London Transport To World Travel Market Through the Eyes of a Visitor

Rainbow lines interlock and criss-cross forming circles, loops and rectangles, a complex schematic holding the key to efficient movement across the city for those who know the code. Victoria, Waterloo, DLR, London Overground and National Rail.

London Underground map and Oyster Cards

People rush down tiled passages, slipstreaming to right and left, barely glancing away from their iPhones and iPads as they scurry along familiar routes.

Trains scream; the wind roars down tunnels and along platforms sending hair flailing and dust particles spinning; neon signs flash 5mins, 4mins, 3mins, 2.

Inside the trains eye contact is taboo. Faces peer at screens across which thumbs move deftly; the Metro News gets passed from fingers to seats to fingers in real time recycling. Seats vacate and occupy at lightening speed like a game of well rehearsed musical chairs and space morphs from ample to premium in the rhythmical opening of doors.

London Underground train, the Tube

“The next stop”, “mind the doors” and “change here for…” intones the PA system in a bright, BBC accent while all around voices talk on phones and to each other in languages that bring the globe within a single carriage.

And everywhere the urgency is palpable. Crowds hurtle along corridors beneath the ‘Do not run’ signs, taking stairs two at a time, throwing themselves between closing doors. Bodies surge forward as doors glide open, joining Mother Nature in her abhorrence of a vacuum as they squeeze into gaps that don’t exist, personal space sacrificed to time.

Confused beyond words, we ask for help:
“How can we get from here to World Travel Market at Excel for the next three days without the aid of a second mortgage?”
Careful explanations are given, routes are weighed up in terms of speed versus costs and a solution is agreed. Cards are issued, payments are made, advice is given – “ping the pink for transition, swipe the yellow for exit”. It becomes our daily mantra.

Each time we hesitate before stepping from platform to train a friendly face is there to reassure or redirect. From Stratford our every move is choreographed over the PA system: “this exit for press, that for new registrations”; “change at Canning Town”; “services are good”.

Soon we’ve joined the throng of humanity that twice daily traverses the city, our disposable coffee cups in hand, faces scanning our screens for #WTM2012 updates, our feet taking us unconsciously competently from Overground to Underground to DLR to WTM at lightening speed and little cost, pinging the pink and swiping the yellow as we go.

There must be days, or weeks when Londoners face delays and rail at the rails for failed appointments, wasted time and late arrivals but through the eyes of a visitor, this is a fast, efficient, clean and cost effective way of travelling around the greatest capital city in the world.
Thank you London.

Andrea (Andy) Montgomery is a freelance travel writer and co-owner of Buzz Trips and The Real Tenerife series of travel websites. Published in The Telegraph, The Independent, Wexas Traveller, Thomas Cook Travel Magazine, EasyJet Traveller Magazine, you can read her latest content on Google+

About Andy 227 Articles
Andrea (Andy) Montgomery is an author, freelance travel writer, award-winning blogger, and co-owner of Buzz Trips and The Real Tenerife series of travel websites and travel guides. Author of The banana Road - It's Tenerife But Not As You Know It and Pocket Rough Guide Tenerife & La Gomera. Former Tenerife Expert for The Telegraph and Overseas Consultant for Inntravel. Published in The Independent, The Telegraph, Wexas Traveller, Thomas Cook Travel Magazine, EasyJet Traveller Magazine and Wizz.

2 Comments

  1. Love this post. My experience was just the same, although how you ever found a train as empty as the one in the photo mystifies me! I have to tell you that perhaps locals were not so impressed last week though – apparently what they do is take carriages off the existing services to make up the extra trains for WTM – my son complained that his daily commute was longer and more uncomfortable those days because the there were less carriages on his trains!

    • Ah yes – the empty carriage was late morning from Willesden Junction en route to Stratford, well beyond rush hour. I guess someone had to pay for the efficiency we experienced as WTM commuters…my apologies to your son!

Leave a Reply to Andy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.