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Mind The Gap: A Novice Londoner's Guide to the Tube
Sometimes in the student lounge, you can hear it thundering by beneath
the carpeted floors. Few directions to this club or that pub are
complete without some references to the colored lines on that
criss-crossed map. The tube is the heartbeat of London life. The
overhead voice telling you to, “Please mind the gap between the train
and the platform,” becomes synonymous with hectic mornings to class,
mellow day trips to museums and markets, and nights en route to party
while you evolve into a true Londoner.
There is something
uniquely indiscriminate about the tube. The entire spectrum of London
is represented. Young urbanites lean against the rail, appearing lost
in hip-hop beats and the edgy guitar riff of Brit rock. Professionals,
decked out in business attire, tote their briefcases with their heads
down and enjoy a moment of solitude before the daily nine to five grind
kicks in. Mothers hold tight rein on their children, careful not to
lose them amongst the thick crowds and bustle of the underground.
Passengers swipe their Oyster cards to gain entrance, while the
tourists are always recognizable by their confused moments at the
ticket booth, not knowing how inefficient purchasing individual tickets
compare to having an Oyster Card.
The journey on the tube all begins with the announcement to, “Please
mind the gap between the train and the platform.” In other words,
don’t get your foot caught, don’t get run over; don’t be killed by the
incoming tube.
The announcement is so familiar to tube goers though, that the inconveniences and dangers warned by the loudspeaker do nothing to obscure the tube’s significance in the daily life of a typical Londoner. Its official website declares that it is the oldest underground system in the world, having opened in 1863. The original line ran just four miles from Paddington to Farringdon Street. The success of the metro met with rapid expansion throughout London of varying criss-crossing lines and stations.
Today, the oldest lines (District and Northern) are recognizable by their zigzagging routes and odd breakaways, while newer lines like the Jubilee and Central seem to run simply back and forth, East and West. The hype over the tube’s efficiency comes to a halt when the old routes randomly split into opposite directions at the same stop. A newcomer must be vigilant of what train to board, as it may not deliver you to the destination you thought. Such quirks in the system are a reminder that even the most modern cities cannot always escape the inefficiencies of their less sophisticated past.
Everyone you meet out and about in London respond to the question “Where do you live?” by naming the tube station closest to their flat. There are six zones. The higher number zone, the less central you are to the energy and electricity of the London inner city. Zone 1 is perhaps the Mecca for the young city slicker yearning to live in the heap and whirl of the urban life; tourist landmarks, designer clothing stores, extravagant clubs, quirky art galleries. Zones 2 and 3, while still considered part of London, carry a less exciting atmosphere. The hot spots of loud music and designer outfits are now farther and fewer in between. The buildings are more residential. The parks and open spaces are larger and more frequent.
Professionals have a more annoying commute, especially on those hideous days when lines close, as the other option for the bus means sitting in unnecessarily long traffic time. But the tube does not end there. The lines still extend to zones 4, 5, and 6. A guy living in the outside zones may have more trouble getting a girl to come back to his flat because, “It’s a bit out there.” As the tube travels farther from the London core, it gradually creeps its way up from the underground. Semi-metro suburban neighborhoods and scenic English countryside replace the black brick walls of the winding underground. It is peculiar how just an hour long ride on the tube can take a passenger through a mini spectrum of English life, beginning in a thriving metropolis, receding to mellow suburbia, and ending in rolling green countryside.
As essential as the tube is to London life, it leaves the boggling question; what happens when the tube cannot serve its function? Few things are more irritating than standing on a particular line’s platform, waiting for the next train to come whizzing by only to hear that booming voice on a loudspeaker “We’re sorry the ______ line is now closed.” You can hear a collective sigh on the platform. The collective thought running through everyone’s mind is “So now what?” It goes to show one that even in this fast-paced, industrialized, modernized world, the most reliable instruments are not always that. It is an annoying reminder that technology cannot control everything, a lot of times at the cost of the people most dependent on it.
Why the tube? Of all the transportation a modernized city has to offer, what makes such a broad range of individuals, diverse in income and background, flock to the questionably sanitary underground. The air quality down there can only be so clean. After all, the tube trains do not venture from their deep underground depths until the outermost zones. The inhaling and exhaling of non-moving air leaves germs, bacteria, and viruses the infinite opportunity to seize on to any individual it can. It is one of those offhand things that a tube passenger normally does not allow pass through their mind. The train moves too fast, the routes are too vast, the lines are too reliable to get caught up in the tedious health details of the underground. Who wants to think about how many hands have gripped those overhead bars and the germs that they carry, or the consequences of sharing a congested space with individuals who’ve been God knows where, whose hygiene habits are God knows what. Details like this seem to go unnoticed by the thousands of individuals that migrate through the London Underground day in and day out.
The tube races through the winding underground tunnels dating back to the 19th century, withstanding the unexpected delays and the unspoken fears harbored by few about being trapped underground and catching some otherworldly disease from a close-by fellow passenger. The dependence and confidence in the Underground does not seem to cease, though. The tube is affordability and reliability, encapsulating all that is desired in the hectic, urban lifestyle. The tube is the pulse of London; its lines are the veins and arteries that circulate Londoners through their city. And it all begins with a posh accent reminding you to, “Please mind the gap.”
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