Obviously these days the Northern Line is a big pile of fun, but for a long time it was known by a very different name. Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jago... Patreon: / jagohazzard
and american freeways and bridges and tunnels... Don't imagine it is a British issue. God rest the Queen. God Save the King. He'll need all the help that he can get.
My city had a top priority project of building a light rail line to the airport. In 20 years, they've managed to build maybe a half kilometer of track and open a bus line to connect to the airport so that there's finally a public transportation link to the city whose name is on the airport (other cities already had bus lines going to the airport).
One story of the Northern "misery" line relates to the 7th July 2005 suicide bombings. The four bombers arrived at Kings Cross train station at about 08:30. They had apparently agreed to split up, take different tube lines and blow themselves up simultaneously in 20 minutes. One took the Circle/District line eastbound, one took the Circle/District line westbound, one took the Piccadilly line southbound and the final one was to take the Northern line southbound (not sure which branch). The misery line was living up to nickname that morning and the bomber could not even get onto the platforms as they were so overcrowded. With no chance of getting a train within 20 minutes he appears to have given up. He left the station and tried to contact the others by mobile phone and got no reply. Sadly, he blew himself up on a crowded bus about an hour later. It always seemed ironic that the reason the Northern line was spared was because it was so unreliable.
It had had some kind of electrical supply problem ( though I am not sure if that was reported after the 0850 explosions ), I arrived at my local station for once early to get to work at Old Street (I am normally late , but work late to catch up as I hate evening travel - the wait for signals into morden can be an excessive pain, and half the time southbounds are shunted into the Tooting Broadway siding ) - and the station was closed with this reported , so its a pain diversion route and everyone else was filling the buses northbound so no space there. So it was bus-tram-thameslink- and I think I must have got to Holborn Viaduct or Farringdon with the hope of a bus eastbound to workplace ( i suppose I could have tried elephant-waterloo- bank then walk but I think the W&C was having another one of its signal refits and closed at the time ?) . At ground level it was sureal, ambulances hurrying everywhere, people with blackened faces looking dazed as commuters who had never been above ground other than their normal exit station were confused as to where they were. Somehow at work everyone else were in- some cycled as they normally did, others there normal route was BR or they had set out later / arrived on the Northern Line which by that time had got fixed and was working ! Being British we just carried on working.
My advice on this sort of thing is: 1) don't leave home before 10am so that colleagues can phone and tell you not to come to work on days like that. 2) Retire and don't have a regular commute at all. Your boss probably can't remember who you are anyway.
A sick reply I remember at the time Patrick! One bomber said to another," does my bomb look big in this?" The other one said " don't think it Martyers now" 😱😆
As someone who grew up in an almost trainless environment, it’s always exciting to commute by train. And Camden always had a great sense of magic. No misery for me
As a child on rare visits to London the Tube was something interesting and exotic. Its physical experience and smell meant something out of the ordinary and exciting. Then I moved to London for work and had to use the Northern Line twice a day between Archway and Euston. The whole nostalgic experience fell to pieces into misery. No amount of counselling has sorted it.
This happened and then un-happened for me. As a child I loved the Tube when I visited London (it was much better than anything we had in Milton Keynes). In 2013 I moved to North London, and as a pupil/junior barrister had to get up at the crack of dawn and travel to various different courts, and got thoroughly sick of the Tube. I moved (just about) out of London in 2016, and after that mainly used main line trains and buses when going into London. I gave up the barrister lark in 2018. Then in 2020 I started working at home full-time, and have been doing so ever since. Now, on the rare occasions when I use the Tube, I like it again!
I used to adore commuting. Those 40 precious minutes between leaving the bedlam of home and clocking in to the bedlam of work, where I could just listen to music or read a book were perfectly divine and relaxing. Thank you, COVID. You've taken away the only bit of daily sanity that I used to be able to call my own.
I was similar. Other than when it's super overcrowded (as in "virtually no space to even stand") or things are going wrong, I like just sitting on a train/bus and having that time to listen to my music before having to get stuff done.
As a train nerd, I like commuting by rail - but only for as long as the train is on schedule, the carriage doesn’t get crowded, people don’t annoy me, I haven’t already made myself late, etc. So basically, I love the concept of commuting by rail - but I never really get the chance to actually love my commutes…
@@spacelavayt7446agreed. Although I’m ok with travelling by train (national rail), I much prefer going on the tube. It’s more fun, it’s iconic, and the sounds (e.g. traction motors and door opening and closing chimes) are much better on the tube than on the train.
As a driver on c2c I can confirm that it very much become known as the Misery Line in the late 70s and 80s and was pretty much continually referred to as such right up until the turn of the century (still can’t get used to saying that 🙄) by which time the 357s replaced the last of the 1960s/70s stock (310s, 312s and 315s) and the service improved dramatically, with new fangled things like “air conditioning” and “reliable trains” helping refresh the line’s image from the error-strewn former “LTS” identity 🙂 Camden Town was always a pain not least because of the multitude of tourists that, bless them are totally baffled by the multiple worm holes they fear disappearing down 😆 Cheers Jago, great video as ever 👍🍻🍀
I remember someone complaining on a Compuserve forum (remember them?) in the mid-90s about how awful the LTS was because punctuality and reliability were around the 70% mark, and replying to them that the Birmingham-Walsall line's punctuality and reliability the previous month had been around 40%. That was incredibly poor even by the low standards of BR in the West Midlands. At the time I lived on the Birmingham CrossCity line and was buying a monthly bus+rail pass (because it was cheaper than priv season + bus pass combo) and was getting the maximum 20% discount every month without fail because the CrossCity line always drastically failed to meet both the punctuality and reliability targets which I seem to recall were only 80%...
As a Northern Line commuter for over 25 years I can confidently say that it really has shaken its misery line moniker. To an extent the misery was a function of where on the line you lived. When I first moved to London I lived in the south, and the daily commute was an awful experience for all the reasons mentioned in the video, but the situation improved somewhat when I moved North. However, since the spruce up it’s generally absolutely fine. Barring the odd pre WFH Bankmare.
The line out of Fenchurch Street "earned" the Misery Line tag in the early 90s due to a combination of poor punctuality and aging slam-door rolling stock (the Class 302s dated back to the late 1950s). It was completely resignalled during 1995 and 1996, with new rolling stock being introduced from 1999, and now regularly comes near the top of the punctuality charts.
Absolutely right. The Venerable and learned Mr Hazzard is being misled by the ignorant parvenu Mr Google. A trip pn the C2C line these days is a transport of Joy.
I agree, I lived in Thorpe Bay in the 1970's and it was bad then, and got worse. However, going back for work on the line on a regular basis the situation nowadays is much better.
Yeah ever since National Express took over the LTS route in the late 90’s early 00’s. It’s gone strength to strength. If I remember rightly is was the only successful route that National Express operated before it went to Trenitalia
The c2c and District Line getting that tag is all connected. So few DL trains run to Upminster that it causes overcrowding on the c2c trains at Barking which causes delays as people block the doors getting on at Barking and off at Upminster.
I'm not even particularly interested in trains and the tube (apart from being a Londoner so complaining about the tube is a normal part of day to day life) but this is quickly becoming one of my favourite youtube channels. As for the northern line, I've always quite liked it! My least favourite line on the tube network is the district line. I spent a year getting the district line from east putney to mile end for uni and it was an absolute nightmare. I always had to add an extra half hour on in the morning as a buffer because you never knew how long it would take. Often, when I was travelling in the eastbound direction, wouldn't even have a destination. The board would just say something vague like "eastbound via city" or some such thing (it was years ago and I can't renew the exact wording), and you just had to kind of get on it and wait to see how far you'd get. Usually I'd end up having to change at Earl's court which don't even get me started on the useless train information boards there. Other times the train would have a stated destination but halfway through the journey they'd announce "the destination of this train has changed" and you'd have to get off. Nightmare line. The line I use most now is the central line and while I actually quite like that line in most ways if the carriage is full and you have to travel more than a couple of stops the temperature is unbearable. Whatever the weather is, it's always at least 100 degrees on the central line. I know there's reasons and explanations for this but I'm convinced that it's called the central line because it travels through the molten core at the centre of the earth and that's why it's so bloody hot.
There's no bigger nightmare than a switch at either Bank or London Bridge or Old Street on the Northern Line. I think a video on Old Street and how it FINALLY is getting revamped would be interesting.
Leaving bank station is like a labyrinth. The amount of times i exhausted myself flittering around that maze is more than id like to confess. If you wanna leave the Northern line platform you have to walk across the Central line platform. Walking across an entire platform to leave is so treacherous i actually fell into the tracks
@@adonaiyah2196 Depends how the flows go, some are marked to avoid clashes of passenger flows, but there are tricks - I tend to go up the stairs and straight to the northern line lifts (4 shafts from memore, three filled, two lifts working if you are lucky, but cut opposite down to the W&C then up the travelator can bring you better to Walbrook - if that is what you wanted, and there is the new exit too, I have not tried that.
The trains at London bridge are so far away from the Northern line platforms that you may as well just walk to wherever you’re going, you’ll probably get there quicker
The other one is this: shouldn't the mainline station be called London London Bridge in accordance with all the other mainline termini and 'London' Blackfriars?
Is the picture in the thumbnail from Brentcross tube station looking northbound towards Edgware? Also I despise the tunnel of screams that is the area around Acton Tube. The track screeching when entering the station from the North is a ear splitting
Great video. I love your humour "known as the 1938 stock as names are hard" :-) I've lived on the Northern line since 1991 so I've experienced some of the changes you refer to.
I used to work as a Guard on the Northern (and Central) in the early 90's. That was when the term Misery Line was very popular because the service was complete crap, delays and cancellations everywhere meaning the job was up the wall on a daily basis, and the whole line stunk and was falling apart. After a shift down there your shirt collar was black with brake dust and it got in your hair. But it was a fun time nevertheless. 5 years as a guard before becoming a driver were 5 of my favourite years.
Those with memories stretching back to the late 1980s will confirm it was grim down south around Clapham to Tooting.Those were the days before CCTV and when the working classes could still afford to live in the area.There were markedly fewer people travelling at all times of the day and it was certainly less safe.
I dont think I ever found it unsafe, just the inability of the paint to stick to the tunnel walls (station and pedestrian walkways) But in the late 80s I was mainly driving around hertfordshire or using the District Line out east
I"m binge watching this channel, I'm visiting London in another month. The tube and stations are such a cool thing and I enjoy visiting London (from US)
A miserably good tale, thanks for sharing. I love how Google chose to follow your line of "You're more likely to get robbed at the ticket counter" with an ad for Dubai's Emirate Airlines :D
In the light of a workday commute between 1981 and 1990 from East Finchley to Tolworth, via Waterloo, I guess I have to say that without the Northern Line such a trek would not have been possible. That said, I have to take issue with your description of commuting as being disliked. I can think of nothing better that staring at the inside of a black tunnel wall with a few cables suspended by hooks while awaiting a signal somewhere between Mornington Crescent and Camden Town, on a hot summer’s evening on a packed tube with no aircon. Sheer joy only to be topped if I was lucky enough to encounter a religious fanatic trying to convert a whole carriage while everyone looked the other way. What do you mean “disliked”. Impossible, Sir!
I always found the Northern Line to be more of the 'Gosh, will I get home alive' - line, back in my gigging days in the '80's. It seemed to have a higher preponderance of resident nutters, than any other line on the system. On one memorable occasion, whilst attempting to catch the last tube out of Camden (gigging again!), I encountered an aging punk who was industriously turning his fists into mince, by punching the metal railing separating the walkways. Not wishing to catch this gentleman's gaze, for fear I might look a bit too much like a railing, in his eyes, I attempted to sidle past. Just when I thought I was in the clear, he looked up at me and gestured with his mangled hands, at the blood-splattered railing. "I've got the **** going!" He announced proudly to me. "Give the ****er one from me!" I replied, with a discreet increase of pace....
No idea why but I first read this comment as set in your "giggling days". This left an interesting picture in my head but I couldn't think what it was about Camden Town that had this effect on you. Reading it again, it makes more sense but isn't as much fun. 😂
@@2H80vids Well, there was always a fair bit of 'herbal cigarette' action around Camden, which may have accounted for the giggling. However, I was a Goth at that particular time, so I was fuelled by snakebite and black and speed. Not necessarily in that order.... 😆
@@tombaxter6228 Snakebites could have some interesting effects on some folks, far more than a pint of each constituent would do. My mate's girlfriend handcuffed herself to a handrail on the last Glasgow Subway train of the night. When the firemen heard that "snakebite + black" was involved, she got some pretty serious, completely uncensored advice. A fast response time and carrying the right tools(boltcutters) meant the train was only delayed about 20 mins; Dianne was delayed until court, the next morning.😁 The "giggling" from the gallery nearly got us all jailed.
The Bakerloo line was a misery to use back in the late 60's with scruffy stations, noisy, bouncy and swaying 1927 stock, which ran well into the 70's. The only bright thing was the cat that commuted daily from Waterloo to the Elephant every morning around 09:00 and I presume back in the afternoon. Going south on the Bakerloo at that time was less crowded than the journey on the Northern despite having to navigate the road and underpass at the Elephant.
I moved to Kentish Town in September when I started University- down in Elephant & Castle- and commute on the Northern Line. The section between Kentish Town and Camden Town, where the line makes a strange double S-Bend at speed through the old South Kentish Town station I find to be most unbearable. The curve on the Bank Branch between Camden and Euston is also not particularly pleasant. That said between St Pancras and Old Street, and for most of the Charing Cross Branch, it's a nice line to ride, while the above ground section of the Edgware branch is nicer still, the stations with island platforms are very charming indeed.
Just take the Thameslink instead. Much nicer trains, and you get to see the Thames from Blackfriars plus enjoy the view in the above ground section between Blackfriars and Elephant and Castle.
This excruciating piercing screeching around Kentish Town is a relatively recent phenomenon that only started a few years ago after some track replacement work. There have been various exchanges with TfL over the issue. The irony is that the cause is apparently a new type of track fitting that is designed to reduce noise (at ground level I think, for houses above), but which has actually had the opposite effect for people inside the trains. There has been a similar issue that started around the same time affecting the curve just north of Finchley Central (towards High Barnet, not the Mill Hill East branch). I lived opposite this curve for many years and I believe the issue is still ongoing. TfL have proposed and tried various solutions (e.g. track lubricant on the curve) to solving the issue - all a failure so far as I understand it. Last I heard they were not willing to replace the track (presumably to go back to the older but much quieter type) due to the cost involved.
@@andyyu5957 The problem with the Thameslink is that it's only marginally quicker but much less frequent so unless there's a Thameslink just pulling in as I come down the steps into the platform I can get there sooner by tube.
I almost broke the London Underground world record in 1989, until the Misery Line went down at 8pm at night, not that it still upsets me now - much! 😀 Also just seen myself in your Acton Depot clip! Another great video - well done
I love "commuting". Back when I was 20 y.o. (a few years ago) and I had nothing better to do, I was just spending time travelling on the tube with no specific destination. Just sitting down - not in rush hour, of course - going from station to station, observing people, changing lines, going back to where I started... and the smell! Oh, I loved the smell from the tube in London! Not sure if things are still the same now, but I have very fond memories of that stingy smell! :D
I’m starting to think that maybe I should conduct some sort of survey on this - there are a lot of comments saying that people actually don’t mind commuting at all.
@@JagoHazzard I found that a half hour commute was an excellent opportunity to prepare and plan the forthcoming day, and at the other end of the day to rid my mind of all the work problems that I really didn't want to take home. Much longer than that and it becomes a chore, and is also more vulnerable to en-route delays.
Commuting via Euston station in to the City, the obvious next step was the Northern Line but I would walk to Euston Square to catch the tube to Moorgate as that was the "Slightly Less Miserable Line". Only used the Northern Line if Euston Square was closed.
I commute by train between Basingstoke and Reading and it's actually quite pleasant. It's expensive, sure, but it is way more comfortable than going by bus. I've written several novels going back and forwards over the past eight years, and when I'm knackered (I work in public healthcare!) it's much safer for me and other road users that I can't drive because I have Aspergers. But yeah, I think if I were forced to use the northern line I'd go crazy. When I was at uni in London I missed several events by waiting on platforms watching a sign saying '3 minutes' which was more like 30 when the train came and in my second and third years I'd generally take the bus or even walk along the Thames. I've only been in London a handful of times in the last twenty years and I certainly think our little shuttle is much nicer than anything underground.
The Northern Line used to be grey and dusty. Then someone came along, put some yellow paint on the handrails, increased the train frequency, got out a Hoover and it ceased to be miserable.
My favorite line is the Piccadilly line. Not because of any infrastructure or historical significance, but because I'm an American and that line was my first experience on the Tube during my vacation in 2019. I was surprised at how easy the Tube is to understand, and how helpful Londoners are
As a now regular commuter on the tube after moving to London, the Northern Line is pretty decent. I’m still of the mind that London transport is amazing and complaints about it are usually very minor. The District line is far worse in the morning for me than the Northern Line, though that may be because I get on at Morden so can always get a seat
I used to live and work along the Northern Line in my 20s in the 1990s and I loved it because I could always travel in the last carriage with the guard & I felt safe whatever time it was. I often travelled very early and very late & I was glad that the guard was there.
I'd say these days the Central Line is more of a misery, what with the heat, the passenger volume and length of line. My local line is the Victoria Line so I feel positively spoiled with my frequency and get cross with a 3+min wait!
I’m going to be awkward and say that I didn’t mind commuting before COVID. It was a good opportunity to read before and after work. A nice sort of buffer between home and work. I do sort of miss it at the moment.
I have used the Northern Lines for the past 6 years at least 10 times a day as it contains all the stations I need to travel to get to jobs as I am moving between different council blocks as a lift engineer who doesn't drive. The rush hour travel is horrible, too many people, too much messing around. But during the hours within the working day it is very pleasent.
@@Steeyuv All depends. Sometimes I do, in which case I have a big tool box with wheels on it or get someone who drives to drop me off. Usually it is just a big backpack with all my handtools in it.
We cover our walls at the hotel where I work, in our case not to make them individual but to hide a slight problem with damp. Ah the joys of flat roofs. Again thanks Jago. It is always nice to know other people have problems. With regards to misery lines it often struck me in Austria that a friend of mine had to leave home at 5.30 am to travel on the train to be in work at 9. Honestly having been on that train line a lot I have seen butterflies pass me going in the same direction.
No misery line can beat having a car in London, which I did for a few years. You talk about butterflies - I was literally overtaken by old ladies with Zimmer frames!
The motifs on the Victoria Line platforms at Green Park and Oxford Circus were replaced by new designs in the 80's, but the original designs reinstated in the 2010's. At Old Street, plain yellow tiles were installed in the seat recesses, and Moorgate had a similar refurbishment, althougb no seat recesses exist. It seems strange having two ultra modern stations at the end of the Kennington Loop now.
Travelled from Totteridge to London Bridge (and back!) daily in the early 80s. Angel in those days gave me the heeby-jeebies even when just sitting on the train! The smoking carriage was the only place to get a seat in rush hour, but watching the guard press the buttons was more fun - and safer. And the smell of brake-dust...
Back in the late 1980s, the Northern Line was very much the Misery Line; I worked in a well-known office block near Tottenham Court Road station and the unfortunates who travelled to work each day on it were forever grumbling. But at least they were employed. The Fenchurch Street line at that time was SO bad that Personnel (as HR was called in them days) had an unspoken rule not to hire anyone living out along that line, as the chances of them turning up to work on time (or indeed at all some days) was so slim.
I used to commute on the Misery Line back in the early noughties, but to be fair I always got a seat on the way into work. Maybe the one advantage of living at the end of the line in Morden!
"According to a recent survey, conducted among me." lol, again! Jago, I would gladly pay to see you perform a comedy routine on stage, based on trains. Please make this happen!
I commuted to the City from Clapham South starting in 1968. The Northern Line was served by 1938 stock which was very 1930s, art deco and even a bit elegant, There was, however, a bit of the control or running gear that had become unreliable and, located under the floor required a major operation to replace (there was an article about it in the Evening News). Trains were often taken out of service with consequent inconvenience for passengers, earning the line the name The Misery Line until the stock was largely replaced. I don't miss it at all, remembering weil journeys home from Bank in a packed train of determined smokers!
Dear old Northern Line! It was miserable to travel on in 1969-72, after which I left London. I could never have imagined then that 50 years on it would still be - miserable to travel on! So much for progress!
Back in 1972, my daily commute was from East Finchley to High Holborn. I still remember vividly some journeys were so crowded, I could lift my feet up from the floor and be held in place suspended by the crush of people. The real misery though was getting into a smokers carriage. As a non smoker, the stench was unbearable.
6:10 - you got me! My attention had already drifted away as I started to daydream of what stories all those old London stations witnessed over the past century )
Great video Jago. It’s easy to forget isn’t it how grubby and dangerous the tube once was (although I love the old 1938 Stock) Do you remember when the Guardian Angels had a go at patrolling the tube?! Think they came over from America in around the late 1980s if I remember rightly.
#JagoHazzard/ Another great video delving into some great transit history! Having grown up in The Bronx, NY, it amazes me how the detiorating rolling stock and stations across The Pond coincided with the New York City Transit Authority's similar issues during the 60's, 70's, and 80's! I grew up during the 80's, so I got to see the tail-end of the rotting effects on public transit. Hollywood had lots of fun adding to the... uh-hum, MISERY of the subway system with films like THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, THE WARRIORS, and numerous films shot in my city. Needless to say, the late 1980's saw the first real signs of progress in transit revitalization. Even films started to reflect that shift. The great love story that is GHOST, starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and released in 1990, utilized the subway system in several scenes. Almost like a silent co-star, the stations and subway cars depicted in the film contain no grafitti or trash strewn pathways. Hell, if even the movies can portray subways as improved entities, all can't be lost... right?
I started daily commuting on the Misery (aka Northern) line in the early ‘70s travelling to school - and have never lived far from an ML station since. You neglected to mention the Kings X fire - a horrific event. But one of the consequences was a huge improvement to the cleaning and maintenance of stations - and banning smoking on trains and underground platforms. The latter made a huge difference to the amount of general filth on the floor of trains and platforms and noxious smells.
I worked in London for a few months in 1994, before the old trains were replaced, and I used the Northern Line to go between my house in south Wimbledon to Stockwell, where I’d change to the Victoria Line for one stop to Vauxhall. The gulf in quality between the trains on the two lines was huge! In fact, the trains running the line at that time were so bad, either breaking down or not even turning up, it was preferable to walk to Wimbledon station and do battle with millions of commuters to get the overground stopper train to Vauxhall instead. Once I got a job back in my home town of Manchester, I left and never looked back.
I travelled daily on the Northern line till mid 1970s. It wasn't that bad on the Finchley Central branch but they were incredibly noisy in the tunnels. The new 59 stock was quiter but I loved the 38 stock. Can we have a happier tale before Christmas please to cheer us all Jago. Thank you.
I moved to London in 1998 and endured the 1959 stock commute from Hampstead to Moorgate and back again. It was very miserable around rush hours. Even after the introduction of the 1995 stock the overcrowding was a thing. In the interim I moved to the Hampstead Garden Suburb and had my choice of branches, each was as miserable as the other (although as you note, East Finchley is a far more interesting station, I originally thought that line in the middle HAD to go down to King's Cross somehow... in another life maybe) and then I moved to Chipping Barnet, end of the line, which after ATO and the avoidance of rush hours, made for a good experience, and since the pandemic, had been actually rather decent, with finding a seat the norm coming home and overcrowding a distant memory. I've never really had another line to commute on (save a short stretch of Victoria line, which is a completely different class of hell) save for the exciting times when Things Go Wrong During One's Commute and you ditch out at Euston to head to King's Cross to get the Picadilly to the West End because, well, it was a messy morning commute. You do have a knack for making this all seem rather mundane, and I do love your narrative delivery. I don't think the Northern was very miserable after about 2002, save for that mess TFL made converting over to ATO over about a year in 2012 or 13. It's not bad now, not that that's a recommendation to use it. :)
Not a tube but network southeast from Woolwich to Charing Cross in the late '80's was like travelling in cattle trucks. Reminded me of my Grandfather's stories about the first world War troop trains.
In the early seventies I used to commute on Southeastern from Kent to Victoria, on the old type trains. We all had little folding stools in our briefcases, which we unfolded and sat on in the corridors, there being no seats available. It wasn't allowed, of course, but the conductors couldn't pass through the train so we just got on with it. Nobody fell, there wasn't room to!
Yeah, it was like being packed in a tin of sardines! I only managed it for a few months, then found a job nearer home. Some people did it for years though. The " cattle trucks" effect was mostly if you travelled in the goods vans, where people smoked, too. 'Orrible!
@@gorillagirl7135 I only did it for two years then I was posted away. I hated it most in the summer going home after work with everybody sweaty and stinky. Me included. LOL
I used to commute into central London from Tunbridge Wells for a number of years - 1 train for about 50 minutes...not much hassle just get on it and get a seat and after a while I began to enjoy the time I could read and listen to music while travelling....however getting across London was always a "joy"
I used the Northern line from around 1988 from both Tootings - never really had much problem. I sort of pitied the Clapham commuters as trains were always full by their stations. But then I thought they could always buy or rent cheaper places to live. Now there's no such thing as 'cheaper'.
Top content as always Jago. One quick point, the Fenchurch Street line was seen as the misery line in the late 80s and 90s but since C2C took it over with fantastic electrostar rolling stock and with various upgrades it is now seen as one of the best...although in fairness as one of the most isolated lines, which is essentially a straight line with one whole and one partial loop, it should be quite easy to run!
I love the C2C line - my favourite London escape and so easy! The trains are comfortable and air-conditioned. Not long out of the city and you can smell the sea (when the tide's in), hear seagulls, and breathe fresher air coming up the estuary.
When my sister moved to London for a measly 6 months in early 1998, she called the Northern Line the Ganglands Express. Moving back 11 years later for a further 9 years, she was pleasantly surprised at how much it had changed in that time - the change in rolling stock made a big difference!
In Los Angeles, all subway stations have wildly different decor -- my favorite is the ceiling of film reels in one of the Hollywood Blvd. stations. However, from the train window, the view is the same at each one, except Wilshire & Western, where the platforms are stacked over each other, and perhaps 7th and Flower, because the LRT lines require a massive overpass over the HRT tracks below.
I don't know why the UA-cam algorythm suggested this video to me a year late, but I have to say that I like it a lot more when you have a London Undergroound outro after a London Underground video.
Thanks Jago. Brought back memories of when I lived at Mitcham/Tooting during the late 1960's and early 1970's. I frequently used the Misery Line from Tooting Broadway, to get to various destinations across 'The Smoke'. Dull, Dark and Dirty it all was and somewhat smelly. The only good thing about the line, was that if you missed a train, another would appear in less than Ten minutes; sometimes as little as Five minutes. I well remember the 1938 rolling stock, with Red - or Green - leather padded arm rests between seats and those round balls on springs which hung from the ceilings; for people to hold onto if there were no spares seats, especially during Rush Hour. Despite having been up to London on several occasions since I left in 1974, I've never used the Misery Line again, so would be interested to see what it's like these days. As for life in the Tooting area... Yes, crime was somewhat rampant back then; a lot of it racially motivated, not to mention heavy use of drugs.
One nice thing I have to say about Edgware station is that I always got a seat on my daily journey to High Street Kensington🙂! But on my journey home I never got a seat before Hampstead☹️.
For me the misery line was the Piccadilly, my route into central London, from Hounslow West. It ran OK but it's the stops you know. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Wait at Acton Town for transfer. Stop, stop, stop.........eventually Leicester square. You get the picture.
I remember, back in the early 80s, when I was using the Northern line to get to Uni, I looked forward to changing onto the Central line to get home as it was a lot cleaner. You could tell the difference between Bank Northern line and Bank Central line.
My personal misery line was the Bakerloo Line. After a good run from Hainault to Oxford Circus, I often had to wait 20 to 30 minutes for a train heading for Harlesden, so I could jump off at Paddington. Most days, five or six trains (mostly nearly empty) would lurch off towards Stanmore during this desperate wait. This was 1976 to 1981. The line was running the red Metro Cammell trains, with date 1938 on the door runners, if memory serves. (I'm happy to be corrected there). These were the "refurbished" trains that had seen service previously as Central Line trains. The Central Line had almost identical trains built for it, but they were silver. The Victoria Line automatic trains were run on the little-used Hainault to Woodford shuttle, at that time. (I used to use that shuttle to go to school)
For two years in the late 1980s I did enjoy commuting. The journey took forty five minutes. My last stop was a terminal both on outward and return journey. The trains were old rickety things that jiggled and rocked about a fair bit. So I and many others doing this commute would nap entirely secure in knowledge we would not miss last stop. These old carriages had windows that were easy to open so were always pleasantly airy. There was even a goods wagon with a guard to help roll your bike on which cost no extra money to use. The views were bucolic so if sleep didn’t take you day dreaming did.
I used the NL in the early ‘70s from Oval. Trains were often completely packed - particularly at one point industrial action led to shorter trains. Trains would often have to wait outside Kennington. When this happened, the motor (I suppose it was) would continue to thrum, which was vaguely reassuring. On one occasion at this period, the wait was particularly long. After a while, the motor cut out, so there was complete silence. Then the lights went out, so we were in total darkness. No-one spoke. It must have lasted about 5 minutes. When the train eventually pulled into Kennington, almost everyone got off. The sense of relief was palpable. I don’t think I have ever been so frightened.
The Northern Line is a great illustration that complexity and useful features sometimes cause problems. The through trains from both northern branches to both central branches are great, avoiding changes. But if either branch gets disrupted, things get out of synch. At Kennington they seem to have de-linked more over the years with Charing Cross trains reversing or looping (or now going to Battersea Power [Station]^n) and all Morden trains going via Bank except at peak hours. Going southbound at Camden Town is the tricky bit, which platform will your first train go from? But yes, that's better than having hundreds of people trying to swap trains using the narrow cross-passages.
Ah, the bad old days! I used to live in Golders Green, but got a job in East Putney. 1.5 hours of Northern and District Lines, each way. I either went in early and left early, or went in late and left late, to avoid rush hour. Standing for an hour and a half with your face in various peoples' armpits isn't my idea of a good time. I don't miss that commute one little bit.
I was on the Northern Line a few days ago, the only thing that made me miserable was the arm rests between the seats lol Mind you ended up doing the Kennington Loop, Great video.
@@andrewphillips9391 Boarded a Kennington Train at Waterloo, used the back carriage and sat on the left side of the train, doors open on the right hand side, once at Kennington stay on and then you go round before arriving back into Kennington, it about six minutes but half of that would involve waiting in the tunnel. They don't even check when the train terminate.
If there’s any line that truly deserves the title of the misery line today, the Central Line imo beats every other line by far. However once the Elizabeth Line opens it should relieve a lot of pressure on that line and make it less miserable.
Your video title brought back vivid memories of an LBC breakfast radio show jointly hosted by Bob Holness and Douglas Cameron, running throughout the mid-'70s to mid-'80s, in which the consummate professional and totally believable Holness, RIP, referred almost daily to the "misery line" between Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness. I moved to Shoeburyness in the year 2000 and by then, the c2c trains in and out were thankfully a pure joy, as a few of your other viewers have confirmed. So the baton seems to have either moved on or be shared around.
I spent a happy year commuting from West Finchley to Leicester Square in the mid-eighties, at the height of miserylineness. One of the dodges LT tried was to reset the clocks on the "Next train approaching" platform indicators so that a minute was actually significantly longer - one minute and forty seconds, says my unreliable memory. It therefore looked as if trains would be along a lot sooner than they really would be, which in theory kept the passengers happy. Narrator: It did not keep the passengers happy They also had a tendency to cancel trains at short notice so they could turn them round and fill in the gaps in the opposite service. On one occasion I was a ringleader of a sit-in which made the Evening Standard: they told us all to get out at, I think, Camden, so the train could run south and we all said "No". After a tense ten minutes and threats of police action, we went north. Tough for the people behind us and the ones wanting to go south, but we had waited twenty minutes for that bloody train. At the height of the rush hour. Ours. The one compensation was a beautiful restored older train (would that have been 1938 stock?) which regularly worked my morning trip into town and which was much more comfortable than the newer stuff. Springy moquette!
Yes! The 'Starlight Express' as the 5 (I think) patched-up 1938 trains were sometimes referred-to as. They lasted 'til sometime mid-1988 when their age again caused frequent breakdowns and they were taken out of commission for good.
I remember at the Morden Depot open day pleasing the new Northern Line manager by asking what was being done to counter the idea that his line was using all second had trains from other lines. He said it was good that some people knew that they weren't. I'm pretty sure he also said that the trains also have to have different acceleration/braking characteristics to cope with the different gradient profiles of the lines so ones from other lines would not work so well. I assume that the regenerative braking on newer stock also helped with the heat generated in the tunnels the energy being converted back into electricity rather than heat.
Still remember my first time in London years ago when someone told me I should visit Camden. Took me 25min to get from the platform to the street. While it was exit only...
District/Circle/Hammersmith - between Paddington and Aldgate East caused me endless misery last year and the end of 2019 when I had to go up to London (from Bristol) a couple of times a week for work. Delays, flooding etc could last for ages and my client didn't seem to be that sympathetic! In the end I changed to trotting down to Lancaster Gate, take the Central and trot from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East where the office were. More huff and puff but much more reliable and actually quicker in the end....
I used to travel on the Northern Line when it was known as the Misery Line. I haven't lived in London for over thirty years so just assumed it was still the same, that's how I always refer to it!
A friend of mine used to commute on the Northern line. His answer to the misery of commuting was to treat it as a game. Points were awarded for various achievements, including getting a seat on the train (top marks), overtaking someone between the lift and the platform, barging someone out of the way without being detected, and so on. Nowadays he would probably have been knifed to death within a few days, but in the mid 1980s this was considered to be good clean fun.
Enjoyed this, thank you. I've spent thirty-five years living at various locations along the southern stretch of the Northern Line. In recent decades it has indeed shaken off its grim reputation, and now generally offers a slick and pretty comfortable service. That said, pre-Covid if you were travelling northbound and wanted a seat at peak times - or even to be able to squeeze on at all - you were best off boarding south of Balham. Crime, or at least the fear of it, was still a feature through the late eighties and possibly beyond. I used to take a perverse pride in not only using the "misery line" but using that part of it that was called "bandit country". Rember "steaming", anyone?
I remember the 1938 stock with guards when I was using Kentish Town '69-'72 and then when using East Finchley to Embankment in the 2000s, my favourite decoration was and is, Charing Cross, shewing the building of the Eleanor Cross, all along the length of the platform!
I used to ride the Northern Line for years and fortunately left the UK just before the 2005 bombings. It always was a hot, overcrowded, miserable ride during rush hours. I used to watch ghost-poos float down the carriages, peoples faces would all gradually grimace as the ghost made its way through respective nostrils I always used to aim to stand by the door in between carriages and open the window, much to the annoyance of other passengers as their Metro fluttered about :-P
Thanks for creating and posting 👍 i never knew there was a stop inbetween St John Wood and Swiss Cottage called Marlborough Road (i just noticed it on your map at 1:15 secs) Google suggests it was in operation between April 1868 and November 1939
Perfect Jago ! your history of, and commentary on the different changes to the Northern Lines are pretty much spot on to describing the mixed joy that is the Northern Line commute
I 'commuted' to school from Hampstead to Archway (through Camden Town of course) in the 1960s. Yes, it was miserable, the trains were frequently late - there seemed to be no timetable at all. Glad it seems to have improved!
Only the Charing Cross branch is connected to the Kennington loop. The same is true of the new extension. All Bank branch trains go to and from Morden, and all off-peak Charing Cross trains use the Kennington loop or go to and from Battersea Power Station station (except for the Night Tube, when it comes back, which runs via Charing Cross to and from Morden).
The opening video was also used for the Bank Line story (just witnessed). Next up, "History" channel film footage of lightly-clad soldiers in battle "in the winter of..." And by the way, how is the Monica Lewinsky of Britain --- Kimberly Quinn --- doing these days? Has she popped in at 10 D to chat with her old Spectator pal, Boorish? Ah, for the good old days, when affairs were conducted with men who looked like they'd just crawled out of a West Virginia coal mine explosion (Blunkett, I believe his name was. Correct me if I'm wrong). When they finally learned how to tie their ties and shoelaces, all the romance in it, tragically, evaporated.
"This was a top-priority project, so of course didn't get built" - The most accurate statement about UK infrastructure projects ever
I came to leave this exact comment😂
and american freeways and bridges and tunnels... Don't imagine it is a British issue. God rest the Queen. God Save the King. He'll need all the help that he can get.
Not only about the UK infra projects, but this statement made my day :D Great video!
My city had a top priority project of building a light rail line to the airport. In 20 years, they've managed to build maybe a half kilometer of track and open a bus line to connect to the airport so that there's finally a public transportation link to the city whose name is on the airport (other cities already had bus lines going to the airport).
No profit in esstential infrastructure smh where do you expect the money to come from? shareholders? No magic money tree innit
“A survey conducted amongst me” 😂 The most accurate survey ever 👏👏👍😀
But what about the non-response bias?
Certainty the most honest.
Fancy getting that question on Family Fortunes?
My split personality has at least one 'Dont Know'
I did one of those once but disagree with the result 😂😂
One story of the Northern "misery" line relates to the 7th July 2005 suicide bombings.
The four bombers arrived at Kings Cross train station at about 08:30. They had apparently agreed to split up, take different tube lines and blow themselves up simultaneously in 20 minutes.
One took the Circle/District line eastbound, one took the Circle/District line westbound, one took the Piccadilly line southbound and the final one was to take the Northern line southbound (not sure which branch).
The misery line was living up to nickname that morning and the bomber could not even get onto the platforms as they were so overcrowded. With no chance of getting a train within 20 minutes he appears to have given up. He left the station and tried to contact the others by mobile phone and got no reply. Sadly, he blew himself up on a crowded bus about an hour later.
It always seemed ironic that the reason the Northern line was spared was because it was so unreliable.
It had had some kind of electrical supply problem ( though I am not sure if that was reported after the 0850 explosions ), I arrived at my local station for once early to get to work at Old Street (I am normally late , but work late to catch up as I hate evening travel - the wait for signals into morden can be an excessive pain, and half the time southbounds are shunted into the Tooting Broadway siding ) - and the station was closed with this reported , so its a pain diversion route and everyone else was filling the buses northbound so no space there. So it was bus-tram-thameslink- and I think I must have got to Holborn Viaduct or Farringdon with the hope of a bus eastbound to workplace ( i suppose I could have tried elephant-waterloo- bank then walk but I think the W&C was having another one of its signal refits and closed at the time ?) . At ground level it was sureal, ambulances hurrying everywhere, people with blackened faces looking dazed as commuters who had never been above ground other than their normal exit station were confused as to where they were. Somehow at work everyone else were in- some cycled as they normally did, others there normal route was BR or they had set out later / arrived on the Northern Line which by that time had got fixed and was working ! Being British we just carried on working.
My advice on this sort of thing is: 1) don't leave home before 10am so that colleagues can phone and tell you not to come to work on days like that. 2) Retire and don't have a regular commute at all. Your boss probably can't remember who you are anyway.
A sick reply I remember at the time Patrick! One bomber said to another," does my bomb look big in this?" The other one said " don't think it Martyers now" 😱😆
@@johntyjp - I didn’t know one of the bombers was called Patrick.
That moment when your metro line is so horrible that even terrorists are unable to get onto to attack it. 👀
"Any line can be the misery line. If you hate it enough".
You are the philosopher for our times.
As someone who grew up in an almost trainless environment, it’s always exciting to commute by train. And Camden always had a great sense of magic. No misery for me
public transport: the best way known to man to catch a pandemic respiratory virus.
@@TheShootist you're telling me i iust got omicron
@@adonaiyah2196 sorry to hear that. best of fortune to you and Happy Christmas and New Years.
I was born n raised in London... But Camden Town still confuses me and I end up taking the wrong train.. 🙄
@@TheShootist Or any virus really,
As a child on rare visits to London the Tube was something interesting and exotic. Its physical experience and smell meant something out of the ordinary and exciting. Then I moved to London for work and had to use the Northern Line twice a day between Archway and Euston. The whole nostalgic experience fell to pieces into misery. No amount of counselling has sorted it.
Now I'm very glad I never moved to London! ;)
I feel the same
It was Highgate to Waterloo for me. Seemingly unending misery.
Did you try going for County Councilling instead?
This happened and then un-happened for me. As a child I loved the Tube when I visited London (it was much better than anything we had in Milton Keynes). In 2013 I moved to North London, and as a pupil/junior barrister had to get up at the crack of dawn and travel to various different courts, and got thoroughly sick of the Tube. I moved (just about) out of London in 2016, and after that mainly used main line trains and buses when going into London. I gave up the barrister lark in 2018. Then in 2020 I started working at home full-time, and have been doing so ever since. Now, on the rare occasions when I use the Tube, I like it again!
I used to adore commuting. Those 40 precious minutes between leaving the bedlam of home and clocking in to the bedlam of work, where I could just listen to music or read a book were perfectly divine and relaxing. Thank you, COVID. You've taken away the only bit of daily sanity that I used to be able to call my own.
Hope that you can now start commuting again :)
I was similar. Other than when it's super overcrowded (as in "virtually no space to even stand") or things are going wrong, I like just sitting on a train/bus and having that time to listen to my music before having to get stuff done.
As a train nerd, I like commuting by rail - but only for as long as the train is on schedule, the carriage doesn’t get crowded, people don’t annoy me, I haven’t already made myself late, etc.
So basically, I love the concept of commuting by rail - but I never really get the chance to actually love my commutes…
I'm not that big of a fan of commuting by train. I prefer riding the tube for fun! Then I enjoy it!
@@spacelavayt7446agreed. Although I’m ok with travelling by train (national rail), I much prefer going on the tube. It’s more fun, it’s iconic, and the sounds (e.g. traction motors and door opening and closing chimes) are much better on the tube than on the train.
As a driver on c2c I can confirm that it very much become known as the Misery Line in the late 70s and 80s and was pretty much continually referred to as such right up until the turn of the century (still can’t get used to saying that 🙄) by which time the 357s replaced the last of the 1960s/70s stock (310s, 312s and 315s) and the service improved dramatically, with new fangled things like “air conditioning” and “reliable trains” helping refresh the line’s image from the error-strewn former “LTS” identity 🙂
Camden Town was always a pain not least because of the multitude of tourists that, bless them are totally baffled by the multiple worm holes they fear disappearing down 😆
Cheers Jago, great video as ever 👍🍻🍀
I remember someone complaining on a Compuserve forum (remember them?) in the mid-90s about how awful the LTS was because punctuality and reliability were around the 70% mark, and replying to them that the Birmingham-Walsall line's punctuality and reliability the previous month had been around 40%. That was incredibly poor even by the low standards of BR in the West Midlands.
At the time I lived on the Birmingham CrossCity line and was buying a monthly bus+rail pass (because it was cheaper than priv season + bus pass combo) and was getting the maximum 20% discount every month without fail because the CrossCity line always drastically failed to meet both the punctuality and reliability targets which I seem to recall were only 80%...
This was absolutely miserable.
Exactly what I signed up for.
I'm also looking forward to 'Jago Hazzard Gets Lost: a tale of bad tiling' coming soon
No worries, in 10 more days, that can renamed '...a tale a of glad tidings' lol
@@whyyoulidl ho ho ho! 😉
@@whyyoulidl Glides of ailing tat?
Falls asleep on train, " tale of sad sidings".
"A recent survey conducted among me" absolutely slayed me, thank you for brightening a crappy (albeit not one where I've had to commute) day, Jago
As a Northern Line commuter for over 25 years I can confidently say that it really has shaken its misery line moniker.
To an extent the misery was a function of where on the line you lived. When I first moved to London I lived in the south, and the daily commute was an awful experience for all the reasons mentioned in the video, but the situation improved somewhat when I moved North. However, since the spruce up it’s generally absolutely fine. Barring the odd pre WFH Bankmare.
Bankmare? Nah, nightmare
"I hope you liked this miserable tale from the tube, leave a like if you did" Hovers mouse cursor reluctantly and slightly confused over like button.
The line out of Fenchurch Street "earned" the Misery Line tag in the early 90s due to a combination of poor punctuality and aging slam-door rolling stock (the Class 302s dated back to the late 1950s).
It was completely resignalled during 1995 and 1996, with new rolling stock being introduced from 1999, and now regularly comes near the top of the punctuality charts.
Absolutely right. The Venerable and learned Mr Hazzard is being misled by the ignorant parvenu Mr Google. A trip pn the C2C line these days is a transport of Joy.
I agree, I lived in Thorpe Bay in the 1970's and it was bad then, and got worse. However, going back for work on the line on a regular basis the situation nowadays is much better.
Agreed. Thought this as soon as I saw the title.
Yeah ever since National Express took over the LTS route in the late 90’s early 00’s. It’s gone strength to strength. If I remember rightly is was the only successful route that National Express operated before it went to Trenitalia
The c2c and District Line getting that tag is all connected. So few DL trains run to Upminster that it causes overcrowding on the c2c trains at Barking which causes delays as people block the doors getting on at Barking and off at Upminster.
I'm not even particularly interested in trains and the tube (apart from being a Londoner so complaining about the tube is a normal part of day to day life) but this is quickly becoming one of my favourite youtube channels.
As for the northern line, I've always quite liked it! My least favourite line on the tube network is the district line. I spent a year getting the district line from east putney to mile end for uni and it was an absolute nightmare. I always had to add an extra half hour on in the morning as a buffer because you never knew how long it would take. Often, when I was travelling in the eastbound direction, wouldn't even have a destination. The board would just say something vague like "eastbound via city" or some such thing (it was years ago and I can't renew the exact wording), and you just had to kind of get on it and wait to see how far you'd get. Usually I'd end up having to change at Earl's court which don't even get me started on the useless train information boards there. Other times the train would have a stated destination but halfway through the journey they'd announce "the destination of this train has changed" and you'd have to get off. Nightmare line.
The line I use most now is the central line and while I actually quite like that line in most ways if the carriage is full and you have to travel more than a couple of stops the temperature is unbearable. Whatever the weather is, it's always at least 100 degrees on the central line. I know there's reasons and explanations for this but I'm convinced that it's called the central line because it travels through the molten core at the centre of the earth and that's why it's so bloody hot.
There's no bigger nightmare than a switch at either Bank or London Bridge or Old Street on the Northern Line.
I think a video on Old Street and how it FINALLY is getting revamped would be interesting.
Leaving bank station is like a labyrinth. The amount of times i exhausted myself flittering around that maze is more than id like to confess. If you wanna leave the Northern line platform you have to walk across the Central line platform. Walking across an entire platform to leave is so treacherous i actually fell into the tracks
DLR to any line is a real schlep
@@adonaiyah2196 Depends how the flows go, some are marked to avoid clashes of passenger flows, but there are tricks - I tend to go up the stairs and straight to the northern line lifts (4 shafts from memore, three filled, two lifts working if you are lucky, but cut opposite down to the W&C then up the travelator can bring you better to Walbrook - if that is what you wanted, and there is the new exit too, I have not tried that.
The trains at London bridge are so far away from the Northern line platforms that you may as well just walk to wherever you’re going, you’ll probably get there quicker
@@ala0284 Walk to Borough for the Northern Line - but then the Platforms are also quite a distance from London Bridge itself
"Battersea Power Station Station Station Station..." Got to have some humor whilst riding the misery line.
The other one is this: shouldn't the mainline station be called London London Bridge in accordance with all the other mainline termini and 'London' Blackfriars?
@@vinceturner3863 London London London London London Bridge
Is the picture in the thumbnail from Brentcross tube station looking northbound towards Edgware?
Also I despise the tunnel of screams that is the area around Acton Tube. The track screeching when entering the station from the North is a ear splitting
Whaaaatttt I can’t hear youuuuuu
it is the southbound platform at burnt oak im pretty sure
@@kryronic_13 Correct!
I thought that initially ( lived there once) but realised it wasn't.
I think at some time the Victoria line was much worse in that respect. Somewhere between Brixton and Vauxhall I think.
Great video. I love your humour "known as the 1938 stock as names are hard" :-) I've lived on the Northern line since 1991 so I've experienced some of the changes you refer to.
I used to work as a Guard on the Northern (and Central) in the early 90's. That was when the term Misery Line was very popular because the service was complete crap, delays and cancellations everywhere meaning the job was up the wall on a daily basis, and the whole line stunk and was falling apart.
After a shift down there your shirt collar was black with brake dust and it got in your hair. But it was a fun time nevertheless. 5 years as a guard before becoming a driver were 5 of my favourite years.
I worked there at the same time as you, as a guard then driver!
Stayed there for 30 years
I was at Edgware,then Golders.
Those with memories stretching back to the late 1980s will confirm it was grim down south around Clapham to Tooting.Those were the days before CCTV and when the working classes could still afford to live in the area.There were markedly fewer people travelling at all times of the day and it was certainly less safe.
I dont think I ever found it unsafe, just the inability of the paint to stick to the tunnel walls (station and pedestrian walkways) But in the late 80s I was mainly driving around hertfordshire or using the District Line out east
Hamster tube!
Edit: those air raid shelters are really neat architecture.
I"m binge watching this channel, I'm visiting London in another month. The tube and stations are such a cool thing and I enjoy visiting London (from US)
A miserably good tale, thanks for sharing. I love how Google chose to follow your line of "You're more likely to get robbed at the ticket counter" with an ad for Dubai's Emirate Airlines :D
In the light of a workday commute between 1981 and 1990 from East Finchley to Tolworth, via Waterloo, I guess I have to say that without the Northern Line such a trek would not have been possible. That said, I have to take issue with your description of commuting as being disliked. I can think of nothing better that staring at the inside of a black tunnel wall with a few cables suspended by hooks while awaiting a signal somewhere between Mornington Crescent and Camden Town, on a hot summer’s evening on a packed tube with no aircon. Sheer joy only to be topped if I was lucky enough to encounter a religious fanatic trying to convert a whole carriage while everyone looked the other way. What do you mean “disliked”. Impossible, Sir!
Convert a whole carriage into what, I wonder?
@@jerribee1 Non-driving trailer, perhaps?
I always found the Northern Line to be more of the 'Gosh, will I get home alive' - line, back in my gigging days in the '80's. It seemed to have a higher preponderance of resident nutters, than any other line on the system.
On one memorable occasion, whilst attempting to catch the last tube out of Camden (gigging again!), I encountered an aging punk who was industriously turning his fists into mince, by punching the metal railing separating the walkways. Not wishing to catch this gentleman's gaze, for fear I might look a bit too much like a railing, in his eyes, I attempted to sidle past. Just when I thought I was in the clear, he looked up at me and gestured with his mangled hands, at the blood-splattered railing.
"I've got the **** going!" He announced proudly to me.
"Give the ****er one from me!" I replied, with a discreet increase of pace....
No idea why but I first read this comment as set in your "giggling days". This left an interesting picture in my head but I couldn't think what it was about Camden Town that had this effect on you. Reading it again, it makes more sense but isn't as much fun. 😂
@@2H80vids Well, there was always a fair bit of 'herbal cigarette' action around Camden, which may have accounted for the giggling. However, I was a Goth at that particular time, so I was fuelled by snakebite and black and speed. Not necessarily in that order.... 😆
@@tombaxter6228 Snakebites could have some interesting effects on some folks, far more than a pint of each constituent would do. My mate's girlfriend handcuffed herself to a handrail on the last Glasgow Subway train of the night. When the firemen heard that "snakebite + black" was involved, she got some pretty serious, completely uncensored advice.
A fast response time and carrying the right tools(boltcutters) meant the train was only delayed about 20 mins; Dianne was delayed until court, the next morning.😁
The "giggling" from the gallery nearly got us all jailed.
The Bakerloo line was a misery to use back in the late 60's with scruffy stations, noisy, bouncy and swaying 1927 stock, which ran well into the 70's. The only bright thing was the cat that commuted daily from Waterloo to the Elephant every morning around 09:00 and I presume back in the afternoon. Going south on the Bakerloo at that time was less crowded than the journey on the Northern despite having to navigate the road and underpass at the Elephant.
That's amazing. It must have been going to visit a female cat 🐈
The same trains as back then are still operating on the bakerloo
0:16 Nice to see my home!!! Love it when you come out of the tunnel and the sunshine of Finchley greets you.
I moved to Kentish Town in September when I started University- down in Elephant & Castle- and commute on the Northern Line. The section between Kentish Town and Camden Town, where the line makes a strange double S-Bend at speed through the old South Kentish Town station I find to be most unbearable. The curve on the Bank Branch between Camden and Euston is also not particularly pleasant. That said between St Pancras and Old Street, and for most of the Charing Cross Branch, it's a nice line to ride, while the above ground section of the Edgware branch is nicer still, the stations with island platforms are very charming indeed.
Kentish Town to Camden Town is the loudest section of the underground I believe
@@koipen that I'd believe.
Just take the Thameslink instead. Much nicer trains, and you get to see the Thames from Blackfriars plus enjoy the view in the above ground section between Blackfriars and Elephant and Castle.
This excruciating piercing screeching around Kentish Town is a relatively recent phenomenon that only started a few years ago after some track replacement work. There have been various exchanges with TfL over the issue. The irony is that the cause is apparently a new type of track fitting that is designed to reduce noise (at ground level I think, for houses above), but which has actually had the opposite effect for people inside the trains. There has been a similar issue that started around the same time affecting the curve just north of Finchley Central (towards High Barnet, not the Mill Hill East branch). I lived opposite this curve for many years and I believe the issue is still ongoing. TfL have proposed and tried various solutions (e.g. track lubricant on the curve) to solving the issue - all a failure so far as I understand it. Last I heard they were not willing to replace the track (presumably to go back to the older but much quieter type) due to the cost involved.
@@andyyu5957 The problem with the Thameslink is that it's only marginally quicker but much less frequent so unless there's a Thameslink just pulling in as I come down the steps into the platform I can get there sooner by tube.
I almost broke the London Underground world record in 1989, until the Misery Line went down at 8pm at night, not that it still upsets me now - much! 😀 Also just seen myself in your Acton Depot clip! Another great video - well done
I love "commuting". Back when I was 20 y.o. (a few years ago) and I had nothing better to do, I was just spending time travelling on the tube with no specific destination. Just sitting down - not in rush hour, of course - going from station to station, observing people, changing lines, going back to where I started... and the smell! Oh, I loved the smell from the tube in London! Not sure if things are still the same now, but I have very fond memories of that stingy smell! :D
I’m starting to think that maybe I should conduct some sort of survey on this - there are a lot of comments saying that people actually don’t mind commuting at all.
@@JagoHazzard I found that a half hour commute was an excellent opportunity to prepare and plan the forthcoming day, and at the other end of the day to rid my mind of all the work problems that I really didn't want to take home. Much longer than that and it becomes a chore, and is also more vulnerable to en-route delays.
Commuting via Euston station in to the City, the obvious next step was the Northern Line but I would walk to Euston Square to catch the tube to Moorgate as that was the "Slightly Less Miserable Line". Only used the Northern Line if Euston Square was closed.
Back in the early 1990s a minute on the train indicator boards averaged over 80 seconds. It was like time itself was affected.
The Time-Doppler Effect as applied to timetabling. In Japan it tends to want to run in the opposite direction.
I commute by train between Basingstoke and Reading and it's actually quite pleasant. It's expensive, sure, but it is way more comfortable than going by bus. I've written several novels going back and forwards over the past eight years, and when I'm knackered (I work in public healthcare!) it's much safer for me and other road users that I can't drive because I have Aspergers.
But yeah, I think if I were forced to use the northern line I'd go crazy. When I was at uni in London I missed several events by waiting on platforms watching a sign saying '3 minutes' which was more like 30 when the train came and in my second and third years I'd generally take the bus or even walk along the Thames. I've only been in London a handful of times in the last twenty years and I certainly think our little shuttle is much nicer than anything underground.
The Northern Line used to be grey and dusty. Then someone came along, put some yellow paint on the handrails, increased the train frequency, got out a Hoover and it ceased to be miserable.
My favorite line is the Piccadilly line. Not because of any infrastructure or historical significance, but because I'm an American and that line was my first experience on the Tube during my vacation in 2019. I was surprised at how easy the Tube is to understand, and how helpful Londoners are
As a now regular commuter on the tube after moving to London, the Northern Line is pretty decent. I’m still of the mind that London transport is amazing and complaints about it are usually very minor. The District line is far worse in the morning for me than the Northern Line, though that may be because I get on at Morden so can always get a seat
I used to live and work along the Northern Line in my 20s in the 1990s and I loved it because I could always travel in the last carriage with the guard & I felt safe whatever time it was. I often travelled very early and very late & I was glad that the guard was there.
I'd say these days the Central Line is more of a misery, what with the heat, the passenger volume and length of line. My local line is the Victoria Line so I feel positively spoiled with my frequency and get cross with a 3+min wait!
I’m going to be awkward and say that I didn’t mind commuting before COVID. It was a good opportunity to read before and after work. A nice sort of buffer between home and work. I do sort of miss it at the moment.
Nothing awkward about that. Just honest
I have used the Northern Lines for the past 6 years at least 10 times a day as it contains all the stations I need to travel to get to jobs as I am moving between different council blocks as a lift engineer who doesn't drive. The rush hour travel is horrible, too many people, too much messing around. But during the hours within the working day it is very pleasent.
I'm assuming you don't have to carry too many tools on that job then!
@@Steeyuv All depends. Sometimes I do, in which case I have a big tool box with wheels on it or get someone who drives to drop me off. Usually it is just a big backpack with all my handtools in it.
We cover our walls at the hotel where I work, in our case not to make them individual but to hide a slight problem with damp. Ah the joys of flat roofs. Again thanks Jago. It is always nice to know other people have problems. With regards to misery lines it often struck me in Austria that a friend of mine had to leave home at 5.30 am to travel on the train to be in work at 9. Honestly having been on that train line a lot I have seen butterflies pass me going in the same direction.
No misery line can beat having a car in London, which I did for a few years. You talk about butterflies - I was literally overtaken by old ladies with Zimmer frames!
The motifs on the Victoria Line platforms at Green Park and Oxford Circus were replaced by new designs in the 80's, but the original designs reinstated in the 2010's. At Old Street, plain yellow tiles were installed in the seat recesses, and Moorgate had a similar refurbishment, althougb no seat recesses exist. It seems strange having two ultra modern stations at the end of the Kennington Loop now.
Travelled from Totteridge to London Bridge (and back!) daily in the early 80s. Angel in those days gave me the heeby-jeebies even when just sitting on the train! The smoking carriage was the only place to get a seat in rush hour, but watching the guard press the buttons was more fun - and safer. And the smell of brake-dust...
Back in the late 1980s, the Northern Line was very much the Misery Line; I worked in a well-known office block near Tottenham Court Road station and the unfortunates who travelled to work each day on it were forever grumbling. But at least they were employed. The Fenchurch Street line at that time was SO bad that Personnel (as HR was called in them days) had an unspoken rule not to hire anyone living out along that line, as the chances of them turning up to work on time (or indeed at all some days) was so slim.
I used to commute on the Misery Line back in the early noughties, but to be fair I always got a seat on the way into work. Maybe the one advantage of living at the end of the line in Morden!
As soon as you mentioned overcrowding, the clapham stations came straight to mind
"According to a recent survey, conducted among me." lol, again!
Jago, I would gladly pay to see you perform a comedy routine on stage, based on trains. Please make this happen!
I commuted to the City from Clapham South starting in 1968. The Northern Line was served by 1938 stock which was very 1930s, art deco and even a bit elegant, There was, however, a bit of the control or running gear that had become unreliable and, located under the floor required a major operation to replace (there was an article about it in the Evening News). Trains were often taken out of service with consequent inconvenience for passengers, earning the line the name The Misery Line until the stock was largely replaced. I don't miss it at all, remembering weil journeys home from Bank in a packed train of determined smokers!
Dear old Northern Line! It was miserable to travel on in 1969-72, after which I left London. I could never have imagined then that 50 years on it would still be - miserable to travel on! So much for progress!
Best performing lines now!
In 50 years it's totally transformed,it's good,what are you on about?
Back in 1972, my daily commute was from East Finchley to High Holborn. I still remember vividly some journeys were so crowded, I could lift my feet up from the floor and be held in place suspended by the crush of people. The real misery though was getting into a smokers carriage. As a non smoker, the stench was unbearable.
6:10 - you got me! My attention had already drifted away as I started to daydream of what stories all those old London stations witnessed over the past century )
Great video Jago. It’s easy to forget isn’t it how grubby and dangerous the tube once was (although I love the old 1938 Stock) Do you remember when the Guardian Angels had a go at patrolling the tube?! Think they came over from America in around the late 1980s if I remember rightly.
i remember those turkeys - apologies if i've offended anyone
#JagoHazzard/ Another great video delving into some great transit history! Having grown up in The Bronx, NY, it amazes me how the detiorating rolling stock and stations across The Pond coincided with the New York City Transit Authority's similar issues during the 60's, 70's, and 80's! I grew up during the 80's, so I got to see the tail-end of the rotting effects on public transit. Hollywood had lots of fun adding to the... uh-hum, MISERY of the subway system with films like THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, THE WARRIORS, and numerous films shot in my city. Needless to say, the late 1980's saw the first real signs of progress in transit revitalization. Even films started to reflect that shift. The great love story that is GHOST, starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and released in 1990, utilized the subway system in several scenes. Almost like a silent co-star, the stations and subway cars depicted in the film contain no grafitti or trash strewn pathways. Hell, if even the movies can portray subways as improved entities, all can't be lost... right?
123 and the Warriors are 2 of my favourite films!!
I started daily commuting on the Misery (aka Northern) line in the early ‘70s travelling to school - and have never lived far from an ML station since.
You neglected to mention the Kings X fire - a horrific event. But one of the consequences was a huge improvement to the cleaning and maintenance of stations - and banning smoking on trains and underground platforms. The latter made a huge difference to the amount of general filth on the floor of trains and platforms and noxious smells.
I worked in London for a few months in 1994, before the old trains were replaced, and I used the Northern Line to go between my house in south Wimbledon to Stockwell, where I’d change to the Victoria Line for one stop to Vauxhall. The gulf in quality between the trains on the two lines was huge! In fact, the trains running the line at that time were so bad, either breaking down or not even turning up, it was preferable to walk to Wimbledon station and do battle with millions of commuters to get the overground stopper train to Vauxhall instead. Once I got a job back in my home town of Manchester, I left and never looked back.
Not forgetting the 1956 Stock (3 trains) also ran on the Northern; their different cab roof lines making then easy to spot.
I lived in Golders Green and Highgate in the 80s and often used both branches, but not to get to work. Great pictures and diagrams.
I travelled daily on the Northern line till mid 1970s. It wasn't that bad on the Finchley Central branch but they were incredibly noisy in the tunnels.
The new 59 stock was quiter but I loved the 38 stock.
Can we have a happier tale before Christmas please to cheer us all Jago.
Thank you.
I moved to London in 1998 and endured the 1959 stock commute from Hampstead to Moorgate and back again. It was very miserable around rush hours. Even after the introduction of the 1995 stock the overcrowding was a thing. In the interim I moved to the Hampstead Garden Suburb and had my choice of branches, each was as miserable as the other (although as you note, East Finchley is a far more interesting station, I originally thought that line in the middle HAD to go down to King's Cross somehow... in another life maybe) and then I moved to Chipping Barnet, end of the line, which after ATO and the avoidance of rush hours, made for a good experience, and since the pandemic, had been actually rather decent, with finding a seat the norm coming home and overcrowding a distant memory. I've never really had another line to commute on (save a short stretch of Victoria line, which is a completely different class of hell) save for the exciting times when Things Go Wrong During One's Commute and you ditch out at Euston to head to King's Cross to get the Picadilly to the West End because, well, it was a messy morning commute. You do have a knack for making this all seem rather mundane, and I do love your narrative delivery. I don't think the Northern was very miserable after about 2002, save for that mess TFL made converting over to ATO over about a year in 2012 or 13. It's not bad now, not that that's a recommendation to use it. :)
Station station station... I thought the tape had skipped but then realised it is 2022 and that I'm watching Jago Hazzard.
Not a tube but network southeast from Woolwich to Charing Cross in the late '80's was like travelling in cattle trucks. Reminded me of my Grandfather's stories about the first world War troop trains.
In the early seventies I used to commute on Southeastern from Kent to Victoria, on the old type trains. We all had little folding stools in our briefcases, which we unfolded and sat on in the corridors, there being no seats available. It wasn't allowed, of course, but the conductors couldn't pass through the train so we just got on with it. Nobody fell, there wasn't room to!
@@gorillagirl7135 shooting sticks. LOL. It was truly dreadful wasn't it.
Yeah, it was like being packed in a tin of sardines! I only managed it for a few months, then found a job nearer home. Some people did it for years though. The " cattle trucks" effect was mostly if you travelled in the goods vans, where people smoked, too. 'Orrible!
@@gorillagirl7135 I only did it for two years then I was posted away. I hated it most in the summer going home after work with everybody sweaty and stinky. Me included. LOL
I used to commute into central London from Tunbridge Wells for a number of years - 1 train for about 50 minutes...not much hassle just get on it and get a seat and after a while I began to enjoy the time I could read and listen to music while travelling....however getting across London was always a "joy"
I used the Northern line from around 1988 from both Tootings - never really had much problem. I sort of pitied the Clapham commuters as trains were always full by their stations. But then I thought they could always buy or rent cheaper places to live. Now there's no such thing as 'cheaper'.
Top content as always Jago. One quick point, the Fenchurch Street line was seen as the misery line in the late 80s and 90s but since C2C took it over with fantastic electrostar rolling stock and with various upgrades it is now seen as one of the best...although in fairness as one of the most isolated lines, which is essentially a straight line with one whole and one partial loop, it should be quite easy to run!
I love the C2C line - my favourite London escape and so easy! The trains are comfortable and air-conditioned. Not long out of the city and you can smell the sea (when the tide's in), hear seagulls, and breathe fresher air coming up the estuary.
When my sister moved to London for a measly 6 months in early 1998, she called the Northern Line the Ganglands Express. Moving back 11 years later for a further 9 years, she was pleasantly surprised at how much it had changed in that time - the change in rolling stock made a big difference!
In Los Angeles, all subway stations have wildly different decor -- my favorite is the ceiling of film reels in one of the Hollywood Blvd. stations. However, from the train window, the view is the same at each one, except Wilshire & Western, where the platforms are stacked over each other, and perhaps 7th and Flower, because the LRT lines require a massive overpass over the HRT tracks below.
I don't know why the UA-cam algorythm suggested this video to me a year late, but I have to say that I like it a lot more when you have a London Undergroound outro after a London Underground video.
Thanks Jago. Brought back memories of when I lived at Mitcham/Tooting during the late 1960's and early 1970's. I frequently used the Misery Line from Tooting Broadway, to get to various destinations across 'The Smoke'. Dull, Dark and Dirty it all was and somewhat smelly. The only good thing about the line, was that if you missed a train, another would appear in less than Ten minutes; sometimes as little as Five minutes. I well remember the 1938 rolling stock, with Red - or Green - leather padded arm rests between seats and those round balls on springs which hung from the ceilings; for people to hold onto if there were no spares seats, especially during Rush Hour. Despite having been up to London on several occasions since I left in 1974, I've never used the Misery Line again, so would be interested to see what it's like these days. As for life in the Tooting area... Yes, crime was somewhat rampant back then; a lot of it racially motivated, not to mention heavy use of drugs.
One nice thing I have to say about Edgware station is that I always got a seat on my daily journey to High Street Kensington🙂! But on my journey home I never got a seat before Hampstead☹️.
For me the misery line was the Piccadilly, my route into central London, from Hounslow West.
It ran OK but it's the stops you know. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Wait at Acton Town for transfer. Stop, stop, stop.........eventually Leicester square.
You get the picture.
I remember, back in the early 80s, when I was using the Northern line to get to Uni, I looked forward to changing onto the Central line to get home as it was a lot cleaner. You could tell the difference between Bank Northern line and Bank Central line.
Nothing has changed aswell 🤣
My personal misery line was the Bakerloo Line. After a good run from Hainault to Oxford Circus, I often had to wait 20 to 30 minutes for a train heading for Harlesden, so I could jump off at Paddington. Most days, five or six trains (mostly nearly empty) would lurch off towards Stanmore during this desperate wait. This was 1976 to 1981. The line was running the red Metro Cammell trains, with date 1938 on the door runners, if memory serves. (I'm happy to be corrected there). These were the "refurbished" trains that had seen service previously as Central Line trains. The Central Line had almost identical trains built for it, but they were silver. The Victoria Line automatic trains were run on the little-used Hainault to Woodford shuttle, at that time. (I used to use that shuttle to go to school)
For two years in the late 1980s I did enjoy commuting.
The journey took forty five minutes. My last stop was a terminal both on outward and return journey. The trains were old rickety things that jiggled and rocked about a fair bit. So I and many others doing this commute would nap entirely secure in knowledge we would not miss last stop. These old carriages had windows that were easy to open so were always pleasantly airy. There was even a goods wagon with a guard to help roll your bike on which cost no extra money to use. The views were bucolic so if sleep didn’t take you day dreaming did.
I used the NL in the early ‘70s from Oval. Trains were often completely packed - particularly at one point industrial action led to shorter trains. Trains would often have to wait outside Kennington. When this happened, the motor (I suppose it was) would continue to thrum, which was vaguely reassuring. On one occasion at this period, the wait was particularly long. After a while, the motor cut out, so there was complete silence. Then the lights went out, so we were in total darkness. No-one spoke. It must have lasted about 5 minutes. When the train eventually pulled into Kennington, almost everyone got off. The sense of relief was palpable. I don’t think I have ever been so frightened.
The Northern Line is a great illustration that complexity and useful features sometimes cause problems. The through trains from both northern branches to both central branches are great, avoiding changes. But if either branch gets disrupted, things get out of synch. At Kennington they seem to have de-linked more over the years with Charing Cross trains reversing or looping (or now going to Battersea Power [Station]^n) and all Morden trains going via Bank except at peak hours. Going southbound at Camden Town is the tricky bit, which platform will your first train go from? But yes, that's better than having hundreds of people trying to swap trains using the narrow cross-passages.
Thanks Jago, loved this miserable video, it was brilliant! From a grumpy old man in North West London. 🤣🤣
“According to a survey conducted by the me…..”. 🤣 😂😂😂😂
Ah, the bad old days! I used to live in Golders Green, but got a job in East Putney. 1.5 hours of Northern and District Lines, each way. I either went in early and left early, or went in late and left late, to avoid rush hour. Standing for an hour and a half with your face in various peoples' armpits isn't my idea of a good time. I don't miss that commute one little bit.
I was on the Northern Line a few days ago, the only thing that made me miserable was the arm rests between the seats lol Mind you ended up doing the Kennington Loop, Great video.
Done that when asleep. dont think I have gone into the siding at kennington though
Yh Simon I feel ur pain they’re so hard and uncomfortable
How did you manage that? Asking for a friend.
@@andrewphillips9391 Boarded a Kennington Train at Waterloo, used the back carriage and sat on the left side of the train, doors open on the right hand side, once at Kennington stay on and then you go round before arriving back into Kennington, it about six minutes but half of that would involve waiting in the tunnel. They don't even check when the train terminate.
If there’s any line that truly deserves the title of the misery line today, the Central Line imo beats every other line by far.
However once the Elizabeth Line opens it should relieve a lot of pressure on that line and make it less miserable.
True - I do almost everything I can to avoid the central line.
The Central line is very useful, but it’s too damn hot and overcrowded
Your video title brought back vivid memories of an LBC breakfast radio show jointly hosted by Bob Holness and Douglas Cameron, running throughout the mid-'70s to mid-'80s, in which the consummate professional and totally believable Holness, RIP, referred almost daily to the "misery line" between Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness. I moved to Shoeburyness in the year 2000 and by then, the c2c trains in and out were thankfully a pure joy, as a few of your other viewers have confirmed. So the baton seems to have either moved on or be shared around.
I spent a happy year commuting from West Finchley to Leicester Square in the mid-eighties, at the height of miserylineness. One of the dodges LT tried was to reset the clocks on the "Next train approaching" platform indicators so that a minute was actually significantly longer - one minute and forty seconds, says my unreliable memory. It therefore looked as if trains would be along a lot sooner than they really would be, which in theory kept the passengers happy.
Narrator: It did not keep the passengers happy
They also had a tendency to cancel trains at short notice so they could turn them round and fill in the gaps in the opposite service. On one occasion I was a ringleader of a sit-in which made the Evening Standard: they told us all to get out at, I think, Camden, so the train could run south and we all said "No". After a tense ten minutes and threats of police action, we went north. Tough for the people behind us and the ones wanting to go south, but we had waited twenty minutes for that bloody train. At the height of the rush hour. Ours.
The one compensation was a beautiful restored older train (would that have been 1938 stock?) which regularly worked my morning trip into town and which was much more comfortable than the newer stuff. Springy moquette!
Yes! The 'Starlight Express' as the 5 (I think) patched-up 1938 trains were sometimes referred-to as. They lasted 'til sometime mid-1988 when their age again caused frequent breakdowns and they were taken out of commission for good.
I remember at the Morden Depot open day pleasing the new Northern Line manager by asking what was being done to counter the idea that his line was using all second had trains from other lines. He said it was good that some people knew that they weren't. I'm pretty sure he also said that the trains also have to have different acceleration/braking characteristics to cope with the different gradient profiles of the lines so ones from other lines would not work so well.
I assume that the regenerative braking on newer stock also helped with the heat generated in the tunnels the energy being converted back into electricity rather than heat.
I just love your sense of humour! Excellent stuff!
Still remember my first time in London years ago when someone told me I should visit Camden. Took me 25min to get from the platform to the street. While it was exit only...
District/Circle/Hammersmith - between Paddington and Aldgate East caused me endless misery last year and the end of 2019 when I had to go up to London (from Bristol) a couple of times a week for work. Delays, flooding etc could last for ages and my client didn't seem to be that sympathetic! In the end I changed to trotting down to Lancaster Gate, take the Central and trot from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East where the office were. More huff and puff but much more reliable and actually quicker in the end....
I used to travel on the Northern Line when it was known as the Misery Line. I haven't lived in London for over thirty years so just assumed it was still the same, that's how I always refer to it!
A friend of mine used to commute on the Northern line. His answer to the misery of commuting was to treat it as a game. Points were awarded for various achievements, including getting a seat on the train (top marks), overtaking someone between the lift and the platform, barging someone out of the way without being detected, and so on. Nowadays he would probably have been knifed to death within a few days, but in the mid 1980s this was considered to be good clean fun.
Enjoyed this, thank you.
I've spent thirty-five years living at various locations along the southern stretch of the Northern Line. In recent decades it has indeed shaken off its grim reputation, and now generally offers a slick and pretty comfortable service. That said, pre-Covid if you were travelling northbound and wanted a seat at peak times - or even to be able to squeeze on at all - you were best off boarding south of Balham.
Crime, or at least the fear of it, was still a feature through the late eighties and possibly beyond. I used to take a perverse pride in not only using the "misery line" but using that part of it that was called "bandit country". Rember "steaming", anyone?
I remember the 1938 stock with guards when I was using Kentish Town '69-'72 and then when using East Finchley to Embankment in the 2000s, my favourite decoration was and is, Charing Cross, shewing the building of the Eleanor Cross, all along the length of the platform!
That was put in when Strand Station was closed for the join up with the incoming new Jubilee Platforms and station
I used to ride the Northern Line for years and fortunately left the UK just before the 2005 bombings.
It always was a hot, overcrowded, miserable ride during rush hours.
I used to watch ghost-poos float down the carriages, peoples faces would all gradually grimace as the ghost made its way through respective nostrils
I always used to aim to stand by the door in between carriages and open the window, much to the annoyance of other passengers as their Metro fluttered about :-P
The 1995 stock trains are my favourite trains on the tube!
Thanks for creating and posting 👍 i never knew there was a stop inbetween St John Wood and Swiss Cottage called Marlborough Road (i just noticed it on your map at 1:15 secs) Google suggests it was in operation between April 1868 and November 1939
Perfect Jago ! your history of, and commentary on the different changes to the Northern Lines are pretty much spot on to describing the mixed joy that is the Northern Line commute
I 'commuted' to school from Hampstead to Archway (through Camden Town of course) in the 1960s. Yes, it was miserable, the trains were frequently late - there seemed to be no timetable at all. Glad it seems to have improved!
Only the Charing Cross branch is connected to the Kennington loop. The same is true of the new extension. All Bank branch trains go to and from Morden, and all off-peak Charing Cross trains use the Kennington loop or go to and from Battersea Power Station station (except for the Night Tube, when it comes back, which runs via Charing Cross to and from Morden).
The opening video was also used for the Bank Line story (just witnessed). Next up, "History" channel film footage of lightly-clad soldiers in battle "in the winter of..." And by the way, how is the Monica Lewinsky of Britain --- Kimberly Quinn --- doing these days? Has she popped in at 10 D to chat with her old Spectator pal, Boorish? Ah, for the good old days, when affairs were conducted with men who looked like they'd just crawled out of a West Virginia coal mine explosion (Blunkett, I believe his name was. Correct me if I'm wrong). When they finally learned how to tie their ties and shoelaces, all the romance in it, tragically, evaporated.
Travel guides I saw in the 1990s when I was planning my first visit to the UK were referring to the Northern Line as “the misery line”.
My commute is from Harlington (beds) to Luton and love it.
I always get a seat 😉