Station Master App

Stop meddling with the WiFi

When TfL introduced WiFi to the tube all those months back, it was rather tedious to use at first because – like most people – if we’re on a journey through several stations underground it’s fun to connect to the WiFi at the station that you’re passing through and check Twitter, your email, etc.. as you travel. Even message people to tell them what station you’re at and how far away you are!

WiFi advert

But to begin with, the service was really tedious and it had caveats. If you wanted to load a webpage, or see a picture on Twitter (but, interestingly not the tweets themselves) you had to always load up a browser, choose a bookmark and instantly be presented with an advert page (which you had to skip), which would then take you to a menu page, and you’d be properly connected, and THEN you had to select your bookmark for your webpage again to finally read it.

WiFi Menu

A few months into the service though – it changed! Someone must have finally got through to them on how annoying it was, and you only had to tell it to connect ONCE at any ‘Virgin Media WiFi‘ SSID, and then for the rest of your journey it would just auto-connect.

Well … not anymore, last week it had switched back, meaning that you have to do through the tedious advert and menu screen every time you want to access the internet fully, which is rather annoying to say the least.

Tube / Wi-Fi — — 30 Oct 14

District S7

We’ve seen pictures of them running, even witnessed one or two running in service – but not actually been on one yet ourselves, so when we rocked up to Ealing Common last week it was a pleasant surprise to find a new S7 train running an Ealing Broadway to Plaistow service.

S7 Unit at Ealing Common

Interestingly, its set number was 753 which according to the Working Timetable is a Lillie Bridge Depot to Plaistow staff trainer, but in this case looks like it was replacing 050 from Ealing Broadway, heading east.

S7 unit at Barons Court

We did – of course – make a note of all the the slightly changed door exit positions at every stop to update the Station Master exit data for a future update!

Infrastructure / Tube — — 28 Oct 14

Olympia – HSK Shuttle

Something we’ve only just noticed on carriage maps of District Line trains is the way that the shuttle service is shown between Olympia and High Street Ken.

Obviously trains to/from Olympia are very infrequent and are thus shown as a dotted line, but why then does the in carriage map show the ‘shuttle’ service as being a solid line to High Street Ken?

Yes, there are regular Wimbledon to Edgware Road services (as well as the Circle) which makes this a non-restricted service, but following the logic of the carriage map here, it’s clearly showing a shuttle service between Olympia and HSK, in which case shouldn’t the green line between Earl’s Court and HSK also be a dotted line instead of a solid one?

Solid line to HSK

Map / Tube — — 17 Oct 14

New Tube for London

We almost don’t need to mention it .. considering everyone else has, but in case you somehow missed the TfL press release yesterday which showed us the plans for the new tube train for London, coming … not that soon on the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City Line.

The BBC reported it here, Diamond Geezer here, even a design breakdown on Wired here. And of course, there’s a promotional video.

Go and see the display yourself at King’s Cross for the next month, and place a bet with yourself whether the timescales laid out will really happen. We’re betting that we won’t be alive anymore by the time driverless trains do come to the tube.

I’m wondering if the tight curves and bends (bendier than other lines) on the Bakerloo line really can mean that new standard stock can be rolled out. Others are wondering due to the phrasing used if it really is air conditioning, or just air cooling. Having on-board information screens is great though, but feels like we’re ten years behind the times as we should have those already – so they’ll be welcome.

And if the new trains are walk-through, it does beg the questions – why weren’t the new Victoria Line trains introduced only a couple of years ago made as ‘walk through’ trains instead of separate carriages?

Anyway. Aside from all that. You also have to ask yourself – are the new London Tube Trains as good as the new Russian Moscow trains …

Future services / Tube / Video — — 10 Oct 14

Night tube start date

A TfL press release today has confirmed the plans to start the new ‘Night Tube’ service next year on the 12th September.

TfL are being upbeat and optimistic about it, the RMT union has come back highlighting issues and problems which are yet to be resolved. The BBC reports on the story here.

Night tube

Future services / Night Tube / Tube — — 24 Sep 14

Tube Dinner

Another video we stumbled just recently but from the past – a posh dinner party on board a tube train? Yeah … that’s been done as these people show from a few years back on board a Jubilee Line train.

Fun / Tube / Video — — 21 Sep 14

Old maps

A visit to the LT Museum Acton Depot last weekend is always an enjoyable thing and never a waste of time. We always make sure we head for the mezzanine at somepoint which has all the tube maps and signs, and gawp as we go back in time to how the transport network used to be. In particular this time, a pre-Beck map for 1926 had us comparing differences between what used to be, and how it is now…

1926 Map

Here’s where Clapham North was called “Clapham Road”, and what we know as Clapham South was almost called Nightingale Lane – but this never appeared in a printed tube map, just this poster. Green Park was of course Dover Street, but on this map labelled as “Dover Street (St. James)” which we had never seen before.

Another bit of 1926

in 1926 the Hounslow Barrack to South Acton service (and Acton Town to South Acton one-carriage shuttle) was in operation – look though also at the curve of track that goes just to the right of Turnham Green – an old non-tube railway that used to run. And the lovely curve of track (when the Central Line was blue) and Wood Lane was referred to as ‘Exhibition Station’ instead.

Last bit of 1926

And out east .. when Limehouse was called Stepney East, and you can also see plenty of remnants of the railway that existed in the Docklands area before the DLR came to be, including a station at Connaught Road – now the site for a major tunnel for Crossrail.

Alternative Tube Maps / History / Tube — — 19 Sep 14

Rush Hour Sprinting

It’s amazing what a little Googling can do for you! After we dug out the old (15 years!) Evening Standard article from yesterday about the original ‘Beat the tube’ runners, it appears that that event is still taking place – and we think with maybe some of the same people?

The run from South Kensington to Fulham Broadway took place back in May of this year – and yes, the Evening Standard covered it!

Fun / Running / Tube — — 18 Sep 14

Running faster than an Underground train

Fulham run

The internet got very excited yesterday when a viral video doing the rounds showed a man getting off a Circle Line train at Mansion House and running along the streets to get back on the same train at Cannon Street.

We saw it, but it didn’t stop loads of people tweeting us telling us about it.

The thing is – it’s been done before, and we knew we had pre-internet evidence of it too tucked away in a storage box – so last night we dug it out and scanned it in – an instance of this happening fifteen years ago in 1999, and then a repeat performance a year later in 2000, as they attempted to make it an annual event. The Evening Standard newspaper covered it both years.

(Click on the images for full size scans of the Evening Standard newspaper article)

1999 Event

The feat here though was even harder – you had to jump off the back of a District Line train at South Kensington, and then run the the 2.5 km down the Fulham Road to get back on the same train at Fulham Broadway station. And what’s more, they had no running gear – they did it in business shirts & ties.

2000 Event

Would this still be possible today? We did some quick calculations. The TfL journey planner suggests a train takes 11 minutes to travel this – although as we all know Earl’s Court (a bit like Edgware Road) is a bit of a Bermuda Triangle of the tube where anything can happen and trains can get held, so maybe you’d get a bit of extra time? Although Fulham Broadway has now dramatically changed with a new entrance that involves you running through a shopping centre and would add at least half a minute to your time.

Fast runners though can easily do a kilometre in 4 minutes, meaning that 2.5km should be doable in 10 minutes .. so yes! It’s still possible.

Perhaps the chaps in the YouTube video between Mansion House and Cannon Street would like to try this as well? Get in touch ..

Fun / Running / Tube — — 17 Sep 14

Gadget man on the tube

How did we miss this? Thank heavens for catch-up TV.

The second episode of the new third series of Gadget Man on Channel 4 (Now hosted by Richard Ayoade) which started last week, found him on the Tube, and other forms of public transport.

In particular on the Underground, as the programme blurb puts it:

“Richard turns his attention to the noise, dirt and discomfort he suffers while on public transport. Russell Howard joins him on London’s tube to assess the effectiveness of gadgets designed to deal with poor air quality and extreme heat.”

Gadget Man

Tube / Tube on TV — — 08 Sep 14

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