Most of the time I stumble thorough my daily commute with relatively no surprises (okay except for the woman having a panic attack in the aisle in of me or the coat rack that travelled all the way to the end of the line with no one claiming it – how do you forget a coat rack?) but the other day in the middle of my routine haze I got on the tube and noticed that the seat cushions actually looked clean and there wasn’t leftover gum/kebab salad/baby food/puke ground into the floor. It was at that point i realised I found the golden ticket – the one brand new tube train on the Victoria line (there are apparently more than one but I don’t believe it)
The trains were not vastly different starting with the fact that the seats were clean and slightly shorter so there is more room in the aisles. There was apparently new ventilation so the air is cleaner and the old favourites like cctv cameras in each car and LCD screens telling you what stop you are approaching. They have replaced the ‘mind the gap’ lady with a more automated version and the ‘watch out the doors are closing’ beeping that went on before has been replaced with an 1980′s computer error noise which became more annoying as the trip went on.
So I’ve been lucky enough to see the future…sadly there was no wifi, mobile phone signal or a bar car so it’s not that exciting. I will gladly go back to burying my face in my free newspaper and hope that the extra inch of leg room and better ventilation will help those prone to panic attacks.
Tube seat as they are now - Notice the dirty grey colour, permanent bum imprints and dirty slouchy faux blue leather back
The new tube seat - notice the lack of bum-print, uniform colouring and practically clean overall look
Advertising dedicated to telling you what is new...soon to be replaced with ads that they actually make money on
All shiny and new...you can almost see yourself in that floor!
