Mind the gap, please.

Tonight I attended an interdenominational service at Southwark Cathedral for World AIDS day, which is 1 December. In an earlier posting I mentioned that the students visited folks at the London Ecumenical AIDS Trust (LEAT) to learn more about HIV/AIDS issues. The director of LEAT, Steve Penrose, let me know about tonight's service. I'm glad I went as it was very uplifting and a great chance to talk with people.

On my way home, I realized I haven't really described how you travel around London. Cabs are very expensive and when traffic is heavy can be slower than other options, so try to shy away from these whenever possible. The bus network in London is quite extensive, and I enjoy using the bus when I can because although I do enjoy the speed of using the underground, sometimes I want to see some daylight when I travel.

The main way people get around is with the London Underground, also known as the Tube. It's pretty straightforward to use and the price isn't bad. For a one-week unlimited ride pass, it's about 23 pounds for central London (zones 1 and 2 on both the Tube and buses) (that's about $50, which is very inexpensive for the transportation you can get). My monthly pass costs 90 pounds. The Tube runs from around 6 a.m. until around midnight.

The Tube is used VERY, VERY heavily. At peak periods, trains will come every 2-3 minutes and it's a vast sea of humanity at each station. Many of the stations have a combination of stairs and escalators. My mum has bad knees and I wouldn't even consider her taking the Tube. It's just too much chaos for a slower person to handle.

You'll frequently hear a recorded message saying, "Mind the gap." Many of the stations are curved, so spaces form between the edge of a train and the edge of the platform (try to imagine a straight car with a curved platform and you should get the idea). Sometimes the gaps are a few inches. When I got onto a Central Line train at Bank, the gap was about a foot and a half! It's quite dangerous, but the cost to realign the stations is probably very large and it's cheaper just to tell people to pay attention to the "gap" between the platform edge and the train. Remember, some of these stations have been around for a LONG time.

I should also add that at some stations the train edge will be a few inches above the platform, at others a few inches below, creating an obvious tripping hazard. But hey, just mind that gap!

I have to admit that the inside of many tube stations shocked me at first. Many of the stations have advertisements for whatever you can think of -- theatre shows, home buying, breast augmentation, rock concerts, museum exhibitions, teeth whitening, etc. It's common for these ads to be defaced over time.

Further down by the trains, advertisements are held up, literally, by black duct tape!

At the Holborn station, they don't bother to hide wires and cables. There is chicken wire to hold things up all over the walls and ceiling above the escalators. They don't allow pictures in tube stations, but trust me on this one. The Tube is an amazing system, but there's a lot of tape and wire holding it together!

Ciao,

Jim