It does still fill us with deep joy that the pink signs are back for the Rugby World Cup at the moment, even moreso when we spotted this one at Westminster with a ‘This Way…’ for the the Olympic Stadium. It really does feel a little bit like 2012 is still here!
Pink
Without wishing to sound like we’re having a dig … well, we’re going to have a little bit of a dig.
On Wednesday of last week, the Time Out blog posted a list of Tube Hacks smart ways around the system. It included the ones that we know about at Euston, Earl’s Court, Holborn, King’s Cross, Green Park, Bank/Monument, Embankment and Leicester Square.
(Actually, the favourite thing about the Green Park one – using the escalators instead of the corridors is something that Station Master once made up to see if we would make this ‘myth’ become ‘fact’ and we find it amusing that it is being spread round with no actual evidence to back it up).
Time Out Hacks
And then, just yesterday … a few days after this Time Out article, we were surprised see online an article on the Daily Mail website, entitled Tired of life on the Tube? Hardened commuters share the secret Underground shortcuts that only Londoners know.
In which it lists a whole bunch of shortcuts at station such as at Euston, Earl’s Court, Holborn, King’s Cross, Green Park, Bank/Monument, Embankment and Leicester Square – yes it’s the same list of things just rewritten a little different with some photos added in. Umm, well done Daily Mail.
Updated 25/09/15
Incredibly, as if to prove this moreso the same article has since popped up in two more publications. The Evening Standard ran it as a list of hacks, and then it appeared on Yahoo UK news as well – the same list of ‘hacks’.
Ok, so it’s not the Olympics – but come on, isn’t it just a little bit exciting to have the pink signs back the network again?
The ubiquities signage that was everywhere for 2012, is now here again for the Rugby World Cup in various places – our favourite point that we’ve spied it at so far is here at Hammersmith, where just for once the flower seller hadn’t completely covered up the Labyrinth – Pink sign AND Labyrinth, double win!
Pink signs are back!
We’ve been slowly chipping away, adding 3D maps to the App … the last few that need mopping up are the original Overground stations, and we’ve finally got around to doing the complicated mass of stairs and lifts that is Crystal Palace! It’s one of our favourite, most beautiful stations – but it is a little complicated with multiple platforms.
The finished 3D map will be in the next update to Station Master.
Crystal Palace 3D Map
As far as we can tell – this article from City Metric – has stumbled upon what may be TfL’s own internal geographically accurate London Rail map.
It contains physical features too such as London’s parks and the M25, as well as the Thames, and it does, as you would expect, let you get a real feel for how densely packed the stations are in the inner area of London as opposed to out in the suburbs.
Update:
TfL have now put this map on their own website on this page here.
The London Transport Museum announced this week, that tickets to go and visit the abandoned station Down Street station are coming soon … except at the eye-watering rate of £75, not even including a booking fee!
If you want information on ALL the abandoned Tube stations in London then you’ll want to get a copy of our Disused Tube App, which lists and has details of them all.
Down Street
Details over on the LTM website here, of course you can just follow Station Master Geoff when he got to take a trip down there earlier this year …
Whenever we look at the planned engineering works for the weekend, it’s always annoying to see if the bit of the Tube map that you want to go to is the bit that’s closed – that’s why it’s always nice if there’s an explanation as to what work is being done – or better still, it’s always nice to be able to see the work being done!
Which is what we saw at West Brompton at the weekend just gone, where there were clearly works going on at track level.
Works at West Brompton
We hopped on a DLR train the other day, to find that it was one of the refurbished units which now has longitudinal seating. Here’s what it looks like …
DLR Seating
And the weird thing is, we don’t like it – but we can’t quite put our finger on why! There are eight seats in total now spread along, and it feels like too many to have in a row. It’s weird when you’ve been used to the old style for so long, and so overall – we don’t like it. Yet it’s going to happen to all the other units.
There’s a new London podcast in town! Introducing … Underground London Radio .. “London News, Arts, Culture, Transport, Tech, Music. The inside track on one man’s life in the capital.”
And Station Master Geoff got invited on to talk all things Tube trains, and answer your questions! We also naturally gave Station Master a plug as well.
You can listen direct via their Audioboom page here, or subscribe direct to the podcast via iTunes here. Give it a play!