"I think therefore I tram"

[Aperitif]

London Transport have been doing their cogito ergo sums and are offering 'education' on the move.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8117921.stm

Any ideas on the sort of quotes that would make your journey amenable?

 

[accountantpete]

There's the old British Rail motto for commuters

"Pain is weakness leaving the body"

 

[Melvil]

That's cool.

But when I lived in Essex the train drivers used to offer their own droll observations on the announcer. They were excellent.

Once, when we were stuck not moving somewhere near Shenfield the driver came on and said 'I apologise for the delay but it's not my fault. The fault lies with the idiot in the freight train in front of us who missed his signal. Let's all get him. Thankyou.'

 

[Hover Fly]

"The next station is London" could be

"The next station is centred in a bleak no-man's land, advantaged only by expensive pubs, a gruesome history of rebellion, violence and poverty and, fittingly, once the domain of Quentin Crisp. Attended by the smell.

.

 

[sheddy]

Balham - Gateway to the South

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTWk9QIKS0

 

[Davidc]

Mornington Crescent - only the clueless stop here.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I was listening to this on R4 this morning. Jean Paul Sartre has some good quotes. I wonder if they'll do

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.

or

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeanpaul_sartre.html

He sounds like NickM's favourite philosopher.

 

[accountantpete]

Hegel Don't Bother Me - The Tams

 

[Aperitif]

Top Marx!

 

[dellzeqq]

An "interesting" fact about each station would be good.

For example, instead of:

"The next station is Highbury and Islington" it could be

"The next station is home to The Scummers, supported by glory-hunting meeja fops".

jealousy is such a sad thing....

"The next station is Brixton" could be

"The next station is home to the finest food, women and song in London. But go somewhere else for the beer."

smack on the money! But....

"The next station is Farringdon" could be

"The next station is centred in a bleak no-man's land, advantaged only by decent pubs, a gruesome history of rebellion, violence and poverty and, fittingly, once the domain of Quentin Crisp. Attenuated by the smell of dead fish from the Farringdon Road market."

Farringdon Station is one of the most theatrical spaces in London. It's entirely accidental, but half an hour, or more, just working out the arrangements, looking at the way the inside becomes the outside, reveals what might, in different cirucumstances, be a Hawksmoor masterpiece. If you go from Farringdon to Christ's Church Spitalfields (which I rate as the most beautiful building in London) you'll see the connection. Just a thought next time you're that way...(and Christ's Church doesn't have trains)

 

[accountantpete]

Farringdon Station is one of the most theatrical spaces in London. It's entirely accidental, but half an hour, or more, just working out the arrangements, looking at the way the inside becomes the outside, reveals what might, in different cirucumstances, be a Hawksmoor masterpiece.

Bit like Crewe then is it?

 

[rich p]

A friend told me that he heard a station announcer say recently, "Any unattended bags on the platform may be destroyed..............or worse"

The mind boggles!

 

[dellzeqq]

I know, I know. I'm just being crudely dramatic for mildly-comedic effect. I work in the area.

First impressions is of a wasteland. Scratch the surface and the place is steeped in history. Clerkenwell Green, I drink in.

Did you know that Clerkenwell Green has had more major riots then any other locale in London? It was a centre, being just outside the old City Walls, for religious dissent, outlaw hideaways and the ugliest prostitutes for ten miles around. It was no coincidence that Lenin (or was it Marx, can't remember now) wrote there - they have a museum there in the room where they worked.

Yrs truly plotted the downfall of capitalism in a room over a pub in St. John Street when the streetlights around Blackfriars and Smithfield used to gutter at night. The boozer in question is now a gastro-pub, which says everything about my success in the revolution department.