Interesting.

[liadnan]

Well, to Londoners anyway: Future plans for the tube. (Via various people).

Frankly, I'd be happy if they'd sort out what we have at the moment so as to avoid the degrees of tube rage to which I descended this evening. Just One More Thing would have done it...

(OK, so forgetting due to tiredness the well-known oddity that although Euston is "north" of KingsX on the (non-running) Bank Branch it is "south"on the Victoria line was entirely my own fault, but the rest of it wasn't.)

By the way, does anyone have access to the RuleBook for Italian and French schooltrips in London? I've constructed large amounts of it ("the quaint custom of standing on one side of an escalator only should only be observed by natives: they will think you rude if you copy them"; "always congregate your entire group in order to take up the whole of narrow thoroughfares, particularly between 8 and 9.30 AM and 5 and 7 PM"; "it is considered improper if you do not have a friend whose hand you should hold At All Times") by observation but I'd like to be prepared for the rest.

Yes, I've had a really shitty day. Can you tell? No, I'm not in the mood to be reasonable.

Comments

[oletheros.livejournal.com]

man, the tube guidelines sound like our guidelines. we should compare notes.

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

don't be reasonable ter people 'oo stand on the wrong side of the escalator...KICK 'EM! I do...frequently...

[susumu.livejournal.com]

Try walking down Queensway at approx. 10am in the summer if you want to see a masterclass in How to Get in the Way...

Seems like the Chelsea-Hackney tube line has disappeared off that plan, but the rest looks good.

[liadnan]

Why would anyone from Chelsea want to go to Hackney?

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

oi! living in 'ackney 'ere!

[liadnan]

Yes indeed, but there's Hackney and there's Chelsea.

Seriously, obviously if it happens will do a hell of a lot for Hackney and H will be sitting on a goldmine.

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

the point is that buses are now fine, but london needs safer/cleaner/more reliable and *MORE* tubes/tube stations; especially on east-west routes 'n' don't get me started on the 6,007 reasons why souf london (ah, 'ome) needs at least one southern central line.

[liadnan]

Well, the map shows the East London line, currently relatively pointless, going right down round to Peckam Rye and following the London Bridge to Victoria Southern loop to terminate at Clapham Junction, which would help. Also going north round to Highbury and Islington.

I'm also intrigued by what looks like a new North South line from Brixton and Peckham via Waterloo and Holborn to Camden, which would take a hell of a lot of pressure off the Northern Line.

New north-south line

[susumu.livejournal.com]

That's a scheme for a tram

Re: New north-south line

[liadnan]

So it is.
Actually, isn't its central section the rebirth of an old tramline, the one that ran down to Kingsway and dived into a tunnel at the top: remnants still visible?

Re: New north-south line

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

no more norf-souf lines at the moment please! we need east west routes (esp souf of the river).

[dr-lovely.livejournal.com]

Indeed. But they've been going on about making that little orange line connect Hackney to Highbury and Islington since the 1990s, and nothing is really being achived. I do like the idea of connecting Heathrow to Ealing B'dway though. Soooooo useful.

Why would anyone from Chelsea want to go to Hackney?

[susumu.livejournal.com]

Well, why would anyone from Hampstead want to go to Tooting?

The interesting bit as far as I'm concerned is that the original scheme had it running via Piccadilly Circus, TCR and Angel which = handy for me. Assuming I'm still living in Islington in about 30 bloody years when it gets built that is.

http://www.lurs.org.uk/un/Chelsea_Hackney.html

[chrysaphi.livejournal.com]

You know, I was in London this evening, and noticed "severe delays" on the Northern line yet again -- if my sample size of being in town is anything to go by, it's down about 1/3 of the time or so. And I thought "no wonder liadnan is often so murderously grumpy about the tube. Jesus."

[booklectica]

You've seen this, I presume?

Approaching trains sometimes disurb the large Gappe bats that roost in the tunnels. The Gappes were smuggled into London in the early 19th century by French saboteurs and have proved impossible to exterminate. The announcement "Mind the Gappe!" is a signal that you should grab your hair and look towards the ceiling. Very few people have ever been killed by Gappes, though, and they are considered only a minor drawback to an otherwise excellent means of transportation.

[liadnan]

This is brilliant:
"One of the most delighful ways to spend an afternoon in Oxford or Cambridge is gliding gently down the river in one of their flat-bottomed boats, which you propel using a long pole. This is known as "cottaging." Many of the boats (called "yer-I-nals") are privately owned by the colleges, but there are some places that rent them to the public by the hour. Just tell a professor or policeman that you are interested in doing some cottaging and would like to know where the public yerinals are."

[dr-lovely.livejournal.com]

hahahaahaaaa

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

annuver reason ter keep the stations clean, as that would discourage the mice which the bats (according ter djm4) feed upon...

...mind yew i would also discourage people dropping cheese in the stations, just in case!

PEOPLE KEEP ARSKING...

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

...but why would people want ter travel from 'some posh area' ter 'some working class area'? well, that's so your cleaners/caterers/shop staff 'n' yes security bodes like me can get ter work 'n' then return 'ome ter areas where yew can just about survive on minimum wage+

[fi.livejournal.com]

I think all Southern European kids do the loitering-and-taking-up-as-much-space-as-possible-while-being-as-annoying-as-possible thing. I think it's some sort of conspiracy to try and make us Nordern Yoorup people chill out a bit.