Let Glasgow Flourish
April 14, 2021 3:02 PM Subscribe
It would be almost as funny to see the same for the Edinburgh tram network, which was pulled out in the 1950s only to be reinstalled sixty years later at five times the cost of the Apollo program.
Also, no thread about the Clockwork Orange would be complete without mentioning the Glasgow Subway Challenge, which is: to get off a train at Buchanan St, run like hell one station down to St Enoch, and get back onto the same train.
posted by automatronic at 3:12 PM on April 14, 2021 [9 favorites]
Also, no thread about the Clockwork Orange would be complete without mentioning the Glasgow Subway Challenge, which is: to get off a train at Buchanan St, run like hell one station down to St Enoch, and get back onto the same train.
posted by automatronic at 3:12 PM on April 14, 2021 [9 favorites]
come on mini metro and give us a bloody glasgow map already.
posted by zsh2v1 at 3:17 PM on April 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by zsh2v1 at 3:17 PM on April 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
I guess this was an april fool's joke but Toronto's wouldn't be a hell of a lot better.
posted by mhoye at 3:18 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 3:18 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
What a rabbit hole! After watching the video I saw mention of how ineffective the line is now for visitors. . That mentioned the Oran Mor, so I had to learn a bit about that. And then, a bit of magic:
Something tickled the back of my mind, and I realized it was a site of a Gray Day as mentioned on the blue..
[ I was having a day, then. Forgive me. ]
posted by grimjeer at 3:33 PM on April 14, 2021
We offer a Victorian Bar and Whisky Bar, John Muir Room Restaurant and Brasserie Restaurant, Private Dining Room, Live Music Venue, Night Club, and our stunning Auditorium with mural ceiling by Alasdair Gray.
Something tickled the back of my mind, and I realized it was a site of a Gray Day as mentioned on the blue..
[ I was having a day, then. Forgive me. ]
posted by grimjeer at 3:33 PM on April 14, 2021
Heh. No wonder St George's cross.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:28 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:28 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
Worth the watch.
posted by obfuscation at 4:46 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by obfuscation at 4:46 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I guess this was an april fool's joke but Toronto's wouldn't be a hell of a lot better.
Hey now, the new one stop Scarborough line should be up and running in another 10 years or so.
posted by rodlymight at 5:10 PM on April 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
Hey now, the new one stop Scarborough line should be up and running in another 10 years or so.
posted by rodlymight at 5:10 PM on April 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
My colleague was a transportation planner in Glasgow a number of decades ago, and his bachelor party involved a pub crawl on the Glasgow subway, visiting a pub at every stop. With 15 stops, that's a pretty full night, even by Glaswegian standards I reckon.
posted by Superilla at 5:37 PM on April 14, 2021
posted by Superilla at 5:37 PM on April 14, 2021
That being said I spent most of a day in Glasgow, getting around by foot and bus, and the traffic seemed fine so maybe they don't need to expand their subway.
... WELL....
WELL!
let's just say, being a loner international student who always forgot the strategy to club a taxi together (this is pre-Uber days for me, but when I discovered Glasgow Taxi's phone number...), not wanting to wait for the bus (the network is actually very extensive and had an realtime updates on the app, but I'm just raised to disbelieve bus arrival times), Asian grocery days involved me walking all the way from Kelvinhaugh Road area past the national theatre academy building (IIRC) just to get to the really nice East Asian shop where I could get more Southeast Asian stuff (the South Asian shops are more common in my area but they won't stock the East/Southeast stuff). At least a 45 min walk each way. Or when I was volunteering at a school in Maryhill and that required a walk past a water reservoir/catchment area for about 25 brisk minutes (this was a route chosen by the club organiser too). Being a car culture person, that was a year of a lot of walking.
The circle is cute though, I know I used the West End side of it extensively, but I'm screwed the moment I need to go past Queen Margaret's Park (see my reflexive habit to not use the bus). Did a lot of cardio though! And it's a pleasant city to walk in. And knowing all the stops in the line is a mainstay pub quiz question.
posted by cendawanita at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
... WELL....
WELL!
let's just say, being a loner international student who always forgot the strategy to club a taxi together (this is pre-Uber days for me, but when I discovered Glasgow Taxi's phone number...), not wanting to wait for the bus (the network is actually very extensive and had an realtime updates on the app, but I'm just raised to disbelieve bus arrival times), Asian grocery days involved me walking all the way from Kelvinhaugh Road area past the national theatre academy building (IIRC) just to get to the really nice East Asian shop where I could get more Southeast Asian stuff (the South Asian shops are more common in my area but they won't stock the East/Southeast stuff). At least a 45 min walk each way. Or when I was volunteering at a school in Maryhill and that required a walk past a water reservoir/catchment area for about 25 brisk minutes (this was a route chosen by the club organiser too). Being a car culture person, that was a year of a lot of walking.
The circle is cute though, I know I used the West End side of it extensively, but I'm screwed the moment I need to go past Queen Margaret's Park (see my reflexive habit to not use the bus). Did a lot of cardio though! And it's a pleasant city to walk in. And knowing all the stops in the line is a mainstay pub quiz question.
posted by cendawanita at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
That was also the year I never got to the central mosque or just any of the congregational activities on time, because i can never be organised enough to plan out my trip using the trains (which were really punctual but of course longer intervals). RIP all my Eid plans lol.
posted by cendawanita at 5:44 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 5:44 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
I have spent so much time on that subway. Just thinking of it reminds me of the sound (extreme noise terror: imagine the Tardis in a tumble-dryer), the dynamics (buttock-wrenching shoogles as you hit every corner sideways, almost catching air before hitting the slowdown for the next station, signalled by the brake pressure gauge in the middle of the car slowly beginning to rise), the horrors (getting on a train and discovering you weren't quite clever enough to avoid the Old Firm crowd) and the smell (unique: dankness mixed with creosote and a tiny hint of grave-clay). And the trains are tiny: I mean, anyone taller than a kid can't stand up straight in one.
I'd send this to a friend who's the transport and industry editor of the FT whose dad was the engineer brought in to do the late-1970s redesign. I think it would depress him too much, though. Apart from replacing the creaky old carriages, the major change after the upgrade was that there was a maintenance loop track. For roughly 80 years before that, every train car was individually lifted off the tracks every night by a crane, and put back on the tracks in the morning.
posted by scruss at 5:44 PM on April 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
I'd send this to a friend who's the transport and industry editor of the FT whose dad was the engineer brought in to do the late-1970s redesign. I think it would depress him too much, though. Apart from replacing the creaky old carriages, the major change after the upgrade was that there was a maintenance loop track. For roughly 80 years before that, every train car was individually lifted off the tracks every night by a crane, and put back on the tracks in the morning.
posted by scruss at 5:44 PM on April 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
The Weegie ouroboros. I remember it well.
posted by aeshnid at 5:55 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by aeshnid at 5:55 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
For a second when it started with the zoomed-out map of Europe, I thought maybe they were going to do something silly like show the whole video at that zoom level.
posted by ckape at 6:24 PM on April 14, 2021
posted by ckape at 6:24 PM on April 14, 2021
It would be almost as funny to see the same for the Edinburgh tram network,
I guess this was an april fool's joke but Toronto's wouldn't be a hell of a lot better.
Hi, I'm from Sydney, and we literally built a monorail. Its empty, decaying stations still loom above the city streets!
posted by other barry at 10:27 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I guess this was an april fool's joke but Toronto's wouldn't be a hell of a lot better.
Hi, I'm from Sydney, and we literally built a monorail. Its empty, decaying stations still loom above the city streets!
posted by other barry at 10:27 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Not quite as high production quality, but here is Shanghai's. Couldn't find one for Nanjing but it would look very similar in scope of growth and size to this. Plenty to complain about but I guess this is one thing that a planned economy can do well...
posted by Meatbomb at 12:10 AM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 12:10 AM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
buttock-wrenching shoogles
if I ever need a new username...
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:11 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
if I ever need a new username...
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:11 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also, no thread about the Clockwork Orange would be complete without mentioning the Glasgow Subway Challenge
The MBTA's Park Street and Downtown Crossing are pretty close to each other and connected underground by the Winter Street Concourse which is right above the Red Line tunnel and entirely within fare control. One time I managed to get off at Park Street, go up the stairs into the concourse, briskly walk to Downtown Crossing, and come back down a level just in time to see the doors close on the train I had previously been on.
To be fair though, a large part of this feat was made possible by how slow the MBTA can be.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:43 AM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
The MBTA's Park Street and Downtown Crossing are pretty close to each other and connected underground by the Winter Street Concourse which is right above the Red Line tunnel and entirely within fare control. One time I managed to get off at Park Street, go up the stairs into the concourse, briskly walk to Downtown Crossing, and come back down a level just in time to see the doors close on the train I had previously been on.
To be fair though, a large part of this feat was made possible by how slow the MBTA can be.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:43 AM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Whew, that brings back some memories! First time I ever rode the Clockwork Orange as a naive young study abroad student, I hopped on with a Weegie friend who told me it was free to ride. Until we had to jump off at an earlier stop because the conductor was heading our way.
posted by Preserver at 7:50 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Preserver at 7:50 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Leipzig is full of defunct and half ripped out tram tracks. How is it possible that we are in the 2020s and have less public transit than people a hundred years ago?! They didn't even know about global warming AND had way fewer people... And people are like, how do we solve these problems? First, maybe stop UNsolving them!
posted by starfishprime at 9:26 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by starfishprime at 9:26 AM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
the loop in Glasgow is totally adorable
posted by noiseanoise at 10:04 AM on April 15, 2021
posted by noiseanoise at 10:04 AM on April 15, 2021
Always fun when you're at the opposite end of the circle from where you want to get off and stand there staring at the map, wondering whether to get the Inner or Outer... then realise it's probably a choice between 25 or 26 minutes journey time and you just wasted 2 minutes wondering.
It would be almost as funny to see the same for the Edinburgh tram network, which was pulled out in the 1950s only to be reinstalled sixty years later at five times the cost of the Apollo program.
It exists! Done by the excellent @cocteautriplets on twitter. It doesn't have the new line (singular) on it, but you can compare the tram map in 1920 with the tram map today for lolz. A fairer comparison might be with today's bus map, as many of the tram lines were just switched to bus routes, bearing the same numbers today as they did a century ago. And Edinburgh has the rare distinction of being a city whose residents (mostly) heap praise on its bus network. No coincidence that its essentially publicly-owned.
He also did one of Edinburgh's railways over the years, which is hugely depressing apart from the fact that so many of the old railway lines were turned into leafy, traffic-free cycle and footpaths after they closed down (though a little alarming to be down in the cuttings alone after dark, and given that it's dark not long after 3.30pm in winter, not quite as much of a boon as they might be).
posted by penguin pie at 2:51 PM on April 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
It would be almost as funny to see the same for the Edinburgh tram network, which was pulled out in the 1950s only to be reinstalled sixty years later at five times the cost of the Apollo program.
It exists! Done by the excellent @cocteautriplets on twitter. It doesn't have the new line (singular) on it, but you can compare the tram map in 1920 with the tram map today for lolz. A fairer comparison might be with today's bus map, as many of the tram lines were just switched to bus routes, bearing the same numbers today as they did a century ago. And Edinburgh has the rare distinction of being a city whose residents (mostly) heap praise on its bus network. No coincidence that its essentially publicly-owned.
He also did one of Edinburgh's railways over the years, which is hugely depressing apart from the fact that so many of the old railway lines were turned into leafy, traffic-free cycle and footpaths after they closed down (though a little alarming to be down in the cuttings alone after dark, and given that it's dark not long after 3.30pm in winter, not quite as much of a boon as they might be).
posted by penguin pie at 2:51 PM on April 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:10 PM on April 14, 2021 [3 favorites]