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London Underground

Underground Geeks - is this something of note?

What is the worst feeling in the world?
I’ll tell you. It’s standing outside Camden Tube Station at 1 o’clock in the morning in the pouring rain, filled with fast-percolating lager-wee, surrounded by squealing girls and hollering troglodytes as a drone in an orange jacket shuts the iron gates to the barriers and condemns you to a long, wet, miserable stagger home. Fried chicken will be eaten. An ankle will be sprained. A number of walls and trees will be watered.

Those who are less fortunate will have to ride a night bus. I would rather ride the zombie-womble, John McCririck.

But now, Transport for London has announced something utterly brilliant! The tube will run until at least 2am on Fridays and Saturdays from 2015! I cannot tell you how exciting this is. People will be able to stay an extra hour at house parties and throw their shapes for even longer at clubs.

It seems to have been the brainchild of Transport for London’s Mike Brown. Well Mike Brown…you may have the world’s dullest name but I still want to grab your cheeky chubby cheeks and tongue you on the Circle Line. Mike says he wants to let people have more fun and to boost the night economy. Mike! Where the bloody hell have you been all my life? He must be the best guy in the pub. I reckon there’s a lock-in wherever he goes. He’s the personification of Rio de Janeiro.

Bad news, mind, if you are dumb enough to live on the Piccadilly Line. That will not be getting the extended service…I assume because the donkeys pulling the trains have to get some sleep.

But for most of us Londoners, this is the best news since the Boris bikes allowed us to do a literal fart on Barclays.

Of course, this is fantastic news for pubs and clubs and it’ll allow young women to make their way home safely at night.

But wait…Bob Crowe is circling! Might the unions oppose longer working hours or changed shifts? Would they risk making themselves the biggest party poopers in history? The threatened strikes ahead of the Olympics prove they are a complete and utter bunch of total sincere professionals concerned about passenger safety. So quite possibly.

But wait. The king of rock and rolling stock, Mike Brown, is thrusting along the tunnel with a juddering battle-cry:

“Why would any union have any problems with extra jobs?” He squeals as he thunders along the Party Central line. “We would negotiate pay for extra hours as a permanent fixture but I’m sure they would welcome the prospect of earning some more money.”

That man is like Ronnie Wood with an Osyter Card. Get in there!

Admittedly, we are suffering minor delays here: Le Metro de Paris already runs until 1.40am at weekends und der U-Bahn in Berlin runs all night. New York has the underground system that never sleeps…sort of. So it’s about time the world’s oldest tube (not including Bruce Forsyth) gets with the programme 150 years after it first trundled beneath the cobbles.

The only downside I can think of is that I’ll be tempted to spend more money. An extra hour of drinks will probably equate to, what? Another £20 on alcoholic liquids. Then you’ve got the tube journey from Zone 1 to Zone 2, which costs £2.40. Let me do the maths. One moment…just a sec…that is…£22.40 extra for my night of debauchery! Oh my goodness! I suspect a secret flask of Lambrini might be necessary.

No matter. Another hour of dancing. Another hour of singing. Another hour of eating. Another hour of kissing and smoking and arguing. Thank you Mike Brown. Forget Nelson…I want to give YOU a column.
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(Shame about the patronising 'young women' comment...)
 
Why do they have to wait until 2015?

I think it's stupid that it closes so early on weekends I remember that it was running virtually all night on New Years Eve, and it was so handy knowing you could get home easily. I don't like the night buses (or buses in general, for that matter), and taxis are expensive, so I'd much rather just get the tube.
 
It's partly an infrastructure thing and partly political.

By this point, the Tube upgrade plan will have been largely completed - at the moment, large sections of line are closed some weekends diluting the benefits of extended opening. Whilst weekend maintenance will never stop completely due to the nature of the system, once this major upgrade cycle is out the way, it will mean they are much fewer than now.

Politically, it's currently still only a proposal and the concept going through the various committees takes time. In addition, the unions need to be consulted, new shift patterns arranged etc. This takes time too. :)
 
It's great that the extension is getting ever so closer to being built, but the scheduled date of opening is 2020?! Come on, it doesn't take 5 years (It's starting in 2015) to build what is roughly a 2 and a half mile link which wouldn't need much modifying to existing stations (There's only 1 that needs it which is Kennington). The Jubilee Line extension was a much bigger task than this and that construction period was from 1993 to 1999.

Maybe I should stop moaning, I'm grateful that this extension is going ahead! Great to see more Tube South of the thames and hopefully the Bakerloo line extension becomes a reality one day

=)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Maybe it's being built by the same company as the Smiler?
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Wait, Gerts are building the tube?! xD

Just kidding, I'm assuming you mean the guys who are physically put it together? (Which AFAIK, Gerts didn't do that on Smiler)
 
Having had the chance to visit Paris last year, I rode the Parisian Metro an awful lot and have to admit that it shames our tube. Complex fares are avoided - a €2-ish fare is valid until you leave any station which means that using various connections you can travel city wide with ease and low cost. The conditions are better in my opinion and even the busiest stations (Montparnasse Biennevue, Bir-Hakeim at the Eiffel Tower, for example) are kept clean and feel a lot less claustrophobic. We could certainly learn something in London. :)
 
I agree with you about the complexity of our fare structure compared to theirs (although Oyster solves that to a point), but disagree about the stations. If anything, I found that the Paris stations were not as well-kept as our stations in London - and the less said about their turnstiles the better (most are also unmanned outside the major tourist stations, so you're a bit stuck if you cant get through).

Modern Tube stations, such as those on the Jubilee line extension (Canary Wharf etc), are now being designed to combat the claustrophobic nature of them too - and in my view they do so very effectively. :)
 
I like the old dingey tube stations, they have character. I loath the newer ones, they are nothing but soulless steel and concrete.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I like the old dingey tube stations, they have character. I loath the newer ones, they are nothing but soulless steel and concrete.
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I have to diasagree.

The Jubilee Line stations are nothing short of a triumph of both design and engineering.

But I do love the old stations as well, particularly those which still retain some original character.

:)
 
Just ordered an Oyster card. I visit London a few times a year usually so it'll add a bit of convenience and I guess a small saving.
 
Dirty, horrible bastards. How about chasing up all that tax their mates refuse to pay instead?

The slide into corporate fascism goes on.
 
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