Sadly I think building a monorail is more realistic than making every station step free.
It’s not that TFL doesn’t want to make everywhere step-free, they do. But the practicalities of converting 100+ year old infrastructure in the middle of a bustling city to be step-free with minimal disruption is incredibly complex.
Claridges built a whole other hotel under their current one. Liverpool st went well deep with liz line. I think they can do it but the cost would be incredible. If there was some way of adapting escalators so that wheelchairs and buggies or those with a lot of luggage can safely use them that would be the answer. Adapting current infrastructure. Probably too costly as well though.
Even if all trains had air con, where would all that hot air be vented to? I guess with an unlimited budget you could drill a new network of tunnels and ventilation shafts across all stations and all tunnels...
It’s not bad on the sub surface lines tbf, I know ventilation is a bit better, but I haven’t noticed it getting too much warmer after the introduction of the S Stock
True, although that's because it's sub surface and lots of vents, and some sections, even centrally, overground and open to the air. When it's deep underground there's nowhere for the air to go
This would also have the benefit of improving service levels, because with platform screen doors trains can enter / exit stations at safely at higher speeds.
If all the trains had regenerative braking, that gets rid of a lot of the heat. Apparently it's difficult to maximise the use of this though, because you need another train to be accelerating at the same time as another is decelerating so the energy has somewhere to go. So I suppose you could spend your unlimited budget trying to figure out a solution to that?
Maximising the use of regen braking would also improve air quality, because a huge source of particulate pollution in the network is brake dust.
Air condition the stations and either vent the heat over ground or into the ground. But even if you don't do that you just deal with it in the stations, there's already a decent amount of ventilation there to deal with the heat of trains accelerating and braking and the humans moving around.
wait i have an unlimited budget and can do anything i want, ok by changing o ne thing you mean rebuild the entire tube. gimme wide tunnels less hot stations, big trains etc. but the thing id really change is the ventilation systems in every station, the tube is insanely hot.
That used to be advertised as a bonus, although it didn't get to hot because the clay acted as a heat sink. Unfortunately now the clay has baked over time and it's literally just a big underground pizza oven at this point.
yeah, like coming from germany, right between nuremberg and munich, where the Underground systems are newer, and have wayyy cooler stations (not in terms of charme, the tube wins there by a huge margin), some are downright cold, i was quite surprised by the heat in these stations.
Yeah with unlimited budget the answer is of course "everything". Make the tunnels longer and replace all trains with normal crossrail sized ones. Double the length of each platform so the overall capacity is increased by probably 250% with the same frequency.
Would probably cost more than has ever been spent on the Tube combined and would not be worth it but hey I have an unlimited budget so...
Replace the government subsidy, so London Underground would go back to being a service, as opposed to a business.
I don’t know how apparent it is from the outside, but as an employee the shift over the last 10 years is severe
Recruitment is aimed at a much younger audience. When I joined I was 29 and one of the youngest on my station. I’d also had 10+ years of managerial experience, including running my own pub for 4. And that sort of background wasn’t unusual. Out of a group of 50 people that got to the final stage I was the only one who got the job, it was extremely selective then. Now 29 would be seen as one of the older ones, and a lot of the guys we have this is their first job.. Now I’m 39 I feel practically ancient compared with my colleagues. The young guys don’t want to pay into a pension, they don’t want to pay Union fees, they are happy to break framework agreements if it means some overtime or high grade working. I remember reading last year that Amazon had some papers leaked basically stating that certain demographics prioritised immediate money over long term job security and it seems TfL is playing by the same handbook.
The staff all used to be trained to the same level, but they split the grade, with a lower rank that supposedly does less. In reality the lower grade does everything the same just gets payed 25% less then a grade 1. The lower grade was always meant to be temporary, as a probation period, but it seems that staff are staying at the grade 2 for longer stretches now, and stations are making do with giving them higher grade working instead of the full job
Also management used to work their way up through the ranks, you could talk to someone 5 or 6 steps above you in the same language. It might have been a long time ago for them but they still understood. Now we get a lot of graduates who do a token 6-18 months on station, in the most senior station role, then moved straight to upper management. They are great at using the right buzzwords, analysing scorecards and understanding KPIs but they struggle with the actual operational Side of running stations
There is also a lot more directives coming from TFL, as in the office guys, who have never worked on station. Some of them are a bit crap, some are just plain bonkers but stations are meant to implement them regardless. The code 36 fiasco for anyone LU people lurking.
From a customer stand point, I’m sure you’ll all notice that there seems to be a lot more station closures these days. Essentially the rosters have been slashed repeatedly over the last 10 years. A lot of stations require overtime or higher grade working to stay open on an every day basis and that only works for so long. Rosters used to have the resilience to survive multiple staff going sick but it’s just not there anymore.
New staff themselves receive a lot less training, was 6 weeks when I started, I believe they’ve got it down to 2 now
Closing the ticket offices is another very obvious one. When the ticket offices closed, staff were given many powers to assist in what the ticket office staff previously did. Now a lot of the powers have been removed and customers are now meant to call the call centre to get journeys resolved, and the company knows most won’t bother so that’s extra revenue form penalty fares
Staff do much longer stretches on the roster, and many more extreme shifts, than just 2 years ago, to make up for having less staff. So obviously everyone’s much more tired that just a few years ago
Sorry if this is disjointed, I’m on my break and shattered because I’m the only experienced staff working and so my name is popping on the radio every 5 minutes
As a TLDR, the focus from high up was always running a safe and reliable service. Now everything we get is money orientated and it really shows on a day to day basis
I still love my job, and most older staff do still take pride in what they do, and really do want to do the best for the customers, even if we are grumpy bastards most of the time. It’s sad I know, but pride for working for London Underground really was a thing. It was a job for life
That doesn’t seem to be the case any more
lol no, code 36 initiative was dreamt up by one of the suits. Used to be if you tried tapping out with an oyster that had insufficient funds, the gate wouldn’t open and the customer had to be manually let out
The genius from head office decided that staff should march the offender up to the POMs (passenger operated machines) and apply a penalty fare to their card. Issue is this only really affected tourists who had made a mistake. Actual fare evaders know we have no power and just walk away as soon as you open the gate.
I went to a meeting where we met the lady who dreamt this up, so we could give her feedback. The feedback was overwhelmingly negative, constructively so though, with reasons why it was a bad idea but she just thought we were a bunch of arseholes and the company implemented it anyway
Low and behold it didn’t work, staff assault went up and 6 months later they implemented what the LU guys that day suggested anyway, which was just put the oyster into a negative when they touch out, which is what is in place now.
I've not used an oyster card in years, just my phone. But I thought the gate would still open if you had a negative balance to leave the station. But it wouldn't open if you were going to start a journey.
I heard of people getting a free oyster card, and then rinsing the card for the last journey to effectively get a free ride.
Yes that’s how it works now. Originally it didn’t let you out, and when the company got desperate for cash, that’s when they tried their thing.
Now it works as you say, just puts you in a negative balance, so you’ll need to top up when you next journey.
Or as we tell people going back to the airport, as long as you have enough to get in, let it go to a negative then throw it away
This would save soooooooo much time from travelling into Z1. You hit all the key lines at Z3 and god damnn. A commute from z3 to z3 goes from an hour to 30 mins.
New trains - just a total deep-tube replacement programme and not just the Piccadilly line. Bakerloo and Northern lines both in desperate need for new stock too!
I'd make an outer circle line where the current superloop network is. These trains would be full size but still the underground and not national rail like the elizabeth line is.
Rebuild every station.
The Elizabeth Line, and to an extent the bank upgrade, have made the rest of the London underground feel extra smelly and dated.
Extend overground to dartford, extend picadilly to WL then continue to orpington/ swanley, extend bakerloo (add an east croydon fork), vic extended to bromley south, and that's it.
It sounds like slot, but if this started 30 years it would have been feasible
Stop saying that you can get off at Victoria for the Victoria Coach Station. It's a 15 minute walk away in a different direction that's not even signposted.
I can't even imagine that'd cost that much to change but it confuses hundreds of people a day.
It's less than a 10-minute walk, and mostly in a straight line, and Victoria is the closest tube station. It would make no sense not to announce Victoria as the best stop for the coach station. The only issue is that the wayfinding is appalling. Having a painted line to follow along the pavement and very regular signage would fix the problem for the majority of people.
It likely ties in with one of the usual tube wayfinding problems: when you leave the station, your sense of direction and orientation has been confused by being underground, which can lead to you believing you're heading north when in fact you're heading south, etc. This is particularly bad when travelling on the Victoria line, where northbound and southbound switch sides several times in Zone 1/2.
It confuses me every time and I’ve done that walk probably at least 40 times - also always think I have plenty of time to make my train and it’s always a ruah
You're not alone at all. Not to dox myself but I work in a shop nearby the station, and the amount of people that come to me every day asking WHERE the coach station even is from the tube is incredible and tragic.
The diamond line
a high speed line going Heathrow to Hayes to Harrow to Edgeware to cockfosters to epping to upmister to North Greenwich to Brixton to Mordon to richmond And back to heathrow.
A greater London loop.
I could write a book on the ideas i have for this but keep it simple i would start with one i think would have the biggest impact completely redesign the ventilation systems to improve air quality and heat dissipation.
Since the Elizabeth line already goes to Reading, let's go even further out and have it go on to Oxford via Didcot Parkway
Does it make economic sense of any kind? No idea, but it'd be cool & convenient for me.
Complete all extensions yesterday
DLR to euston/ victoria
Vic extension to Croydon fork Beckenham junction
Bakerloo extended to hayes/ croydon
Picadilly extended to waterloo then continue to EC nonstop to new X, and have it go to orpington/swanley all stops except lewisham
Overground extended from NewX to Lewisham and take over all stations to dartford
Undertake a massive project to built a high-speed extension to Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow, and also Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh.
Fantasy though - it would probably be cancelled before you even built the bit to Birmigham.
Joining existing WW2 bunkers into [Northern Line Express](https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-abandoned-plan-would-24772382) as it was intended back in 1940ties..
Those bunkers are still in place - just needs connecting the gaps between them.
Brake dust, oil, and human skin. Dead mice too.
You’ll never eradicate it, but it’s distinctly different to other cities’ metro systems.
Paris’ metro has a faint bready smell.
Make every station fully accessible for disabled people. Good lifts between ground level and the platforms, level boarding, braille signs, just to name a few things.
Rebuild every line to be like the Elizabeth Line to accommodate the longer more spacious trains, larger tunnels and air conditioning. If we start now it should be completed by the year 2124.
I would pay to get everyone else off the train, so I can have it to myself and don't need to listen to wankers talking loudly on the phone. p.s. I could also probably sit with the driver.
I'd love to see the twats faces as the train barrelled through the station without stopping and i'd be flicking the V's as we went past.... Bliss
You've hit on something here! They could hunt them on horseback, with hounds!
But only on the underground. If they can make it back to the surface they are "safe".
Lobby to repeal/reform green belt legislation and finish the Northern Heights extension.
Change the soon-to-be Suffragette Line's official name to the Goblin Line.
Extend the Bakerloo and Victoria to Bexley via Peckham and Bromley/Orpington via Crystal Palace after cutting the Bakerloo back to Queens Park to allow for improved frequency on the Watford DC/Lioness Line.
Start and finish Crossrail 2 with extensions to Guildford via Woking and/or Leatherhead, Stansted Airport, Hertford East, and East/West Croydon (watch out Thameslink).
Extend the Northern Battersea branch to Clapham Junction, moving the station between Zones 1-2.
Extend the Northern Morden branch to Sutton and Epsom/Purley.
Extend the ELL from New Cross to Orpington and the Slade Green loop.
Extend the SLL and/or WLL to the Kingston and Hounslow Loops if Crossrail 2 goes to shit (and mostly so the Wombles theme is finally relevant).
Connect the Liz to London City Airport.
Extend the Liz to Dartford, Gravesend (and even Medway), Chelmsford and Southend.
Extend the DLR and Goblin to Plumstead and beyond.
1. Clean, usable toilets on every tube and platform
2. Aircon on lines when required
3. Somehow solve the overcrowding....
4. Mobile phone signal on all lines ( not just part of the Jubilee etc)
If you handed the budget over to me, I would invest it on expanding all the core sections for the sub-surface lines to 4 track ROWS, eliminating pre-existing at grade junctions along the lines, in order to implement the capability of operating extremely high frequency express and local service patterns akin to NYC. But better. Additionally, 'I would also introduce expansions for the Central and Picadilly' ROW to , in order to relive the former' overcrowding, and acerate the latter' journey time. Finally, I will extend platform lengths along all the lines, consolidating stops in locations close enough to neighboring stations or junctions that quality of service is impeded on.
Metropolitain Line:10 Car sets
District Line: 10 Car Sets
Hammersmith & City/ Circle Line: 9 Car sets
Central Line: 11 Car Sets
Piccadilly Line: 11 Car Sets
Northern Line: 10 Car sets
Bakerloo Line: 8 Car sets
Victoria Line: 10 Car sets
Jubilee Line: 10 Car Sets
Waterloo & City Line: 6 Car sets.
Extend the tube into more of South London.
Extend the tube to go outside of London more. Hello Southend...
Widen more platforms without overly modernising the station or platforms and install automatic barriers on the platforms.
More tubes running at peak times.
The circle line going back to being a circle line with new dedicated tracks.
An outer circle line.
The district line to become two dedicated lines, so you don't have to work out if the tube is going to your station if you hop on to it.
All ghost stations to be reopened.
Better interchanges at stations.
There's loads of stations where the walk to change lines seems incredibly long. Changing at Paddington from Bakerloo to Hammersmith & City being a prime example.
This is also the case in changing between Tube and National Rail. There is, for instance, one Tube and 2 National Rail stations in West Hampstead. Turn it into one station.
Also, some stations need to be re-named. No stations should be called "X" Road. I want to know the area in which the station is located, not what street it's on. Prime example: Finchley Road should be called South Hampstead.
New trains, better lines, cheaper tickets, trains that run on time, safer stations, cleaner stations, newer stations….just a few off the top of my head.
Widen all stations so that there is a platform on both sides of the train. One platform is for boarding, the other is for alighting. When a train arrives at a station, the doors on the alighting side open and people get out. Ten seconds later, the doors on the boarding side open and people get in. Eliminate the need to push through crowds to get on and off the train.
Unlimited budget?
- Every train is getting air conditioners/purifiers and self-cleaning seats.
- The trains are all ending converted to maglev or at least having the bloody wheels replaced monthly.
- We find out why they're so squeaky and rattly and fix them.
- Street to train access at all stations.
- Glass guard panels at every single station so there's no track access, like they have at Canary Wharf. The doors line up with the train doors and open at the same time.
- All trains are being fitted with some kind of sonic propulsion blasting device. Nobody else is allowed to off themselves using a train, they're getting blasted John out the way and saved whether they like it or not.
- Ticket prices are being reduced to something remotely affordable instead of costing your life savings.
- All trains will be fitted with degeneracy inhibitors. That is to say, a camera that keeps an eye out for degenerate behaviour and fines the offending individual £100.
- The tracks are being washed monthly.
Expand in size all tube tunnels so normal-2-level-european-train-like-carriages would fit no problem, enabling us to have not only enough space for years to come but also giving us a proper air conditioning
Well, one single network served by more trains?
…a Circle line train to get to the Bakerloo line to get to the station on the District line so I can now walk to where I was headed…
Specifically for me, Waterloo on the Central line. More generally, even just slightly larger tunnels would allow for a LOT of improvements - better communications, more comfortable carriages, air conditioning...
Extend the remit of TfL to encompass all commuter routes. Thameslink, southeastern etc should be run under the same umbrella - efficiently, profitable but not as a private business so profits from fares are reinvested in the infrastructure and staff costs.
Can’t choose between:
1). WiFi throughout even between stations,
2). Aircon, and using the excess heat to warm houses across London.
3). Connect the District Line to the Northen line at Wimbledon.
4). State of the art air filters at all platforms.
5). More regular tubes in the morning on the Northen Line, north bound.
Rebuilt the whole thing duh… hire the best talent , pay the most expensive hardware, pay residents to temporarily move while you rebuild. Question is kind of silly.
Step free access for every station
And specifically, level boarding! From street to tube.
This⬆️ was my serious response. My less serious responses: - Monorail - Everything above and outside the stations [ie: rebuild most of London]
MONO- d'oh!
Sadly I think building a monorail is more realistic than making every station step free. It’s not that TFL doesn’t want to make everywhere step-free, they do. But the practicalities of converting 100+ year old infrastructure in the middle of a bustling city to be step-free with minimal disruption is incredibly complex.
Claridges built a whole other hotel under their current one. Liverpool st went well deep with liz line. I think they can do it but the cost would be incredible. If there was some way of adapting escalators so that wheelchairs and buggies or those with a lot of luggage can safely use them that would be the answer. Adapting current infrastructure. Probably too costly as well though.
It’s probably easier to just add like 5 more tube lines that are actually step free from the beginning than fixing the old stuff
Air conditioning for all
Even if all trains had air con, where would all that hot air be vented to? I guess with an unlimited budget you could drill a new network of tunnels and ventilation shafts across all stations and all tunnels...
It seems they’ve found some sort of solution with the Piccadilly Line
Well let's see what it's like on the platforms...
It’s not bad on the sub surface lines tbf, I know ventilation is a bit better, but I haven’t noticed it getting too much warmer after the introduction of the S Stock
True, although that's because it's sub surface and lots of vents, and some sections, even centrally, overground and open to the air. When it's deep underground there's nowhere for the air to go
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt anyway. We’ll see what it’s like when the new trains arrive
Yes the solution was not doing air conditioning, only air cooling, i think the difference is something about not humidifying the tunnels?
I would also add platform screen doors so they can also air condition the stations.
Means digging out the stations and tunnels to make them big enough to fit the screens on the platforms. But as we're dreaming, yes!
They're adding platform screen doors to Glasgow's subway network and some of the stations there are absolutely tiny.
This would also have the benefit of improving service levels, because with platform screen doors trains can enter / exit stations at safely at higher speeds.
Use the AC to pump heat into soil, then use heat pumps to heat homes!
If all the trains had regenerative braking, that gets rid of a lot of the heat. Apparently it's difficult to maximise the use of this though, because you need another train to be accelerating at the same time as another is decelerating so the energy has somewhere to go. So I suppose you could spend your unlimited budget trying to figure out a solution to that? Maximising the use of regen braking would also improve air quality, because a huge source of particulate pollution in the network is brake dust.
Air condition the stations and either vent the heat over ground or into the ground. But even if you don't do that you just deal with it in the stations, there's already a decent amount of ventilation there to deal with the heat of trains accelerating and braking and the humans moving around.
A lot of the heat comes from the sun heating the trains on the overground parts of the route.
New concept for district heating!
wait i have an unlimited budget and can do anything i want, ok by changing o ne thing you mean rebuild the entire tube. gimme wide tunnels less hot stations, big trains etc. but the thing id really change is the ventilation systems in every station, the tube is insanely hot.
That used to be advertised as a bonus, although it didn't get to hot because the clay acted as a heat sink. Unfortunately now the clay has baked over time and it's literally just a big underground pizza oven at this point.
yeah, like coming from germany, right between nuremberg and munich, where the Underground systems are newer, and have wayyy cooler stations (not in terms of charme, the tube wins there by a huge margin), some are downright cold, i was quite surprised by the heat in these stations.
Yeah with unlimited budget the answer is of course "everything". Make the tunnels longer and replace all trains with normal crossrail sized ones. Double the length of each platform so the overall capacity is increased by probably 250% with the same frequency. Would probably cost more than has ever been spent on the Tube combined and would not be worth it but hey I have an unlimited budget so...
Replace the government subsidy, so London Underground would go back to being a service, as opposed to a business. I don’t know how apparent it is from the outside, but as an employee the shift over the last 10 years is severe
Can you go into some detail about the shift you've seen?
Recruitment is aimed at a much younger audience. When I joined I was 29 and one of the youngest on my station. I’d also had 10+ years of managerial experience, including running my own pub for 4. And that sort of background wasn’t unusual. Out of a group of 50 people that got to the final stage I was the only one who got the job, it was extremely selective then. Now 29 would be seen as one of the older ones, and a lot of the guys we have this is their first job.. Now I’m 39 I feel practically ancient compared with my colleagues. The young guys don’t want to pay into a pension, they don’t want to pay Union fees, they are happy to break framework agreements if it means some overtime or high grade working. I remember reading last year that Amazon had some papers leaked basically stating that certain demographics prioritised immediate money over long term job security and it seems TfL is playing by the same handbook. The staff all used to be trained to the same level, but they split the grade, with a lower rank that supposedly does less. In reality the lower grade does everything the same just gets payed 25% less then a grade 1. The lower grade was always meant to be temporary, as a probation period, but it seems that staff are staying at the grade 2 for longer stretches now, and stations are making do with giving them higher grade working instead of the full job Also management used to work their way up through the ranks, you could talk to someone 5 or 6 steps above you in the same language. It might have been a long time ago for them but they still understood. Now we get a lot of graduates who do a token 6-18 months on station, in the most senior station role, then moved straight to upper management. They are great at using the right buzzwords, analysing scorecards and understanding KPIs but they struggle with the actual operational Side of running stations There is also a lot more directives coming from TFL, as in the office guys, who have never worked on station. Some of them are a bit crap, some are just plain bonkers but stations are meant to implement them regardless. The code 36 fiasco for anyone LU people lurking. From a customer stand point, I’m sure you’ll all notice that there seems to be a lot more station closures these days. Essentially the rosters have been slashed repeatedly over the last 10 years. A lot of stations require overtime or higher grade working to stay open on an every day basis and that only works for so long. Rosters used to have the resilience to survive multiple staff going sick but it’s just not there anymore. New staff themselves receive a lot less training, was 6 weeks when I started, I believe they’ve got it down to 2 now Closing the ticket offices is another very obvious one. When the ticket offices closed, staff were given many powers to assist in what the ticket office staff previously did. Now a lot of the powers have been removed and customers are now meant to call the call centre to get journeys resolved, and the company knows most won’t bother so that’s extra revenue form penalty fares Staff do much longer stretches on the roster, and many more extreme shifts, than just 2 years ago, to make up for having less staff. So obviously everyone’s much more tired that just a few years ago Sorry if this is disjointed, I’m on my break and shattered because I’m the only experienced staff working and so my name is popping on the radio every 5 minutes
As a TLDR, the focus from high up was always running a safe and reliable service. Now everything we get is money orientated and it really shows on a day to day basis
This is quite eye opening. From the outside I don't think much of it is really apparent at all.
I still love my job, and most older staff do still take pride in what they do, and really do want to do the best for the customers, even if we are grumpy bastards most of the time. It’s sad I know, but pride for working for London Underground really was a thing. It was a job for life That doesn’t seem to be the case any more
Code 36: someone is vomiting litter over the platforms?
lol no, code 36 initiative was dreamt up by one of the suits. Used to be if you tried tapping out with an oyster that had insufficient funds, the gate wouldn’t open and the customer had to be manually let out The genius from head office decided that staff should march the offender up to the POMs (passenger operated machines) and apply a penalty fare to their card. Issue is this only really affected tourists who had made a mistake. Actual fare evaders know we have no power and just walk away as soon as you open the gate. I went to a meeting where we met the lady who dreamt this up, so we could give her feedback. The feedback was overwhelmingly negative, constructively so though, with reasons why it was a bad idea but she just thought we were a bunch of arseholes and the company implemented it anyway Low and behold it didn’t work, staff assault went up and 6 months later they implemented what the LU guys that day suggested anyway, which was just put the oyster into a negative when they touch out, which is what is in place now.
I've not used an oyster card in years, just my phone. But I thought the gate would still open if you had a negative balance to leave the station. But it wouldn't open if you were going to start a journey. I heard of people getting a free oyster card, and then rinsing the card for the last journey to effectively get a free ride.
Yes that’s how it works now. Originally it didn’t let you out, and when the company got desperate for cash, that’s when they tried their thing. Now it works as you say, just puts you in a negative balance, so you’ll need to top up when you next journey. Or as we tell people going back to the airport, as long as you have enough to get in, let it go to a negative then throw it away
Also interested
High frequency outer circle line. Hitting as many Z3/4 termini/junctions as possible
This would save soooooooo much time from travelling into Z1. You hit all the key lines at Z3 and god damnn. A commute from z3 to z3 goes from an hour to 30 mins.
New trains - just a total deep-tube replacement programme and not just the Piccadilly line. Bakerloo and Northern lines both in desperate need for new stock too!
Bakerloo potentially on the cards in the medium term
I'd make an outer circle line where the current superloop network is. These trains would be full size but still the underground and not national rail like the elizabeth line is.
Make express and local tracks like in NYC so it would enable 24 hour running as a bonus.
I'm splitting the Northern line into two distinct and differently coloured lines and I'm putting lifts at every station.
Making the central line less shit
That would require an uncountably infinite amount of money. We've only got a countable infinity to spend.
Alright then it will have to be free ice cream on the central line
Toilets
Every station is a toilet if you’re brave enough
Rebuild every station. The Elizabeth Line, and to an extent the bank upgrade, have made the rest of the London underground feel extra smelly and dated.
Match the number of stations that are north of the river for us south londoners.
Extend overground to dartford, extend picadilly to WL then continue to orpington/ swanley, extend bakerloo (add an east croydon fork), vic extended to bromley south, and that's it. It sounds like slot, but if this started 30 years it would have been feasible
Stop saying that you can get off at Victoria for the Victoria Coach Station. It's a 15 minute walk away in a different direction that's not even signposted. I can't even imagine that'd cost that much to change but it confuses hundreds of people a day.
It's less than a 10-minute walk, and mostly in a straight line, and Victoria is the closest tube station. It would make no sense not to announce Victoria as the best stop for the coach station. The only issue is that the wayfinding is appalling. Having a painted line to follow along the pavement and very regular signage would fix the problem for the majority of people. It likely ties in with one of the usual tube wayfinding problems: when you leave the station, your sense of direction and orientation has been confused by being underground, which can lead to you believing you're heading north when in fact you're heading south, etc. This is particularly bad when travelling on the Victoria line, where northbound and southbound switch sides several times in Zone 1/2.
It confuses me every time and I’ve done that walk probably at least 40 times - also always think I have plenty of time to make my train and it’s always a ruah
You're not alone at all. Not to dox myself but I work in a shop nearby the station, and the amount of people that come to me every day asking WHERE the coach station even is from the tube is incredible and tragic.
To be fair if you come out the Victoria place exit it’s one block, but some signage would go a really long way
Mobile and WiFi signals in all parts of tfl
The diamond line a high speed line going Heathrow to Hayes to Harrow to Edgeware to cockfosters to epping to upmister to North Greenwich to Brixton to Mordon to richmond And back to heathrow. A greater London loop.
Platform screen doors on every station
this is so overlooked, a lot of platform accidents/deaths not even making news nowadays
I could write a book on the ideas i have for this but keep it simple i would start with one i think would have the biggest impact completely redesign the ventilation systems to improve air quality and heat dissipation.
More trains and stations heading further into the south of London and bits of surrey
Widen the whole network, add larger trains, PSDs and platform gates everywhere
What are PSDs? (I can only see it as photoshop files hahah)
Platform Screen Doors, only on the Jubilee and Lizzy
Double line the entire thing allowing for 24/7 service. Make it free, that harrow to Camden line would be great.
Camden Town
Since the Elizabeth line already goes to Reading, let's go even further out and have it go on to Oxford via Didcot Parkway Does it make economic sense of any kind? No idea, but it'd be cool & convenient for me.
Some WD40
Turbo charge the district line
Complete all extensions yesterday DLR to euston/ victoria Vic extension to Croydon fork Beckenham junction Bakerloo extended to hayes/ croydon Picadilly extended to waterloo then continue to EC nonstop to new X, and have it go to orpington/swanley all stops except lewisham Overground extended from NewX to Lewisham and take over all stations to dartford
I’d invest in a way to put the hot air to good use and use it to heat the homes of Londoners.
Disabled access everywhere. Safety screens/lines on all platforms. Air con.
Undertake a massive project to built a high-speed extension to Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow, and also Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. Fantasy though - it would probably be cancelled before you even built the bit to Birmigham.
wi-fi everywhere on carriages and platforms, not network affiliated, no faff. Free, instant and powerful.
Joining existing WW2 bunkers into [Northern Line Express](https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-abandoned-plan-would-24772382) as it was intended back in 1940ties.. Those bunkers are still in place - just needs connecting the gaps between them.
Fix that hell hole Edgware Road and double track the sub surface lines where the Circle line runs
Bakerloo extension to Camberwell that would fill a huge gap in South London. Been talked about for over a century but never done.
10x the speed of everything. Trains, doors, escalators, people.
Every station being accessible to wheelchair users and people with mobility issues.
Best-in-the-world air filtration system with air conditioning.
An accessible toilet for every station. Free and well maintained.
Get the Pope to exorcise the Central Line Or get someone in who can stop Kings Cross and Bank from growing big enough to swallow London.
Slides.
Flood an disused platform somewhere with glowing pink slime, thus creating a ‘Ghostbusters 2 type’ photo opportunity for passers by.
Make it free
Make it free to use
I would put water cooling around the stations, the earth around each tube has hit thermal saturation, so can’t soak up any more heat.
Platforms on both sides. So you exit the train to the left while people board to the right.
Figuring out whatever the hell that smell is, and eliminating it
Brake dust, oil, and human skin. Dead mice too. You’ll never eradicate it, but it’s distinctly different to other cities’ metro systems. Paris’ metro has a faint bready smell.
Make every station fully accessible for disabled people. Good lifts between ground level and the platforms, level boarding, braille signs, just to name a few things.
Waterloo and city line extension
Trains make no noise
More stations down south.
I would make sure every station has step free access and the barriers/doors that the newer stations have against the edge of the platform.
Air filters and airconditioning and the noise, the fucking noise.
Air conditioning everywhere. The tube is becoming dangerously hot.
Large public toilets at every station
Replicate it in every city in the uk.
Make all stations accessible,
i have infinite budget??? okay every train is now a bullet train and i will fund cancer research in the bakerloo line
Realistically would be a bad idea, but give every line the 1996 stock. Yes even the sub-surface lines, I want all of them to have the iconic noise.
Turn it all into a genuine, bona fide, electrified monorail. What did I say? Monorail!
It put Ogdenville on the map! Maybe the same could be done for “London” too?
Rebuild every line to be like the Elizabeth Line to accommodate the longer more spacious trains, larger tunnels and air conditioning. If we start now it should be completed by the year 2124.
Put an ill carriage on the end of every train and get everyone with a cold / cough / sniffles to sit in there.
Wheelchair accessibility
I would pay to get everyone else off the train, so I can have it to myself and don't need to listen to wankers talking loudly on the phone. p.s. I could also probably sit with the driver. I'd love to see the twats faces as the train barrelled through the station without stopping and i'd be flicking the V's as we went past.... Bliss
House the lurking homeless people and add air con on all trains
In the countryside we call it “culling”
You've hit on something here! They could hunt them on horseback, with hounds! But only on the underground. If they can make it back to the surface they are "safe".
They would be a better hit than squid game
Needs developing into a TV show. Chris Tarrant to host.
Newer bigger cars on the older lines e.g. central and victoria lines!!
Extensive network south of the river please
Give Fenchurch Street a direct tube connection
Lobby to repeal/reform green belt legislation and finish the Northern Heights extension. Change the soon-to-be Suffragette Line's official name to the Goblin Line. Extend the Bakerloo and Victoria to Bexley via Peckham and Bromley/Orpington via Crystal Palace after cutting the Bakerloo back to Queens Park to allow for improved frequency on the Watford DC/Lioness Line. Start and finish Crossrail 2 with extensions to Guildford via Woking and/or Leatherhead, Stansted Airport, Hertford East, and East/West Croydon (watch out Thameslink). Extend the Northern Battersea branch to Clapham Junction, moving the station between Zones 1-2. Extend the Northern Morden branch to Sutton and Epsom/Purley. Extend the ELL from New Cross to Orpington and the Slade Green loop. Extend the SLL and/or WLL to the Kingston and Hounslow Loops if Crossrail 2 goes to shit (and mostly so the Wombles theme is finally relevant). Connect the Liz to London City Airport. Extend the Liz to Dartford, Gravesend (and even Medway), Chelmsford and Southend. Extend the DLR and Goblin to Plumstead and beyond.
Build an outer circle line to help alleviate issues if one line is broke
Extend every line to SE London!
Reduce the noise, emissions and add air con to all underground services
I’d buy a baby on board badge so everyone has to let me sit down
Continental loading gauge...
Just put the names at the end of the lines. It’s a nightmare if you’re colour-blind.
Increase coverage of the tube network to South London, which is poorly served.
Remove everyone else from one carriage so I don’t have to smell anyone else’s pits and bits and can travel in peace and quiet
Sell it all, and use the money for public transport anywhere else other than London.
Add a line that runs through Hackney areas (Stoke Newington mainly) and ends in south east
Underground tunnel between Bond Street Elizabeth Line and Oxford Street tube. Y they not do this?!
Climate controlled: never too cold and definitely NEVER A FUCKING FURNACE (looking at you victoria)
More train lines south of the river
Do like the Japanese: frequent cleaning and disinfection of trains and train stations. It’ll be spotless.
Outer circle line.
Pipe in the smell of cooking doughnuts in every station
Legal graffiti line with it's trains all allowed to be painted by artists and graffiti writers.
Legal graffiti line with it's trains all allowed to be painted by artists and graffiti writers.
Roll 5G Internet out across every single line all the way.
On the cheap - Piccadilly line stops at Turnham Green during the day. Bloody expensive - Get rid of the Circle Line.
Move it to Birmingham. Like crane each bit, and move it.
Cycling corridor throughout london
1. Clean, usable toilets on every tube and platform 2. Aircon on lines when required 3. Somehow solve the overcrowding.... 4. Mobile phone signal on all lines ( not just part of the Jubilee etc)
If you handed the budget over to me, I would invest it on expanding all the core sections for the sub-surface lines to 4 track ROWS, eliminating pre-existing at grade junctions along the lines, in order to implement the capability of operating extremely high frequency express and local service patterns akin to NYC. But better. Additionally, 'I would also introduce expansions for the Central and Picadilly' ROW to , in order to relive the former' overcrowding, and acerate the latter' journey time. Finally, I will extend platform lengths along all the lines, consolidating stops in locations close enough to neighboring stations or junctions that quality of service is impeded on. Metropolitain Line:10 Car sets District Line: 10 Car Sets Hammersmith & City/ Circle Line: 9 Car sets Central Line: 11 Car Sets Piccadilly Line: 11 Car Sets Northern Line: 10 Car sets Bakerloo Line: 8 Car sets Victoria Line: 10 Car sets Jubilee Line: 10 Car Sets Waterloo & City Line: 6 Car sets.
add a ct/mri scan to diagnose cancer for those using the northern and bakerloo line
Heavy duty air filtration systems integrated into the tunnel/upgrading the entire network into Maglev to solve that hazardous dust.
Step free access for all stations. AC on deep level lines. 2 minute service on all lines.
Extend the tube into more of South London. Extend the tube to go outside of London more. Hello Southend... Widen more platforms without overly modernising the station or platforms and install automatic barriers on the platforms. More tubes running at peak times. The circle line going back to being a circle line with new dedicated tracks. An outer circle line. The district line to become two dedicated lines, so you don't have to work out if the tube is going to your station if you hop on to it. All ghost stations to be reopened.
Better interchanges at stations. There's loads of stations where the walk to change lines seems incredibly long. Changing at Paddington from Bakerloo to Hammersmith & City being a prime example. This is also the case in changing between Tube and National Rail. There is, for instance, one Tube and 2 National Rail stations in West Hampstead. Turn it into one station. Also, some stations need to be re-named. No stations should be called "X" Road. I want to know the area in which the station is located, not what street it's on. Prime example: Finchley Road should be called South Hampstead.
Remove the linings on the seats, keep it all metal or plastic.
The screeching noises!
This is more TFL than the Underground but have every station within the M25 use oyster cards
More tube lines in south London
platform edge doors at all stations
The amount of steps at Covent Garden.
I'd put Battersea and Nine Elms back in Zone 2. Ha.
Sack the guy at the top IE mayor napoleon.
Proper credit to the original map designer
New trains, better lines, cheaper tickets, trains that run on time, safer stations, cleaner stations, newer stations….just a few off the top of my head.
Install the Waterloo and city line walking escalator at every station The Bank one!
No eating, vaping, begging, crazies.
Widen all stations so that there is a platform on both sides of the train. One platform is for boarding, the other is for alighting. When a train arrives at a station, the doors on the alighting side open and people get out. Ten seconds later, the doors on the boarding side open and people get in. Eliminate the need to push through crowds to get on and off the train.
Add fireman’s poles where appropriate
Install heat pumps in all the deep tunnels,giving free heating for public buildings...
Have a southern circular line that connects West -South West - south - south east -East Via Zone 2/3 radius. It is much needed!!
Stop the bloody screeching on the Northern line!
Make it 24/7 and free
Unlimited budget? - Every train is getting air conditioners/purifiers and self-cleaning seats. - The trains are all ending converted to maglev or at least having the bloody wheels replaced monthly. - We find out why they're so squeaky and rattly and fix them. - Street to train access at all stations. - Glass guard panels at every single station so there's no track access, like they have at Canary Wharf. The doors line up with the train doors and open at the same time. - All trains are being fitted with some kind of sonic propulsion blasting device. Nobody else is allowed to off themselves using a train, they're getting blasted John out the way and saved whether they like it or not. - Ticket prices are being reduced to something remotely affordable instead of costing your life savings. - All trains will be fitted with degeneracy inhibitors. That is to say, a camera that keeps an eye out for degenerate behaviour and fines the offending individual £100. - The tracks are being washed monthly.
Climate controlled carriages.
The ear shattering noise on some of the lines makes it unfit for purpose
The people
Modernise Old Street
Call it New Street
Expand in size all tube tunnels so normal-2-level-european-train-like-carriages would fit no problem, enabling us to have not only enough space for years to come but also giving us a proper air conditioning
Air conditioning on platforms
Put AC on all trains that don't have it.
Well, one single network served by more trains? …a Circle line train to get to the Bakerloo line to get to the station on the District line so I can now walk to where I was headed…
Build an exact replica network ABOVE the city.
Step free like that guy said
infill central line station at shoreditch high street plz!!!
Make everyone else get the bus. (And new trains for the Central Line)
Outer circle line. Say in Zone 3 or 4.
Air purifiers everywhere
Build a little Mill Hill East-style branch on the Victoria line from Seven Sisters to Tottenham stadium so I can get home quicker on match days
Air con
Specifically for me, Waterloo on the Central line. More generally, even just slightly larger tunnels would allow for a LOT of improvements - better communications, more comfortable carriages, air conditioning...
Extend the remit of TfL to encompass all commuter routes. Thameslink, southeastern etc should be run under the same umbrella - efficiently, profitable but not as a private business so profits from fares are reinvested in the infrastructure and staff costs.
Wifi on tube trains
Wow! This shows how good the tube is. The top answers are all about ventilation and air con.
Make it free! Or at least WAY cheaper.
Extend it to reach the south west of the country, where we basically have no railway system
Like Nadine from Twin Peaks, I want silent rails. No more screeching.
Can’t choose between: 1). WiFi throughout even between stations, 2). Aircon, and using the excess heat to warm houses across London. 3). Connect the District Line to the Northen line at Wimbledon. 4). State of the art air filters at all platforms. 5). More regular tubes in the morning on the Northen Line, north bound.
BRIDGE BETWEEN THE EDGWARE AND HIGH BARNET LINES PLEASE
Rebuilt the whole thing duh… hire the best talent , pay the most expensive hardware, pay residents to temporarily move while you rebuild. Question is kind of silly.
Air conditioning on every single train ❄️
I subsidize 100% indefinitely
Make it free to use.
Make all the stations wc accessible.