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London’s Bridges

15th October 2015
 

We’re going to tread slightly off of our regular train path here – but keep it related, because a follower/friend of ours – Transport Hub – has made a great series of videos on YouTube about bridges in London, and we liked them so much that we thought we’d give them a plug.

Transport Hub are Matt and Mark, and at the time of writing this they’ve made videos on five London bridges: Hampton Court, Kingston, Kingston Rail, Teddington Lock and Richmond, and you can watch the first epsiode – click here below!

This post categorised under: Other Subway Systems
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Camden Town Upgrade

13th October 2015
 

TfL published scaled down plans yesterday (previous ones had been rejected) for proposed station upgrade plans for Camden Town station.

With just two escalators (and the staircase, which is often used for entry to the station) it gets terribly overcrowded with people all too often.  More over on Ian Visists blog and the Londonist too.

Camden Town Upgrade

Camden Town Upgrade

This post categorised under: Tube / Upgrades
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South Ken DMI

11th October 2015
 

Whilst we were visiting South Ken to take a look at the new ‘pop up’ LTM Museum Shop, we also noticed that the Piccadilly line is getting new Dot Matrix Indicator boards (DMI) for next train information.

This is on the westbound platform, and is the small type – as we first saw appear on the Victoria line a couple of years ago.

It now shows the next three trains instead of two – although as it’s smaller it’s harder to read from a distance.   The clock seems to be 12 hours instead of 24 (we were there at 2 in the afternoon, not the morning), oh .. and it’s not correct anyway, as as we snapped this photo a PA went out telling people to look at the front of the train for the correct information, and sure enough – the next train that came in was one going to Rayners

South Kensington DMI

South Kensington DMI

Lane, and not Heathrow.  But apart from that …

This post categorised under: Good Service / London Transport Museum
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City Hacks London, Take 2

9th October 2015
 

Those nice people over at City Hacks London, have produced a second in their series of Hacks on the Tube, and given a nice plug to Station Master – so this is us also giving them a mention to watch their fun video too!

You can follow them on twitter too over at https://twitter.com/cityhackslondon

This post categorised under: Tube / Video
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London’s Underground Languages

7th October 2015
 

There is a great Tube-themed video article on the BBC website today where they’ve followed the route of the Victoria line up on the streets, whilst mirroring the journey with a shot from the cab underground, and spoken/interviews with people along the way to reflect the wide diversity of people and languages along the route.

“The video below combines footage shot from a Victoria Line train, synchronised with its route above ground. The soundtrack echoes the most widely spoken language, after English, at each stage of the route. The underground journey takes just over 30 minutes, but we have condensed the footage into three minutes.”

Underground Languauges

Underground Languages

 

This post categorised under: Tube / Uncategorized / Video
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Go and see a Crossrail Station

5th October 2015
 

Want to see what a Crossrail station is going to look like in 2019?  Unlikely as it may sound, the place to see one is in Leighton Buzzard.

At a construction test centre, a life sized mock-up has been constructed below ground at a specialist test centre.

“Londoners were given a glimpse of the future today when images were released of a full size mock-up of a below ground Crossrail platform. The mock-up has been built to help Crossrail understand how the designs for the new platforms will look and feel in real life and to decide whether any design modifications need to be made before main construction of the stations begins later this year.”

Mock up Crossrail station

Mock up Crossrail station

This post categorised under: Crossrail
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Night Owls

3rd October 2015
 

We all know that the Night Tube didn’t start on September 12th, but it seems that no one told the department that is responsible for putting up signs on the network, as some ‘Night Owl’ signage has started to appear – here, at Oxford Circus.

Aside from the fact that it’s advertising a service which isn’t running yet – you do have to question the logic.  This would seem to suggest that Night Tube services need new signage, as if changing trains at night somehow becomes different to trains running during the day – but as far as we’re aware, getting a Central line train at Oxford Circus at 3am, will be the same as getting one at 3pm, so we’re not quite sure why the signage is needed at all … !?

NIght Owls

Night Owls

 

 

This post categorised under: Night Tube
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Bonus Secrets of the Underground

1st October 2015
 

What’s this? A new video in this series .. hurrah! Yes, Geoff’s been back out on the network, to make Bonus Secrets of the Underground.  Give it a play!

This post categorised under: Tube / Video
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Pink is the colour

28th September 2015
 

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

Pink

This post categorised under: Signage
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Tube hacks here, there, and everywhere

23rd September 2015
 

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

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’.

 

This post categorised under: Secret trains / Tube
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