2011-01-11
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London Underground tube map, c1911 (by Mikey Ashworth, via diamond geezer).
One of the most interesting things, to me, is how much of the central network was in place by this point. The only tube lines built inside the Circle are the Victoria and Jubilee lines.
It’s definitely worth clicking through for the uploader’s notes on the style and the inclusion of the Brighton Railway’s Elevated Electric services, and for his set of Underground maps, including MacDonald’s Gills minimal/calligraphic sketch map.
2011-01-04
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Jubilant on the Jubilee, based on a survey by YouGov (via iamdanw).
It’s sad to see the Victoria line drop, but they are introducing new rolling stock. I’m not at all surprised to see the H&C and Circle do so badly, though.
(via iamdanw)
2010-12-25
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Ah, the Underground celebrating the holiday in its own inimitable way.
2010-12-13
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Crossrail - Liverpool Street Station design
A 3D diagram of the Crossrail routing under Liverpool Street (and, given the length of the platforms, Moorgate and Finsbury Circus too). Note the Post Office railway tunnel.
2010-11-11
Literature In Transit
A couple of weeks ago, I popped along to the fourth installment of Muni Diaries Live, a series of talks about the San Francisco public transit (to use the American English) system.
I certainly found it interesting, even though the venue was slightly too full to make it really enjoyable. The talks covered the gamut from sex, to violence, community, songs (in the style of a sea shanty), comedy, and even a segment from the outgoing head of PR for the system. All of the speakers (performers?) were fantastic, even the brave members of the public who had a couple of minutes each after the interval.
The whole thing felt deeply, deeply different to anything I’d imagine in London, where the Tube has (with a very few exceptions) attracts what interest it does from, frankly, engineering nerds. (I count myself firmly in this category.) Perhaps it’s because it’s reliable, and covers most of the city more or less comprehensively. Possibly it’s the famous English reserve, where even after a few minutes stuck in a tunnel the most that’s acceptable is a loud tut or sigh. (It’s the done thing to ignore kids with mobile phone speakers, too, no matter how annoying they are.) It might even be that we just price the crazy people out of the system.
In contrast, in SF it sometimes seems notable if a train deigns to turn up. The buses are full of talkative… eccentrics, let’s say, and the cut-back Metro system means they run at capacity more often. The combination of a lack of engineering variety and a more storied life inside the vehicles seems to have left the city with a heritage of talking about the strange thing that happened the last time you dared to set foot on the 14 Mission.
It’s an interesting change for me, as I struggle to learn anything at all about the Breda-built LRVs that took over from Boeing’s awful mid-’70s stock, and all the more odd given the otherwise deeply geeky outlook of parts of the city. Still, file it under “just another difference.”
2010-09-30
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Graham Turner’s photo of Aldwych underground station, which opened specially last weekend to commemmorate the seventieth anniversary of the Blitz. From the Guardian’s Eyewitness section.
2010-09-11
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1944-Proud City (posted to Flickr by Nikita Prokhorov)
The text reads “The poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the watehouses are places in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens…” James McNeill Whistler.
Poster design by Walter E Spradbery, who was educated in Walthamstow and had a posthumous exhibition at the William Morris Gallery on Forest Road.
2010-07-27
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New Victoria line trains ‘23 times less reliable’ than the old ones says the Evening Standard.
Things they don’t mention:
- running two signalling systems alongside each other is the tricky bit of an upgrade
- trains usually need a while to “bed in”
- TfL only started running these at rush hour in the last few months; it’s no surprise they’re finding issues
Also, as the comments note, I’d like to know where the suspiciously mathematical “23 times” figure comes from.
2010-05-16
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London Underground poster (by bowroaduk)
I saw one of these today at Warren Street (oddly, on the Northern (not Victoria) platforms). Now I’m saved the trouble of taking a photo myself.
2010-04-15
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Post Office Tube Railway: artwork for a poster, by Edward Bawden, circa 1935 -from The British Postal Museum & Archive
Oh, this is nice.
