Reblogged from: technicolora
Originally posted on: The Boy with a thorn in his side
Piccadilly Circus cutaway view (via magpie-moon and @BibliOdyssey)
Via fmass, blandben, and hannahcooper
I love this kind of thing. I posted something similar about King’s Cross a while back, and it’s as equally confusing as it is awesome.
I like to think that I have a very good sense of direction, and pretty much always know which way I’m facing when walking, driving or on a train, but Tube stations just completely throw me. Anything which involves turning a corner once underground and I lose all sense of which way I came in and whereabouts I am relative to the streets above.
Wait, when did Google Maps turn on the Tube map in central London as standard? Handy!
It’s not just the Tube map (PDF) that can be a bit daunting for anyone coming to London. It’s also a mystery for many how to get from one platform to another whilst changing lines at a particular station.
Some stations are ridiculously easy to interchange at (Earl’s Court, for example), whereas others lead you on a seemingly endless sequence of never-ending corridors, turning left, then right, up, then down, before plonking you on the correct platform (Bank, I’m looking at you).
Whilst seasoned Tube users know the quickest routes within a Tube station from one platform to another, it is very easy to have no real sense of direction, nor an overall picture of how they’re all linked.
This is why I like diagrams such as this one (found via London Reconnections), because you can really see just how compact even the biggest interchange stations are, and start to piece together the station’s layout.
Yes, I’m a Tube geek.
picture, map, tube, london, tfl, air conditioning, weather, heat, rambling,
Today’s Times carried a report about the hottest areas of London’s Tube network, measured by the temperature at rush hour on the platforms. The survey was carried out on one of the hottest days of last year, with temperatures at street level hitting 30 degrees.
Unfortunately, not a whole lot has changed since this survey was carried out. Tube trains still don’t have air conditioning (and most never will, owing to the extra size needed in the tunnels to accommodate units), and the platforms are pretty unventilated. Some semi-permanent fans have been installed in a couple of stations (King’s Cross Victoria line springs to mind), but they don’t have a huge effect.
I try to avoid the Tube during the summer, because it’s just unbearably hot. I’m a sweater, and always seem to get to the other end absolutely dripping. On my daily commute to/from work, I get the overland, proper train, which is usually air-conditioned, and if not is above ground for fresh air through the opened windows. It’s positively enjoyable, to be honest, especially when it’s roasting outside and cold inside.
I had to get the Tube this Saturday to get to the Arsenal game, and owing to a number of closures it was inevitably absolutely rammed. I got on the Piccadilly line at Leicester Square (in the middle of the black X at the centre of this map), and took it north-east to Arsenal. Busy doesn’t even begin to describe…
Now, this is shown as yellow on the heat map, but it was hot. I know it was an exceptional occasion, with more people than usual travelling, but it’s not uncommon for it to be that busy on a normal rush hour. I got through my bottle of coke in double-quick time, and the fresh air couldn’t hit me quickly enough when I got off.
And that was only travelling for seven stops. God knows what it’s like for people on it for longer, especially if they’re going across central London.
And I speak from experience when I say that the Central line is even worse. That’s the left-to-right line in this map, coloured bright red. It’s the closest one to my office, and I occasionally take it after work when I’m heading off to meet someone.
It’s definitely not worth it. So fucking hot, even in winter time. Always busy, always a pain in the ass.
But yet I find myself agreeing with something diamondgeezer wrote a few months back (that I can’t find now!): the money that Transport for London could spend on air conditioning for Tubes, and this runs into the billions, should be spent on simply improving capacity. More trains = less waiting on platforms, fewer passengers on each train, and so less heat overall. Simple.
I’ll leave the last word to Charlie Brooker’s column today:
On the platform, morose expressions laminated by a thin sheen of grime and sweat; hangdog mugs smeared with London. There’s no air-con on the underground, so on a hot day people quickly resemble clothed piglets trapped in a can, waiting for the air to run out.
Image via London Reconnections.
This the kind of thing that really gets the Londoner in me excited: artists’ impressions of new stations. Especially when that station is the one nearest my office that I use pretty regularly.
Yep, this is what the inside of the new Thameslink Crossrail extension will look like at Farringdon station. The entrance is directly opposite the existing ticket hall, and will connect with the Tube lines and also the overland lines through to Moorgate.
The two lines pictured are on the main north-south overland network that runs from as far as Brighton on the south coast, through central London, and up to Luton or Bedford in the north.
It’s a major commuter route for those that live in north/south London, as well as slightly outside the Greater London area too. I used to work with a guy that commuted in from Brighton every day, almost two hours each way…
It looks really cool, and the street-level image shows just how they are going to transform what is a pretty grubby street. The StreetView from pretty much the exact same spot shows what it looks like now (turn to the east to see it). That beam of sunlight is where the entrance will be, and all of those shops are currently boarded up ahead of the construction work.
text, london, travel, tube, britishness, introspection, self mocking,
Looking at that last post, I’ve realised that I’ve become one of those Londoners who is over-informed about the Tube and public transport network. I’ve got an image of the Tube map in my head, and generally know where to change to get from A to B quickest.
As posted previously, I’m really good at naming the central London Tube stations, and I reckon I could place most of the outer London ones fairly accurately too. It’s a sad talent to possess.
As a result of moving to south-west London, I’ve got to know the overland network a bit better too, which has improved my London geography no end. In fact, having also lived in the north-west and south-east at various times since 2002, it’s only the north-east that I’m a bit shaky on.
I imagine that car-owners are the same, and in fact I know that’s true because whenever you go to a party or barbecue out in the sticks, the conversation (especially between guys) inevitably descends into a “how did you get here?” topic. Discussion of the quickest route(s) always follows, and us London dwellers get similarly animated when it comes to discussing Tube routes!
And don’t even get me started on the weather…
![Zooming out from my last post, it’s pretty easy to see why the London Tube map is quite heavily stylised [PDF] nowadays. It’s damn messy geographically…
I live just off the bottom of the green line as it leaves the map to the left of centre.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kug5js9aZB1qz6jquo1_500.png)
