Station Master Geoff has been out making videos for Londonist again, and brings us his seventh (out of the eleven lines) instalment of the ‘Secrets of … ‘ tube videos.
Tube
Firetrap
Idling through the TV channels today, I caught a glimpse of a tube train and what was very clearly an abandoned tube station – but which one? The one that everyone likes to film at nowadays. I’m not rushing out to buy any Firetrap clothes, but I like the video…
New tube map
There’s a new tube map out for December 2013 (No interchange at Embankment for Bakerloo or Northern Lines!), and as with all new tube maps, there’s a new piece of artwork for the cover, this time designed by Imran Qureshi who’s work is “underpinned by his interest in and reflection on the relationship between ancient, traditional life and contemporary life in Pakistan as well as the complex relationship between Islamic and Western life and culture”. Read more on that over on the Art on the Underground website.
Tube Map Cover December 2013
Shortest travelling times between stations
We were out with our stopwatch on the Tube yesterday, testing whether the reported ’37 seconds between Covent Garden and Leicester Square’ really was true – and it is. On average that’s the time it takes between the doors closing at one station and opening at the other.
So we compiled a list of all the other shortest hops between two Tube stations, where journey times are all under 60 seconds. Try never to buy a cash fare ticket between these two stops!
These are all average timings from multiple journeys made going in both directions.
On the Piccadilly Line, Leicester Square and Covent Garden are the two closest stations together on the network with an average journey time of just 37 seconds.
Southwark to Waterloo on the Jubilee line takes on average 41 seconds.
The time between Charing Cross and Embankment (Northern) is 42 seconds.
Mansion House to Cannon Street (District and Circle) : 46 seconds.
Northfields to South Ealing on the Piccadilly are so close to each other you can see the other each from the the other one looking down the line. Journey time is 47 seconds.
The time between Charing Cross and Embankment (Bakerloo) is 48 seconds.
Holborn to Chancery Lane on the Central takes 50 seconds.
On the Central Line, Oxford Circus to Tottenham Court Road takes just 52 seconds.
Cannon Street to Monument (District and Circle) : 54 seconds.
Marylebone to Edgware Road on the Bakerloo, 55 seconds.
Bond Street to Oxford CIrcus on the Central takes 56 seconds.
Warren Street to Euston on the Victoria line takes 57 seconds.
Swiss Cottage to FInchley Road on the Jubilee Line is 58 seconds.
Shepherds Bush Market to Goldhawk Road on the Hammersmith & City, Circle Lines takes 58 seconds.
Edgware Road reopens Saturday
Edgware Road Lifts
Publicity now being displayed suggests that Edgware Road on Bakerloo Line is scheduled to re-open on target ‘By the end of December’ – that date now being this Saturday, the 21st December.
It’s been closed for most of the year, to have its two old lifts replaced, which were only installed in 1992, just over twenty years ago. The new lifts that have been installed are said to have a life-span of over of forty years. So we’d like to warn you now of a future closure of Edgware Road station in 2053, to have its lifts replaced …
Future Transport Tube Map, 2021
TfL produced a draft copy this week of what they think the tube map will look like in 2021.
Obvious things to spot on there is Crossrail now spanning west to east across the map, the new Watford extension (with Cassiobridge and Watford Vicarage Road stations on the Metropolitan Line), the possible Northern Line extension (with Nine Elms and Battersea stations), but what’s new to appear on a proposed TfL map for the first time are the services out of Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt and Chingford.
It adds more spaghetti to the orange mess that is the Overground already the top right of the corner of the map is now looking most cluttered.
King-of-the-clutter though is still (of course) the patronising ‘blue blob’ of accessibility, and with the new Overground and Tramlink on the map (although, Tramlink always appears on proposed tube maps, but never makes the final editions) there are more blue blobs than ever – so much so we counted them up.
There are 222 stations that are ‘blue blobbed’ on this version of the map now, and just one more – 223 that do not! So it’s almost at a 50:50 split.
So let’s apply some logic to this. If 99% of stations on the map were step-free accessible you would obviously just mark (with a new symbol of some sorts?) the minority of stations which were NOT step free. So – given that over time, more stations are going to become step free, at what point will TfL sensibly drop the blue-blob, and just highlight non-step free stations instead?
Wi-Fi Map 2013
WiFi Map 2013
So there’s a new poster being displayed on the Underground at the moment, telling you there are now 121 Tube stations which have W-iFi. Although we have counted (three times, just to be sure) ourselves, we made the total to be actually 122 stations that have got Wi-Fi, so TfL aren’t entirely being accurate.
So we thought we’d help clear up what stations do and don’t have, along with our Wi-Fi map which we’ve now updated.
The red shaded areas show where there is Virgin Media installed at that station, the grey areas are those stations that are underground and have no Wi-Fi or cellular reception, and the white areas show which stations are out in the open and you can use your normal mobile phone connectivity.
Heathrow Terminal 5 is a special cases station (Coloured blue), as it’s the only Underground station that does have full cellular network coverage – even deep underground!
Wi-Fi on the Underground
New Signs at King’s Cross St. Pancras
Ooh, these are new! Where did these come from?
British Library Sign
Changing at King’s Cross today we saw new big vibrant yellow and white on black signs instructing people which way to exit King’s Cross to get to the British Library.
Has there been a glut of people, aimlessly wandering around King’s Cross trying to find the right exit for the library then? Why the library in particular over any other of the numerous buildings in the area, and why King’s Cross? Why not Waterloo or Euston for a place near there? We can’t help but wonder if this is a trial of signage, and we’ll see more of these over the network in the next few months …
All tube stations … in song!
Station Master Geoff was busy last month, shooting and helping to produce with Jay Foreman a comedy song about the Tube … in which every station is mentioned!
Secrets of the District Line
Station Master Geoff brings us the third in his series of videos for Londonist, this time concentrating on the Green coloured line…