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moving through the city - transport thoughts...
In London traffic stream, I miss the sounds of the Berlin trams. Their comforting, clockwork yellow appearances. The 1 down to Am Kupfergraben, the 50 likewise but via Kastanienallee, the 20 - eberswalderstraße to warschauerstraße. Instead there’s the routemaster, age old buses that are red, and you can leap on and off the back at will. A little wire along the length of the bus alerts the bus driver, hermetically sealed in his cab - that’s more steering wheel than sitting space. Ting ting, a tug on this wire and we are off again - all the while watched by a cctv camera hidden in the metal plate ceiling. They are everywhere in London, CCTV watching CCTV - not a state, but a private company implementation. But apparently you can request the footage of you at a particular place and time from any company, under the freedom of information act...
In Berlin, the tube system takes you on underground routes that have enough relation to the surface of the city that you can create a mental pattern of direction, what you are passing under, in what direction you are heading to reach the surface again. In London, the warren of passages cut you off from all life above - you are on a self conveying conveyor belt into the depths of the earth. Tunnels bored by huge earthworms gape until an earthworm-like train plugs the gap. The design of the london underground, all primary colours and clear font, with neatly divided up seats and helpful messages, is rather beautiful. But the curves get claustrophobic in the heat (and it is sometimes incredibly hot) of the rush hour, as your head is crushed against the side of the train. Like ordinary train platforms, but underground, Berlin tubes carry nothing like the same amount of people mass. The rails are on wither side of the platform: in London there is earth and concrete dividing the two up. I couldn’t work out why - until a vision of the mass of people entering a platform of the U2 - the crush from the influx would send people pushing on both directions; over the edge and onto the tracks. Like lemmings.
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