Metros and Subways

I was born and brought up in London, and so I grew up using the world's first underground railway system, the London Underground, or the Tube as I prefer to call it. So Metro/subway systems are important to me, and I try to use them whenever the opportunity arises.

UK

The UK actually has 4 Underground Railways systems, which are: -
The London Underground
The Glasgow Subway
The Tyne and Wear Metro
Merseyrail

To date I've never been to Liverpool, and so never had the opportunity to use Merseyrail. I don't know why I've never been to Liverpool - I can think of many reasons for going, and none for not, so it's a situation I should rectify as soon as is possible.

London

Maida Vale Underground Station

As for London, well, I should say that I grew up using the Tube, and that I love it. For me, the Tube was what took me to interesting and exciting places in the centre of town. It was what took me home during the term breaks at University. The platforms were plastered with adverts for exciting things, many of which I didn't understand, and many of the station names even had a touch of poetry about them - if I think of the Piccadilly Line, my line of choice for getting into town, I would start at Boston Manor, pass through Barons Court, Earls Court, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus - I could go on. So I cannot be objective about the Tube, and I'd even go so far as to say that it is pretty much my Platonic ideal of what an Underground network should be.

Above is a Line and Wash sketch of Maida Vale Station in London. I find that a lot of London Underground stations are more distinctive above ground than on other cities' metro systems. This is one of the older stations designed in the early decades of the 20th century by Leslie Green - the arches and the ox-blood red tiles are a feature that make this instantly recognisable as a London Tube station. These are more commonly found in the centre of London. In more outlying areas the stations which were built in the 1930s , and designed by Charles Holden, have a far more art deco styling to them.

The second sketch shows a District Line train of the kind I remember catching from Ealing Broadway Station in the mid 70s. However the last sketch brings us bang up to date, showing the most modern stock on the system at the moment. What can I say? The Tube isn't perfect, but considering the amount of people that it moves every day, and the size of the network, it's still pretty amazing. Whenever I have any occasion or excuse to go to London, my usual way of doing it is driving to Boston Manor Tube, using my local knowledge to park nearby, and then using the Underground until it's time to go home again. Don't knock it - it works.

In 2019 I embarked upon a project to sketch all of the existing London Underground stations. I completed this in late 2021. 

It took quite a long time because this wasn't the only project that I had going on at the time. Also, my original Underground station pictures were very sketchy. Which is all very well, but then I decided to sketch all of the London Overground stations, and all of the DLR stations as well. These were almost all of them better sketches than the London Underground station sketches. This meant that I went back to the Underground station pictures. Those where I could improve the originals to get them up to standard I did, but over 40 of my original sketches just weren't good enough and so I ended up scrapping them and making  completely new sketches to replace them, like the King's Cross station sketch on the left of this one. 

London Overground 

I don't want to get into a long and involved description, but basically the London Overground came into being as a long term consequence of the rail privatisation in the John Major administration. The lines connect with Underground services, but tend to go further outside the centre of the city than the Underground lines themselves do. 

Docklands Light Railway - DLR

Speaking of the London Underground network, the younger of Britain's two light railway (but not tramway) networks, the Docklands Light Railway - DLR for short - is also part of the network. It opened in 1987, one short year after I moved away from the capital. It was actually a long time before I had cause to use the DLR. However I made a point of taking my stepfather to the Docklands Museum while I was researching a specialist subject for Mastermind, and that enabled me to put the situation to rights. Don't get me wrong, I love the clean, open and futuristic stations. . . but it isn't quite the Tube, for me. Not quite. I have sketched all of the DLR station exteriors, and completed the job in late 2021.

The picture on the left is of the original northern terminus of the line, Tower Gateway. Since then the line has been extended, with another branch going to Bank station. As I say, I do like the DLR very much, but a lot of the stations built in the mid 1990s extension do look very similar to each other. The architects basically designed a kit of parts which could be assembled in different ways to suit the particular demands of the site available for the station. This makes great sense, but it does mean that parts of the DLR just lack a little of the personality of the Underground, and also of the Overground. 

Glasgow

The Glasgow Subway - affectionately nicknamed The Clockwork Orange - is actually the world's third oldest underground railway after London and Budapest. I can remember the date I travelled on it clearly, because it was my 43rd birthday, and I was playing in the final of BBC Mastermind later on that very day. There's just the one big circular line, with trains which run in both directions. In many ways, it struck me as a mini version of its London counterpart, and none the worse for that either.

Tyne and Wear Metro
I went to Newcastle for an interview at the University two years after the Tyne and Wear Metro opened, and made sure that I rode it for a couple of stations while I was there. Stations and trains alike struck me as smaller than London's, but much brighter, and much more modern. A couple of years later I visited Tynemouth, where my then girlfriend's parents lived, and we several times took the Metro into the town. A lot of the network is actually overground, but then you could say the same about London as well, for that matter. It was my first experience of a modern, purpose-built metro system. Although strictly speaking, if we're calling a spade a spade the Tyne and Wear Metro is actually a light railway rather than a Metro. Mind you, the word Metro covers a multitude of sins as well.

Merseyrail

Now, it all depends upon whom you listen to. I have been asked in quizzes before now - how many British cities have underground railway systems, and can you name them. Usually the answer given is four - London Tube, Glasgow Subway, Tyne and Wear Metro, and Liverpool Merseyrail. It's certainly a railway, and it certainly runs underground in the centre of Liverpool. So while some sources call it a commuter network rather than a metro system, that doesn't bother me that much. It is, as it happens, the only public underground railway in Britain that I haven't yet visited, and so Liverpool is quite a long way up my UK cities bucket list.

Athens

Believe it or not the first metro system I ever used in continental Europe was the Athens Metro. Sort of. It was actually the third metro system I ever used , after London and Tyne and Wear. It was my first ever trip abroad, in 1982, and I was 18 years old. I'd backpacked my way down through the Cyclades, to Santorini and then to Crete, then back up. When I finally arrived back in Piraeus, after 10 of the best days of my life, a kindly Finn informed me about the Metro, and told me that Line 1, which begins in Piraeus, would take me to the centre of Athens, and if I got off at Monastiraki I'd be right by the Acropolis. He was right. For most of the journey it just struck me as an ordinary suburban railway line, but then just before Monastiraki it went underground, much to my delight. Now, although he called it a metro, and I thought of it as a metro, strictly speaking it was the Athens and Piraeus electric railway. It didn't actually become the first and oldest line of the Athens Metro until the lead up to the 200 Athens Olympics. Well what the hell. It's a metro, and I've been on it. Job done.

Paris

Abbesses Station

Painted for my daughter.

I first visited Paris in 1983, and I've been back many times since. Most of these times, though, have been as a teacher accompanying school parties, and as a rule, schoolkids are far more i

nterested in Disneyland Paris than the Paris Metro. They're a lot safer there too. So
as a result while I've been up and down the Eiffel Tower many times, while I've cruised up and down
the Seine more times than some of you might have had hot dinners, I've only ever once used the Paris Metro. This was back in 1982.

Right, as a chauvinistic Londoner, let me not shy away from paying tribute where it is due.
* The Paris Metropolitain gave the world the word Metro, which is often used now to designate any underground railway/subway system.
* In Paris, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing with style, and the Art Nouveau influenced styling of the stations make them things of beauty.
* The Paris Metro is the second busiest in Europe, after Moscow.
* Despite this it is regularly ranked as the world's best public transport system.
* As long ago as 1983 I was bowled over by the smoothness of the ride and the quietness of the rubber tyred rolling stock on the line I used.

Naples - Circumvesuviana

Now, we can argue whether the Circumvesuviana is a metro system, a suburban rail system, or something altogether different. However, whatever label you want to give it, it's rather wonderful and fulfils pretty much what I'm wanting from an overground metro. The carriages, for example, struck me as being pretty similar to those on both the London Underground, Paris Metro and Tyne and Wear Metro. If I recall correctly it presented the map inside the trains themselves just like the presentation of the lines in a tube train. However, the Circumvesuviana is a narrow gauge railway that is completely independent from the rest of Italy's railway systems. As the name suggests, it's a local network of three lines serving Naples and the surrounding area. I rode it out to see the archaeological remains in Pompeii - and what a great day that was.

Barcelona

I only ever visited Barcelona once, on a family holiday in about 2005. We used to visit Callella for a family holiday every summer, and whenever we went we always discussed going into Barcelona, but we were always told that the Barcelona Metro is very confusing and to give it a miss. So, on the very last occasion, we said sod it, and went. 

My mother in law got her handbag stolen in Las Ramblas. It started tipping down, and nobody else wanted to see the Sagrada Familia. Now, I'm very sorry, but my attitude is when you're this close to one of the world's most interesting buildings, then you go and see it. So we 'agreed' that I could go on the Metro to see the Sagrada Familia, and make my own way back to Callella.

Even then the Barcelona Metro was clean, fast, efficient. . . and on that wet day, empty. There was just a German family and I , and my main memory of the three stop journey I made was the remarkably weird station announcements on the train. A very sexy female voice would say something like - La proxima estacion es - ( the next station is ) and then a very growly, guttural male voice, which gave plenty of evidence of a fondness for late nights and cigars, would give the name of the station - Mahnoomon (Monument) being one I particularly remember. 

There are a lot of lines on the Barcelona metro system, but I can't say that I had any great problem using it.

Prague

Karlovo Namesti Station, Prague

Compared with the majority of European metro systems that I've used, Prague's is a relative baby, dating back only to 1974. According to Wikipedia it's the 5th busiest in Europe. There are three lines, and I have to say that, along with many other things built in the 1970s, it is rather . . . well, it lacks poetry. Oh, don't misunderstand me, on the journeys I made in April 2017 the trains seemed clean, regular, perfectly comfortable, fairly generic subway/metro trains. But the stations. .  . Clean? oh, certainly. But on the whole rather depressing. They're poorly lit, and rather bleak. The ones I

visited had no advertising on the platforms at all, which is a minus, nor kiosks or vending machines. On the opposite walls were bronze squares with circular bobbles in the middle - in fact they looked like the sort of thing a film or TV designer of the 70s may have come up with as an example of what the metro station of the future might look like. My advice then would be to by all means use the Prague Metro - but spend as little time on the platforms as possible. They are depressing in the extreme. Just my opinion, and feel free to disagree.

Berlin

Potzdammerplatz S Bahn station platform.

Berlin actually has two of what I would call metro systems, The U Bahn, which is what most people think of when they talk about Berlin's Underground Railway, and also the S Bahn - although officially the S Bahn is actually a rapid transit system which connects the centre of Berlin with outlying areas and other areas outside the city. Built originally in 1930, it's there to complement the U Bahn. So what? Part of its network is underground, and that's good enough for me. You have a look at the sketch, and see what you think. To me, it's clearly an underground/ metro/subway system.

There's not a lot to choose between the U Bahn and the S Bahn, or at least that was the opinion I had. Both are clean, efficient, and comfortable. Both have stations which are well lit and cheerful, although I chauvinistically don't feel that they quite match the best London Underground stations. I think that the aesthetic of the S Bahn just about takes it - I like the red and yellow (rhubarb and custard?) livery of the trains, and the white tiled walls of some of the stations. Both systems though show that efficient public transport doesn't have to be soulless.

I used the U Bahn every day that I was in Berlin, but the longest journey was out to see the Olympic Stadium, in the North of the city. Line U2 goes overground for much of the journey from the Potsdammer Platz, and on a nice sunny day you can't beat it.

Budapest

Most of the rolling stock I saw in my journeys on the Budapest Metro system looked to me to date from the communist era. Even the most modern ones, while painted a brilliant white livery, still looked to conform to the same basic design.

Budapest's metro system is actually the oldest in Continental Europe, although still a bit younger than London's. Much is made of this on the historic Line 1, which is the oldest part of the system. Line 1 stations have their own special signage, and a sort of Edwardian design aesthetic which puts me somewhat in mind of the way that

Baker Street station on the London Underground was redecorated in the 1990s. On other lines, though, well, it's all a little gloomy, and not brilliantly lit, although on reflection I found it nowhere near as depressing as I found the Prague Metro line B stations that I visited in April 2017.

Madrid

Madrid has a great metro system in my opinion. For one thing, it goes right out to the airport, which is a major plus, and a drawback of the metro systems in Prague, Berlin and Budapest. It has a pretty extensive network of many lines- it's actually the 7th longest in the whole world, and has more escalators than any other Metro system. The trains are air conditioned, fast and pretty comfortable. Even the older stations on lines 1 and 2 seem brighter and more cheerful than those in Budapest and Prague - not that difficult in my opinion. In fact, of all the European metro systems I've travelled on, Madrid's reminds me most of London's, and I fell in love with the Tube when I was very young.

Amsterdam

The Amsterdam Metro is a relative baby - I was already a teenager when the oldest part of the network opened in 1977. It feels like a bit of an afterthought, if I'm totally honest. I only travelled on an underground part of the system between underground stations, so I don't know what the overground is like at the more distant points from the centre of the city. But the underground stations themselves are, frankly rather bleak and cheerless. The platforms are not all that brightly lit, they're not very well decorated and have no advertising posters. The effect is slightly depressing. I only made a couple of trips, preferring to use the plentiful and interesting trams.

Stockholm

Stockholm’s T Bana is older than I am, dating back to 1950. It’s not as bleak as those of Amsterdam and Prague, but it does lack a little charm. The stations I used mostly remind me of London's Jubilee Line platforms when they first opened. The T Bana is perfectly efficient, and has 100 stations spread throughout Stockholm. I saw two types of train, the much more modern looking C20, and the rather more interesting older and blockier C6, which I’ve sketched here, and reminded me a bit of the kind of trains I saw in Budapest and Prague. Like Berlin, with its U Bahn and S Bahn, Stockholm also has another railway system which uses underground stations in the centre of the city, the Pendeltag commuter trains. Both systems are parts of the same company, and your one travelcard gives you access to both, as well as Stockholm buses, trams and ferries. I’m

all for that, and generally my experience of public transport in Stockholm was that it’s clean, efficient and plentiful. Can’t ask for a lot more than that.

Vienna U Bahn

Rather like my visit to Prague, my visit to Vienna did no see me making massive use of the U Bahn. There was no disrespect intended towards the U Bahn in that, just the fact that the trams are so plentiful. I did travel on the U bahn every day from the hotel, though. It's clean and efficient, and, I'm afraid, just a little bland too.

Warsaw Metro

There are some stunning stations on the Warsaw Metro - I'm thinking particularly of the Uniwersytyet station - but they're best seen from underground level, much like the T Bana stations in Stockholm. The stations I saw were all hole in the ground types, although I must say that they have some rather nice triangular and pyramidal glass and chrome canopies

Copenhagen Metro

The Copenhagen Metro was first opened in 2007. At the time of writing it consists of four lines, and about forty three km of track. The Metro is the result of debates about public transport in the Danish capital that plumped in favour of the metro rather than a tram network. The platforms ae incredibly short, and the trains are all just 3 cars long. This means that the frequency of the trains is breathtaking. From the surface there's little to see in underground stations than chrome and glass lift shafts and yawning stairways from street level. Even the stations outside the centre where the line runs overground are very functional and unnfussy - very Scandinavian, if you like.