Going Underground.

This week I was watching a report on the BBC website in which the Tube was described as 'old and dirty'. I suddenly found myself quite offended. I didn't realise that I would get quite so protective over something I simply use to get around town. It wasn't until I started to think about it that I realised how much I love the Tube. The smell you get when that rush of warm air hits you just before the train shoots past you on the platform, the announcer who always sounds so happy to be going to Willesden Green on the Jubilee Line, the battle to get on the single escalator that takes you down to the Jubilee Line at Canada Water. I love that it is always too hot, always too crowded and that you always seem to be the one that never gets a seat and always falls over. Don't ask me why because I really don't know. I think many Londoners don't appreciate just how lucky we are to have it. Some of the weirdest and funniest moments of my life have happened on the Tube. There was the time I sat down (yes I got a seat) on the Piccadilly Line, looked up and saw a girl I had met at a Birmingham University open day the week earlier, that same day I saw a boy who had left my school a year previously on an escalator somewhere beneath Oxford Circus. Just before Christmas there was the brilliant announcer who sang all of his messages into his loudhailer, bringing festive cheer to the Waterloo Tube crush.

I love it when you catch someone's eye when there is the crazy in the carriage spouting off about how crowded it is or that they can't get a seat, that smirk you share means more as communication on the tube is almost strictly off limits. The one time this rule was consistently broken was during the Olympics. People actually talked to each other, they shared their joy at Britain's success and were amazed when Olympians traveled on the Tube with us mere mortals.
Even after a band of terrorist brought darkness to the city I call my home and the Tube that I love so much we still use it, Londoners are hardier than they seem.
So in this year when the Tube turns 150 years old I think we should all realise how lucky we are to have it. It may not always run on time, we may get frustrated with just how busy it is but think what we would do without it. I wouldn't get to dance on deserted Tube platforms at 5 in the morning to start.