Too Much Panic In This Town: London Underground Drivers play Spielberg
July 13, 2007 5:49 PM   Subscribe

Some commuters are nervous about London Underground drivers filming journeys on their camera phones and posting them on YouTube. YouTube links all. BBC Story.
posted by nthdegx (22 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Possibly a good time to reacquaint ourselves with Fitness to Practice's London Underground. Previously.
posted by nthdegx at 5:50 PM on July 13, 2007


Those vids were strangely quite enjoyable.

"We don't think it poses a risk but we don't think they should be doing it."

How does that work, exactly?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:57 PM on July 13, 2007


I saw someone (a brown skinned someone, of course) get pulled off a New Jersey Transit train in Newark last weekend by four beefy cops because other passengers didn't like the way he was "writing things" and "taking pictures of the signs."
posted by footnote at 6:01 PM on July 13, 2007


Anything not mandatory is strictly prohibited.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:01 PM on July 13, 2007 [4 favorites]


I got practically interrogated by a woman who worked a local credit union I was photographing. She made references to several bank robberies that happened nowhere near where we were. We all know that cameras are only used for nefarious purposes. Right?


Right??
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 6:05 PM on July 13, 2007


CitrusFreak12 writes "Right??"

Right ! Indeed when people come with a camera, you know they are distracting security from another guy who is actually entering the building while the guard is busy posing.
posted by elpapacito at 6:15 PM on July 13, 2007


This is cool footage. Thanks.
posted by serazin at 6:32 PM on July 13, 2007


Paddington-Hammersmith is worth it for one of its comments alone.

"Travelled many times on this route during 1946/47 when I was cloakroom lad at Hammersmith. Still remember the stink of smoke from the panniers to Smithfield."
posted by grabbingsand at 6:34 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Wait a sec... I didn't see anything in that article implying that people were concerned about photography and terrah, just that they think the driver's hands should be on the controls and not the camera.

Personally, I think it's cool. I always feel a simple enjoyment sitting in the first L car looking down the tunnel.
posted by rlk at 6:35 PM on July 13, 2007


Yes. These are very cool, thanks.

(I'm a train nut, which these days is considered as being somewhere around copraphilia on the social acceptability scale)
posted by Artful Codger at 6:44 PM on July 13, 2007


If only you could have worked Ted Stevens into this post...
posted by Tube at 6:53 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


just that they think the driver's hands should be on the controls

If the driver takes their hands off the controls when the train is moving, the emergency brakes activate immediately*. I don't think any of these are handheld.

(* Unless it's the Central Line, which is automatic so the opposite applies)
posted by cillit bang at 6:57 PM on July 13, 2007


Wait a sec... I didn't see anything in that article implying that people were concerned about photography and terrah

Oh, ha, I just assumed... I guess that's commentary on the sad state of things in and of itself. That, or my lack of reading skills.
posted by footnote at 6:57 PM on July 13, 2007


Yeh, some of those are pretty mesmerising. Or, they would be, but god they're slow. Tube doesn't feel that slow when I'm on it, usually.

Course, this is how an underground should be run. In fact, there's a driver's eye view for about 5 seconds, 6 minutes into this
posted by bonaldi at 7:35 PM on July 13, 2007


NY subway would be really cool and mesmerizing too, except for smells and noise. If they sound proofed the cars really well and did something about noise & the wheels, maybe make larger radius turns or have the wheels turn a little bit when the car is turning, and also had better ventilation in all cars (actually some newer cars have excellent ventilation but they're nearly always too cold); then riding the train and looking at multi-colored lights floating by could be pretty amazing. Add appropriate spacey music on headphones and it'd be really neat. I don't know why they have multi-colored lights, but at some sections of track they are arranged very tastefully behind columns, really trippy. Riding the first car is even nicer, but looking from the side window also works fine.
posted by rainy at 8:02 PM on July 13, 2007


Count me in on the tube nut brigade, which is kind of masochistic given the amount of hours of my life wasted as a result of delays, 'signal failures', 'defective trains' and other problems...

I love the 'park ride' feeling you get riding by the front window on the frist car of New york subway trains and always wondered what it looked like from the driver's perspective in London.
posted by blogenstock at 12:13 AM on July 14, 2007




If they sound proofed the cars really well and did something about noise & the wheels

The Paris Metro uses pneumatic wheels and is advert free. Most pleasant.

Train arrives and leaves station
.

View from inside carriage. Light, clean and quiet.
posted by asok at 2:29 AM on July 14, 2007


Christof Delin needs to make better use of his time.
posted by Optamystic at 3:10 AM on July 14, 2007


Many years ago, the people over at h2g2.com were kind enough to send me a postcard that had on the back a simplified version of the London Underground Map. te adoro mucho. One thing I wish I could do before I die, is right the London Underground to Mornington Crescent. I really don't like to travel, but I'd love to do that. I don't know why. I just do. However, it is perhaps more the romanticism that makes me wish to experience it for real. I fear actually doing that would not live up to my expectations. Probably for the best to keep some fantasies unreal.

There was a thread not too long ago where people were putting cameras on conveyor belts or in tributaries at those special chinese restaurants. I think this is happening everywhere - not just in the London Underground. There are simply some people who do not like being photographed without permission.

A monitored society is an impolite society.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:32 PM on July 14, 2007


A 6 car party on Chicago El
posted by orelius at 2:36 PM on July 14, 2007


"One thing I wish I could do before I die, is right the London Underground to Mornington Crescent.."

*blink*

RIDE! I meant to say ride! Now I may be getting senile in my old age but I know I typed that in correctly.

...no. I didn't type that incorrectly. I typed that IN ...correctly! I typed that right! Dangit! I cry gremlins! Little gremlins in The Blue messin' wiff mah typinz! Makin' mee wook stoopidz!
posted by ZachsMind at 8:48 PM on July 14, 2007


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