some time discussing the Real Time Sub Group at TfL which carries out research on London Underground announcements & what words aren't allowed. He joked that 'late' and 'delays' weren't permitted, but in reality you'll never hear the words, 'suicide' or 'bomb'. He felt that announcements were overly formal and actually said more than needed to be said. Have a listen when you're next on the Tube, to see if you think he's right. Do we really need so many – 'ladies and gentlemens' and ‘in operations’?

Iain Huston from passenger space modelling, followed with an insightful talk on how the London Underground use computerised models to help our journeys. Although you might not think it, Tfl do value our time. In fact they've even measured how various travellers value time. I imagined that Tube commuters thought their time was most valuable. But they only value their time at £8 an hour, whereas a taxi passenger values theirs at a massive £31 an hour.

Good levels of service are also measured by how much space a person has to themselves. Your journey is actually perceived as better or faster, if there is less congestion, even if in reality it takes longer to complete.

London Underground study people's movement through Tube stations and can work out how to slow things down if certain stations get overly congested. Placement of ticket gates can make a big difference to passenger flow. The images below show how the ticket hall layouts at Euston were improved to stop congestion.


Passenger flow before the new layout - green dots are people entering


And the flow afterwards, with less congestion.

We learnt that unreasonable behaviour is also taken into account. Tourists going the wrong way, people finding short cuts are all put into the models to work out the best flow. Some stations are lucky as they have more 'trained commuters'. The ticket gates at Bank at the Waterloo & City line are used by 'model commuters' who are amongst the fastest travellers on the system, have their Oyster cards ready in advance, know where the best exits are & walk quickly.

The final part of the talk featured artist Dryden Goodwin whose line drawings of 60 Jubilee Line staff you've probably seen on the network.


However, the website has an animated film of Dryden sketching the staff while they chat about their time on the Tube, hobbies, family, music or anything that enters their head at the time. Dryden said 'it was important that something was held back, so you never get to see the real individual being drawn. It's like our attitude to staff on the Tube. They're like furniture. You don't see staff unless you really want or need to'.


Check out the stories when you have some spare time. I particularly liked Tracey, who described her experience of holding the hand of a man who'd had a heart attack 'I wanted his family to know that there was someone looking after him. That he didn't just die alone on a crowded platform'. Alone in the crowd. Nice juxtaposition that kind of reflects a lot of people's attitudes of Tube travel.

The second part of the series is on Tuesday 8th June at 6.30pm. I've no idea who's speaking but hopefully it will be as varied and surprising as this one.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, June 02, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Manhattan grows in new New York Subway map

We often have "tweaks" to the London Underground map (some are major changes like the loss & re-emergence of the Thames). However, the New York subway map is about to have its first overhaul in more than ten years. It's all to do with clarfying Manhattan, which will become bulkier, taller & 30 per cent wider.


Manhattan Subway Map by Guillermo Esteves
"Staten Island, meanwhile, will shrink by half. The spreadsheetlike “service guide,” along the map's bottom border, will be eliminated, and the other three boroughs will grow to fill the space." said the New York Times

Like our Tube map, the locals are finding that their subway map has become overcrowded over time. "In its desire to be complete and provide a great deal of information, it took away from some of the clarity you would have with a simpler map," said Jay H. Walder, the Metropolitan Transport Authority’s chairman.

Walder felt that service guide which showed the weekend schedule, was theoretical at best. This will be removed along with a growing list of handicapped-accessible stations that had begun to dominate the bottom right corner. As with our London map small wheelchair symbols will continue to denote those stops.


I wonder if TfL were consulted over this project? Map expert Maxwell Roberts has long been arguing that our Tube map has lost its way and needs simplification.

He "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."

Will there come a time when we see certain parts of London expanded on the Tube map? Will other parts be reduced? How do you balance humanity & familiarity with the complexity of the system?

Hat tip to Jemimah Knight for finding this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, June 01, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/06/manhattan-grows-in-new-new-york-subway.html

Aerial Lunch in the Sky

This was the aerial view of trains coming over Hungerford Bridge yesterday lunchtime. I took it while eating, but it's not the view from a high rise office, or the nearby London Eye.


It's a view from lunch in the sky. Basically with around 20 other diners our dining table, chairs, kitchen & chef were all suspended 50 metres by a crane and treated to a fanastic lunch thanks to J20.


They were launching their new J20 White Blend drinks & although we knew we would get lunch in the sky, we were left in suspense as to what this actually meant (The invite just cryptically said meet in a car park at the South Bank)


I'm lucky to be invited to eat on a number of different “travelling” modes. Lunch on the Orient Express, was amazing, but being suspended like this was a whole new experience.


Once we were strapped in, I wondered what the emergency stickers on the table in front meant. No smoking was expected. No undoing your seat-belt (also expected) the last thing you want to do when you're gently swinging around 30 metres in the air is have any chance of dropping. We were slightly puzzled by the last sign. Was this a version of the no drinking on the London Underground sign? I don't think it was a message to refrain from pouring your drinks on the people below you. Who knows?


Lunch was fantastic and prepared by Something for The Weekend TV chef – Simon Rimmer – who was also equally surprised by the location. I bet it was the first time, he had to prepare food strapped to a safety harness. (Simon's one of first people I've seen from TV who was actually taller than I imagined him – otherwise he was exactly the same affable 'scouser' who manages to make cookery look actually attainable in the hangover Sunday morning TV spot)


The Italian starter of “leftovers” (can't remember it's official name) - peppers, bread, olives, tomatoes soaked in a lovely olive oil & vinegar dressing, matched the J20 White Grape & Kiwi & really well. The guys from J20 are aware their normal drinks are a bit heavy or over-sweet to have with food, & these lighter version really seemed like a refreshing “grown up” version of their stickier counterparts. In fact they even used a wine connoisseur Chris Scott, to work with Simon on producing a soft drink to complement food & not fight against it.


Mains was a sumptuous portion of bangers & mash. Venison sausages, a hugely comforting portion of buttery mustard mash, a fluffy onion ring, in a light pool of a rich gravy. I'd have remembered these bangers & mash eating them on the ground or in a pub, but they were even more memorable while I was suspended in the air. Simon said he was trying to match the slightly peppery flavour of the Red Grape & Blackcurrant J20 and he did an excellent job of this.


The 45 minutes or so we were in the air passed all too quickly. When I first saw the table & crane, I couldn't imagine eating in mid air, but I was genuinely surprised how fast I got used to the gentle swaying and rotation. Admittedly I wasn't sitting on a corner, which I understand was a bit scarier. I also only managed to take one picture looking down (you might just about be able to make out the people by the red carpet and shrubs).


The rest of my pictures from Lunch in the Sky are here. TikiChris, Food by Mark and Miss Geeky have already uploded pictures from the day. I'm sure my other blogging friends the Londoneer and Cristiano will upload more pictures soon with reports of the day.

If you're going to the Edinburgh Festival look out for the Dinner in the Sky team who will be serving food there for a while. Normally the aerial meals are only for special corporate occasions and this was the first time they'd operated on the South Bank.

Thanks again to J20 for a most memorable experience and to Simon Rimmer and his assistant for keeping us entertained, well fed and refreshed with J20 White Blend.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, May 28, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/05/aerial-lunch-in-sky.html

What's your relationship with Tube wildlife?

Do you love rather than hate pigeons on the London Underground? Do you come into regular contact with our feathered or furry friends on the Tube. If so a BBC documentary film maker would like to hear from you.

Pigeon & The Fighter by gavs_pics3

Gaby Bastyra emailed me and said:

"I am a documentary film maker and am currently making a film for the BBC about London Wildlife. I figured you can't make this kind of film without including the Tube and the wildlife associated with it.

I stumbled across your blog and think it is great. I was reading the animal section which has some great stories. I am looking for people with similar stories about pigeons or the tube mice or even the mosquitos there. Ideally, I am looking for a person with a unique relationship with the animals of the underground. For example, someone who may feed mice at a certain platform/station every day or anyone involved in pest control or cleaning on the underground that comes into regular contact with the creatures that live there."

If you feel you can help or have stories of anyone you think fits the bill, please email her at gabybastyra AT googlemail DOT com.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Signs of Summer on the Tube

Thanks to @yaili for this lovely version of the standard "Hot weather alert" Tube posters.


Hot Weather sign at Caledonian Road Tube by Yaili
Apart from the typo it seems much more personal than the normal London Underground "Stay Cool" or "Carry Water" posters.


I particularly like the request to "Have a magical weekend my lovelies" and the little PS to ask staff for water if needed.

Other signs that summer's arrived on the Tube - along with the outbreak of sandals & sunglasses - are the stream of announcements about delays due to people who are ill on trains. Not sure if water is a general cure all to stop commuters fainting in the heat & perhaps if water was more readily available, that might help trains being delayed as a result of people swooning.


If you see (or hear) of any other signs of summer on the Tube or your station has any recommendations of how to deal with the heat, let me know!

You might also like:

Hottest Spots on the London Underground - it's from 2009, but I bet it hasn't changed much.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, May 24, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2010/05/signs-of-summer-on-tube.html

New Tube Map Cover apes Patterson's Great Bear

"Next stop Irony, for the Northern Line change at Compassion", could be the announcement from London Underground drivers based on the next Tube Map. May's cover, which will be at Tube stations from May 21st, replaces station names with an artist's experience of that part of London.


If you think it looks familiar you're probably recalling Simon Patterson's Great Bear from 1992 where, station names were replaced by famous people. Or indeed any number of Tube map "mash ups" or spoofs which have followed (and usually banished by TfL ever since).

However, the powers that be, have decided in their infinite wisdom, that artistic Tube map mash ups are OK. They probably could have saved some money by getting the wags at b3ta to produce something. The Great Bear was sold at auction for £14,950 and I imagine the artist of this map, Barbara Kruger, didn't come cheaply.

If you can dress up a simple idea with enough creative and artistic words and get buy-in from TfL, convince them it's not going to "damage the brand", you're quids in! Art blog Aesthetica says: "Taking the very familiar visual language of the Tube map, she keeps the main image intact but changes the words – still in their daily uniform of the classic New Johnston Font – and liberates them from their daily function. St. James’s Park is momentarily renamed ‘Fame’, Westminster station becomes ‘Reason’ and Victoria station as ‘Pride’ completes a humorous triumvirate."

Humorous triumvirate, took the words right out of my mouth!

Sally Shaw, Art on the Underground's curator, said: "We are excited and privileged to be working with Barbara Kruger on this project. Untitled (Tube Map) presents a subtly humorous and human interpretation of life in the city, navigated via the Tube. I am looking forward to hearing what our customers think about Barbara’s work and the others in the series via our website."

I wonder whether the full map would also include stations liberated to be accurately renamed "Despair", "Boredom", "Dirty", "Sauna", "Pigeon dropping ridden" & "Pickpocket's delight"?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, May 20, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Bob Crow on the Tube

For once it's not Mr Crow pontificating about trains & strikes. But a great "celebrity" Tube spot of RMT leader Bob Crow (or his doppelganger) on the London Underground yesterday morning.


It was taken by Mags Halliday who's pretty certain it was Bob Crow. Why? Two reasons a) "He was wearing an RMT badge" and b) He was sitting "legs apart so that he took up both seats, though there were people standing".

Yes, I think we can safely say that's Bob Crow. If anyone's going to do "bloke sitting" or "Tube space invading", he'd be a prime candidate.

If only we had these signs on the Tube

Well spotted Mags, who said "After all these years semi-working in London I finally get a celeb spot on my last trip pre-baby. Although it tells you a lot that I recognise a union leader over an actor or musician".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Naked Tube

Forget "No Trousers on the Underground" or "No Pants Subway Day", four naked men & women got shocked looks when they travelled through Charing Cross London Underground.


With only strategically placed briefcases and handbags, they travelled as though it was completely normal to be nude on the Tube. Surprisingly it's not a new trend, but to launch Virgin 1's The Naked Office, which broadcasts tonight at 9pm.


The premise is that staff at struggling businesses try to help turn their companies around by stripping off. Steven Suphi, behaviour change specialist and leadership guru, believes that being naked in an office will help boost employees' confidence and develop trust.

In a moment of understatement she said: "For most people in the UK going to work in the nude is a very daunting prospect."

I'd say it's daunting. Where would you carry your iPod and keep your Oystercard handy?

Hat tip to Bernard P who saw this story featured in Australian press.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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