The London Underground celebrated it's 150th year on 9 January 2013. That means special edition Oyster Cards, an oversized "150" statue located in Baker St. station, and a list as long as your arm of upgrades within 15 years.
Underground lines are a complex grid of color, each with an equally colorful name, connecting hundreds of tube stops. The District line alone has 60 stops. Bakerloo, Central, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City, District, Northern, Jubilee, Picadilly, and Victoria along with all of London's overground and DLR lines form the modern grid. I have come to memorize and associate the color and the line. In Paris, I called their brown 11 line, Bakerloo. Dark blue is Picadilly, light blue is Victoria. Ask me what yellow means, and I'll say Circle.
Transferring is convenient when you make the wrong move or need to get from one side of the city to another, but detrimental if you are in a rush. Green Park makes you walk through the long, multi-colored tile corridor to your connecting platform for the Picadilly line. This is usually done when you are going to the airport- in a rush because you don't want to miss your brother's arrival. You begin to plan routes according to how long it will take you to walk through the station.
Some lines are rougher than others in more ways than one. Jubilee makes your ears pop between Green Park and Waterloo as you go under the Thames. It shifts from side to side as if you're on an old rollercoaster. Northern can get a little precarious as you get into Camden territory, the cars being less clean and more "lived in" than others. Graffiti in the form of scratches on the windows.
Similarly, some are nicer. The Jubilee line has anti-suicide glass barriers and television screens to display the line route. The polite Englishwoman announces which side the doors of the car will open on the Victoria line. Some lines have new blue and red upholstery containing the silhouette of the Eye and Big Ben, and others have the old, intended-to-be-modern fabric. Its not a nice upholstery. It itches you when you wear a dress, and the color can be too much to handle too early in the morning, but it is clean, and I have come to appreciate it.
The tube is extremely clean and taken care of. The most rubbish you'll see is the rejected free newspapers people leave on the windowsill behind the seat when they are finished reading. The Evening Standard or the Metro. Handed out at the entrance to tube stations. Bloody awful writing and layouts, but it does the job of getting the news to the average London commuter. Who needs cell phones and news apps? Especially when service is non existent underground. This world needs more free newspapers. Occasionally, a rider will pick one up after it has been sitting there for multiple stops and read it, giving it a second chance. I have been guilty of this plenty of times. Eventually, though, a worker will collect the papers when the train reaches the end of the line and throw them in the trash.
Music is heard when walking up certain corridors. The noise growing louder and louder as you get closer to the musician. In order to perform in a London Underground station, you must have a permit. You cannot just walk in, pay for a ticket, and set up stage anywhere you choose. There are designated areas for designated people. This helps with beggars just coming with a toy piano and claiming to be a performer, but it ruins it a little. Its as if you have a real gig, but street or tube performing is not about being set up; its about showing up with a guitar or harmonica or bongos and just trying your hardest to get some cash. By signing up, its as if you know you are good and know it would be worth the time and energy to get a permit, but for the spontaneous people who just pick a spot that looks good, its all about wanting to share the music in the moment, not so much about the schedule of it.
The song of choice for these performers is "Three Little Birds". Bob Marley keeps everyone calm. He offers peace and solace and promotes brotherhood. I wonder if when you apply for this permit, you must tell the London Underground permit office which songs you will play. "My office has reviewed your list. We would like you to remove Black Sabbath and replace it with Van Morrison. Thank you for your cooperation." Only songs that will suppress the public, no songs to promote unrest. In 2005, the London Underground began playing classical music in certain "problem" stations to help alleviate the problem with loitering young people. For the average tube rider, its a pleasant sound while you walk through a concrete and tile tube station with hundreds of strangers who are in a rush.
People. The tube is full of people. People coming and people going. People saying hello and goodbye, some tearful. People in a rush to get to work or to a show and people lost. People carrying, pulling, or dragging things. Backpacks, purses, suitcases, briefcases, newspapers, shopping bags, cell phones, tablets. People eating lunch or dinner, reading the newspaper, listening to music, or taking a nap. Some people pace up and down the platform trying to pass the few minutes before the next train. Others sit in the grey and yellow seats, lean against the wall, or impatiently wait at the edge of the platform watching the tunnel entrance for the train's headlights.
Eavesdropping is one of my favorite past times, especially on the tube. People are fascinating to begin with, but when you listen to conversations between friends or colleagues, you get a sense of how people live their lives. "So I took my boss there and he just looked around. 'What is that for?!?' he kept asking" Two Germans converse, discussing sex shops in Amsterdam.
People have suitcases- wait for their stops to make the change to the Picadilly line which will take them on their way to the airport then beyond. Perhaps they are finally embarking on one of those dream trips plastered on the station walls. Advertisements for the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Japan.
Advertisements line the corridors and platforms. Movie posters, museum exhibits, cell phone carriers, tourist attractions. Shoes keep it clean Sneakers get dirty. You pull up to a station only to be greeted by Papa John or Britain's pride and joy, David Bowie, through the window. Jack Daniels must have spent a small fortune on the ads for Tennessee Whiskey. Each tube station I have visited has at least one Jack ad. Some feel a good drink is meant to compliment good music. Jack Daniel believed it was the other way around. Why is it that American products feel the need to corrupt the London Underground? Posters for RedBull, Ipads, American Airlines. Does America rule the world? Or just pretend to?
London targets the tourists. Harry Potter Studio Tour, Kensington Palace, numerous Broadway shows. Small posters for Once, Book of Mormon, and Les Mis line the escalators. London has an abundance of options for the tourist while they are presumably making their way to another attraction- riding the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross for Trafalgar Square, perhaps. Or maybe the Central line for Notting Hill.
The cars are riddled with little signs about common courtesy on the tube or fines you can incur. Items trapped in the doors cause delays. People try to make the train, as if there isn't another one two minutes behind it, causing arms, legs, backpacks, suitcases, to be lodged in the door, forcing the doors of the entire train to beep angrily and reopen. Priority seat: for people who are disabled, pregnant, or less able to stand. This rule is followed by mostly everyone. People will rise, making room for a child or an older woman to sit. There are even the select few gentlemen who will rise for any woman who walks on. The latter being rarer than the former.
The entrances to the Underground become masses of people moving this way and that. Faint beeps are heard over the hum of the crowd as Oyster cards are registered by the yellow card readers, followed by the loud slapping of the grey plastic doors allowing for the passengers to enter. Occasionally, a rapid-fire beeping will be heard, signaling insufficient funds on a card, causing the person to make their way back through the crowd to 'top up' and add more money to their card.
I take the tube almost every day. It has replaced my car. It is reliable, fast, and convenient. I believe I am spoiled with this tube, especially after traveling to Paris. I wouldn't trade the Tube for any underground system in the world. If its good enough for the Queen and Kate to ride, its good enough for me.
St. John's Wood. Take this for Abbey Road.
The first underground platform.
