The Piccadilly Line (see last Service Change) was the only tube line in London that I took to the end. This post is a showcase on the other tube lines that I took for a few stops.

As usual, you can click on the map to make it larger.

Hammersmith and City Line: The Hammersmith and City Line is one of the most useless lines, in my opinion. Starting at Hammersmith, it follows the Circle Line up to Liverpool Street. Shortly before the next stop, Aldgate, it breaks off and then follows the District Line to Barking. There are no solo portions on the H&C except for the short portion between Liverpool Street and Aldgate East. I only took the line two stops, anyway (from Kings Cross St. Pancreas to Barbican), but it was still an experience because I got to ride on the “S” Stock.

The “S” Stock is the newest train type in London, and its purpose is to give a unified fleet for all of the “subsurface lines.” The H&C, as well as the Circle, District, and Metropolitan Lines are classified as subsurface, meaning their tunnels are wider and shallower than tube lines (whose tunnels are bored into the ground and very narrow). This means that the trains are mercifully wider than on standard tube lines.

Anyway, “S” Stock trains feature air conditioning, better accessibility, and improved customer information. Interestingly, you can also walk through the whole train, and on the inside, it’s practically just one long car. That’s pretty much it for the Hammersmith and City. I didn’t really take it for a long enough distance to judge it properly, so all I can say to the H&C is: sorry.

A Hammersmith and City Line Train at Edgware Road using the older “C” Stock.

The “S” Stock train leaving Barbican.

The interior of an “S” Stock train, looking towards the back.

Central Line: The Central Line is the longest line in London, the longest journey being from Epping to West Ruislip. There are also branches to Hainault (via two different routes) and Ealing Broadway, the branch I was on. If you remember from the last post, I mentioned going to Acton to see the London Transport Museum Depot. Well, since my mother is an avid walker, she wanted to explore Acton. We ended up walking to the center of town, where there were bustling fruit markets and a large fair event. We ended up deciding to walk to a completely different Tube station, as there are a fair amount in Acton. We walked through a lovely suburban part of town before reaching West Acton station on the Central Line (which got terrible signage).

West Acton Station.

Kind of a useless map, isn’t it?

The Central Line uses nice, modern trains on its route. Seeing as the Central Line is a “tube” line, the trains are again quite narrow. It’s above ground until White City, when it sinks below the surface through Central London. We got off at Holborn, where pictures of artifacts at the nearby British Museum adorn the walls.

Three views of Central Line trains at West Acton.

Bakerloo Line: I have no idea what the heck a Bakerloo is. The line serves Baker Street station, so I suppose that could be the origin of its name? Don’t ask me. The Bakerloo Line starts at Elephant and Castle in the south, cuts through Central London, and then parallels with the London Overground line to Harrow and Wealdstone. The line used to go all the way up to Watford Junction, but now the London Overground handles that service. The trains look similar to the Piccadilly on the outside and the inside. However, Bakerloo Line trains don’t have the cute little armrests on the Piccadilly. Instead, they just have weird red protrusions out of the seats which do not give any rest to your arms whatsoever. Kind of annoying, but the trains are nice (and cramped, of course) overall.

A train at Baker Street.

A train at Piccadilly Circus.

Interior of Bakerloo Line train.

A huge gap at Piccadilly Circus station.

Sherlock Holmes design at Baker Street.

 Northern Line: The Northern Line is one of the most complicated lines on the system: trains can run from Morden to Edgware, Mill Hill East, or High Barnet via Waterloo or Bank. The line also has the longest continuous tunnel on the system (East Finchley to Morden via Bank), the deepest station (Hampstead), and the station with the longest escalators (Angel). I only took the line three stops, unfortunately (sorry, Northern Line!), from Kings Cross St. Pancreas to Camden Town. Northern Line trains look very similar to Piccadilly Line trains, but the interior is a little different.

A Northern Line train.

Interior of a Northern Line train.

You can see how busted these doors are if you look closely.

A nice before and after picture from http://metro.co.uk/2009/03/05/a-new-beginning-for-the-circle-line-518126/.

Paddington Station.

I love the font on this countdown clock!

I love this picture!

Quite a bit of…wiring here.

The wide interior of a “C” Stock train.

Baker Street station on the first subway.

Great Portland Street station.

Euston Square station is more modern.

 That’s it for the London Tube, but we’re not leaving London just yet. Next time: London buses!

There are essentially three ways you can get from Heathrow Airport to London (without taking a cab): the public bus (which I don’t even think I’d want to do); the Piccadilly Line; and the Heathrow Express. The Heathrow Express is marketed as “the fastest way between central London and Heathrow.” The ride only takes 15 minutes, however, it costs 20 pounds (around 30 US dollars) just to go one way! There is also a Heathrow Connect, which runs on the same tracks but makes stops along the way. The Heathrow Connect/Express is the easiest way to get around the airport (although there really is no easy way). The problem with using it to get around the airport is that if you want to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5, for example, you have to take two trains with a transfer at Terminals 1 and 3.

The stations at the airport are pretty nice.

A countdown clock at the airport.

Annoyingly, before you can board a train, they have to perform a “short security check” for what seems like no apparent reason. Every time, however, there was a person who completely ignored the announcements and tried to barge right into the train, anyway. Luckily, the check only takes a couple minutes.

Two views of trains coming into stations.

The trains are very nice on the inside. The seats are big and fluffy, and they face forward (something I like, as you know). There are also automatic announcements (not that they’re really necessary on such a short ride), as well as “Heathrow Express TV,” which is mostly just a bunch of ads.

Destination board.

These seats look so comfy!

Heathrow Express TV.

These seats don’t look as comfy…

The classic logo at the entrance.

A Piccadilly line train.

A countdown clock on the line.

Very tight.

I think it’s funny how you can put your feet on the seats.

Acton Town Station.

The Depot Building,

The depot entrance.

A sign on the outside.

The fare gates.

A wider fare gate.

A ticket machine.

Covent Garden can get VERY crowded on weekends.

Leicester Square Station.

Piccadilly Circus Station.

Russell Square at platform level.

An alternative to the elevator, I guess?

The exterior of Russell Square.

Hamburg’s subway, like many other German systems, is primarily split up into two parts: the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn. U-Bahn essentially means “underground,” although it still goes above at points away from the city center. S-Bahn has a few different meanings, but the most common is “fast train between cities.” Again, that is not always the case. In Hamburg, the U1 goes farther up north than the S1, for example. Also, like many other German systems, the Hamburg subway revolves around the Hauptbahnhof (central station). All lines stop here, as well as regional trains. There is also a large mall of restaurants within the complex.

(Note, by the way, that this post as well as the subsequent Service Changes will have a lot of pictures, so there’s a jump break)

This is simply a cropped version of a terrible picture I took of the Hamburg subway map. It doesn’t look good, but I couldn’t find any maps on the internet with the U4.

I’m personally not a big fan of the Hamburg system map. It’s a little too angular for my taste, and it looks sort of ugly. However, I am a big fan of the system itself, because it’s so efficient. In Hamburg, door open buttons (used at Bowdoin on the MBTA) are used at every station. Tickets are not collected at all, although there are apparently random checks on occasion. It didn’t matter to us, since the hotel gave us free “Hamburg Cards,” which give you free access to public transit, as well as discounts at tourist attractions. But the best part of the system is the escalators: THEY DON’T MOVE UNLESS SOMEONE IS STANDING ON THEM! I absolutely love that! It’s so efficient!

Anyway, the ride from the airport is almost all above ground. The S1 has a short subway leaving the airport, and then it goes up at Olsdorf. It’s above ground for the rest of the ride, except for a small tunnel at Hauptbahnhof. The S1 trains are very nice both inside and out. They have the door open buttons, as I mentioned before, and on the inside of the trains the seats face forward rather than sideways. The seats face each other in groups, so there are backwards seats as well (uh-oh). The automatic announcements are mostly in German, although they are occasionally translated into English. It seems this only occurs at the important stations, however, such as the Hauptbahnhof or a terminus.

The S1 has maps on the ceiling.

A bit blurry, I guess.

There are also small trash areas between seats. I didn’t put that there.

The  S1 at Hauptbahnhof.

The S1 at the airport.

Admittedly, this sort of layout is probably less efficient than just lining up the seats along the train like we do on, say, the Red Line. However, I much prefer forward seats nonetheless, because they allow me to see out the window without craning my neck.

The S-Bahn’s above ground portion is mostly in an enclosed right-of-way…with LOTS of graffiti. It pretty much covers the entirety of the fences along the tracks. Other than the graffiti, in fact, there isn’t too much to see. You can interpret that however you want.

Get used to seeing this a lot.

It’s a bit blurry, but you can easily see the graffiti plastered right on the front of that train.

On the way to our hotel, we decided to make the transfer to the U4 at the Hauptbahnhof; big mistake. It was about a 10 minute walk to the U4 station, with microscopic signage. I don’t know if we did something wrong, but the trip took forever. When we were going back to the airport, we made the transfer at Jungfernstieg, which was much easier.

The huge Hauptbahnhof station.

A regional rail train.

The U4 is Hamburg’s newest line. It was opened in 2012 to Überseequartier in Hafen City, a massive docklands development. The U4 trains also utilize the door open buttons, and the interiors are pretty much the same as the S1 except for some strange color decisions. However, there are some interesting screens inside the trains that tell you the next station, as well as news. There are also maps on the ceiling, for some reason. The announcements are in both German and English on the U4. Also of note is the fact that if you stand up front, you can see the driver’s position as well as the tunnel beyond quite clearly. Unfortunately, the U4 only uses 4 car trains (the ridership probably isn’t that great yet), so your part of the platform might not get served.

Hauptbahnhof Nord, where the U4 goes.

The U4 at Hauptbahnhof Nord

This map must be very useful for people lying down.

The oddly-colored interior of the U4.

Überseequartier was the terminus of the U4 when we were there, but it turns out the line got extended one stop to HafenCity Universität just three days ago, on July 6th. It looks like a very beautiful station, with amazing lights that change colors over time. However, Überseequartier is also a very nice station. It’s a massive station at platform level, with huge lights in different shades of blue across the wall. Of course, there are no ticket machines, and the escalators are super efficient.

Overall, I liked Hamburg’s system very much. It was very efficient and convenient, although I still think that map is ugly. I’d love to go to some other German system, since Germany knows how to do public transit. But for now, I absolutely loved the Hamburg system, and I would come back here. Here are a few more pictures to wrap up.

Überseequartier is so beautiful!

Looking up into nowhere from Uberseequartier.

A Hamburg bus.

Why couldn’t OUR buses have countdown clocks?