Circle Line to become Semi Circle Line?

Coming home last night I read a feature in thelondonpaper on TfL's plans to split the Circle Line, in a bid to ease jams. This London Underground line carries more than 75 million passengers a year and there's talk of splitting the service at Edgware Road. So all trains on the west side of the Circle Line would terminate & reverse there and if you wanted to go on to King's Cross or the City you'd need to change.


thelondonpaper said: "Tube chiefs believe the split would mean less congestion on the 14-mile line, which frequently suffers from a 'back-up' of trains at peak times.

Critics say that once a train is delayed in one of the 27 stations, it automatically has a serious knock-on effect for other trains on the line."

The good news for me as a West Londoner is that under the plans, the Circle Line would also be extended from Edgware Road to Hammersmith - which would increase the number trains from Hammersmith into the City.


A spokesperson from consumer group London TravelWatch said: "The idea is to make the service more efficient and our board is discussing the proposals today.

"We have an open mind at this point as this is the first time we have seen the plans in any detail."

Obviously this is just in planning stage at the moment and it could take some time for the blueprint to come to fruition. Transport for London are expected to make a decision on the plans next year.

Art of the Poster - preview night

Just a super quick post to say that tonight, thanks to the super lovely people at the London Transport Museum, I'll be going to private view of their new Art of the Poster - A Century of Design exhibition. I'm so excited as it's going to be opened by Sir Peter Blake who is one of Britain's greatest contemporary artists and responsible for the legendary cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album.






I'll give you a full review of the event & the exhibition tomorrow.

Seatless on New York Subway

Regular readers will know that a couple of weeks ago I went to New York for the first time in my life and was pretty excited to travel on the subway in NYC & compare it to the London Underground. However, one thing of the many things I didn't know about, was the Take a Seat project, even though I may have inadvertently seen part of it at Pleasantville station.


On my last day, I went even further north of New Rochelle, where I was staying, and was somewhat surprised to see some wooden household chairs on the platform at Pleasantville. I thought it was a bit strange, but then in Pleasantville, they looked at me as though I had just landed from Mars when I asked if I could get a taxi from anywhere, so it was power for the course.

However, thanks to Jon Justice, I learnt about the Take a Seat initiative. "Take a Seat is an ongoing series of public furniture installations aimed at increasing the availability of seating options in New York City subway stations. Perfectly functional chairs are rescued from trash piles and reassigned to stations where limited seating options leave subway patrons no choice but to stand for extended periods of time."


"More than 5 million riders pass through the New York City Subway system every day, sometimes waiting as long as an hour or more for their trains. Unfortunately, benches intended for waiting passengers are sparse and inadequate, leaving many riders standing. According to NYC MTA's founders, "the subway should be an inviting and pleasant environment, geared to the user, with the highest levels of design and materials." I agree! What is more pleasant than sitting while waiting for your train?"

This is a genius idea by Jason Pink and results in random seats being placed on New York's subway:






You can see more pictures on the Take a Seat Flickr set, including where the seats were originally found and their new home on the subway.

If anyone wants to have a go at doing this for the Tube in London, I'm sure it would be most welcome by weary commuters, although I bet Transport for London would say it contravened public health and safety or something equally jobsworthy.


From my last set of New York Vacation photos
While I'm here, I must thank Stuart for taking my posts about New York Subway and putting them onto Metafilter. It led to some interesting & funny comments about the Subway fashion victims and what a touristy dork I was! My favourite is the following: "That made me a little crazy: She called everything the wrong name and just seemed clueless for someone who likes subways. On the other hand, she was really excited and cute. So I am just so torn."

London Transport Museum Roundel Scavenger Hunt - Vote for your favourite team

At the end of September about 18 Flickr photographers went on a photographic scavenger hunt hosted by the London Transport Museum to celebrate 100 years of the London Underground roundel.


The London Transport Museum said "A great time was had by all as the teams raced against the clock to solve the cryptic clues and recreate images from the Museum's photograph collection. Images from the day were creative, inspired and just down right cool. You can check them all out through the Museum's brand spanking new online Roundel exhibition or from our Flickr page."


You can now vote here for your favourite team photographs. The winning team will receive a roundel-themed prize and be featured on the Museum website.


Choose from Team Johnston, Team Holden, Team Pick or Team Schleger. You have until October 17th to make your votes.

Plotting on the London Underground

Travelling on the Tube on Saturday I spotted the guy below wearing a "V for Vendetta" style mask, but as it was the London Underground, as usual, no one paid him any attention. But I've seen him a couple of times now and wonder if anyone else has seen him and knows what his game is:


He doesn't seem to do anything, but was wearing the same black and white suit when I last saw him. He was around this point 51.5004, -0.136213 when I spotted him and was travelling towards Richmond, but nipped off the Tube before I could see where he was heading.

A family sitting near me, saw me taking pictures, so they looked round and then started speculating as to why he might be wearing the mask.


The mother told her kids that he might have had a strange skin condition. It was a little too early in the day for him to have been going to a Halloween Party and there was just something very casual about him, as he checked his iPod, as though he travelled in the mask quite often. When I saw him before it was a weekday at about 8.30 in the morning.

Anyway, if you've seen him, know him, or indeed are him, please let us know in the comments. Any theories as to why he's wearing the mask would be much appreciated.