In case you missed any or all of the six episodes of the excellent documentary series "The Tube", broadcast recently on BBC 2 and HD, you can now catch up on YouTube, search phrase "BBC The Tube". Six fascinating hours behind the scenes of one of the biggest underground systems of the world you won't forget soon.
BBC documentary "The Tube"
- Thread starter geophil
- Start date
As a frequent Tube user, I found this series both informative and insightful and not afraid to get involved with the engineering stuff going on behind the scenes. Best bit was when they had a group of engineers working on a set of points and couldn't get them going. When they got them working, only minutes before the line was due to open to the public in the morning, they had to admit they didn't know how or why the points had come back to life! They also showed the change over for Victoria Line stock, which is my local line, and I actually felt almost nostalgic for the 1967 trains (until I got to use one of the new ones, which go that much faster.)
I think they claimed that every day London Underground transport more people than the whole of the rest of the British rail network. Is that true?
Paul
I think they claimed that every day London Underground transport more people than the whole of the rest of the British rail network. Is that true?
Paul
Hi Paul and Everybody
As another regular user of the London Underground travelling at least once or twice a week between Paddington and Holborn (amongst other places) I have no doubt that the London Underground would carry on a daily basis far more passengers than the entire British railway network. It never ceases to amaze me how almost all the passengers from a fully loaded HST plus standing commuters which I would think would be over 1000 on arrival at Paddington then disappear down into the underground system and are just then " swallowed up" and transported away by what must be the most efficient rail system in the world.
Paddington station handles one arrival every 3 minutes on working days and that is just one of the London terminus stations. if you include all the rest such as Waterloo, Euston etc plus the Gatwick and Heathrow express services combined with all the London residential commuters the brain just boggles at the thought of how many people must be travelling through the system on any given minute. it's a great tribute to the city of London, those employed in running the service and our Victorian predecessors who designed and built most of today's system.
I do not think there is anything in the world to match it but doubtless our American friends may wish to challenge that.
Bill
It's certainly a great advertisement for public enterprise. I note the the private sector concerns that were brought in under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) for the Tube have thrown in the towel (at huge loss to the taxpayer). Hooray for London Underground!
Paul
Paul
Hi Paul and Everybody
I would 100% agree with you there Paul. Should the private sector ever get its hands on the London Underground then they would be in a position to hold all travelling Londoners and those like myself who commute into London to unadulterated ransom. We are already seeing in the National Health Service the results of so-called public private enterprise and that is now costing the British taxpayer billions of pounds per year more than it would had those sections of the health service been retained in the hands of the public.
We have all learned enough regarding the ethics of large multinational companies when it comes to the British banking sector to now know that no company or group of companies should ever be in a position to impose " group monopolies" anywhere or at any time in modern commercial society. The BBC series on the London Underground demonstrated conclusively the commitment and efficiency of all those that are employed within the London underground system without the need of any corporate dreadnought overseers.
As the owner of a small business I do believe there is a need for private enterprise within Britain and throughout the world. However, I also believe that when it comes to public transport such as the London Underground and the general British rail network as far as the actual track is concerned, then "publicly owned enterprise" is definitely the way forward. Private ownership has been tried and failed we have no need to go there again.
Bill
I would 100% agree with you there Paul. Should the private sector ever get its hands on the London Underground then they would be in a position to hold all travelling Londoners and those like myself who commute into London to unadulterated ransom. We are already seeing in the National Health Service the results of so-called public private enterprise and that is now costing the British taxpayer billions of pounds per year more than it would had those sections of the health service been retained in the hands of the public.
We have all learned enough regarding the ethics of large multinational companies when it comes to the British banking sector to now know that no company or group of companies should ever be in a position to impose " group monopolies" anywhere or at any time in modern commercial society. The BBC series on the London Underground demonstrated conclusively the commitment and efficiency of all those that are employed within the London underground system without the need of any corporate dreadnought overseers.
As the owner of a small business I do believe there is a need for private enterprise within Britain and throughout the world. However, I also believe that when it comes to public transport such as the London Underground and the general British rail network as far as the actual track is concerned, then "publicly owned enterprise" is definitely the way forward. Private ownership has been tried and failed we have no need to go there again.
Bill
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Have been watching this fantastic insight into the London underground down here in OZ. The statistics are mindboggling. I think they carry more pax in one day than the Brisbane rail network does in sunny Queensland, Australia does in a year.
Not only that, we don't seem to be able to schedule trains closer than 30 minutes apart.
Have fond memories of my trips on the Northern Line, and Waterloo Stn
Bob (CRO)
Not only that, we don't seem to be able to schedule trains closer than 30 minutes apart.
Have fond memories of my trips on the Northern Line, and Waterloo Stn
Bob (CRO)
narrowgauge
92 year oldTrainz veteran
Bob (CRO)
How did you manage to watch it? Unless I am doing something wrong, I can play the clip but not the episode. I have the mpression that it is only available to the BBC area. Not us poor yokels Downunder.
Peter
How did you manage to watch it? Unless I am doing something wrong, I can play the clip but not the episode. I have the mpression that it is only available to the BBC area. Not us poor yokels Downunder.
Peter
Peter (and anyone else really),
you can watch them all here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/undergroundseries
peter
you can watch them all here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/undergroundseries
peter
I think CRO must have Foxtel, which is where i saw this fascinating series, on the BBC Knowledge channel.
Excellent program however I only saw a few episodes, so will have to sit and watch the rest of them later.
Matt.
Hi Everybody.
As stated in many of the previous postings the series was a great insight into the management, maintenance and running of the London Underground. However, what the series could not portray was the physical and audible experience of actually travelling through the system.
As shown in the series there are not that many seats in the carriages and therefore most commuters stand for the entirety of their journey. As Paul stated in his last posting, lines which have the latest equipment have stock which travel much faster than their predecessors. Therefore it is only by actually travelling in the system that anybody can really experience the speed and acceleration away from the platforms and then a few minutes later the equal speed of de- acceleration into the next platform.
The above has most first-time experience passengers on the underground hanging on for dear life as they travel. There is also the incredible noise that the modern stock kick up by their speed of travel which can be somewhat deafening to say the least on curves and through switches.
I had the experience of accompanying two people to a conference in London a few weeks back and neither of them had ever travelled on the underground before. I was watching them as we travelled through the district and then central line in the morning rush-hour. The expression on their faces constantly changed between downright fear and ecstatic exhilaration throughout the entire journey. I was told they never stopped talking about it for several days after their arrival back in their workplace.
Bill
As stated in many of the previous postings the series was a great insight into the management, maintenance and running of the London Underground. However, what the series could not portray was the physical and audible experience of actually travelling through the system.
As shown in the series there are not that many seats in the carriages and therefore most commuters stand for the entirety of their journey. As Paul stated in his last posting, lines which have the latest equipment have stock which travel much faster than their predecessors. Therefore it is only by actually travelling in the system that anybody can really experience the speed and acceleration away from the platforms and then a few minutes later the equal speed of de- acceleration into the next platform.
The above has most first-time experience passengers on the underground hanging on for dear life as they travel. There is also the incredible noise that the modern stock kick up by their speed of travel which can be somewhat deafening to say the least on curves and through switches.
I had the experience of accompanying two people to a conference in London a few weeks back and neither of them had ever travelled on the underground before. I was watching them as we travelled through the district and then central line in the morning rush-hour. The expression on their faces constantly changed between downright fear and ecstatic exhilaration throughout the entire journey. I was told they never stopped talking about it for several days after their arrival back in their workplace.
Bill
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@ narrowguage
Sorry for the delay in replying. Anyway, fortunately for me the answer has already been posted. It has been running on Foxtel for a few weeks now - in fact we may have just seen the last ep - not sure.
We record on IQ and watch at our leisure.
Cheers
Bob (CRO)
Sorry for the delay in replying. Anyway, fortunately for me the answer has already been posted. It has been running on Foxtel for a few weeks now - in fact we may have just seen the last ep - not sure.
We record on IQ and watch at our leisure.
Cheers
Bob (CRO)