London Underground

Having recently travelled around Europe and experienced the different public transport systems, London Underground was the one that stood out to me the most.  The worlds firsts underground rail system, opening in 1863 now carries over one billion passengers a year.

Also know as the tube, which quite literally it is. The walls curved at the top as well as the trains and the escalators, all create a tunnel vision throughout the whole of the underground. The walls of the undergrounds are tiled with majority white titles and the odd black or brown tile. Every station has different tiling, brown and the black are used to create a pattern throughout multiple platforms.

When entering the underground, you emerge into this space which feels like you are in a sci-fi world, the high beam white lights and the yellow, blue and red interiors, the etiquette of where you stand on the escalator and the platform, passengers lined up in a somewhat orderly fashion, and then there is the chaos where people just want to get on their train and its first in first served.

I stood on the platform after just missing a train; I was one of five standing, it felt like the calm before the storm. I had 2 minutes of complete calmness around me and then the chaos started again, people rushing to grab a seat and get on the train.  Once on the train it was 3 minutes to the next stop with no view of the outside, just a lit up carriage and the pitch-dark walls of the tunnel.  

I take the escalator up to the street, I can see the sky looking down on me, I get to the top and I feel like I’ve entered an entirely new world.

Image1: http://www.ohdearism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/London-Underground.jpg

Image2: http://samotako1.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/london-tube-john-doherty.jpg

Image3: http://samotako1.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/london-tube2.png