Call of Duty Game Features Tube

I know nothing about gaming, but apparently the latest version of some big game called "Call of Duty" came out on Monday. This one's subtitled "Modern Warfare 3" and has picked up a bit of media attention for the fact that it contains a London Underground level.

I'll leave Jon Justice to tell you about the rest:

I've been playing it and I've attached some screenshots. Although I was hurtling through it at speed, I did notice a few odd things 

You're in a truck, pursuing a Tube train down a line and you pass through a station. It turns out that it's Westminster, which is a little odd as a few minutes later your driver shouts about how you'll be in Westminster station in a minute. 

I do quite like that when you pass through that first station some of the passengers on the platform scatter and run, whereas others are a bit more London about things and stand their ground, completely ignoring the truck full of SAS chaps chasing a Tube train. 

 I was also slightly puzzled by how a train can go from Westminster station immediately into an above ground section, but seemed odder is that the train has "Westminster" on its destination board. Do trains terminate at Westminster? I don't think I've ever heard of that.



But what is funny is that, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the game's budget, Activision wouldn't pay TfL's fee to use the signage and maps. The station name appears on a black rectangle with nary a roundel in sight. The map looks odd, like they've simply made it up, although I can't quite read what it says. 



In fact, there's a curious lack of signage anywhere in the station.



It's just about possible to get a look at the interior of a carriage before it gets blown up. I can't remember what the right moquette is, but is that one correct?

All very curious."

Thanks for all of that Jon, my guess is that games company probably did approach TfL and that TfL told them to get lost as they wouldn't want to endorse a game which involved blowing up loads of their trains.  But I could be wrong.  What do you think about it all?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 09, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Free Talk: The Londoners - The Days and Nights of London Now

Author Craig Taylor, has a new book coming out called The Londoners - The Days and Nights of London Now, As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It and Long for It (top title & book cover). On Saturday 19th November at Chipping Barnet Library at 2.30pm he's giving a free talk on his research & writing of the book. He interviewed 80 Londoners over 5 years including the female voice of the Tube, Emma Clarke, and Craig Clark, London Underground's lost property office clerk.

He also interviews people who have come to London for the first time about their experience of negotiating London & their first trips on the Tube.

Rachel Lichtenstein said "In this extraordinary portrait of London, told through the diverse voices of its people, Craig Taylor has taken the pulse of the city.  Hope, despair, loathing, love: this passionate city invites passionate responses and 'Londoners' is its song".

Sounds like a fascinating talk for all interested in London & not just the London Underground. 

Please phone Chipping Barnet Library on 020 8359 4040 or email ruth.newman@barnet.gov.uk to book your free place.  Nearest Tube - High Barnet

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, November 08, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Sense the City Photographic Display; Call for Entries : London Transport Museum & Londonist

How would you like to have your photographs on display at London Transport Museum next year? The museum will be running a display of 50 images in conjunction with Londonist to create a gallery that "captures the hustle and bustle of London, and the activity that helps make London flourish and thrive."


50 shortlisted images will be displayed at London Transport Museum from Saturday 21 January to Sunday 18 March 2012. The photos must be contemporary and can be submitted to the Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sense_the_city/ by 2nd December 2011. Each person can submit up to three images for consideration.

London Transport Museum added: "A panel of experts will judge the photographs and shortlist the top 50 entries. The shortlisted entrants will be invited to a private view featuring their photographs on Friday 20 January 2012. Three final entries will be will be selected for special commendation by our advisory panel - Clive Birch (Visiting Tutor on the Royal College of Art’s Vehicle Design Programme) and Johanna Empson (Talks and Events Programmer at the Photographers Gallery), and announced at the event."

The photography project was inspired by Sense and the City: one of the best exhibitions I had seen at London Transport Museum. As well as having an excellent collection of images & artefacts from the past about how transport might look in the future, the exhibition also posed questions about mobility, society and work in the London over the next decade, and compared that with past visions of the future.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, November 04, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mark Ovenden - Great Railway Maps of the World Talk at Stanfords

To mark the launch of his new book Great Railway Maps of the World Mark Ovenden is giving a talk tonight at 8pm at Stanfords in Covent Garden. Mark produced the World Urban Metro Map in the style of the London Underground Map, to mark the launch of his previous book - Metro Maps of the World.


Stanfords say of Mark's book: "The first ever collection of the diversity of world railway cartography ever produced, Mark Ovenden's new book is an extraordinary compendium of historical and contemporary railway maps and posters from every corner of the world."

Find out more about Great Railway Maps of the World in Mark's guest blog post for us earlier in the year.

The talk will be held at 8pm at Stanfords Convent Garden store: 12-14 Long Acre Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9LP

Tickets - £5. You can buy tickets online here or call 020 7836 1321 to reserve a place or buy tickets in store.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 02, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Happy Tube Halloween from Bolli & Annie Mole

My cat Bolli should be in his element today. He's a black cat & should be out tonight jumping on witches' shoulders as they zoom around on broomsticks in the sky. Quite frankly he's a little bored with Halloween, but managed to humour me enough to have this photo taken


The look in his eyes says: "Get this over with quickly, so that I can go back to sleeping".

I quite liked the following "out-take" as he looks kinda spooky.


I'm a little more into Halloween this year than normal and actually got all American & baked a pumpkin pie which I'm taking into the crew at Great British Chefs today.


Over on Facebook this opened up a lot of discussion about whether pumpkin pie should be served hot or cold & other pie related questions.


Halloween Tube by spiritquest
Expect to see more people on the London Underground dressed up as ghouls, goblins, witches, devils & a whole load of other scary things tonight as the Halloween parties come to an end. And as usual as Spiritquest's  (@Ketan) great picture above on the Northern Line (taken en route to BarCampLondon) from yesterday shows, expect most Tube travellers to think it's all totally normal & ignore them.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, October 31, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Old Posters found at Richmond Station

Not strictly Tube related but because I use Richmond Station a lot, it was great receiving an email from Simon Hickman from English Heritage with the following pictures.


He said "South West Trains is replacing the poster boards on the footbridge stairs, and in removing the old ones has uncovered some historic late '70s / early '80s ones underneath. They're very well preserved. One is a stylised advert for sleeper trains, but my favourite is the one instructing the good burghers of Richmond how to open train doors with a button!"


Love both of them, especially the reminder of the "We're getting there" slogan. Wonder how much longer - getting there takes?

Pleased that photos were taken before they were lost forever.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, October 28, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Bolli with Tube Map Beach Towel for Black Cat Awareness Day

Bolli posing with my belated birthday pressie of a Tube Map Beach Towel - thanks Trish! We're both proud to support Black Cat Awareness Day - so surprised people think they are unlucky & they are harder to find homes for than other coloured cats - he's top!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, October 27, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Scary Tube Books for All Hallow's Read

In case you haven't noticed it's Halloween on 31st October. Expect to see the London Underground filled with all sorts of ghouls & goblins over the weekend (well people dressed up as ghouls, goblins & the like on their way to Halloweeen Parties).

I was delighted to discover that one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman has come up with a great concept for the day for people who're not into "trick or treating", or sweets or dressing up. It's simply giving or sharing a scary book - All Hallow's Read


Neil wrote the fantastic Neverwhere a dark fantasy with loads of Tube related themes - real Barons at Barons Court, the dark Angels of Islington, people living in an alternative subterranean world partially populated by King Rats and travelling around on those "Special" London Underground trains with the windows blacked out.


The Guardian are totally behind his campaign and are giving a way a free book of short stories this weekend which includes a scary story set on the Piccadilly Line.




Other scary fictional Tube reads that would make brill All Hallows Read gifts or shares include The End of the Line and Barbara Vine's King Soloman's Carpet.

For those who want non fiction spooky Tube Tales there's Underground London by Stephen Smith, Peter Ackroyd's London Under and Railway Ghosts by J A Brooks. Supernatural Steam also by J A Brooks isn't Tube related by if you're a railway enthusiast is is full of strange steam railway sightings  (the latter two are super cheap on Amazon as they're pretty old).

I'm sure I've missed other scary Tube, train or London Transport reads and feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, October 27, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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RMT in a stew over Driverless Tube Trains by 2021

The old chestnut about the prospect of driverless London Underground trains is in the news again after the RMT "leaked" a TfL paper stating that driverless trains could run across the network within 10 years.


The Operational Strategy Discussion Paper says that this along with mass ticket office closures and a contactless method of paying for London travel (bye bye Oyster) could save £2 billion by 2018.

The RMT's leader Bob Crow said the plans were "a blueprint for jobs and safety carnage". He continued "Every single ticket office would be closed, stations left unstaffed and drivers would be thrown out of their cabs without a single thought for passenger safety.......RMT will work with our sister Tube unions and passenger groups on a campaign to ensure that this document and its proposals are consigned to the dustbin of history".

London Underground Managing Director, Mike Brown, responded with the following comments to The Evening Standard

"This plan shows how the LU operational model will evolve to meet the changes of the next decade. It delivers taxpayer value through a significant reduction of the cost of operations"

"The Tube is now carrying 1.1 billion passengers a year. Londoners want a modern, safe, economical and efficient Underground. This discussion paper contains some suggestions as to how that might be achieved."

On the front page of The Standard, the story continues inside with thoughts from commuters who seem more than happy with the prospect of driverless Tube trains. The Victoria, Central and Jubilee lines already run in semi-automatic role and apparently little practical change is needed to operate without a driver. The DLR also has driverless trains.

One of the people that The Standard interviewed said "Driverless trains are a fantastic idea. I think Tube drivers are the most overpaid people in London."

Another said: "I am totally behind anything that would make London transport quicker than it already is."

A third agreed: "I think this is an excellent idea, efficiency and effectiveness are necessary. We can put savings to good use."

The jury's still out for me. Sure I get that there are lots of efficiencies to be made, personally, to me, it still feels a little weird not seeing a driver on the DLR (even though I know it's been like that for years and years and there are also people on the train to make sure bags and coats and limbs don't get stuck in closing doors). The RMT's argument is that a lot of drivers also helped passengers during the 7/7 terrorist attacks and there would be no-one to assist in another emergency like that.

Even if there were automated trains it's not likely to stop strike action (this whole thing is definitely a move by Boris Johnson to take away the unions' power to hold the country to ransom over strikes). Someone somewhere still has to operate the computers that operate the trains & the likelihood is that those people will belong to rail unions.

At the moment these are only plans but like it or not, I believe that in time more driverless trains will be rolled out. Smart ways of paying your fares will also be rolled out & unfortunately that means that fewer people will be needed to run ticket offices & get involved with managing the Oyster system.

What are your thoughts? Are you concerned about the safety issues of not having drivers? Do you think that mass ticket office closures will lead to platforms & stations becoming a "paradise" for vandals & muggers as Crow suggests?

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Paris Subway Challenge by Adham Fisher

299 stations. 16 lines. 133 miles of track. And some "Je ne sais quoi". That is what was involved when Tube Challenger, Adham Fisher, applied the challenges of travelling around each station in the fastest possible time on the London Underground, to the Paris Métro in mid August 2011.


Adham tells his story:

"I had heard of a couple of other attempts at this (http://www.rioleo.org/guinness-world-record-subway.php and http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/3681672.print/). No participant was Parisian or even French. We are used to some Londoners knowing the Tube inside out, being enthusiastic about subterranean travel and therefore being the most likely to try and attain a record there, but if one suggested to the average Paris resident that she or he spend 15 hours on the Métro, one might be banished to the suburbs.



"Le Blog en Commun first broke the news across the Channel and I went to all Métro stations in 13 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds.

"Highlights of the expedition were:

- The song, Métro, which we wrote for the occasion. Thanks to Annanem. "Baffling, pointless, therapeutic genius" say the Parisians.


- My companions. Very well done.
- My interview on French radio.


- Meeting the Metro map master himself, Mark Ovenden, whose book, Paris Metro Style In Map And Station Design I had read in preparation. I had an orange juice with him the day before and he offered great words of encouragement and a little metro quiz. His new book, Great Railway Maps Of The World, is out now.

- The family who gave me a pencil after I had lost two pens in as many minutes so I could continue writing. I offered them two euros for it but they said "It's for you."


- I was on a train with an American chap and asked if he knew about the New York Subway record. He replied that he was from North Carolina, and apparently there are no subways there. Nevertheless, he was so intrigued by what I was doing that he insisted on having his picture taken with me.

- The  Métro driver who, after hearing what I had done the next day, let me ride in the cab for a few stops. That makes two cities where I have had a driver's eye view.




- The people sleeping on station platforms. I hope they were not disturbed.


- There were many bad points, but none compare to the creperie in the Chatelet area where I bought the team a celebratory round of drinks afterwards. Ten euros for a small vase of cider. That's £9.99!"

Thanks Adham for that great story and you can read more about Adham's Subway Challenges including his Chicago Subway Challenge here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, October 22, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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National Baking Week Tube Map made from Cake

Next stop Charing Hot Cross Bun. The cooks and even the non cooks amongst you may know that yesterday saw the launch of National Baking Week to celebrate the UK's love of baking. The launch event in London was genius as bunch of cooks went into St Pancras station and made a London Underground Map out of cake (what's not to like about that?).

Photos by Gary Morrisroe 

I love the bakery & cake puns on the Tube station names. So above we have Imperial Mint Wharf Cake, But there was also Charing Hot Cross Bun, Victoria Sponge, Wimbledon Parkin, White Chocolate Cheesecake Chapel, Puddington, Swiss Roll Cottage and the more recipe orientated - add 250ml Waterloo.


London landmarks such as Marble Arch, The London Eye, Tate Modern and Big Ben were also made out of cake and placed on the Tube Map.

As a number of you know, I'm an enthusiastic cook and in addition to running Nom Nom Nom, the charity MasterChef contest for bloggers, for the last four years, a few months ago I became Head of Social Media for Great British Chefs (yes, I get paid to eat, cook, talk, blog & Tweet about food - there's worse jobs). Each day, for National Baking Week, we're focussing on some baking goodness on our Facebook page. So I really love this map.

You can see how the Cake Tube Map was put together in the video below:


Kudos to the guys and girls at National Baking Week, they've certainly put the event on the (Tube) map in my eyes.

Any other Tube Station Cake or Baking puns you think they could have considered for the map?

UPDATE - Just discovered through the comments after TRT had suggested Manor House Cake (BTW thanks to all for your great suggestions) that TfL actually have worked with Mr Kipling to make some Tube Station name cakes to cover some stops on the Piccadilly Line.  Smoke magazine (the very irregular but amazing London "fanzine") covered this back in Issue 8 and its co-founder Matt Haynes kindly sent the following screengrab of the piece. Love it!

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, October 18, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Nine Thoughts from 9 years of Blogging

Hard to believe it, but at the end of this year this blog will have been around for nine years. If someone had asked me in 2003 whether I would have still been doing this in nine years time, I'd have probably laughed at them. It's not been an easy nine years. It's had a lot of ups and a shedload of downs.


In those nine years I've split up with my husband, seen a book I did research on get published, witnessed the nightmare of July 7th, had an almost two year relationship with a fellow Tube geek, won a few blogging awards, had a number of jobs, helped to raise a few thousand pounds for some charities (including Tube Relief with Geoff Marshall & Action Against Hunger), interviewed authors I really admire (including Neil Gaiman & Christopher Fowler), been on national TV & radio a few times, run Nom Nom Nom four times, met & had tea with Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, spoken to a number of celebs including Al Gore, Ken Livingstone, Alistair Campbell, Jon Snow, Piers Morgan, Mr T, Craig out of Big Brother, Roland Gift and Stewart Lee, witnessed some of the worst riots this country has seen and now I'm about to be Social Media Consultant (on a voluntary basis, I'm not giving up my day job) for The Old London Underground Company (some people will stop reading now - I can guess who you are).

What have I learnt in nine years? Hard to say, but here's nine observations that may or may not be of interest.

1. I will give up blogging one day, but only when it becomes much more of a hindrance than fun or I'm too old to travel on the Tube often enough to blog.

2. I've met some AWESOME people who've become good friends through blogging and value their friendship more than I can say.

3. I still get a big kick out of seeing my blogging mates' achievements, whether that's winning Observer Food Monthly's Best Food Blogger (well done Niamh), producing their second album (well done Laura), getting their blog made into a Channel 4 TV Series (well done Brian/Tom), getting books published or about to be published (well done Zoe, Malcolm, Julia, Tom, Londonist guys, Collin & Mark & I'm sure I've left out others), seeing them on TV (L J Rich - you're brill), hearing them present radio shows (Jamillah, Zoe and Chris - always thought provoking, professional & quirky), seeing their writing get made into TV pilots or on stage (well done Mike), seeing them pick up OBEs with their families (Gia - still slightly freaked out by seeing Brian's face on cover of Wired last month) or the many, many, other achievements that would be enough for most people to dine out on for months.

4. I know that I upset a lot of people and I've finally got to the stage where I don't care that much any more. I don't mean that in an arrogant sense, but in the sense that I don't lose sleep over it any more. I used to. I wondered what I'd done to piss off someone so much that they parodied my blog. I used to lose sleep about the comments I got on controversial blog posts. I don't think I'm a fundamentally evil person. I know I can be annoying. Sometimes I can be too honest for my own good. I don't suffer fools gladly. I can get impatient, but generally I try to listen to what people have to say. In conference or seminar situations (unless I'm the speaker) I try to follow the premise of "You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that order". Thanks @sleepydog for being the first person I heard saying that.

5. I know that blogging will be around for a long time and may possibly outlive Twitter and will certainly outlive a lot of other social networks.

6. Getting a cat of my own has been one of the best things to ever happen to me.

7. I don't like numbers when it comes to blogging. Numbers don't really mean much by themselves. Traffic, numbers of followers, numbers of Facebook Fans, number of blog posts a week, word counts. It's all pretty irrelevant unless you have some passion behind it. Don't settle on being average, no one is average, everyone has something unique about themselves, find your uniqueness & enjoy it. This presentation I did in 2008 still has some thoughts on blogging that you might find helpful today.

Blogging Break Down - Bar Camp London 5 & Social Media Camp London

View more presentations from Annie Mole

8. Maybe one day I'll get rid of this retro yellow background & design. Maybe I won't.

9. It is possible to carve out a niche for yourself through blogging. It is possible to get The Mayor to read your blog posts. It is possible to get journalists to read your blog posts & Tweets on a daily basis and look to you as a "news source". It is possible to get TfL and the British Transport Police to keep an eye on your blog. It is possible to be more influential that you possibly realise, and that realisation is always a shock. Because in your heart you know it's just you, a computer and a lot of other people who've trusted you for many years.

To those who have trusted me & the blog and those who will, I'd honestly like to thank you all. I know I'll never meet the vast majority of you in person, but you've changed my life. I owe you a pint.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, October 16, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Guess Where Tube 12 - Slave Clock

Another in the series where I ask you to try to guess from exactly where on the London Underground, the following picture in the London Tube Flickr group was taken from.


With the last Guess Where Tube 11 most people guessed that it was on the Victoria Line, which was pretty obvious because of the moquette. A number of you thought it was Seven Sisters. But it was in fact at King's Cross on the Southbound platform. Antje got it right, so well done to her.

This week try to guess the exact location of where I spotted this London Underground clock. I really like the detail of the roundel at the bottom of this and would have certainly been a contender for my Unusual London Underground Clocks post. It makes was could have been a very dull station clock and turn it into something that has a slightly art deco feel about it. It doesn't appear to amongst the great set of London Underground Clocks collated by BowRoadUK

Yet again, there's no prizes for getting it right, just the satisfaction of knowing you were right.

Enjoy!

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Drivers Strike Ballot over "Worst Week" of Service

For once I'm actually with the RMT. Tube drivers are considering a ballot for industrial action over safety in what has been the "worst week" of chaos on the Tube because of signal failures, faulty trains and staffing problems.


The District Line has been absolutely rubbish this week and also last week (see picture above). There's been no other way to describe the delays, gaps between service and track problems on that line. I've been putting in a Customer Charter form for compensation almost every day.

The Evening Standard said "District Line passengers were worst hit with nine severe delays, suspensions and closures, while users of the Circle Line suffered inconvenience following four line suspensions, said Labour, adding that in the last six days the District and Circle lines were both suspended three times and the Victoria, Hammersmith & City Line and Northern Line were all part-suspended once."

Labour's transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross said in The Guardian: "I can't remember a worse week of delays on the Tube. No line has been spared delays this week with severe delays and whole line suspensions causing huge inconvenience to the daily lives of millions of Londoners.

"It's simply not good enough when Londoners tell me that delays are the norm, not the exception, whilst they are paying record high fares to use a Tube service which we cannot rely on.

"While Boris Johnson was boasting about how great London's Tube services were to the Conservative Party conference this week, millions of Londoners were stuck on Tube trains."

Bob Crow, in normal bullish mode said "RMT has demanded an end to the reckless policy of expecting drivers to override door fail-safe systems after a potentially fatal incident in which a passenger jumped from a moving train and another was caught in its open doors.

"Despite that, the 'sensitive edge' procedures, along with a whole bunch of other unsafe procedures, are being bulldozed through in the dash for cuts, and to cover up the impact of reductions in station staff, under the guise of "operational effectiveness".

"It is our members who have to deal with the consequences of these ill-conceived policies. We have tried to get LUL to see sense, but they have continued to put cash and job cuts ahead of passenger safety and we now have no choice but to ballot for action to put a stop to these dangerous proposals being imposed without agreement."


Interestingly I've had no word back from @TfLOfficial on my tweets last week asking why the District Line was so shocking last week. I was particularly galled as TfL were handing out a survey on a day when the service was really, really bad.   Perhaps now the unions are threatening to strike they may start to look at why the service was so bad in the last couple of weeks.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, October 07, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Rihanna on the Tube

Hot on the heels of my post about Tube stations at music arenas, Rihanna took to the London Underground last night to get to her gig at the O2.


Lisa-Marie O'Keeffe who took the photo said : "I met @Rihanna on my way home, told her she was crazy for taking the tube she said 'Dunno how you guys do it' "

The Sun report "The 23-year-old singer astonished passengers by travelling to London's O2 Arena on the Jubilee underground line using her Oyster travel card.

Shocked fans, who the star dubs her "navy", watched as she left a packed Tube train at North Greenwich station."

The story is kind of spoilt to hear that when she left the station, with her security guards she then "jumped into a waiting car which drove her just 100 yards to the backstage area of the huge venue".

The Sun continued and report that a source said: "Fans couldn't believe they were sharing a carriage with a world famous pop star.

"She was just like any other passenger, except accompanied by a huge entourage. She was happy to pose for snaps and talk about the gig. She was so down to earth."

Have you seen anyone famous on the Tube lately?

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, October 06, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Worst Tube Station to Work At?

What's the worst London Underground station to work at? I reckon that the ones around Wembley are pretty ... err.... challenging for staff. One minute they could be putting up with drunken football fans, the next the platform is invaded by hordes of pre-pubscent girls wearing pink rabbit ears & cowboy hats.


This was the scene I saw at Wembley Central yesterday. The platform was chock a block with all these girls with constant announcements from station staff to "Stand back from the yellow line", to "Move down the platform so we can all fit you on", to "Mind the gap when getting on the train". All the while, having to hear excited chatter, whistles and the general noise that several hundred 9-14 year old fans of The Wanted make when having a trip to London.

Station staff at Wembley Central and Wembley Park, you have my utmost sympathy.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, October 03, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Late September we need Fan Man on the Tube?

It's the end of September but we need 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.

The Emmi FanMan, was 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" . Sadly this was just a summer stunt but we could really do with him today as temperatures are expected to rise to 29 degrees in London.

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."

Wonder how the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines will be faring today? 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.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, September 30, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2011/09/late-september-we-need-fan-man-on-tube.html

Annie Mole on Facebook's New Timeline

You've probably been hearing a ton of press about Facebook's new Timeline and all of the recent changes they've made to the layout of the page. It might surprise some of you to know that I'm even on Facebook (I'm here), as I never really make a big thing about my presence there. However, the new Timeline is making me re-think how I use Facebook.


I watched the live feed of the Facebook F8 Developers conference last week and was seriously impressed. I have to use Facebook a lot for work, so that's why I was in the office until 8pm watching it.  Here are my tweets while I was watching F8 at the time.

As "Annie Mole" I could never really see the point of doing much on Facebook. I actually thought it would take page views away from my blog & having my own "real me" Facebook account as well, AND  a Twitter account was quite enough. I wanted Facebook to be the only social network that was about the "real me" and everyone I friended on that "real me" account were people I've met and like in real life or people that I've worked with over the years. The only reason I joined Facebook in November 2007 was to Like a few Tube related groups I was interested in.

If you have got the new Facebook Timeline (it rolls out in a few weeks), you'll be able to see my first comments on Facebook were "is wondering about having a Facebook profile" - November 30th 2007 - Some people then found me and wanted to friend me. I didn't really respond as I felt I had enough with the blog & Twitter. By 2008 I thought that was a bit rude, accepted a few friends, but still found it all too much so said "wants you to email her by the usual channels if you want to talk to her"

People still kept finding me on Facebook & tried to friend me. I still kept saying on status updates "I deliberately have no Facebook friends please email me if you wish to talk to me". Still people kept trying to friend me, so I gave up and thought, "OK will just pull in feeds from my blog as notes and that should do it".

That seemed to work for years and I still made the odd status update like "Please note I don't actively use Facebook, so it may take some time before I get back to you if you contact me here! Best to email me - thanks :-)"

Now I am re-thinking. The Facebook Timeline will allow me to very easily build an online scrapbook of Annie Mole's life since conception in 1999 to the present day. Obviously the "real me" is much older (it was my birthday on Saturday - thanks to those who came to my party), and I'm not sure if I can be bothered to scan in baby photos and update every significant event in my life. I'm over 40, that's quite a lot to add.

However, since building my Timeline profile yesterday, I saw that you could actually just start from the day that you joined Facebook and you didn't have to go back to your actual date of birth.

I tweeted at the time of the Facebook Developer's Conference that their VP of Product Management - Chris Cox was to me the most impressive speaker. I still cannot find a video of his speech, so the following badly filmed, and hardly viewed video will have to do - listen to it or watch it - it's only about six minutes long. It explains Facebook's thinking from November 2010 almost a year before they made the announcements about Timeline. They've been thinking about this for a long time, way before Google+ existed.


I studied Sociology at University. I'm a massive people watcher. I socialise a lot. None of these are big secrets or surprises. The internet has massively enabled me to socialise much, much, more than I could ever have done without it. Rather than being a blogger hunched over my computer and never going out it enabled me to meet so many interesting people. People I seriously would have never met without the internet.  People who are now some of my best & closest friends.

 Yes Richmond College us bloggers don't all look like that.

To me, Facebook Timeline allows you to make the most out of the significant "Third Space" ("Home" & "Work" being the other two) - ie The Third Space is all of the many, many spaces where we socialise & meet people outside of work and home. It allows us to have one online space to store our collective memories of all those things we do with friends, family, colleagues, strangers, and all of our achievements within those spaces. It's entirely up to you how much you decide to display and share - Facebook will cleverly pull in some stuff it thinks is significant, but you can choose to hide those items from your Timeline.

It will certainly mean that when the day comes that I no longer write this blog, when I'm much older and much greyer and not using the Tube, at least I'll be able to look back at one page and say "Yes that's what I did for 10 or twenty years or thirty years". So thanks Facebook, I think I finally owe you one.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2011/09/annie-mole-on-facebooks-new-timeline.html

Can you answer these little known Tube facts?

Gentle quiz for Monday, mostly inspired by someone who inspired a post last week (can't give the person's name away yet, otherwise it would make the quiz much easier).


Photo by bowroaduk
1. How many stations have the colour of their line in their name and what are they?
2. What's the eastern most station London Underground station that's entirely below ground?
3. What's unique about Upminster Bridge Station?
4. What's unique about Tottenham Hale Tube Station?
5. How many Tube stations have the word London in their name & what are they?

This is just for fun and there's no prizes for guessing the most correctly. Leave your answers in the comments below and try not to look at the answers before you when you comment.  Also try not to look at the Tube map either. 

I'll reveal the answers sometime this weekend.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, September 26, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2011/09/can-you-answer-these-little-known-tube.html

Guess Where Tube 11 - Pink Fairy

Another in the series where I ask you to try to guess from exactly where on the London Underground, the following picture in the London Tube Flickr group was taken from.


The last Guess Where Tube 9 is still not closed and I'll reveal the answer over the weekend for those who want to guess.

This week try to guess the exact location of where I spotted this lovely pink fairy on the London Underground, earlier in the week. The line is pretty obvious but I need the station and ideally the platform direction.  I think it's tough.  And try not to look at the comments in front of you before making your guess.

Yet again, there's no prizes for getting it right, just the satisfaction of knowing you were right.

Enjoy!

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Guess Where Tube Quiz Round Two

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, September 23, 2011 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2011/09/guess-where-tube-11-pink-fairy.html