Interesting rapid transit videos: London; Chicago; Glasgow

Nigel, our e-correspondent from New Zealand, has found some interesting videos that most of us probably haven't seen.

London Underground.  There was a Channel Five series on the London Underground--multiple parts--which isn't available in the US per se, but is up on Youtube ("Inside the Tube: Going Underground series on Channel 5," WIRED UK).



Chicago Transit Authority.  He also found videos that CTA has produced, showing their various lines.  Like this one for the Orange Line.


-- CTA "Ride the Rails" videos

It reminded me of a presentation I saw a couple years ago by the then president of Amtrak, illustrating the various problems and bottlenecks in the system through "train ride" videos.

That wasn't done here--using the videos as a supporting argument for making and financing improvements--but it would be a good model for NYC Subways and WMATA/DC area Metrorail.

Glasgow Subway.  This well produced video by a fan is interesting and looking at some of the images of the above ground entrances, the use of architectural lighting on escalators, and the way the "S" subway sign is lit at night made me think of my points about "transportation infrastructure as elements of civic architecture."

-- "Transit, stations, and placemaking: stations as entrypoints into neighborhoods," 2013
-- "Transit stations as an element of civic architecture/commerce as an engine of urbanism," 2016
-- "Transportation infrastructure as a key element of civic architecture/economic revitalization #1: the NoMA Metrorail Station," 2016
-- "Transportation Infrastructure and Civic Architecture #3: Rhode Island Avenue Pedestrian Bridge to the Metrorail station," 2016



It also made me think that maybe transit doesn't have to be "fun" a la Darrin Nordahl in his Island Press published book My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation, but certainly through architecture and design it can be made a lot more interesting and yes "fun."