The London Underground

Celebrating its 150th anniversary. 

The London Underground has to be seen to be believed.  It is like a human sized network of habitrails going yon and hither, up and down, with escalators, passageways, helpful signs directing you to various destinations, and is sometimes a bit overwhelming, especially during rush hour when it is packed with commuters. 

Naturally I compare it to the old familiar "El" that exists in Chicago.   The train cars are different, with passengers facing each other in round-ish cars and away from the windows, which is understandable since mostly, there isn't anything to look at underground except the other passengers. 

In Chicago, you can sit either facing forward or facing backwards for the most part. (But this is not as true as it was even a year ago, since the last time I took the CTA red line the seat orientation was just like the tube.)   A recorded message tells you to not to smoke or eat on the trains or at least to "mind the gap", and to give up your seat to elderly or disabled passengers.   For some reason, in the stations that I saw, the platform was not the same level as the train.  You had to step up or step down onto the train.  This was not much of a problem for anyone not in a wheelchair of course, but clearly those stations were not fully accommodating.  Now that I look at the map I see that there are a number of lines, especially on the east side which are  "step free from street to train"  and a smaller number who have "step free access from street to platform" which means of course that you have to step up or down from the platform to the train.   You can tell from looking at the map that most of the newer stations are on the east end, since handicapped access is probably a requirement now in the UK as it is in our country, or at least it is in the newer stations.

In many places there are steps and escalators galore.  Some of the central London stations go an astonishing distance underground. 

Maybe it is to take advantage of those easy to cut chalk layers, or to safely go under the Thames.  Some stations do not have escalators at all, but large elevators, designed to take dozens of people down or up at one go.  This was Goodge Street, probably one of the older stations.  It has steps but there is a sign at the bottom recommending the elevator since there were a lot of steps. 

And the stations can be very complex junctions.  Oxford Circus and Green Park provide access to 3 different lines.

  These lines necessarily go in different directions and pass at different levels underground.  At Oxford Circus you need to know which line you want to use, of course and what its name is.  There is the Metropolitan Line, the Central Line, and the Victoria Line.    It helps to know on the Piccadilly line whether you are going to Heathrow or Cockfosters, since the different directions are identified either as "Northbound, Eastbound, etc."  or by the end of the line station.  Some trains don't go all the way to the end of the line so you might have to get off and board a second train. 

 Some lines branch and reunite such as the Northern Line.  This was the one I took to Archway and Highgate Cemetery.  It divides and goes in widely different directions when it gets past Camden Town on the way north.  On the way South, depending on the line you may end up going through the "City" or farther west through Westminster, before reuniting with its other half south of the Thames in Kenington on the way to Morden and Wimbledon. 

In the tube, you also have marquee like scrolling messages telling you silently what the next stop is going to be, assuming you can remember which one it is.  While the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) names its various lines after colors:  Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Pink, and Orange, the London Underground has too many different lines to do that.  After much study of the tiny maps that you can get for free, I figured out that the Piccadilly Line took you to central London from Heathrow.  To reach my YHA hostel I got off at Green Park and took the Victoria line to Oxford Circus.  And when I emerged from the underground it looked like one too.  A busy intersection of Oxford Street and Regents Street. 

What Americans refer to as a "subway" is merely a pedestrian tunnel under a street.  And while in London there are often public restrooms in certain areas, which require 50p for entrance and have an attendant to make sure the place isn't trashed and there is toilet paper and paper towels, in Chicago you couldn't find a public restroom anywhere.   I suppose this is to discourage homeless people from scaring the paying customers away.    In London such people exist too, but they are said to be "living rough".   In Chicago, make your way to the nearest Starbucks, since they seem not to give you a lot of grief for having physiological needs of a nether kind, but if none of these are around, find a dumpster.  

 

In Chicago there are stories of the occasional CTA patron who electricutes himself in an especially uncute way when he relieves himself on the third rail.  The somewhat frightening voltage that surges invisibly through the rails is evidenced at night when at certain places on some of the older tracks (Have a good look North at the Howard Station as you wait for the Yellow Line trains to arrive) you can see arcs of electricity flashing like lightbulbs going off where the contacts with the rails is momentarily broken.

  I expect this can happen in the Underground too if one is foolish enough to drain one's dragon there, and if you survive,  rest assured that the law will arrest your crispy ass.