Topsites cache : http://london-underground.blogspot.com

Want to find nearest Tube station? There's an app for that

One of the first augmented reality apps to go live in the iPhone AppStore is an amazing app for finding your nearest London Underground station. Acrossair have brought out a magical app that directs you to nearby Tubes in a wonderfully visual way. "By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what Tube Lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons."


It's only available to Apple iPhone 3GS users and almost makes me want to get one.

Thanks to sizemore & Jon Justice for the heads up on this.

I can't even pretend to understand the technology or "the science bit" behind this. So I'll leave Engadget to explain how it came about: "With the iPhone 3GS pimping an improved camera, in built compass and GPS, we had a hunch that it wouldn't be long before someone slammed them all together and gave commuters and tourists alike a reason to smile."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, July 09, 2009 Permalink

Tube Photo of the Week

Of all of the boards showing temporary announcements on the London Underground, I've never seen one giving a warning about pigeons. Andrew Grill's eagle eyes spotted one:


Wonder what station this large pigeon was perched at?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Permalink

London Assembly want your Tube Experience views

The London Assembly Transport Committee investigation kicks off with a public meeting today and is looking at how well (or badly) TfL is managing both overcrowding and the upgrade programme on the London Underground.


Things they're investigating include: what impact overcrowding and line closures have on our journeys, and on other modes of transport. Also how satisfactory are the alternative travel arrangements on offer when lines or stations are closed on weekends so upgrade works can take place?

The investigation will look in particular at the impact of weekend closures for engineering works on the Jubilee line, on both passengers and on venues along the route like The O2 and ExCel. Can lessons be learned or could TfL take an alternative approach to future upgrade works, especially on the Piccadilly line, which normally carries around 800,000 passengers on weekends?

It would be really helpful if you could fill in a short questionnaire of your experiences and also feel free to leave comments about weekend engineering works and overcrowding below.

If you're free at 10am this morning, the Transport Committee meeting is at The Chamber at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1). The meeting can also be viewed via webcast

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Permalink

Tube workers balloted on strike action

Union leaders from Unite rejected a "final" pay offer today, so 600 London Underground engineers and electrical workers are going to be balloted for industrial action.

Unite's regional officer said today "London Underground presented this as a final offer (two year offer of 1.5 per cent in the first year and RPI plus 0.5 per cent in the second year), indicating to us that they are no longer interested in negotiating.

"In these circumstances we have no other option than to ballot our members on industrial action with a recommendation that they vote in favour.

"Unite would welcome further discussions should London Underground wish to return to the negotiating table."

As the members are responsible for safety, maintenance, management and power control, any industrial action would stop the Tube system from running. We're still waiting to hear about the RMT & London Underground's ongoing dispute over pay and job losses.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, July 07, 2009 Permalink

4 years on from July 7th London Transport Bombings

Four years ago today, 52 people were killed in bomb attacks on the London Underground and a London bus. In memory of the people who died, a £1 million permanent memorial will be unveiled in Hyde Park later today.


It was a day most Londoners will never forget and fitting that there's now a permanent place to mark the names of random people who were going about their everyday commutes, never knowing it would be the last journey of their lives.

My thoughts are with the families of those who died and also with the many people who were injured in the attacks.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, July 07, 2009 Permalink

Person on a Tube Line

If you've ever wanted to find out what happens to people on a London Underground train when there's a person on the line, there's a interesting blog post from Andrew Jaffe. Yesterday lunchtime, trains weren't stopping at King's Cross station because of a "one under" - horrible phrase, but that's what Tube staff call it.

Andrew said, when the driver were informed of the incident "After a few more minutes he told us that we may have to 'de-train' but that he'd let us know when authorization came. He implied that if the unfortunate victim were still alive it could take up to a couple of hours.

Given those circumstances, we were not too unhappy that things took a while. Eventually, the staff from Caledonian Road station showed up, and started leading us off the train, giving us the unfortunate chance for a rare London experience:


After they walked through the tunnel to the next station. Andrew said: "We got loaded onto buses and made it into central London. On the way, I passed Kings X station itself, to find the (Virgin!) Air Ambulance ready to rescue the 'person under the train'"


"If nothing else, the British (and, I think, even we foreigners who happen to have found ourselves here) tend to be pretty relaxed in a crisis, and so we were. Given that this was on Sunday in July, we were lucky that the train wasn't much hotter and more crowded with people commuting to work, so we could manage to be more amused by the situation than anything else. Damped, to be sure, by the sad circumstances that had caused all of this. But still: blitz spirit, Keep Calm and Carry On, and all that."

There's more pictures from the evacuation on Andrew's Flickr set.

Funnily enough only last week Ianvisits sent me a link to a post about the length of time it takes to re-open roads and railway lines, if there has been a fatality or person on a line.

"Lord Faulkner said the British Transport Police, 'which is primarily responsible for dealing with the sort of incident on the railway to which he refers, has a remarkably good record in getting lines open again.

'It has a target of 90 minutes; last year it exceeded that and achieved a reopening time of 76 minutes, and I am told that it hopes to do better again this year."

It's an awful thing having to balance the speed of getting people on their travels again, with the sensitivity of telling people what's being going on. I'm pleased that Andrew said in this case, the evacuation went smoothly and people were quite relaxed and understandable. However, in the rush hour, I've heard loads of people tutting and getting really hot under the collar when a person on the line causes problems to their journey.

Isn't it easier as Andrew says to "Keep Calm & Carry On" and have a bit of sympathy for the people involved?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, July 06, 2009 Permalink

Hot Tube Cartoons

Amongst the stories in the London papers about how ridiculously hot the London Underground is that moment, a couple of cartoons really stood out. Thelondonpaper were spot on with their microwave Tube carriage:


Ianvisits spotted something similar in The Telegraph


Fortunately next year, some of us might have some relief with the air conditioned Tubes when they are rolled out on the Metropolitan Line. But with deep level lines there's still no hope for cooler Tubes as Boris Johnson says "The difficulty is of course that it will ramp up the public pressure on us to deliver air-conditioning on the deep lines as well."

Each year we hear that TfL are working on cooler Tubes (when Ken Livingstone was mayor he offered a six figure reward for someone who could come up with a solution) and each year we swelter on deep level lines. Maybe one day, we'll see it, but until then it's a case of sweating and bearing it.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, July 03, 2009 Permalink

Tube Photo of the Week

It could be a new advertising campaign. It could be a message from the London Underground. It could be message from Boris. But I loved this photo that Mister Rad took at Bond Street Tube station.


Mister Rad said "This person decided to ignore it ... but an evil plan like this was bound to attract some attention!"

If you happen to see a Dr Evil look-a-like on the Tube hastily putting up posters let us know.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, July 02, 2009 Permalink

The Outer Limits – Beyond Zone One

It's funny how even Transport for London and the London Transport Museum, see London beyond zone one as the "Outer Limits". But if you think there's more to London than Zone one and have a eye for design you could have the chance of changing this and bagging yourself a thousand pounds too.

"Continuing the tradition of commissioning cutting edge poster design, London Transport Museum and Transport for London (TfL), along with partners London Design Festival and Visit London, have launched an open competition to design a poster that celebrates the discoveries, pleasures and excitements that London has to offer beyond the city centre.


The winning design will become part of London Transport Museum's collection and will be reproduced as a poster for display on TfL's transport network.

Entrants are encouraged to use all variety of media and current technologies to create their take on contemporary poster design to reflect London's position as a leading design capital City. The poster must work within the contemporary display contexts of TfL's busy public environments and should conform to the rules and conventions of public display. It is important to remember any piece of advertising design will only have 3 seconds to attract the attention of a passer by."

Full details and a list of prizes are on TfL's site. I've heard that the competition organisers are particularly interested in receiving designs that feature modern life in the following London boroughs: Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harringay, Harrow, Islington, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Wandsworth. Maybe these areas are under-represented in the Tube's current posters!

You have until July 27th to enter. Good luck.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, July 02, 2009 Permalink

Sleepng on the Tube

This morning I think I saw the worst case of a London Underground sleeper ever. There was a guy on the Piccadilly Line who was completely sprawled out with his feet going right across to the people on the other side. Luckily I was able to grab the seat that was next door but one to him, unlike my unlucky fellow commuters.


You can also see from the picture above that he didn't even stir when someone opposite actually rested on his foot. (Although he must have been oblivious to the fact that he was using someone else's foot as a ... err... footstool).

Sleeping guy spent the vast majority of the journey falling asleep on the men on either side of him. They tried to wake him up by giving massive shrugs of their shoulders, but Sleepy was out for the count. He'd sit up for a nano second and then fall asleep on the other guy. To his credit he gave them a bit of respite by occasionally lolling with his head back, so it hit the window a number of times. That didn't wake him up either.

I got off the Tube as normal, but wouldn't be surprised if the poor guy slept until Cockfosters. If ever there was a case for the "Wakemeupat" stickers, this was it. Although I have no idea what kind of shaking it would have taken to have woken him.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, June 30, 2009 Permalink

Want to be a Tube Busker?

Budding young Buskers can get the chance to win a 20 minute on a prime performance pitch on the London Underground. On Saturday 11th July 100 musicians aged between 16 and 25 will take part in an event called "Rhythm of London".


To take part, you need to send a 30 seconds - 1 minute (max) film/video of you or your band playing to Rhythm of London Audition Team. A panel of judges will judge will select the top 100 performers, then the top 10 buskers will go to a public vote. It what will be a "busk off" or "Strictly Come Busking Idol X Factor" final, the overall prizes include a year's licence to busk on the Tube, plus a guitar signed & donated by Sting.

Deadline for entries is noon on the 6th July.

Even though there's still no official sponsors for buskers on the Tube, this competition shows that buskers are still backed by Transport for London.

I'm still surprised that an official sponsor hasn't been found to replace thelondonpaper and Capital.fm who were last behind the buskers. Surely there'd be some music company that could get some benefit from advertising on the spots that millions of people pass each day?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, June 29, 2009 Permalink

London Underground in Bloom

Imagine if the Tube really looked like the image below:


TfL have released a set of digitally transformed pictures which show stations turned into dramatic and tropicial looking urban vistas to launch Underground in Bloom a Tube gardening competition.

"Underground in Bloom is a competition which recognises London Underground (LU) staff who have added to their station by growing flowers and plants and in some cases even fruit and vegetables within a completely urban landscape. This helps to improve the local environment, encourages flora and fauna and makes travelling more pleasant for passengers."


Apparently this year's is the biggest ever competition with almost a quarter of stations, train depots and service control rooms across the system entering. It's not just the suburban stations entering, so look out for a colourful display of flowers at Oxford Circus, Sloane Square, South Kensington and Victoria too.

There are eight categories in the competition - Best Newcomer, Cultivated Garden, Hanging Baskets – the John Knight award, Trains and Service Control, Tubs, the Dennis Sanger special award, Best Overall Garden and Gardens in Bloom an art category.

London Underground's COO Howard Collins, said: "The Underground in Bloom competition shows that there is a lot more to London Underground than tracks, trains and tunnels.

"The work of staff, beyond the call of duty, helps to create a more colourful and pleasant station environment, which can benefit passengers while protecting and maintaining the variety of wildlife and plants on the Tube for the benefit of London as a whole."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, June 26, 2009 Permalink

Michael Jackson Tube Thriller

I only heard about Michael Jackson's death on the radio this morning, which was a massive shock, specially as I didn't hear it in a news item and was half asleep. He was a big part of my childhood and this video of a group of dancers on the London Underground last year is small tribute.


It was to mark the 25th anniversary of his Thriller album. RIP Michael, you'll be missed.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, June 26, 2009 Permalink

Tube Drivers' philosophical announcements

For years, I've been collecting overheard unofficial announcements made by London Underground drivers, well now it appears that we'll hear something a little more thoughtful than Mind the Gap. Transport for London have asked artist Jeremy Deller to come up with a list of quotations to put into drivers' communications with passengers.


It appears to be like the Thoughts of the Day on the whiteboards we've seen on some Tube stations. Satre, Gandhi and Einstein are some of the great thinkers you'll be hearing on your journey. The quotes include "An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory" and "A stumble may prevent a fall" to the more philosophical "The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected".


I wonder what bought about this change of heart? What do you think of the announcements and have you heard any yourself yet? The lady at the end of the BBC piece about the announcements, thinks they're a good idea but says that she'd be driven mad by them if there was a quote at every stop on a daily commute.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, June 25, 2009 Permalink

Wired goes Underground

Wired magazine brought out a UK version of the popular US publication a couple of months ago, and they appear to have an inner Tube geek. They sent a reporter to Euston station to see what happens to the London Underground overnight. Thanks to John W for sending me the link.


He felt the delivery of the piece was a bit patronising. I know what he means. For Wired I was expecting something a bit more hard-hitting or at least with a more curious bent or maybe even something that delved into some unusual technological discovery or secret that no one knew about.

I suppose the problem with filming anything when you're invited in at a time when no one else is around, is that you'd have to get Tube Lines to clear the film & "in the current climate" anything hidden or secret would need to be kept exactly that. I know from personal experience that you more or less have to give Tube Lines your blood group, mother's maiden name & a lot of other personal details to get underground out of hours!

Still if you'd like to see a short piece about some of the engineering & cleaning work that goes on in the small hours, it's does the job! Let us know what you think.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, June 25, 2009 Permalink

Air Conditioned Tubes trialled

Trials of the new air conditioned London Underground carriages are taking place up in Leicestershire today. The BBC reporter is filmed showing temperatures on board at around 17 degrees centigrade, so that will be a relief for many commuters when they are rolled out on the Metropolitan Line in September 2010.


The trials are expected to finished by the end of this year. Then, all going well with the Metropolitan launch, the new stock will then be released on the District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.


Not only will the new S stock be cooler, the trains will be larger and longer with capacity increased by nearly 20%. Roll on the launch, although cooling deep level lines like the Northern and Victoria will still be challenge.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Permalink

Dogs riding the subway

You've probably seen pigeons using the London Underground & there's a number of theories around as to whether they are travelling with intent. Thanks to Jon Justice, I found that in on the subway in Moscow there are a number of stay dogs who are so smart that they get the Moscow Metro into the centre of the city in order to secure better food. And then ride it back out to the suburbs at night.


English Russia website said "Moscow ecologists think that dogs started acquiring this habits in 1990s, when the Soviet union collapsed and Moscow fell into the hands of new class of Russian capitalists." The homes that they used to shelter in were removed to the outskirts "so the dogs had to move together with their houses, so they had to learn how to travel Moscow subway - first to get to the centre in the morning then back home in the evening, just as us people."


They certainly seem at home on the subway and if you look at the video at the end of the post, some of them seem, well..... a little too much at home.

Fortunately I don't think there are enough stray dogs around London to see them using the Tube by themselves. I could imagine that cats would be sneaky enough to give it a try, but as they're not as social as dogs, I think we can rest assured that our feline friends won't be cat napping on the Tube with us.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Permalink

Tube Photo of the Week

I love seeing images of the London Underground, which are less corporate than normal and show that there's people behind the system and not just a bunch of robots. So thanks to Col who sent me a picture of Kennington station with a thought for the day:


Any more pictures like this are more than welcome to add to the cheerful ones at Warwick Avenue.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, June 22, 2009 Permalink

Talks to avert another Tube strike

Later today union leaders are going to meet London Underground for talks to stop another round of Tube strikes. The dispute is over job losses, pay and disciplinary issues. There was some argument as to whether a pay deal was actually reached last time, with both sides accusing each other of pulling out of the deal at the last minute.

RMT leader, Bob Crow or BoCro accused London mayor Boris Johnson or BoJo of "playing politics" with the Tube by deliberately intervening to scupper a last-minute deal. BoJo retaliated by saying that allegation was "completely untrue".


Earlier this week Crow also threw some issues of safety into the mix. He said that London Underground planned a £60million cut in spend on maintenance. "Only last week, Tube bosses were telling us during our strike that they could slash budgets and axe jobs without hitting services

"This latest package of £60million cuts nails those claims as a bare-faced lie. Londoners need to wake up to what's going on with the financial crisis on the Underground."

London Underground's interim managing director, Richard Parry, countered this and said "There is absolutely no truth in the RMT leadership's claims that we have reduced safety standards on former Metronet lines.

"London Underground has an excellent and improving safety record. The safety of our passengers and staff is our top priority."

While the arguments and counter arguments, claims and counter claims go on, let's hope that something gets resolved this time.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, June 19, 2009 Permalink

Goodwill vouchers for Tube Strike

If you were hit by last week's London Underground strike you can apply for a "goodwill" payment voucher from Transport for London. You can only get one if you were holding a seven-day or longer period travelcard on Oyster at the time of the strike.


This is the first time I can remember something called a "goodwill" voucher being offered, so make the most of it and spread the word. Your journey had to be "severely disrupted" and you don't have to wait until your ticket has expired before applying for it.

Full details and the online application form are here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, June 18, 2009 Permalink