Minding the Gap

The London Underground will now have train drivers enlightening passengers with words of wisdom.

The London Underground will now have train drivers enlightening passengers with words of wisdom.

Anyone who has ever travelled on the London Underground (LU) knows that it is a very silent journey. The daily commuter either pores over a newspaper or book, or listens to music on an iPod while staring into space. Surrounded by strangers, it is a lonely experience. Unlike in India, striking up a conversation with the person on the next seat, even if you’ve been regulars for years, is out of the question. The only sound that pierces the silence is the recorded message telling passengers which station the train is approaching, or the famous ‘mind the gap’ once it reaches the platform. But that is all set to change!

Commuters will now hear pearls of wisdom from philosophers to enliven their journey. You might hear a voice tell you that, “There is more to life than increasing at speed”, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, or intone that, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once”, as Albert Einstein put it. These are not pre-recorded messages, but direct interventions by the train driver. “By encouraging Tube staff to talk directly to customers rather than relying on digital announcements, we want to celebrate the individual voices that have made London Underground’s service famous, and it is hoped, lift the mood of those travelling on the network,” says a Transport for London spokesperson.

As part of its plans for a new and improved Tube service, Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller was given the task of producing a booklet of quotes that could captivate thousands of daily commuters. “Originally, when asked to think about a project for London Underground, I suggested a day of no announcements on the Underground,” says Deller, “but obviously this was not possible, so I came up with the idea to give the staff a collection of quotes, and the idea grew from there. I often wish announcements were more personal and reflected the realities and absurdities of living and working in a big city. I think the travelling public enjoys some humour and unexpected insight during their journey.”

The passport-sized booklet that Deller has compiled features quotations from a wide range of philosophical, political and historical sources. He worked with the operational staff on the Piccadilly line to produce this new work of art. Entitled What is the City but the People, a quote from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, the booklet includes such gems as, ‘Hell is other people’ (Jean-Paul Sartre), ‘Nothing is worth more than this day’ (Johann von Goethe), and, ‘An ounce of action is worth a tonne of theory’ (Friedrich Engels).

Typically, the only announcements that train drivers make personally are apologies for delays. Some of the more articulate drivers occasionally adlib to lend humour to these announcements. “This is a great opportunity to add something extra special to the service we provide. We get excellent responses from the public when LU staff personalise their announcements, and my hope is that this project will inspire our staff to engage with customers beyond the artwork, bringing a personal touch back to the forefront of our world-class Tube service,” says Phil O’Hare, general manager of the Piccadilly Line.

During one of my own numerous Tube journeys, I heard the train driver say, “Your delay this evening is caused by the line controller suffering from E&B syndrome: not knowing his elbow from his backside. I’ll let you know any further information as soon as I’m given any.” It certainly managed to crack a smile on many a tired face and lighten the mood in the carriage. However, not all drivers are equally articulate, so the LU roped in comedian Arthur Smith to coach staff on how to communicate with public audiences. Smith spent a day with staff on the Piccadilly line, travelling with operators to experience Tube life behind the scenes. “Being in the front of the Tube train was tremendously exciting for me,” says Smith, “There is a very different view from there. I really got a sense of the responsibility that drivers have and of how interacting with the public not only improves the customer’s journey but can make the staff’s days run more smoothly too.”

The LU is over a century old (work on it began in 1860), and remains not just the oldest but longest underground train network in the world, beating the Paris Metro and New York Subway. Its network of 12 lines, coded by colour, transports 2.7 million passengers across London every day, and closes only for Christmas. The first trains leave stations at 5.00 am and last trains dock for the night at 1.00 am. The four intervening hours are for maintenance. Well over 13,000 people representing the multicultural diversity of London are employed by the LU.

Despite the 7/7 bomb blasts in 2005 on three trains that killed 39 people, the Tube is still regarded as probably the safest way to travel in London. It may have begun as a steam train operation, with all the attendant smoke and suffocation, but has been a fully electrified network for over a hundred years now. Also, improvements in deep tunnelling technology in the 1880s ensured that the lines themselves have been secure.

Art on the Underground has been a tradition since 1908, when Managing Director Frank Pick began commissioning leading artists to work on innovative poster campaigns. Iconic designs such as the ground-breaking Tube map and the distinctive blue bar and red circle symbol denoting LU stations are now recognised the world over. Since the new millennium, Art on the Underground has been working with artists to produce and present new artworks to engage people. Deller’s booklet is a part of this project. “This is a unique work of art that only exists thanks to the cooperation of Tube staff,” says Sally Shaw, curator for Art on the Underground, “We have been very lucky to work with some fantastic people who have helped share a great idea with the public.”

And how have passengers taken to the latest artistic offering? “What a charming idea! It brightened up my day. Art is more than decoration which this project proves, it’s got something to say. Art on the Underground is really exploring the exciting potential of their unique venue and audience,” says Olivia Rickman, who uses the Piccadilly line everyday. “I was shocked when I heard the train driver come out with something so profound. My first reaction was to think he is an intellectual and he is wasted being just a driver,” says Geeta Patel, a banker in the City.

But, there are also those who are not so enthused. “Why can’t the Underground spend the money they have just wasted on this campaign on improving their services? I am sure passengers would feel much happier if they didn’t have to suffer the delays and got home earlier, rather than listen to grand philosophy from drivers,” grumbles a Tube traveller. This is not as sharp as an 1884 editorial in The Times complaining that a ‘journey from King’s Cross to Baker Street is a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it’. But it’s perhaps enough to warrant some words of wisdom from Thomas Jefferson for him: ‘Travelling makes a man wiser, but less happy.’

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