Home to nearly 13,000,000 people. Three-quarters of Moscovites, that’s 9,000,000 people, use the Moscow Metro every day. World’s Busiest Cities s1e3: Moscow, BBC 2017
It was an ordinary night that turned into tragedy. It was every commuter’s worst nightmare. A disaster that killed 31 people and injured many more. Three decades after the deadliest blaze on London’s underground we speak to those caught up in the disaster and those who rescued them. The King’s Cross Fire: 6 Hours that Shocked Britain, Channel 5 2017
30 years ago King’s Cross was the busiest station on the London underground … A small fire was spotted on one of the two old-style wooden escalators. ibid.
Those left in the ticket hall were engulfed in flames. ibid.
One of over two thousand people injured annually when rushing on underground escalators. Oxford Street Revealed s1e2, BBC 2014
A Tube strike brings chaos to Oxford Street. Oxford Street Revealed s3e2
Oxford Circle: It’s Britain’s busiest railway station … hundreds queue at the four entrances to wait for the doors to reopen. Oxford Street Revealed s3e3
There’s a row going on about mosaics underground [Tottenham Court Road]. Oxford Street Revealed s3e8
A warren of underground tunnels with no escape route. A fire chief warning again and again of the dangers yet no-one would listed. A wooden escalator and a match. This is the countdown to the worst fire in British transport history. James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain V: King’s Cross Fire, History 2018
7:45 p.m. on 15th November 1987: A vast fireball exploded into King’s Cross underground station turning the ticket hall into an inferno. It’s a story of wooden escalators, piles of rubbish, carelessly dropped matches, but also carelessness and a sense of complacency. ibid.
Three months earlier a fire had gutted Oxford Circus station. ibid.
I almost had the little fucker but he got away. Kontroll 2003 starring Sandor Csanyi & Zoltan Mucsi & Csaba Pindroch & Sandor Badar & Zsolt Nagy & Bence Matyassy & Gyozo Szabo & Eszter Balla & Lajos Kovacs et al, director Nimrod Antal, guard
We had another jumper last night. The suits in the main office are very upset. That was the seventh this month. The main office is concerned how this makes the metro look. ibid. head guard
We don’t beat up passengers. ibid. Bulcsu
In the long reign of a single queen Britain changed the world and was itself utterly transformed. Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837; by the time she died in 1901 we had built the modern world. It was a time of outstanding engineering, remarkable innovation, all of it driven by ambitious pioneers. It shaped the country we live in today. Michael Buerk, How the Victorians Built Britain s1e1, Channel 5 2018
A radical new transport system was carved out of London; how engineers wrestled to run steam trains underground … ibid.
Bringing in the shoppers are four underground tube stations. The busiest right in the middle is Oxford Circus, with three tube lines handling over eighty million people a year. Oxford Street 24/7 I, Channel 5 2018
Now you take my advice, kid. You serve your six months and then you put in for the movement. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 1974 starring Robert Shaw & Walter Matthau & Martin Balsam & Hector Elizondo & Earl Hindman & James Broderich & Dick O'Neill & Lee Wallace & Tony Roberts & Doris Roberts & Rudy Bond et al, director Joseph Sargent, guard to guard
Sorry, this station is Fifty-First Street. ibid. rookie guard
I’m taking your train. ibid. Ryder to driver
Pelham One Two Three, come in please. ibid. Controller
Nobody else leaves ... You are being held by four very dangerous men armed with machine guns. ibid. Ryder
They’re going to fly the train to Cuba. ibid. Rico
She’s moving. Pelham One Two Three. ibid. lady announcer
There’s nobody driving the fucking train! ibid.
Officer, I suppose you couldn’t use a quarter of a million, could you? ibid. Ryder
Today’s Tube is full to bursting. And the underground staff are flat out dealing with us. For the 20,000 people who keep the Tube running, every day brings new challenges that could bring the Tube to a halt. The Tube: Going Underground I, Channel 5 2020
The secret army battling to keep the underground alive. How the Tube staff deal with the daily challenge of the rush hour when one small delay can send a whole line into meltdown. ibid.
The Tube carries more passengers than ever before. But most of these during two short periods of the day when the traffic hits critical levels. ibid.
With ageing stock and ever increasing passenger numbers the Tube risks being at breaking point every day. ibid.
More than half the Piccadilly Line is above ground. ibid.
The Tube is busier than it’s ever been carrying almost five million people a day. There are now staff whose only job is to make us move through the system faster. The Tube: Going Underground II
Victoria ticket office is closing for ever, after almost fifty years of service. ibid.
‘People who live in London are some of the rudest. The Americans I find are very polite.’ ibid. customer assistant
The brand new first of its kind sideways lift is stuck on the floor. ibid.
For the teams that work in London’s party stations the toughest part of their job is only just beginning. The Tube: Going Underground III
It’s the life-threatening incidents that haunt all Tube drivers. ibid.
At the weekend the risks multiple right across the network. ibid.
‘Tonight, because of Halloween, people really let their hair down.’ ibid. worker
As the Witching Hour approaches, the mood turns nasty in the ticket hall. ibid.
To many New Yorkers this man [Bernard Goetz] has become a folk hero. Trial by Media s1e2: Subway Vigilante, television news, Netflix 2020
They say that he methodically shot four young men on a crowded 7th Avenue IRT express. ibid. Anna Bond
I wanted to kill those guys, I wanted to maim those guys, I wanted to make them suffer in every way I could. ibid. Goetz
A knight in shining armor he isn’t. ibid. television presenter
13 counts including attempted murder … convicted only of illegal possession of a gun. ibid. Dan Rather news
Transporting millions of people every day. Inspiring classic creations of design. And now building a new multi-billion-pound network. Ian Hislop’s Trains that Changed the World II, Channel 5 2021
Today, London is home to the largest construction project in Europe: Crossrail. Digging up over three million tons of earth; creating more than 26 miles of new tunnels. It’s building what will become the Elizabeth line. ibid.
So people were wading through the slurry to get to work. Dodging the carts and carriages; navigating the streets was daunting … Railways engineers were asked for a solution … A radical idea: to run trains under the streets. ibid.
On 9th January 1863 in true Victorian style, a grand banquet of worthies was held in Farringdon Station to mark the official opening. ibid.
Metroland became somewhere for people to aspire to live. Guide books were produced advertising it … This idea of the suburban life was suddenly within reach. ibid.
Nowhere in the world has been transformed because of it [railways] quite so much as Mumbai … One of the busiest commuter train systems in the world … The most severe overcrowding of any rail system in the world … One of the most dangerous in the world. ibid.
It’s the Christmas shopping season in London and the rush hour is in full swing. Commuters and shoppers stream through King’s Cross, the city’s busiest rail interchange. Suddenly, a deadly wall of flame roars through the packed station. It kills 31 people. Seconds from Disaster: King’s Cross Fire, National Geographic 2006
Fires are a fact of life on the ageing infrastructure of the Tube. There have been over 400 the previous three decades. ibid.
Moments later a huge jet of fire erupts … A small blaze has suddenly erupted into a ferocious inferno. ibid.
The prime suspect for the King’s Cross fire is now a careless smoker discarding a still-burning match. ibid.