Buskers on the Tube

Ted Emmett, TfL busker

Hearing music floating up the escalators on London's tube always gives me a lift, even when going down, not up. The performers are usually very, very good and deserve a coin tossed their way. I stopped to listen and talk to one Ted Emmett who was playing some really nice stuff. Apparently there is stiff competition to hold one of the 39 pitches available in 25 underground stations. Transport for London vets each applicant and licences them to play, and TfL also send all their buskers a newsletter and can serve as a go-between to put them in touch with the public who would like to hire them for gigs. Seems like a win-win situation for everyone. I just wish I'd see more people contribute to the cause  – after all, it's nice to reward a good player for their efforts rather than have someone stand on a corner with a begging cup.

More interesting things from Japan

Automatic chain barriers to parking lots
Ok, I admit they aren't a necessity, but these chain barriers are pretty neat. When a car comes out of the parking lot, it triggers the automatic dropping of the chain down to the ground so the car can exit; then the chain is raised again in this cool gate-post structure. Good thinking!

Challenges to obesity
Again, England could take a clue from Japan. There, waist measurement rather than BMI is paramount. Unfortunately, the single measures they apply to men and women (separately) take no account of body height and bone structure. You can lose your job if your waist doesn't meet the required measurement. To help out people losing weight, not only are commuters encouraged to take the stairs instead of the escalators/ lifts, but how many calories you will burn by doing so are stated in some stations (here -2.0kcal on the "subway diet"). At least these signs make you think and remember so you can make a choice to walk instead of stand like an automaton.

Paris CDG Terminal 2E architecture

It seems to be a obsession. I am documenting the new airports of the world...

Here is the 2E K-gates terminal building at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Another beautiful use of wood in the interior, like Madrid. Moreover, the terminal floor is encapsulated in the oval tunnel, which wraps itself around the floor as it extends to the lower jetway. Really beautiful, innovative architecture – though now a few years old. The wooden ceiling of the boxy security area is frayed and not so attractive.

It is unclear which part of terminal 2E collapsed in 2004, but if the K-gates departure area is new, it dates to 2008, otherwise 2003. There is a nice YouTube offering of the 2E E-gates which look substantially like the K-gates area (I have never experienced such a confusing nomenclature of terminals and gates as at CDG).

To the left is the roof over the jetty, and below you can see how it curves around down under the jetty to meet the ramp to the jetway.

Despite the collapse, the building maintains its curved structure without any internal supports. Apparently it wasn't the architectural design that was at fault but material defects, which I hope have been corrected. A shame if it is rebuilt in a boxy style, like the Kansai International Airport (KIX). Soaring spaces, yes, but all rectangles, steel and glass. No soft woods, soft lines that really sooth when travelling.

FOUR things England should borrow from Japan

1. Lowered passenger-side windows on trucks/lorries
In Japan as well as England, bicyclists risk getting squashed by trucks turning left. Back in the 1970s there was such an uproar about housewives getting killed while going shopping on their bikes that the government mandated that the windows on the passenger side of trucks had to be lowered so drivers could see the bicyclists alongside them. Here, 35 years later, Brits are catching on that lorry-caused bicyclist deaths are unacceptable; there are thus a few lowered windows around but they are not mandated...

2. Fully descriptive station signs
Note this subway sign has the name of the station as well as the previous and next stations, with an arrow pointing in the direction the train is going. Below in orange is the name of the major commercial area in front of the station. Note also the green circles; these are colour coded to the train line, the colour appearing on the train itself as well as on train-line maps, and here the stations are numbered, so even if you cannot read the station name, you know where your stop is if you can count.

    I pity the poor tourists coming in for the Olympics (or any time) dealing with the London tube network. Not only are most of the trains unidentified on the sides of the trains as to which line it is, the lines are not identified in the digital signs showing arrivals. I don't know how many times I have been asked to differentiate the Circle, Hammersmith&City, and Metropolitan from the digital signs showing destinations. Why should anyone know or care where the train is going (unless one is interested in that stop) – what is vital is the name of the line and what the next stop is.

3. Men's toilets with baby-changing facilities
Back in the 1980s, at the height of the bubble, young Japanese men began deserting the Salaryman route to a career in droves. They valued family time more than 12-14 hour days in the office. These 'new men' have infiltrated Japanese society now to the extent that men's public toilets are beginning to appear with baby-changing facilities. Now, when do you think these will ever become popular in England??

4. Subway track shields
Japan has a high rate of suicide, with many choosing to throw themselves in front of a train. The subways are now being equipped with barriers on the platforms, so that people do not have access to the tracks very easily. London could use some of these, to keep people from falling, being pushed or jumping in front of tube trains. Note that the barrier doors open exactly in the same spots as the train doors, and arrows in front of them mark where people should queue to get on. Standing directly in front of the opening doors is therefore discouraged. London could use some of these, too.

LHR Terminal 5 & Madrid

Last time I travelled, I commented on the new tray delivery system at Heathrow's Terminal 5 security (in gleeb goes to Toronto). This time I got a picture of them; follow the arrows to get your trays from underneath the conveyor belt. We wondered last time how they turn the corner at the other end of security and travel back without turning upside down; we also wondered whether they might begin their return journey before you got all your things out of them. Mysteries solved: an operator manually pushes a lever which depresses the end shelf each tray going through security ends up on, and as the shelf dips down, the tray is delivered to the lower conveyor belt which takes it back to the starting point, underneath where you begin to load them.

New tray delivery system at Heathrow Terminal 5, London

New Madrid terminal, Spain

Flying from Heathrow Terminal 5, we entered an equally stunning new terminal in Madrid. While T5 is all white, the Madrid terminal is orange and natural wood. Very nice indeed. Except we spent far too much time there as our flight was delayed, meaning we missed our connecting flight to Seville, spent several hours in the terminal trying to arrange alternatives, and then had to stay overnight in Madrid, of course at Iberia's expense. Don't expect very friendly service from Iberia staff if you have to travel with them...

Russell Square tube station: another icon

Along with Edgware Road tube station on the Bakerloo Line, Russell Square tube station on the Piccadilly Line is another of the iconic products of Leslie Green. It still retains its red tile facade and cast iron lanterns of the Edwardian period. Inside the station you will find the original black, green, and white tiles complete with the exit instructions fired onto the ceramic tiles. The way tiles have been laid across the platform tunnel ceiling, contrasting with the keystone-framed train tunnel, is an excursion into exquisite design. Don't you think?

Platform tunnel at Russell Square tube station,
Piccadilly Line, London

The framed tile instructional signs recall the shapes of the ticket windows at Edgware Road station. But just in case you think that these signs circa 1906 might not still be accurate, the modern sign (in smaller font) reinforces the message.

The "Barnes Dance" crosswalk in London!

A year ago, the papers in Colorado were full of emotive laments that Denver was going to eliminate "Barnes Dance" crosswalks. These were invented by the city traffic engineer Henry Barnes in the 1940s. As Wikipedia can tell you, they have now been exported all over the world: Japan, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and even England.
   Apparently we have three in London: in Balham, Wood Green and Oxford Circus. These are great! A Barnes Dance allows diagonal crossing of an intersection, as all traffic is stopped. There are some intersections where all directions have walk lights, but the streets are not marked with diagonal crossings. Cross diagonally here at your own risk (but it works).

The Oxford Circus "Barnes Dance" crossing in London

   The Barnes Dance at Oxford Circus has special pavement showing the crossing areas. This was not the only change to the intersection however. The corners used to have fence-like iron barriers to confine people to crossing at the crosswalk and not jaywalk. These barriers have proven deadly to bicyclists, who have gotten crushed against them by trucks (lorries) turning left. The absence of barriers is also accompanied by the absence of curbs, which is kind of scary, especially for blind people. Unfortunately this lack of curbing is becoming common in London (Exhibition Road) and city centres around England, with coloured pavement marking the differences instead. Not helpful if you are blind...

Tickets & barriers in British train stations

Britain is a country that has traditionally operated on the honour system. You did what was expected of you without question. But that old morality has changed in recent years, especially with the increase in slackers, who try to get away with anything, and immigrants who don't know the system.

   Bendy buses (the articulated kind) with a back door entrance were chronically abused: people boarded there without paying the fare. These buses were instituted by former Mayor Ken Livingstone to alleviate congestion (they take more people, leaving fewer buses on the road) and to increase safety (because they replaced the hop-on hop-off kind without a door). Well, the upshot is that nobody liked the bendy buses and they were a financial disaster. So this year, they are all being replaced by the current Mayor Boris Johnson with new hop-on hop-off buses without doors. We'll see how they fly financially.

The new ticket barriers at Durham station

   Meanwhile, most British train stations have not had ticket barriers. You were expected to buy your ticket and show it to a ticket inspector on board, if ever any inspector showed up. This was really a hit and miss operation, and it was easy to avoid the ticket inspector by going to the loo at the time. So this past year, stations all over England (at least) are having ticket gates installed. Thank goodness these are better designed so that the flaps don't close on you or get caught by your luggage going through – as do many of the tube barrier gates. In order to teach people how to use these gates by feeding your ticket through (!!), station staff stand at the barriers and feed your ticket through for you. Lots of labour time, here...

   But not so many people are now shirking on their tickets.
• Firstly, I implore you: don't get caught out! The penalty is wicked. You have to buy a ticket on the train for an inflated price that is not sold on-line or at the ticket counters. I once did not have my seat reservation ticket, without which my ticket was not considered valid. Instead of using my £9.95 ticket, I had to buy a new one at £143.00. No kidding. Luckily I was able to claim the cost back because I had actually purchased a seat reservation but left the ticket in the ticket machine.

• Secondly, I implore you: be sure to check the drop box for tickets in the ticket machine very very carefully. The tickets sometimes drop down the side where you can't see them. Feel the box as you would the washing machine at the laundromat, so you won't leave any socks (or tickets) behind.

gleeb visits Toronto: standing on Scotland

Scotland used to be part of North America – a continent called Laurentia. The opening of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean around 55 million years ago sundered Scotland from its homeland and left it attached to Albion, the isle of Britain. In Toronto, I was hoping to visit the homeland of Scotland by looking at the Canadian Shield, the 'original' landmass that was the core of Laurentia.
What I found was different!

When I first learned about the far northwestern Scottish rocks called the Lewisian metamorphic rocks, I was fascinated that they were 2 billion years old. I wanted to go walk on them. Later I visited the Royal Gorge in Colorado, which cuts deep into the Earth's crust, and I discovered that the rocks at the bottom of Royal Gorge were also about 2 billion years old. So, maybe also would be the Canadian Shield.

Walking on Canadian Shield rocks in
Village of Yorkville Park, Toronto

The name Canadian Shield comes from the flat roundish shape of the metamorphic rocks that form a craton, a continental nucleus that has existed since the Precambrian (before 542 million years ago). So in the Village of Yorkville Park in Toronto, they have established an artwork that recreates the feeling of the Canadian Shield. Segments of metamorphic rocks from the craton have been concreted together in a shield shape. These particular rocks may not be 2 billion years old, but you can get the feeling of walking on an ancient landscape here in the middle of the city. Find them just north of the busy Bloor upmarket shopping street on Cumberland, across from Old York Lane.

Sadly, the closest relatives of Lewisian Scotland lie not on the Canadian continent but on Greenland. So I did not fulfill my wish of standing on Scotland in Toronto. But thinking about the landscape in broad swathes certainly does give one a different perspective on a visit to a new country.

gleeb goes to Toronto: 'Visit Britain' posters

The last things I expected to see when arriving In Toronto were "Visit Britain" posters plastered everywhere on the subway. And they didn't even mention the Olympics! I thought that was very strange, given this time of year.

Except for the pictures, you might not even know the posters were for Great Britain, as the word Britain is sooooo small. And nowhere is mentioned, to the naked eye (you would need a magnifying glass to see it from across the subway track), that these are actually ads from United Airlines. I didn't know that until we boarded our United flight, and there, in the on-board magazine, were replicas of this ad.

I think, too, that countryside, culture and heritage are great, in whatever country. But indeed, Britain does have an excess. So come visit!

gleeb goes to Toronto: LHR Terminal 5

First experience of Terminal 5 at Heathrow; judgment: very nice! It was cavernous – more so than Terminal 4 and somewhat like Stanstead. And it was very empty, not like the cramped, claustrophobic, crowded spaces in Terminals 12&3. There were no queues at the check-in or baggage drops, and we made it through security in 5 minutes.

Beware, though: the instructions for security are misleading. In one place it says you have to be AT security 35 minutes before your flight; another place it says you must be THROUGH security 35 minutes before your flight. Obviously, the latter is the one to follow, given that it may take you 15 minutes to get to your gate (by shuttle) and flights close 20 minutes before departure!

The most fun thing about the new terminal is its tray delivery system at security. The trays that go through the scanners on the conveyor roller bars are turned around and sent back on another sent of roller bars underneath. So they arrive at the place for loading up automatically. No hauling the trays back by the staff; no waiting by passengers for more trays to be delivered. And instead of just queueing to remove your stuff, they have two stands for people to get their things loaded into trays, accessible from the roller bars underneath the main conveyor belt. Not bad thinking...

Famous Author on East Coast Trains

What an interesting idea! East Coast trains (now owned by the public since GNER was forced out of its franchise by National Express, who then defaulted on their payments) run from Scotland to London down the eastern side of England. GNER used to publish a bi-monthly on-train magazine with tourist options and descriptions of their local food providers along the way. Now however, East Coast have produced a volume of short stories commissioned from Alexander McCall Smith, the celebrated Scots physician who now writes very interesting and entertaining novels in retirement.

We have revelled in his series about the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", set in Botswana with Mma Ramotswe as laid-back lady detective; the BBC TV series starring Jill Scott was a great rendition, too, now available through HBO online. But these are not his only achievements: he writes several series on "von Igelfeld" and on "Isabel Dalhousie, on "44 Scotland Street" and on "Corduroy Mansions". Prolific!

The train magazine entitled "East Coast Stories", published by The Scotsman, was written specifically for train clientele, McCall Smith says, as they "sit back and...feel the rocking of the train...hear the sound of its wheels on the rails...And sometimes there are conversations to be had." The five short stories – five contributions to a conversation between five strangers on their way from Edinburgh to London – are entitled:
Brief Encounter
Classical Landscape, With Train
The Way the World Used to Be
Train-Spotting
The Flying Scotsman

All very enjoyable indeed. Since this is a limited edition magazine of a famous author's stories, with restricted distribution, I'm keeping my copy just in case it becomes a collectors' item!

Edwardian experience in Edgware Road station, London

The Edgware Road station of the Bakerloo Line takes one back in time to the early 1900s. It has the iconic facade of several of the London underground stations: arched entryways faced in red tiles, designed by Leslie Green. While Londoners and visitors are well acquainted with these outer facades, I was astonished recently to pay my first visit to Edgware Road station and find that the interior of this one is virtually unchanged from its inception in 1907.

Tile-surround ticket windows of the Edgware Road station,
Bakerloo Line

The ticket windows are surrounded by moulded curved green tiles, complementing the red exterior. Since Green was responsible for the outer appearances of the original stations, and since Russell Square station still retains his geometric tile pattern on the platform walls, I assume the Edgware windows are of his conception as well. The overhanging ticket booth lights follow the curvatures of the windows and give the station an elegance unseen in modernized ticket halls.

Edgware Road station wall, Bakerloo Line, London
(colours saturated for effect)

The Edgware Road station used to be buttressed by a series of shops to the south, but these were destroyed to build the Marylebone Flyover. With nothing on its south side now but an empty space, landscape artists have taken a hand in adding value and decoration to a corner of the urban jungle. The station wall now sports a vertical garden of many different climbing plants, softening the racket of the passing traffic.

One of the reasons traffic is so bad in London (despite the Congestion Charge areas) is that more elevated highways are not allowed. When one visits this corner of Edgware Road and the Marylebone Flyover, sympathy flows for this decision. We will continue to drive gratefully along the city streets, taking two hours sometimes to get out of London, as we remember this corner and that decision.

Deplaning Etiquette

I've been travelling (traveling) recently and have pondered the etiquette of how to empty a plane of passengers. In the United States, it seems that there is a self-imposed etiquette of deplaning by rows: everyone in the aisles waits for a row to empty before the next row empties, and so on down the plane. However, in Europe (including Britain, including England), it seems there is an unstated process of deplaning by columns: first everyone in the aisle seats stands up and gets their luggage out, and as soon as the plane doors open, the aisle empties, allowing people in the middle seats to stand up and get their luggage out, and finally the window seat occupants.

To me, the European option seems to be much more efficient because those ready to deplane can depart while others not yet ready prepare themselves. The American option wastes a lot of time because all those in the aisle ready to deplane must wait for all those unprepared people ahead of them.

I ran this scenario by one of my English informants, and he disagreed. He thought it was a free-for-all with no patterning. So I throw these thoughts out to you all to see if you have noticed any pattern, and if so, which do you think best?

Awaiting your comments,
Yours (truly), gleeb

A Trip to the Seaside

When I heard we were going to Gibraltar Point last weekend, I thought it was an awfully long way to go for a two-night stay. But it turned out not to be Gibraltar itself in the Mediterranean. Gibraltar Point (arrow on map) is in Lincolnshire, just south of Skegness  – one of the many coastal recreational towns in Britain. Usually these towns have a beach faced by B&B accommodation; a main street with common pinball-type entertainment shops, lots of small eateries and sweet shops; possibly a pier with more entertainment / refreshment facilities perched at its end; and sometimes a small circus area with rides for kids. I always find these towns rather 1930s in feel and somewhat forlorn – maybe because I don’t have the memories of having great fun there as a child.

A fifteen-minute taxi ride south of Skegness brings you to Gibraltar Point, a National Nature Reserve, and its old coastguard station which has been turned into a Visitor Centre and Wash Study Centre. These kinds of study centres, which host a variety of naturalist and school groups for day-trips or longer, are an exceptionally valuable feature of English life. While we were there, we encountered a group of schoolkids doing nature studies on the beach, a group of geography students with measuring poles and clipboards practicing surveying techniques, and of course, us birders. But the dunes along the coast brought many local people, their kids and dogs for walks on a last glorious sunny autumn day. The Study Centre also hosted an exhibition for UK Apple Day and a quiz walk through their heritage orchard.

The Point faces The Wash, an embayment of the North Sea that takes the outflow of three major rivers, the Great Ouse discharging near King’s Lynn in the southwest corner of The Wash being the most famous. Looking out from the Point to the east the first day, I saw land and thought, wow! France! But no, it was only Norfolk. The Wash & North Norfolk Coast is a Special Area of Conservation and European Marine Site: a great place to see seals and many sea and shore birds (and we were lucky to see the Chinese water deer, too). Many people also sail The Wash, as can be seen by the presence of the Skegness Yacht Club with yachts tied up in the ‘marina’ formed by a small tributary into The Wash. Well, I guess there are yacht clubs and there are yacht clubs....but it all goes with quaintness of a British seaside resort.

Skegness Yacht Club marina

Skegness Yacht Club & warning
not to bring in animals from abroad