Station Master App

The best place to board the train …

Something that Station Master is all about is telling you the perfect carriage and door position to be in to be near the exit – and yet it’s something that we’ve never seen or heard TfL do, until now – when we came across this very friendly member of platform staff at Leicester Square the other night.

“Please DO move down the platform – it really is less crowded if you don’t all go in the middle of the train, you won’t be squashed in like a sardine, and you might even get a seat!” he was cheerfully announcing every few minutes.

Leicester Square Platform Staff

And then he did something that we’ve never heard before – advise on the best carriage positions.

“Actually, if you’re going to Waterloo” he continued “You’ll want to be in the rear car of this six carriage train as that’s the nearest exit point to the escalator” he cheerful announced. Amazing! Never have we heard a member of staff do this before, and now here it was – happening.

It was clearly a ruse just to stop overcrowding of the middle of the Leicester Square platforms, oh – and either the front or rear carriages is the place to be for the southbound Northern Line at Waterloo.

Announcements / Tube — — 31 Mar 14

Daytripper

Abbey Road Sign

When Abbey Road station first opened and we went down there (to make a video) one of the first observations we made was of course that you might get tourists going there thinking it’s where the famous Beatles’ Abbey Road recording studio is located – looking for the zebra crossing to replicate the famous album cover.

But it’s not – and so to help and point this out, TfL have installed a sign laden with Beatles song titles, to put people back on the train to the Jubilee Line and get them to St. John’s Wood – the nearest tube station to the famous Abbey Road crossing.

Last night, we were passing through and couldn’t resist jumping out to grab a photo of the sign.

Signage — — 30 Mar 14

A to Z

This weekend’s alternative tube map comes courtesy of artist Tim Fishlock who has created this piece for the ‘Mind the Map’ exhibition for the London Transport Museum.

It’s been doing the rounds on Twitter for a while, so thought it was about time that we featured it here.

A to Z Mind the Map

Alternative Tube Maps — — 29 Mar 14

Borough Mapping

A man that we follow on Twitter just to see what map he’ll produce next is Mike Hall.

Mike’s a freelance designer and has been painstakingly creating large poster maps of each of the London boroughs – all by hand. Each map has a different design and theme, drawing on the most famous aspects of the borough, but of course what we really love about them is how the railways are perfectly drawn and the tube stations accurately shown.

Mike Hall Map

More maps of London are over on this website, you can even buy them to have as physical poster from his online shop.

Alternative Tube Maps — — 28 Mar 14

Labyrinth Update

With new labyrinths appearing at Uxbridge and Ruislip, we thought it was about time that we went out again and spotted a few more – which we did so this week, bringing our total up to 225 out of 270 found. Not that they’re actually still all up yet!

But our complete list can be found here (including locations within the station) of where they are. If you want to help us get the last few and spot/take the last few for us then do send us a tweet and get in touch!

North Harrow Labyrinth

Art on the Underground / Labyrinths — — 27 Mar 14

Whitechapel in 3D

We’re pretty sure that any day now there are going to be some changes to Whitechapel station – perhaps even with a temporary entrance/exit as the Crossrail works here really start to kick in and the station changes forever.

But, as we wanted a record of what it’s like now before it changes, we thought we’d better nip down and draw it out in in 3D – it’s just one of the last seven stations that we’ve got to do now before all 270 tube maps are drawn out in 3D. Expect this in the next update of the App!

Whitechapel 3D Map

3D Maps — — 26 Mar 14

Broken Wine

So what would you do if you were travelling home on the District Line with a bag of goodies in your lap, and then a bottle of red wine that was in that bag accidentally dropped and smashed on the floor causing a huge mess. You’d help clear it up, right?

Not in the case of this woman last week when going home who just sat there .. and did nothing. No reaction, nothing said. And we were just about to get up and do something when two other gentlemen from further down the carriage came along, cleared the glass to one side and put down newspaper to mop up the spillage.

Spilled Wine

And all the time, the woman – here in the picture – just sat, and watched and DID nothing, and SAID nothing! It was surreal to see.

Just sit there and do nothing luv, well done.

We made the driver aware, and full marks to him he got the Station Supervisor a few stops down the line at South Kensington to come down with a dustpan and brush, sweep up the glass, and again the woman said NOTHING. Not a “Sorry, that was me”, or a “Let me help you with that”. But, nothing … so so strange.

Passengers observations — — 25 Mar 14

Funeral

Lots of these posters at stations today all around the network remembering Bob Crow whose funeral was today.

Bob Crow

Uncategorized — — 24 Mar 14

S-Stock at Ealing

Another view from the Acton Depot last weekend, where the open day allowed us to wander down to the fence at the far end where you can get a view through it of some building work going on.

Depot Extension

The metal extension to the Ealing Common depot can only be because the S7 stock trains are longer, and so they need to extend the building a little so that it can accommodate the length of the new trains. S7’s are coming to Ealing!

S7 at Ealing Common

And as if to back it up, we then spotted an S7 hidden away as well behind a regular ‘D’ Stock District Line train.

Upgrades — — 23 Mar 14

What was West Harrow?

It was the LTMuseum Acton Depot open weekend last Saturday and Sunday and even though we’ve been several times before, there’s always an incentive to go down and have a look around and find something new – which we do with ease.

This time, up on the mezzanine area (our favourite bit!) with the old maps and signs, we discovered a tube map where the ‘West Harrow’ station name had been screwed on as a metal plate – leaving us wondering, what was underneath?

All our digging around on the internet, can’t find any reference as to what West Harrow might have been called before, as it’s always been known as that as far as we’re aware! So what is beneath this plate?

West Harrow used to be called … what?

Signage — — 22 Mar 14

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