Zone 1 Tube Challenge

A date for your diaries - Friday 18th May

It's that time of year again and a guest post from Ric to explain:

"For most people I know, the Tube is a necessary evil to be braved twice a day as part of the bridge between the sleeping and the working parts of the day. But for one group of friends I've made over the last two years, the idea of spending a couple of hours on the Tube isn't due to a delay-filled commute, but is instead a competition involving a combination of physical, mental and decision-making ability: the Tube Challenge.

"The idea's dead simple: visit all stations on the London Underground as fast as you can. There's a Guinness World Record for visiting all the stations, curently standing at almost 18 and a half hours, set by two Swedes last year. However if that feels like too much like hard work, there's a shorter and easier version which might appeal slightly more, and that's the Zone 1 Challenge. There's going to be a mass attempt at this on Friday 18th May, as advertised on www.tubechallenge.com, and all readers of this blog are invited to come and join in.

"There are 63 stations last time I counted, and they all have to be visited by Tube, in whichever order you like. You can run/walk between stations, jump on a bus, or even the rail link between Waterloo and Vauxhall might save you precious minutes. You could plan a route involving several double-backs, or try a route which relies on getting between stations on foot. If there are delays on the day, will you change your route on the spot to get around any areas running slowly? You can have a go by yourself, or team up with others, and I'm sure we'll be able to form teams on the day when we see who is looking to join up. Most competitors will be hoping for a time of less than 3 hours...assuming that there aren't any delays of course!

"We'll be meeting at the Argyll St entrance to Oxford Circus tube station at 12noon on Friday 18th, and we then hope to have a celebrity guest to draw the station we must start from. We'll head over there and begin together at roughly 1pm. After visiting all the stations, head to the after-event venue, The Angel in the Fields pub, and see if your time was fast enough to win. There will also be some après-Tube activities going on in the pub, and it will be a chance to share stories of the day and to meet other underground afficionados".


"If this sounds like your thing and you'd like to find out more, have a look
at the alternative challenges section of the forum on www.tubechallenge.com,
or email myself on tpfkar@hotmail.com, or Kevin Brown on kevin.brown@uk.tntfreight.com

"I hope to meet you on the 18th!"

Tube station too noisy

More clamp downs on Tube announcements

"Would you stop playing with that PA of yours, I'm trying to get to sleep!" (with apologies to George Michael). It appears the Tube is too funky for locals.


Last week we heard there are too many PA announcements, now they're too noisy. Earl's Court Underground station has been served with a noise abatement notice following complaints from residents and hoteliers that that its public address system is too loud. It's the first noise abatement notice to be served on a Tube station.

Metro report that apparently 'Both the volume and frequency of announcements were unnecessarily high, causing constant irritation to residents.' The council put pressure on the station and the system was changed in 2004 but the announcements became even louder. Val Weedon, national coordinator of protest group the Noise Association, said: 'There is no reason why London Underground needs to make their announcements so loud. We have even had passengers complain about the announcements so it is not just the neighbours who are unhappy.'

London Underground has 21 days to appeal against the abatement notice or comply with it within 60 days.

If if fails to do so, the council can launch a prosecution. So what would happen then, would Earl's Court get an ASBO?

Which are real Tube stations?

Guest quiz from themanwhofellasleep

The man who brought you overheard on the Tube brings you a quiz

"Some years ago, before the age of blogs and when Mika was nothing but a glint in a conceptual artist's unholy eyes, I came up with a quiz to test everyone's knowledge of London. As a Londoner, I'm often surprised when I watch the news and they refer to a part of London that I've never heard of before. How can I have lived here most of my life and not have heard of an area? I mean, I've never been to Peckham, but I do know it exists. Likewise, I'm often surprised when I look at a tube map and find a station that I've never heard of before.

It wasn't a very good quiz, but I was bored at work and it seemed like a good idea. I came up with a list of 20 tube stations. Ten of them were real tube stations and ten of them were made up by me. I emailed the quiz around the office. No-one got 100%. It was a terrible shame, and indeed, some of my co-workers ended up killing themselves.

The original quiz has been lost, like tears in the rain, but I've redone it with different options. Here it is: 20 tube stations. Can you tell the real ones from the fakes? Leave your answers in the comments. And no cheating – you're not allowed to look at the Tube map or check Google (and don't look at the other people's responses). You may use only your memory, deductive process and experience. Oh, and the real stations have to be London Underground stations. No DLR or mainline stations. They count as fake stations only.

South Acton
Westbourne Grove
Pinner
Newbury Road
Boston Manor
Southfields
Stonebridge Park
Buckhurst Hill
Hanwell
Barkingside
Kensal Rise
Chiswick Park
Ealing Common
Alexandra Palace
Willesden Green
Kenton
Woodgrange Park
Hounslow
Eastcote
Broad Street

I will supply the answers in the next few days, or when I can be bothered. Good luck."

UPDATE - themanwhofellasleep has posted the answers here. Thanks to all who gave it a try.

Batty Tube Boots

Hanging around for the London Underground

If ever you feel the need to hang upside down from the handrails on your Tube journey, your wait is now over. Dutch born Eelko Moorer, who lives in East London has created some boots that you can latch onto the handrails as he thought it would "liven up Tube journeys".

He said: "I like the idea of doing something that gives a person a sense of relief and can cheer up lives. We had a somewhat mixed reaction from other Tube travellers. Some people were surprised, others liked it and others were appalled.." From the look of the guy in the beige suit, some people get their Tube face on and show complete indifference.

The boots took him about a week to make and they have been on display at a British Council exhibition in Italy. His objects have been described as "indulging improbable fantasies from flying like a bird to hanging and swinging like a jungle beast".

Mr Moorer seems to have had some thoughts about safety as he said: "The soles of the boots were the most difficult. I had to make sure that someone would not fall off,"

However, London Underground weren't too wild about this footwear and a spokesperson said "This is a dangerous and stupid act that could result in serious injury to not only the individual concerned but also other passengers."

Not sure I'll be seeing many Tube fashion victims in them as Moorer said "They were meant as a one-off but if someone was interested in a pair, maybe I could do one for them." Probably some bright sparks from YouTube will be putting in an order.

Thanks to Dmitri for sending me the link to the story from the BBC.

It's worth having a look at the rest of Moorer's work as there's some very weird things going on in his "Emergency Games" booklet. I imagine London Underground won't be using him to illustrate any TfL manuals.

Tube etiquette - nail cutting

Photo of the week


Would you cut your nails on the Tube? It's a tricky one for me, as I often file my nails on the Tube and I'm sure as far as some people are concerned I may as well be openly picking my nose. But I think there's something about nail clipping that shouldn't really be done in public. Mainly because the cuttings have a tendancy to fly all over the place. Can you imagine being hit by a stray piece of nail?

Thanks to Chutney Bannister for the picture.

Have you seen anyone using the underground as a private bathroom or dressing room? Also where do you stand on women putting on make-up on the Tube? Another one of my crimes as well.