Underground Urnie Found

Anyone who watched BBC4's Tube Night and the Arena programme will probably remember the section about the Tube's lost property office and the weird items that people have left behind on the London Underground. The manager Ted Batchelor had been on a mission to find the person who left behind the contents of an urn complete with ashes, that was found on the Tube nine years ago.

Amazingly the family have been found, thanks to John Fisher, an amateur genealogist who took it upon himself to find the family. Quite how he did this I don't know, but the family had the urn amongst some luggage which was stolen from a British Rail train. Thieves had taken the bag with the urn onto the Tube and discarded it when they realised it was of no value to them.

Now Molly Maile has finally been reuinited with her father's ashes.

Thanks to the show's director, Zimena, for calling me at lunchtime with this happy story.

Check out BBC4's site for the original clip from the lost property secction

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Once again Friday's look at Tube Fashion Victims, TFV's or travellers spotted on the Underground with a style that they've made their own.

Doiley Denim Skirt

Only one victim this week who might also be a candidate for the "what not to crochet blog" - there's a brilliant crochet devillish gimp looking mask on the latest entry.


One of those occasions when you want to say "Erm, I think you've got something stuck on your skirt".

Maybe her skirt got mixed up with some super glue when it was in wash. She managed to rip most of the other items off - hence the frayed hem, but the pink doiley wouldn't budge - at least not without taking away the remainder of the skirt.

Loving the butterfly laundry bag though, an interesting take on the stripy hessian looking ones or the shapeless IKEA jobbies.

That's it for now. The previous set of victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.

Brompton Sighting

First time I've ever seen a Brompton fold up bike on the Tube and was really pleased to see how small it becomes. Loads smaller than most people's luggage that I have to contend with on Heathrow trains on the Piccadilly Line.

Not sure how easily they unfold though as he didn't get off at my stop. Looks very snazzy though and I pictured him, just shaking it and it bouncing into shape, ready for action.

Fold up bikes are the only bikes allowed on the whole London Underground network. With other bikes you can only travel with them on certain lines (although never on the DLR and Waterloo & City Line & Victoria Line) and at certain times (normally outside peak hours). I found this puzzling though - "Bicycles may also be taken during rush hour in the opposite direction to the majority of travellers" In the rush hour, it's hard to work out what the opposite direction of the majority of travellers is.

A Billion people used the Tube

Congratulations you're our billionth customer

If only TfL had got together with Ken to give a special welcome to the billionth person travelling on the London Underground this year.

You can picture the scene. You're going through the barriers at Leicester Square, you're in a bit of a rush to get to work, you slam down your Oystercard and instead of the red "Seek Assistance" flash that you always ignore, the forecourt erupts with dancing girls wearing flourescent waistcoats and little else. A Big Brother tannoyed announcement booms "You are our billionth customer". Cliff Richard sashays over with his trademark sideways dance, singing "Congratulations". Followed by Sheriff Ken with a prize newt, who warmly shakes you by the hand and offers you free travel for the rest of your life. Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, stops MySpacing and hands you a glass of champagne. Bob Crowe promises never to organise a strike on your line on days that haven't got a y in them (looks like another strike is brewing for Easter Monday).

In reality, I imagine that the billionth commuter (and it could have been you), probably experienced a delay on the Northern Line and had his or her face shoved in the armpit of a fellow commuter.

Well done (I think) to getting a billion passengers this year - the first time in the 144 year history of the London Underground.

In other news TfL are looking for the person who ski-ed down Europe's longest escalator at Angel to give them a good telling off.

Sardine Commuter on packed trains

What if it's too busy for Sardine Man to get on?

Yesterday Transport 2000 re-started their "Sardine Man" campaign to highlight some of the most overcrowded train journeys in England & Wales. They aim to encourage the Government to increase capacity and relieve congestion on the railways. I'd to see him pressed up against commuters on the Tube.


The Top Ten (with percentages of over capacity) only included one route into London so all of you out of towners have my sympathy if any of these are part of your daily commute:

1. Durham to Newcastle (7:59 train): 88%
2. Cambridge to London Liverpool Street (8:02 train): 85%
3. Eccleston Park to Liverpool Lime Street (7:53 train): 85%
4. Cardiff to Maesteg (17:21 train): 78%
5. Humphrey Park to Manchester Oxford Road (8:14 train): 75%
6. Morpeth to Newcastle (8:00 train): 58%
7. Barnsley to Leeds (7:31 train): 57%
8. Sheffield to Leeds (7:14 train): 53%
9. Sutton to Luton (16:33 train): 50%
10. Northampton to Birmingham New Street (7:00 train): 45%

As a number of animals (or non humans) are blogging now (pigeons & dogs), it's no surprise to see that SardineMan has his own blog. His entry for the 26th March has a surprising start:

"It's Monday morning. It's 8:30am and like millions of Britons I've not long wiped the scales from my eyes, so I can be forgiven for being a bit bleary. But casting another fish-eyed look over the carriage confirms what I first suspected – there are empty seats on this train!

Wait a second... this train's EMPTY!

Does that mean my one-fish odyssey across Britain’s most crowded rail routes is over before it's begun?"

But we learn that he's headed out of London and is studying trains that are "off lease" and have been shunted into storage:

"If trains on commuter routes in the South East are packed, what's all this rolling stock doing in the sidings? Shouldn't it be out there getting used by the train operators so that there's more space available on trains? The idea of rows and rows of empty carriages lying idle just seemed ridiculous.......

As I survey the carriages glinting in the spring sunshine all I can think about is those poor, unfortunate commuters I saw this morning. I'm sure they’d have appreciated a few extra carriages on their train.

I head for a hostelry nearby and order up a pint of Coddingtons with a Skipjack Daniels to chase. Yes, yes it's only mid-morning but us fish have to keep well-oiled – and I need to sit down and figure this out!

I am Sardine Man – hear me bore!."

He then goes on to explain "no growth franchises" which train operators received in the nineties in the rest of his blog post. Watch out for his next post and if you're on any the overcrowded routes see if you get a picture.