Station Master App

Strike Walking Map

So there’s a ‘Walk London’ map doing the rounds on the internet today on strike day, giving suggested walking times between various places – but we’re not entirely sure that it’s accurate (or helpful!). You can’t walk from Holloway Road to Caledonian Road in 3 minutes, and then if you commuted regularly between Belsize Park and Leicester Square, you wouldn’t added up the times between the stops, because you wouldn’t walk on the street the route that the tube takes underground, you’d go in a more direct line through the back streets of London.

Still, here it is …

Courtesy of Walk London

Tube — — 09 Jul 15

Tube Strike this week?

With the unions up in arms about the Night Tube service scheduled to start in September, there is the potential of a complete tube strike on Wednesday of this week, starting in the afternoon and going on into Thursday.

If that is the case, then it’s likely ALL tube service will not run. And whilst you make think that Overground, DLR and TfL Rail service will still run – they will, but there are stations on the network that are managed by London Underground and will most likely be affected in that they won’t be open!

This could affect : West Ham, Stratford, Canning Town, Blackhorse Road, Queens Park to Harrow and Wealdstone, Highbury, Whitechapel, Canada Water and Bank.

Tube — — 04 Jul 15

5721

Reports of C-Stock unit 5721 – which was preserved – being sold off to an East End Office and used as a waiting area, aren’t what they seem. The unit is safe and sound at the Acton Depot …

The unit at the Relay Building has had the number ‘5721’ painted on it (in non standard font) but isn’t the preserved unit! And everyone calm down …

Unit 5721

History / Tube — — 12 Jun 15

Old Street exit numbers changed

We’re very happy to get feedback about the Station Master App – as we did when one happy commuter pointed out something quite important, that the numbers of the exits at Old Street station have changed!

Old Street Exits

There are eight ways out to the surface from the subways – and so for a long time Moorfields Eye Hospital was always known as ‘Exit 8’ – except not any more. In the last couple of weeks, 8 exits have become 4 – sensible when you consider that there are four subways ‘off’ the Tube station, which then have two ways up to the street at the end of each one.

This now means that our Old Street exit map is incorrect, so we’ve updated it and it will be in a future App update.

New Old Street exits

Signage / Tube — — 30 May 15

The new Tube map is out Monday … oh, and today

So the new Tube map with new artwork on the cover is released on Monday … except that it appears that as per usual some Tube stations have put it out early, and that man Diamond Geezer has gone and grabbed himself a copy this morning.

And here’s the rub – whilst the online PDF clearly shows a new kink in the Central line at Lancaster Gate (ready for Crossrail), the new pocket sized map (below) does not – and has the Central line perfectly straight as before.

We think this is because the physical size of the pocket map has constraints so that it can’t be shifted to fit … making us think more than ever that come September this year and the launch of Night Tube, we’ll see a different sized pocket map altogether …

May 2015 Pocket Map

Map / Tube — — 29 May 15

Wimblewhat?

Earl’s Court, yesterday and in all the years that we’ve been commuting through Earl’s Court station it’s common that eastbound trains to the city can go to either Platform 1 or 2. However, ‘Wimbleware’ services, those that have come up from Wimbledon, and are heading to Edgware Road, always always always come in on Platform 2. In over twenty years, we don’t think we’ve ever seen one at Platform 1 before, but … we have now!

Wimbleware on One

Secret trains / Tube — — 29 Mar 15

The Victoria Line is broken … in 1989

We delightfully found today that ITV/Thames News has uploaded a whole load of archive footage to YouTube of old news reports, including a few from the the Underground. There’s one on overcrowding at Angel, even one about the Clapham train disaster, but we like this short piece on the cancelling of Victoria Line trains due to wheel issues!

Tube / Tube on TV / Video — — 10 Dec 14

Ye Olde Tube Mappe

Matt Brown from the Londonist website has released this today – a fun Medieval Tube map, from a time ‘Utterly untroubled by signal failures; and a time when you might be imprisoned for swiping an Oyster‘

Medieval Tube Map

Fun / Map / Tube — — 08 Dec 14

New December 2014 Tube Map

December 2014 Tube Map

So have you got your hands on the new Tube map yet? Art on the Underground commissioned French artist Daniel Buren to create the artwork for the twenty-first edition of the Tube map cover series, called ‘From a Single One to Millions‘.

It’s a blend of many roundels all mixed together, and we were surprised when we thought about it that the roundel symbol hasn’t actually appeared in any of the previous AotU series of map covers.

Map-design-wise itself, Embankment is now open again on the Northern and Bakerloo lines, the Central Line is NOT stopping at Tottenham Court Road (as it won’t be from January 3rd 2015), and the Covent Garden dagger gives a warning as to the fact that it’s going to be exit only again for most of 2015 as they replace the other pair of lifts.

The new station building and ticket office at Tottenham Court Road for the Northern Line opens on January 12th, and they’ve built lifts at the new station too – so how long before a ‘step free’ wheelchair blob appears for TCR on the map?

Diamond Geezer has some further thoughts here,

Art on the Underground / Map / Tube — — 03 Dec 14

Osterley … Park? and Spring Grove

Head on over to the Wikipedia article for Osterley Station and you’ll find a reference to the former station that was a little way up the line ‘Osterley & Spring Grove‘.

We’ve had this heated discussion (no, really!) with people before about whether the station was actually called Osterley Park & Spring Grove, as it seems that some people don’t think the word ‘Park’ was in there. Looking at the historical timeline diagram that the wikipedia article offers up, it’s certainly not mentioned in there.

Yet head on over to the excellent Abandoned Stations website where it talks about and they certainly do have the work ‘Park’ in the title.

We’re now going to have to fall on the ‘park’ side (and no doubt get embroiled in an edit-war on Wikipedia) after a visit to the old station this morning – now a bookshiop, where the lovely owner took time out to show us old historical photos of the former station building, clearly showing the full name as Osterley Park & Spring Grove.

Osterley Park & Spring Grove

Station Master Geoff was down there this morning, filming a sequence for the forthcoming ‘Abandoned Stations on the Underground‘ video for Londonist, which will be released on DVD before the end of the year – sneak preview here though!

Disused Stations / Tube / Video — — 31 Oct 14

Recent Posts

Archives

Tube