Grey hair is a sign of greatness on the Tube

Occasionally I'm greeted by proverbs of the day at my London Underground station. I'm assuming the person who wrote this one has more than a few grey hairs himself.


Little piece of advice too - check your spelling before putting up messages about being wise. Otherwise nice thoughts and I'm sure it will keep those of us with grey hair happy.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, July 22, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Photo of the Week - Angel Tube Cat

Not only is this a lovely shot of a cat outside a London Underground station, it's also a lovely story. I'll let the photographer, Stuff n Nonsense, explain:


The Big Issue Cat by Stuff n Nonsense
"There's a Big Issue seller who has a pitch in the afternoons outside Angel Tube station.

A while ago, he found a stray cat with a badly bust up leg, so being a kindly soul, he took the cat along to an animal shelter to get it sorted out. He wasn't expecting them to tell him when the cat was healed, he was to take the cat back with him - but that's what they said and that's what happened.

The cat became incredibly attatched to its rescuer and would try to follow the man whenever he went out. Realising that cats do what they want, the man gave up trying to get the cat to stay home and allowed it to come with him and these days the cat will be sat outside the station as the man sells copies of the magazine, calmly guarding the takings and posing for photos.

I don't think you could meet a more calm tempered cat if you tried."

He or she is certainly the closest I've seen to a contender for Japan's station master cat, who's also happy to pose for photos & brings in huge revenue for the station.

Great spot by Stuff n Nonsense and thanks to him for finding out & sharing the backstory.

Update - The cat's called Bob and Alexey Kovalev interviewed his owner outside Angel Tube in the video below, where you can see Bob posing happily for pictures and learn what happens when he wants a loo break!



Update 4th August 2011 - Bob has a Book Deal

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Super hero uses elbows to cool Tube

Following on from last week's announcement that the budget to cool Tube carriages on the London Underground has been slashed by £10m, a drinks company, have decided to make a stunt around this by creating FanMan.

Photo: David Parry

It might look like FanMan is about elbow the woman in the face, but apparently he has cooling equipment in his sleeves.

Apparently the Emmi FanMan, is a six-foot fan-wielding super-hero, using "state of the art technology to blast those around him with a refreshing jet of cool air" . Look out for him on the Tube in the next few days.

Emmi FanMan said "I’m just someone who wanted to make a difference. In a world where heat exhaustion, dehydration and profuse sweating are rife I knew I couldn’t just stand by and watch any longer. Commuting is an exhausting business but coupled with the crippling heat of a packed tube carriage it becomes unbearable. I’m there for people in their time of need."

FanMan’s helpers will also be handing out cold Emmi Caffe Latte at several Tube station entrances.

Let's hope they focus on the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines, as these lines are marked as high risk on a LU "Passenger heat strain" map. They're the lines that are the highest risk to people should they become stuck on a stalled train.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, July 19, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Daily Mail as Tube Map

Ever wondered what subjects for Daily Mail articles would look like as a London Underground map? Probably not, but the guys from PokeHQ have and it makes for a fun read. Follow the link here for map in full and names of the lines, such as PC Gone Mad, Medical Scares and Arch Enemies.


They said: "Speculation that The Daily Mail's success was down to a top secret formula started in the late eighties, but it was dismissed as Fleet Street legend along with the real parentage of the Hitchens brothers and that thing Una Stubbs is into. Though such explicit mapping of the newspaper’s friends and enemies have set tongues wagging, the main surprise seems to have been the bizarre use of the underground system. Reports that The Daily Star’s secret formula is based on the number 10 bus route remain unconfirmed."

Hat tip to the ever wonderful b3ta for finding this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, July 16, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tour of abandoned Tube Station

Wonderful footage in this short film by the BBC where the London Underground's David Leboff, shows us St Mary's Tube station in East London. The station was closed in 1938 and used as an air raid shelter in the 2nd World War, and rarely visited since.


The film is part of the Radio 4 London season and featured in The London Nobody Knows programme. It's going to fuel the interest of anyone fascinated by abandoned Tube stations. This is a hot topic at the moment as Ajit Chambers continues in his quest or re-opening disused Tube stations.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, July 15, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Star Wars Subway Car

So people on the Tube ignore herds of cows in suits, guys dancing to Michael Jackson and other stunts that we've seen on the London Underground over the years. How would they react to seeing Darth Vader? The crazy team who bought No Pants/Trousers Subway Day to the world, Improv Everywhere, decided to re-enact the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars in a New York City subway car.


Like them, I was amazed at how many people got out their camera phones and actually paid attention to this.

They said "One thing we learned is that almost every human will immediately take out their camera when they see Darth Vader. We've done lots of crazy missions on the subway over the years, but I have never seen so many people taking photographs of our performance. How can you not take a photo of Darth Vader? It's impossible to resist!"

Hat tip to @manima for spotting this. Will someone in London put ImprovEverywhere's thesis to the test? Can we rely on Tube commuters to studiously ignore Darth & Co?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Cows on the Tube

Bringing a whole new meaning to cattle-class travel, commuters found themselves squashed against cows on the London Underground this morning.


A herd were seen gathering outside Euston station at 6.30am, who then ‘coMOOted’ on the Tube.


Picture credits - Friends of the Earth
It was a stunt by Friends of the Earth volunteers to highlight the hidden chain linking meat and dairy to wildlife and rainforest destruction in South America. More information can be found at their site. A full set of pictures including the cows with copies of Moo'tro are on Flickr.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Photo of the Week - Free Hugs

Spotted at Waterloo London Underground station last week. "Free Hugs Here. Please ask a member of staff".


Wonder how many people took them up on their offer?

Thanks to Wanyee who apologises for the blurriness of the shot taken on his camera phone. It would have been just as blurry if I'd taken it, as I think I'd have been doing a double take & giggling from having seen it in the first place.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, July 12, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Have you heard of West Ashfield Tube?

Yesterday, some London bloggers & Tube enthusiasts visited a fake London Underground station used for training. Both IanVisits and London Reconnections have two great blog posts on the visit organised by The Institution of Engineering and Technology.


London Reconnections kindly let me use the picture above and said:

"It would be easy to think that West Ashfield station was simply a visual gimic - something to enliven training sessions - but this is not the case. West Ashfield isn't just a decorated corridor, its a micro-station environment with a very clear purpose. It may contain a number of rooms and facilities that your average station doesn't (more on those later), but it also places trainees, when appropriate, in an atmosphere that is as similar as possible to that in which they may find themselves working."

Ianvisits told how they were "let loose on the system and told to basically run the the network, getting trains into platforms, slidings etc without causing traffic jams and the like.

The true purpose of the model train set though is to train staff on dealing with problems, and a simple flick of a switch can simulate any sort of network failure you care to imagine. It was here that we leant why it can sometimes take ages to get trains out of tunnels when things go wrong."

Thanks to both for providing fascinating posts & photos!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, July 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Signs of Summer on the Tube

Could someone tell this guy it's meant to be London's hottest day of the year so far? Michelle spotted him this morning on the London Overground and he's clearly missed the memo. Perhaps he was feeling the air conditioning on these overground trains a little too much.


Michelle said "The girl on the left seemingly noted how hot it's going to get today. Where's the guy on the right been?!".

Have you noticed any other appropriate or inappropriate hot weather clothing on the London Underground recently? How have you seen people dealing with the heat on the Tube

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, July 09, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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July 7th - Five years on

Today you are going to see & hear much from a variety of news sources, blogs and websites about July the 7th. It's hard to know what to say right now, as so much was felt and reported at the time. This time five years ago, I was blogging virtually every half an hour trying to keep people informed. Then for about a month or so following the horrible day, virtually every day's post was about the aftermath as the London Underground & travelling on it had changed so much.


Monument to the Victims of the London Bombings on July 7 by The Londoneer
However, we got on. We stopped looking suspiciously at people with rucksacks, or beards, or men of a particular race. We stopped being anxious every time a train got stuck in a tunnel. We stopped seeing pictures of people in Florida wearing "We're not afraid" T-Shirts. We began to travel on the Tube with the same "freedom" and in the same numbers that we did in the past.

July 7th 2005 changed me in a variety of ways, but fortunately I am still alive to be able to think and talk about those changes. Hopefully, this blog is able to make people think a little more about the Tube journeys they share with 3 million other people every day - the good things & the bad.

Today, many people will remember the 52 people who were killed. The permanent memorial in Hyde Park will probably be the focus. Floral tributes will be placed by relatives and friends of the dead at the five sites of the bombings.

Let's hope that today will mainly be a day without blame, or finger pointing. A day to remember those who lost their lives and also a day to support all those who were seriously injured, both physically & mentally. Ordinary commuters whose everyday Tube or bus journey turned into a nightmare. Please take some time out to think about them and their families.

I would love to hear your memories of Tube travel at the time, or if you have any personal thoughts on July 7th that you'd like to share.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, July 07, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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"New South London Line"

What do people actually call the new East London Line? Officially it's all still London Overground. However, in a very jovial speech last night at City Hall, Boris Johnson addressed community groups in Lambeth, Southwark, Merton and Wandsworth and said that East London Line Phase 2 – will now to be referred to as the ‘New South London line'.

From the mood he was in, it was difficult to tell whether he was just playing to the South London audience or if the new part of the line would be called this.

SE1 recorded his speech and he starts talking about transport & the London Underground about six minutes in.


Plans for extension to Northern Line at Battersea Power Station Tour by Tiki Chris
He acknowledged the lack of Tube services South of the river and said: "We have a vision to remedy the gap in provision on the Underground in South London, so we want to extend the Northern Line to Battersea, in fact, we want two new stations for Battersea". He claims this will be paid for by tax increment financing: "We go to the treasury and you allow us to finance this, against the future increment in the business taxes, in taxes that will come into the government as a result in the boom in the business that will be produced in Battersea."

He also mentioned extending the Bakerloo Line to South East London. He's been promising this for quite some time now and the idea was originally mooted in the 1940s. Many Londoners are sceptical as to whether it will ever happen and in his enthusiasm, Boris made no mention as to how this would be financed.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, July 06, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Written in Tube Moquette

London Underground launched some new posters by kind of playing Magic Eye with words in Tube seats! There's a series of questions relating to "amazing and unusual things that have happened on the network over the last 150 years".




Tube nerds like me will know the answers to the questions, but it's nice to see some of the more weirder things about the system being promoted.




If you want to know the answers and also see which lines the upholstery came from (I certainly didn't recognise all of the moquettes) visit http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tubeorfalse.

Speaking of moquette, Londonstuff went along to the Transforming the Tube exhibition at Aldgate on Monday, took some pictures & videos and saw some eye poppingly bright seats.


Moquette by londonstuff
He said "A sign on the top said this is going to be fitted out on the Central Line and then across the entire fleet :("

Seriously?! These would be bad enough on the Central Line alone, but across the whole of the system? I love how each of the lines are distinguished by features like moquette and handrail colours. Is it a cost saving exercise? Wonder if we'll see more design uniformity now that the LU has ownership of all the London Underground Lines?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, July 01, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Early Evening Northern Line Closures Cancelled

Good news for Northern Line travellers who were facing a summer of early closures throughout the summer. The Bank and High Barnet branches of the line were due to shut at about 9.30pm BST on Mondays to Thursdays from next week. However, TfL has decided to revert to a normal schedule now all of its maintenance work has been brought back in-house.


Camden Town tube station station by markhillary
London Underground's MD, Mike Brown, said "London Underground is working with Tube Lines to review the upgrade and hence we are cancelling the immediate early-evening closures planned". He added they were looking for a plan "that gets the job done to a timetable that suits Londoners, and with the minimum disruption to our customers and businesses".

Small businesses in the area believed that work would force some night time retailers to close. No announcement has yet been made on how the 40 year old signalling system will be upgraded, but TfL have promised to be "engaging fully with the business community" and listening to traders' (and hopefully commuters) views.

Wonder if the traders on the Hammersmith & City Line and Circle Lines will have such good news? Currently they're expecting are expecting a dramatic slump in business from July 24 to August 15. Work is taking place to remove a disused taxi ramp and canopy at Paddington and will have a knock on effect, with no trains running between Hammersmith and Edgware Road for three weeks.

A TfL spokesman has already apologised for the inconvenience and said: "We will shortly be commencing a publicity campaign to inform passengers, residents and businesses about the alternative travel options. There is no other option than to close this section of line however it is planned to coincide with the start of the school holidays when the Tube will be less busy."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Aldwych Tube open for exhibition

You'll be able to see some of the disused Aldwych London Underground station for the next two weeks. However, it's only the ticket hall, as it will be displaying a special free exhibition - "Transforming the Tube".


Aldwych by Hey Mr Glen
The exhibition will run from today Monday 28 June until Friday 9 July from 10:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and 10.00 to 16:00 on the weekend.

The entrance to the exhibition is on Surrey Street, WC2R 2NE, which is off the Strand and off Temple Place. Temple is the nearest Tube for this.

Open at last by londonstuff

Aldwych station has been closed for the last 16 years, but is occasionally opened for private parties and corporate events.

Maybe this is a small sign that TfL are receptive to putting closed stations to other uses.

Wonder when the W changed from that font in the picture?

Update - Londonstuff went along on the first day and has pictures and videos here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, June 28, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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iPad on the Tube

Like buses, you wait ages to see someone using an iPad on the London Underground, then along come several. Well, two!

iPads still have that "ooh" factor when someone takes one out and up until now, I've never seen one being used on the Tube. Yesterday, I saw my first and then this morning my second, pictured below.


The Tube's normally a good place to spot early adopters of new technology. The guy pictured above on the Central Line was reading The Times (which looked remarkably sharp even from where I was sitting). The man yesterday had his propped up in its holder and was typing an email.

I'll probably see loads of them now that I've broken my duck. Gradually they'll become common place. But for the moment, I wonder if more people are carrying them around and just worried about having them on display while commuting? Have you seen anyone using one on the Tube or any other public transport?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, June 25, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Slides on the Tube - would you use them?

Commuters on the subway in Berlin were offered the choice of stairs, escalators or a giant slide to get down to the trains. I'm surprised how many actually chose the slide - although it does look fun!


Before health & safety officials get up in arms, it was only a promo for VW and it's not going to be installed any time soon.

Hat tip to Neil Turner for showing me this.

Wonder what would happen if they carried out the same test on the London Underground? It's energy efficient, fun and could certainly speed up the flow of passengers walking down stairs.


Emergency Steps at Covent Garden by Intranation
Perhaps there could even be a twisting one at Covent Garden Tube. It might actually make going down the 193 steps there a viable option, rather than waiting for the lifts!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, June 24, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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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
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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
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