Central Line

I used to live on the outskirts of Kington, famous for many things; crowning a few kings back in the Middle Ages, housing SW London’s first superclub, a domino effect with the phoneboxes. .. and the only London borough without a tube station. True story. What a pain in the proverbial. It used to take me ten minutes to walk to the bus stop, then a 25 minute bus ride, and finally I’d arrive at Putney Bridge and *then* I could get on a tube. OMG was I glad to be out of there. It was the single most effective tool for causing me to leave my parents’ house of my own free will.
Now I live in Shepherds Bush and that means I can walk to a tube station. Actually walk! To a tube station! In less than ten minutes! Five if I’m really late for work (which is, you know, most days). And since my work is on the central line as well, that means I only need to take ONE mode of transport and it’s half an hour door to door!!! THAT’S JUST CRAZY TALK.
Ok, so when it has signal failures, you’re unlikely to move for 20 minutes. .. and the trains are all ancient, the seats have no padding, it’s inevitably packed to bursting at rush hour and most of the passengers are tourists on their way to Westfield who don’t understand the meaning of «please move along inside the cars» despite a massive gap behind them, but still. I don’t care. It connects with every single other line so you can get anywhere in London with the bare minimum of effort and people can’t complain that you live far away when you’re just two stops outside of Zone 1. I can even get to the scary east side without trying too hard, although I don’t like to think about that. It was easier to avoid when I lived out in the sticks. Now I don’t have any excuse not to go to Bethnal Green so I’m actually going to have to *go* there.
Oh dear, you just lost yourself a star.

All other lines always seem to be down or have delays, however the trusty red line is always running smoothly! (hope I don’t jinx it!)
Running from West to East it is a quick trip into the city and has easy connections to every other line. It is always super packed during the morning and evening rush hour… however the trains run frequently so you don’t have to wait too long to jump on a train.

The Red Line.
As titled — it’s goes through central London.
This line seems to be one of the faster lines but also seems to perpetually have issues on it. Dunno why.
I’ve been giving all the lines 4 stars as they are all a useful means of getting from A to B!

Its something I can’t explain. I always seemed to have troubles on this line (over crowding, delays, unshowered masses holding their sweaty armpits to my nose) going from West to East on the Central Line. Coming back the other direction? No problems! Train would arrive as soon as I reached the platform. Always got a seat next to someone friendly and showered. Made it home in no time flat. Huh?
Maybe somewhere on the East Side of London the Central line transports into another dimension. Maybe it was that by the time everyone was heading home from work/​pub they’d had enough pints to have given up caring. Maybe the Gods wanted to avoid a very unpleasant fiasco and steered me away from the next guy rubbing up against me in a way that I could only guess was not from the swaying of the carriage. Who knows. But I’ll save my rides on the Central Line to post noon thanks.

For fuck’s sake, would you PLEASE move away from the doors and back towards the middle of the train. This line wouldn’t have to be nearly so crowded an unbearable if people weren’t such oblivious ass/​arse holes. Why the fuck do you want to stand by the door with 20 other people when there’s so much breathing room in the middle of the train, anyways?
Wankers.

For those who live in the far east or far west of London and has troubles waking up early in the morning to get to central for work on time, I recommend this line.
I detest the constant delays and it is packed during rush hour. To avoid unwanted feels up and having to smell the breathe of what the other person had for breakfast or lunch, then I’d advise you to board the first and last carriage, some reason most passengers have a thing for middle carriages

Dear Central Line, you Saucy Minx…
Yes, you may go to all of the stops that I need. Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street, Marble Arch… but I have to say, you sir (ma’am?) are overrated. Living within the Central line is such a status symbol and I for one am having none of it.
Yes, you do come at fairly regular intervals, and yes, I’ve only been MINORLY inconvenienced when some calamity has hit, but still… I’ve switched my allegiance to the Northern Line and nothing will dissuade me. After all, who wouldn’t love the half hour stop at Camden tube station for no reason? Or waiting hours for a southbound train going to Bank? See, your utter efficiency and fast travel times due to more trains running, even during rush hours, does nothing for me.
Cordially yours,
Sarah
P. S. I miss you too.

The Central Line is the major east — west Underground line. It connects the major stations on Oxford Street with the city and east London and west out towards Notting Hill Gate, Westfield shoping centre and suburbs like Ealing.
Being an important artery for Tube traffic and connections, perhaps that’s why it’s red on the Tube map! Fortuantely, being an improtant conduit, the service on here is generally good, frequent, fast and reliable. There are few engineering works on it at the moment.
The trains are modern with indicator boards with fianl destinations on the trains as well as on the station platforms.
The new Crossrail project seems to share a lot of the same stations as the Central line, which has meant a bonus for stations such as Tottenham Court Road, which is getting a facelift.

The red line…
I have to give this line a 4 star — the reason why I hesitate to not give it an absolute ass are the rush hours.
Nevertheless, if you happen to look for a flat in London, there is rule number 1, live near a tube line. Rule number two is that the Central Line is the fastest line in London. Lets put it this way, in Switzerland you would move from Basel to Zürich, if you have to travel on hour each day, not so in London, I sometimes think London is more a country then a city the distances I travel. I sometimes spent traveling 2,5 hours per day just to get from home to university and back again. Not to mention spending long journeys just for some printing paper or glue!
Therefore if anyhow you can travel with the Central Line forward and back again, you can get from West to East London in a very efficient way. The average journey time will take you around 20min.
Now, if you want to avoid being shoulder on shoulder with your fellow passengers, getting out sweaty (in winter) and exhausted, coping with all the bad smells and grumpy morning looks, getting out each station to let the passengers from the back out and not having a seat by so called young gentleman city bankers, who would not get up for any lady (I think I listed enough arguments)…then travel in the morning before 7.20am! Your morning starts so much better — believe me it will get to you after 5 years…

Yes, it’s packed. Yes, it’s delayed all the time. But this is the London transport system; what do you expect?. Is it any more delayed than other lines? Well it feels like it but that’s probably because this is the line I use the most.
It’s not that bad though. It moves pretty quickly.
For some reason; the drivers seem to be the most humourless though. Nothing improves a journey like a driver who, when speaking over the system, at least sounds human; whereas the drones on the Central Line tend to sound depressed and robotic. But then again travelling from Ealing to Hainault and back multiple times a day can’t be that satisfying.
The Central Line is annoying enough to probably delay your journey, but not bad enough that you should seek alternate routes. London would pretty much come to a standstill without this line, so they tend to find ways to make it work…

The Central line is just pipped into second place as my favourite tube. It is a literal life line to those living out in the East End of London and to those in the west. The Central line dissects London horizontally and hits numerous major zone one stations. In the rush hours it is a very busy train and you may have to wait awhile to board off the busy platforms.
The Central line is very fast, frequent and reliable. It is without question one of my favourite lines.