Ever thought you could do a good job with 48 sheets of space on the Tube? In zone one you've probably seen these ads from CBS Outdoor on the Tube. It's a collection of extremely short versions of popular stories. They're challenging creatives to come up with some with some long ad copy based around Londoners, the London Underground or Tube commuters.
Nice for creative types. However, CBS Outdoor have very cleverly made a visualisation tool, so you can have a go at creating your own cross platform ad and see what it would look like in a Tube environment. I took about two minutes to come up with the one below (click to see the full ad in a video). But with more time and imagination you can have some fun designing your own.
If you're a serious creative and want to win £125,000 worth of Tube ads for your client or agency or take away one of four runner up prizes of your entry featured at Oxford Circus Tube for 2 weeks, click here.
The rest of us can have minutes of fun seeing what our faces and swear words and LOL cats would look like on the Tube, with the visualiser.
"Signalling irregularity" put two London Underground trains into the paths of each other on the Hammersmith and City Line yesterday morning. A westbound train was wrongly switched to an eastbound track after leaving Plaistow at 8.15am.
A spokesperson for Transport for London said: "The driver, following London Underground's stringent safety procedures, stopped the train immediately, and our signalling system prevented any eastbound trains from moving towards the stationary train.
"The nearest eastbound train was stationary at red signals almost a kilometre away at West Ham.
"Passenger and staff safety was maintained throughout. The train had three passengers on board, who were all removed from it shortly after 9am. Our engineers are carrying out a full investigation into the cause of this signalling irregularity, and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office of Rail Regulation have been informed of the incident."
The BBC report that services on the line were suspended for about six hours to allow investigations to take place. Initial findings seem to have have identified a fault with signalling equipment at Plaistow station.
At time of writing there's been no statement from RMT union leader Bob Crow on this. After the runaway train on the Northern Line he was quick to use the incident to his advantage and said "This horrific failure comes against a background of a systematic reduction in safety-critical jobs and safety procedures as a direct result of TfL's financial cuts programme."
In what looks set to be an interesting set of blog posts, Nick Cooper is writing day by day reports of the Blitz's affect on the Tube. Using Ministry of Home Security Reports and records from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he'll be building up a daily picture of the London Underground 70 years ago.
Also London Transport Museum opened their exhibition on the Blitz - Under Attack - yesterday. "The aerial bombing raids, known in Britain as the Blitz, defined the wartime experience of many European cities. This exhibition tells the story from the perspective of public transport in London, Coventry and Dresden, and illustrates the struggle to keep these cities moving during the Second World War."
Don't forget there may still be tickets left for the tour of Aldwych London Underground Station, where you can see what life was like sheltering in the Tube during the Blitz.
Very rare opportunity to have a tour of disused Aldwych London Underground Station. London Transport Museum are running tours led by actors portraying 1940s characters - including an ARP warden and a spiv, to give a look at what life was like sheltering in the Tube during the Blitz.
Only a small number of people have been to Aldwych at platform level and it's expected the tickets (£8.50 each) will sell pretty quickly. They're running eleven 45 minute tours each day from Friday 24th September through to Sunday 26th September 2010. Both londonstuff and ianvisits were lucky enough to visit a few years back and took some great photos . However, it's the first time since I've been blogging that public tours have taken place at platform level. A ticket hall exhibition took place earlier this year.
Tickets for this event must be booked in advance and are in limited numbers. This is definitely an occasion when you should "book early to avoid disappointment". Telephone 020 7565 7298 to book your tickets.
Please note you'll need to be reasonably fit to do the tour as there are 160 stairs and no working lift.
Update - the lines are really, really busy but London Transport Museum ask you to be patient. They have just tweeted that tickets for the tours can be purchased at the museum ticket desk if you are able to make it there.
Update - 14th Sept - Weekend tickets all sold out and only tickets for Friday are now available
Update - 27th September - Here's my post of the Aldwych Underground Tour - it was a fascinating & moving experience!
In case you've been living on the Moon, by now you'll know that 24 hour London Underground strikes will begin from tonight 6th September. In a nutshell Tube maintenance staff begin their strike at 5pm. It's unlikely you'll experience severe disruption at that time, more of a winding down. Drivers who were due to start their evening shifts will not clock on.
Station staff, drivers and signallers will start their strike at 9pm tonight.
It's impossible to predict the impact this will have on the service, but all lines are likely to be affected.
Meanwhile RMT are up in arms at TfL's attempts to get volunteers to help people's travel plans. TfL's website says these volunteers are "on hand at key stations to give alternative travel options and otherwise assist passengers."
However, the RMT state "In a circular to staff desperately appealing for volunteers to help try and run some skeleton services LU say that those without the required Operational Licences will still be deployed and that those with lapsed licenses can have them renewed without complying with the normal training and updating programme ... the latest safety breaches go to the very heart of the dispute which is all about London Underground hacking back staffing levels and cutting corners on safety in a dash to slash costs regardless of the implications for the travelling public.."
I came across a video produced by the RMT with the union leaders justifying their strike action. Maybe it's just me but there seems to be very little discussion about safety. Bob Crow says towards the end "If you don't fight this you've lost. We'll lose the 800 jobs and they'll turn around at Broadway and say there ain't much fight in that lot". A pretty different Crow to the talks about safety supposedly at the heart of his more recent releases.
Good luck to everyone making their way home tonight and getting around tomorrow. Remember that the staff you see during the strike will be doing their best to help you and deserve your co-operation and support.
Please let us know how you get on with your journeys and how you managed to get on.
