Can someone explain the "tube mice" comment?
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Northern Line Battersea Extension - Opened September 20 2021
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Huge numbers of mice live in London Underground tunnels. The Northern Line seems to be particularly infested. It's only a matter of time until they find their way down this nice new branch to Battersea.
Incidentally, I noticed these new stations don't have a 'suicide pit', which i imagine is because the tunnels have an escape walkway all the way down, but one thing I wondered is if this would affect any mice, since that's normally where they're found. And if the trackbed is higher, maybe they'll be more inclined to jump up on to the platforms...
ChiefPlanner
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The tube mice have mutated over the years (like the peppered moth) so they are slate-ish grey and blend well with the concrete roadbed. Have seen them on platfroms a few times.
I know i am getting off-topic but surely there are better food sources than found in Underground tunnels?
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
Someone could do a PhD on this - but it is warm , dry , no cats and other predators down there and clearly some food around of sufficient quantity. What is not to like.
My father was an NCB manager for many years and they had mice down various Welsh coal mines - the Tube is paradise in comparsion.
185143
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I did it once. Pretended I was asleep in case anyone came past on the platform, and stayed on the train back to Waterloo to connect onto a SWT.
Tried to do it again sat there with a suitcase, thinking I'd play the "dumb tourist" card. Driver shut the doors, then someone must have seen me as she reopened them and made an announcement saying that this train is not in service.
Adult mice need about 3-5 grams of food a day. That's about two dropped McDonalds fries.
AlbertBeale
Established Member
(Other - less ideologically suspect - brands of fried potato pieces are available...)
You'd be surprised at the errors that creep through. At a local school, of all places, was a big green sign with "fire assembly ponit" written on it. It has been corrected recently but was incorrect for at least five years.
The new stations do have pits in stations.
It’s a litter trap; litter falls into the pit and the glass reinforced plastic grid in this case (elsewhere they can be metal) grid reduces the likelihood it gets blown down the tunnel or into the train.
The wooden thing at the edge of the picture is the points machine.
The brown thing in the pit is an anti-slip step, not flammable. The wooden ramp in the 4ft ahead is just a ramp to stop a low negative shoe hitting equipment.
The scorch marks are to be expected, as there is a conductor rail ramp because of the gap for equipment, and this is the departure end of the platform, where the train will be drawing current as the pickup shoe traverses the ramp. It's only so visible as the rails are shiny and new - give it a few years and they'll be darkened enough that it won't stand out as much!
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I went to Battersea Power Station yesterday (from Euston via Charing Cross), just to say I've done it. I didn't leave the station at Battersea, my train departed back to Mill Hill East for the 10:06 departure. The following two departures were for High Barnet both a further 12 minutes apart. The one thing I noticed was how noisy the ride was between Kennington and Nine Elms. About 20 people got off at Battersea a few I suspect were like myself going for the ride. About a dozen new passengers boarded and I noticed about 25ish people waiting at Nine Elms to board.
swt_passenger
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I wonder if the larger tunnels and evacuation walkways alter the sound significantly?
There’s hardly any sound to be echoing in the new tunnels. The rails are better placed. You can easily see the crossover tunnels and feel the junction. As soon as you’re on old rails it’s noisy, though the loop perhaps isn’t the best place to judge this.
What's story here then? Guy claims the lifts at the new stations are not wheelchair accessible. Given that the source has form for running away with sensationalist stories I thought I'd seek the truth here...
London Underground: Disabled man 'disappointed' as new Battersea station lifts couldn't even fit a wheelchair
Alan Benson says he was 'excited' about Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms as less than half of London's stations are step free
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Alan says there is 'no reason' the new £1.1bn stations shouldn't be fully accessible for disabled people (Image: Alan Benson)
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Excited train-loving crowds gathered together this week as Londoners got two sparkling new additions to the Northern Line.
The much-awaited new underground stations, Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms, promised 25,000 new jobs, double-height ceilings and more space for commuters with a £1.1 billion price tag.
But one disabled Londoner had just one hope - for the new stations to be accessible for wheelchair users - and he was left disappointed.
READ MORE: Blind woman turned away from 2 London restaurants for using guide dogs
Alan was unable to rotate his wheelchair in the new 'accessible' lift (Image: Alan Benson)
Alan Benson, a disability and transport campaigner from London, took to the new underground stations as soon as they opened to see how accessible they were.
He told MyLondon : “Less than 40 per cent of underground stations are step-free, so wheelchair users can’t access most of it.
“So for us, brand new accessible stations are quite exciting. It opens up bits of London that otherwise, I can’t really get to.
“People will tell you that the tube is 100 years old, and wasn’t designed for accessibility.
"So you forgive them when it’s an ‘old station’.
“They can only put lifts in at certain places, and of certain sizes.
“But with two brand new stations costing £1.1 billion, there’s no reason you can’t make those fully accessible.”
But Alan felt let down once he arrived at Battersea Power Station.
“The thing that’s really disappointing,” he said, “is the size of the lifts.”
At Nine Elms, Alan could fit in the lift, but the doors closed so quickly they bashed his wheelchair as he entered (Image: Alan Benson)
The lift was not big enough for Alan to rotate or move his wheelchair, meaning he can only reverse backwards out of it.
It was such a simple requirement for a lift for disabled users that he couldn’t believe the lift wasn’t designed to be big enough.
He said on Twitter that the lift felt like a "squeezed in afterthought", adding that it will only get worse as the station gets busier.
Even more frustrating was that the lift at Nine Elms was big enough for his wheelchair.
“So why couldn’t they get it right at Battersea?” he asked.
Alan also noted that the emergency buttons in the lift were too high for him to press, and the doors closed too quickly to get his wheelchair out.
“Any decent access professional going around the station before it opened would have spotted it in a heartbeat,” he said in disbelief.
“And any wheelchair user at the design stage would have spotted that immediately.”
“We are making changes to ensure the lift doors stay open for longer and are reviewing signage across the stations.
"We know how important step-free access is, so we installed multiple lifts at Battersea Power Station to ensure there was always one available in the event that a lift is taken out of service.
“We’re sorry we didn’t get things right the first time but would like to reassure our customers that we’re taking feedback on board and are working hard to make improvements.”[/qoute]
Disabled man disappointed as new station lifts couldn't even fit wheelchair
Alan Benson says he was 'excited' about Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms as less than half of London's stations are step freewww.mylondon.news
It is good practice to design/position new lifts so that wheelchair users don't have to turn round or reverse out of them. I'd like to think in this case there is a fundamental design reason why that couldn't be achieved for what ever reason.
Stuff like door timings and position of buttons should be relatively easy to change (and TfL probably should have tested things like that beforehand).
Stuff like door timings and position of buttons should be relatively easy to change (and TfL probably should have tested things like that beforehand).
CapitalStar378
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Having just been on the branch for the first time my thought was that the new tunnels are quieter on the rails but much noisier overall.
Very smooth ride though and the stations are cavernous. Shame there aren't any large free standing roundels like the Jubilee/Liz lines
Make an announcement and switch them on and off again?
Flicking lights off and on could be a no-no due to people with photosensitive epilepsy.
No worse than Micheldever Station station (or Widdrington)!
It appears that the design has doors at both sides — this would seem to indicate that the news story is, in fact, "wheelchair cannot turn, in a lift where wheelchairs are not required to turn".
Of course, if the lift serves more than two levels, then there may actually be a point. Can anyone who has been to the station confirm this?
I've not been to BPS, but it's not obvious what's on the other side of the far doors (the sign stuck on the door says "doors will open on other side" suggesting that side doesn't open at any floor, so perhaps the far side is a staff area or something? Or is that the "in" side on every floor, with the side where the picture is taken the "out" side?
I noticed that today. It is possible that someone has switched them off on the PA system (I think they're using our MICA3 system and there is an option to switch off "Signalling Announcements" and if someone has done this without realising what they are, that'll be the answer).
Definitely Photoshopped. The "s" on the second "Station" should be in lowercase anyway!
I’m 99% sure it’s a staff area.
Oh come on! I hope such people never use the Bakerloo then, the lights flicker on and off all the time!
Travelling on the Bakerloo it seems common place at Queens Park for the terminators there to do some (deliberate!) light flicking to motivate people off the train
I suspect that's not very "official".
Are you suggesting that people with such a disability don't matter?
No! I'm suggesting that turning the lights off for a few seconds and then back on again, once, is highly, highly unlikely to cause someone to have a fit. If someone was that easily triggered then all sorts of everyday events would cause a fit - travelling on a bus and the sun disappearing and reappearing from behind tall buildings etc.
I mean if we take all risk to the nth degree then you wouldn't allow standees on the tube. Because, you know, someone might fall over and bang their head and have a fit or break their neck or whatever.
For sure you aren't going to set up some disco lights in a tube carriage. But turning the lights off for a few seconds whilst stationary isn't going to cause any problems.
Why do some people have to leap to the most horrifying and extreme (mis)interpretation of a point of view?
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