Celebrity Spotting on the London Underground

The Tube goes all actorly

I have not spotted a celebrity on the London Underground itself for ages. When I first started by main site goingunderground in 1999 I commented that I very rarely saw famous people on the Tube, despite the fact that they often protest that they use it. But when I started the blog I actually saw quite a few including Rob Brydon, Matthew "Tonight I'm going to be" Kelly, Gita out of EastEnders, Scud Stud Rageh Omar, John Hannah, and Peter Dr Who Davison. On my journey on South West Trains I spot quite a lot including Richard E Grant who's a regular traveller from Richmond.

So it was with great excitement that I spotted my first Tube Celebrity for 2006 coming home last night on the Northern Line.

It's not a competition, like this (because it's not very hard and anyone who knows what my Flickr acccount is will find out in seconds), but can you guess who it is? I was really surprised that no one else in the carriage seemed to show any recognition of the great man.





I thought as soon as I saw him, that I recognised his face, and then when he pulled out a copy of Alan Bennett's plays I knew it was who I thought it was.

Also has anyone else spotted anyone famous on the Tube recently?

Back to work with a quiz - where on the Tube was this shot?

Scissor Sisters' Mary Video - Where was it filmed?

Back to work for the majority of people today (commisserations if you had to go back last week), and this Scissor Sisters video has that real hum drum feeling of doing the same old, same old, which recruitment agencies take advantage of now "New Year - time to find a new job" - you know the ads. Over the holidays, I saw the Scissor Sisters' video to their hit single Mary for the first time and the London Underground features fairly heavily at the beginning.

Firstly, our heroine Mary gets up, gets washed, puts on make up, gets on a crowded Tube half asleep, gets a seat, then gets off and eventually appears in Canary Wharf Tube station.

But what train is she on first (which line &/or ideally - for real Tube experts - which stock)? Bear in mind there may have been some artistic licence with the trains that were used and it may not be a train or a line that actually goes through Canary Wharf. See if you can work it out from the screen grabs below or by watching the video:









Usual competition rules apply - one guess only per person in the comments below. In the event of more than one person guessing correctly (which I think is likely to happen - even if you make a wild guess - there's a good chance in getting the line correct), all the correct entries will undergo the Neil paperclip selection, so that we'll have only one winner. People who make more than one guess will be disqualified. Please leave your email address or your blog/website in the comments if you wish to enter. You have until Sunday 8th January 2006 23.59 GMT to make your guess.

Oh and the prize - a wonderful enamel "No Begging" London Underground fridge magnet - ideal for putting on filing cabinets too to tell colleagues they can't beg to get favours from you.

Happy 2006

Let's hope 2006 is more peaceful and filled with goodwill than 2005

Just thought as I was the World's Hottest Urban Blogger that I ought to put some glad rags on and get my picture taken for the blog to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

New Year, New London Underground Fares (plus handy fare comparison calculator)

Oystercard pre-pay makes annual fare increases even more ridiculous

I'm not going to bang on too much about this, because I have done many, many times in the past (stop moaning about London Transport and Oystercard confusion and Oystercard ad banned) Because I bought my annual travel card a few months ago, I'm currently allright Jack - but have some sympathy for the many people like me, who live in London (or just outside - I'm in zone 4) and have to use National Rail and can't therefore take advantage of Oystercard pre-pay.

Ken Livingstone is determined to get as many people as possible to use Oystercard pre-pay, as it "saves time", and therefore "saves London Underground money" and therefore means "station staff and ticketing staff can be re-deployed to more visible jobs on the network" (Oops Bob Crow will be really striking me off his Valentine's list this year). These cost savings are apparently passed on to people who use Oystercard pre-pay as the Tube fares for single tickets take their usual ridiculously high annual price hike once again. The minimum cash fare on the London Underground has risen from £2 to £3.

Everyone will have their own opinions on Oystercard pre-pay depending on where they live in London and how often they travel into London each day and at what times.

James Cridland has kindly made and updated an Oystercard calculator so that you can see for yourself what will be cheaper for you and he's based it on January 2006 fares.

Have fun and lucky you, if it does work out cheaper and Grrrr to National Rail for not allowing Oysercard pre-pay to be used on stations that are actually in London!

Bob Crow suns himself while London Underground go on strike

January 2nd 2006 - Bob Crow spinning from Egypt

Well it looks like the Eypytian sun has finally gone to RMT union leader Bob Crow's head as he considers the New Year's Eve strike a success in spite of the fact that only 40 out of over 275 stations were closed and many of the 4,000 RMT members he claimed went on strike, obviously didn't. I would hardly say that it showed a "united and determined stand" against the LU's "unsafe" rosters. Good to see he was united enough to go on holiday in the middle of all of it.

However, in true "Carry On At Your Convenience" "everybody out" strike style, he's now considering ballotting all members including Tube drivers "for action short of strike in the light of these blatant safety breaches" - ie he claims safety breaches were broken in getting the stations open during the strike.

Mmmmm "action short of strike," well that will tell the LU and the general public won't it Bob? I would have found this whole press release a lot less laughable if I'd known that a) it wasn't being made from Egypt (he's back on the 5th January) and b) there was more focus on averting the next strike due for the 8th January, (which he must be getting a bit worried about now) and less focus on the success of a strike that Londoners hardly noticed! Keep the comments coming in guys and gals!

January 1st 2006 - Most of the Tube running in spite of strike

Well only three more hours of the strike to go (it's almost 9am at the time of posting) and fortunately London didn't grind to a halt as about half of the station staff actually decided to stick two fingers up at the RMT leaders and open their stations so people could celebrate New Year's Eve. At the risk of being called a "union busting propagandist of whom Goebbels would have been proud" - bit of a shocker to be called that on New Year's Day morning, but there you go - I'm really pleased to see London Underground staff braving public abuse to open the stations and keep the Tube running. Only 40 stations out of over 270 actually closed. (Picture above by Diamond Geezer)

More lively comments below, including more station staff who are leaving or considering leaving the RMT as a result of all this.

As Sheriff Ken Livingstone said "I want to pay special tribute to the police, emergency services and transport workers who helped get hundreds of thousands of people home safely. The Tube strike hardly materialised. The majority of London Underground staff did not agree that it made sense to punish ordinary Londoners on New Year's Eve." see Virgin News for more.

Bob Crow, I hope you're having a good time in Egypt, London actually doesn't look too bad this morning and I hope everyone who is able to travel on the Tube this morning thanks the station staff for their actions.

UPDATE - 19.12 - December 31st - The Tube's website has been updated to show a map with the closed stations showing in red - plus a list of stations closed on the right hand side of this page.

Loads of comments still coming in, including those from RMT members who are as pissed off with the whole timing of this strike as the majority of the public and those who are re-considering their membership of the RMT. I'd like to thank the staff for making comments here. As mentioned a number of times in the comments we should thank the staff that actually decided to open the stations today, so that the strike hasn't been quite as effective as RMT union leaders were hoping.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year's Eve despite the unhappy one that the leaders were trying to make you have, and it will be interesting to see if the next strike on the 8th January actually comes off.

Happy New Year!

UPDATE - 14.30 - December 31st - The strike is well and truly on although "some" stations are open. Which ones is anyone's guess though. However, I'm not sure how London Underground can say there is a good service on most of the lines today if you look at the realtime travel link as "good service" means "no noticeable impact to your journey". Neil has just got back from Richmond (which is open) and some stations are open but many aren't, depends if the staff have decided to open them or not. If your station is closed by striking Tube station staff the train will just go straight through it. So I would say that is a "noticeable impact" to my journey. If I were you I'd call 020 7222 1234 before leaving home.

RMT leader Bob Crow on holiday in Egypt - New Year's Eve Tube strike still on

Well I have heard it all now. Bob Crow obviously had no intention whatsoever about attending the talks at Acas with LU to try to avert the 24 hour London Underground Strike which began at noon today - 31st December. There were mutterings in the comments thread yesterday that Bob Crow was currently relaxing in Egypt and The Mirror has now confirmed this!

"Tube workers were furious last night that union leader Bob Crow was sunning himself on holiday as they were being asked to strike......

"Members of the RMT union are angry Mr Crow is enjoying a luxury break with his family at the Sharm el-Sheik resort in Egypt with dispute still unresolved.

One said of the former Communist party member: "Red Bob is swimming in the Red Sea on the day we are being asked to strike. It stinks.

"For a supposed man of the people he has not understood the mood of the union membership if he thinks he can leave us in the lurch at a time like this."

But Mr Crow, 44, who earns £63,000 a year denied the trip was a PR disaster."

Tell us what it is then Bob: "this was a long-standing family holiday. The personal message to our members is that our union is responsible for the dispute, not just individuals. I'm still involved in negotiations and liaising with our senior assistant general secretary and our press office. If needs be I can return to London."

Well he won't have the Tube to help him get to talks very quickly will he? And I'm sure that hundreds of thousands of Londoners will be thinking of you Bob when they are standing around freezing cold tonight waiting to get on overcrowded buses and standing in long taxi queues after trying to get home from what should be the party night of the year. Happy New Year and any remaining sympathy the public had for you has now been wiped away! (Keep the comments & discussion coming in and they're still coming in on the older post here too!!)

Meanwhile London Underground are still planning to try to run as much of the service as possible during today's strike, also extra buses will be put on to try to help. Check out the Tube's website before travelling after noon today or call 020 7222 1234 to see how your journey will be effected.

UPDATE - 18.30 - Friday 30th December

It's not looking good, still no move from RMT to attend talks with LU and still nothing new to report, so short of a miracle, it looks like the strike will be going ahead tomorrow - ie Saturday 31st from noon for 24 hours. Check out the Tube's website for advice on travel. In the meantime interesting comments still coming in below including ones from a guy who works for LU and on the other thread a member of the station staff.

Thursday 29th December - One sided talks mean "unlikely resolution" to Tube Strike

Just heard RMT union leader, Bob Crow's dulcet tones on the radio saying that he's only prepared to talk to London Underground (LU), if there is something new to talk about, otherwise "it's a waste of time". Howard Hughes from smoothfm was interviewing him and asking if he was staying by the phone, as London Underground will be having a meeting with ACAS today to try to avert the New Year's Eve strike. Yesterday we had the impression that both parties were willing to talk. I quite like the idea of LU sitting in a room with the arbitrators and no one from RMT (the union had not confirmed that anyone would be attending), as it sounds like it will be a very short meeting!

We can only hope that Bob Kiley isn't going to be in the meeting otherwise there will be another large expenses claim. The Evening Standard last night reported that the outgoing London Transport Commissioner put in an entertainment expenses claim for £7,000, which LU think is justified! I'd love to know who he entertained!

Anyway, this potential strike is turning into a soap opera, and if you want to catch up with the issues and all our various arguments about it, check out my New Year's Eve London Underground strike post here and keep the lively comments & discussion on all this going.

And, watch this space as maybe someone from LU will be able to get Mr Crow off his rather large derriere and into the Acas's offices and perhaps there will be a last minute resolution. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that LU won't back down over RMT's demands and it will mean a 24 strike from 12 noon on the 31st December and another potential one from 6.30pm on Sunday January 8th too!