h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why do they always assemble at the very top of the escalator.... So that everyone streaming up the escalator piles into the back of them... then they smile at you in a friendly way..

Maybe they could incorporate that into tourist guides: (1) Do not congregate at the top of escalators otherwise local people will despise you; (2) Do not worry if the local people despise you, it is an English custom.

I think that the herd instinct is too strong though. In a strange city, when you are feeling a little uneasy, the best thing to do is congregate with others who look like you. At the top of every escalator, therefore, I propose there will be found a "seed", a French guy in a red jacket whom others will start to gather around. Call me crazy, but in years to come this proposal will become known as Marriott's Theory of Particle Accretion, and I will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Lunacy.

It's the standing on the left hand side of the escalator which rreally bugs me, specially when you are trying to travel up or down it at the speed of sound.

Other people hate this too, see the following page:

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/finsbury/254/tuberules.html#escalator

I think we should show some tolerance to tourists for whom English may be a second language.
I only use the tube a dozen times a year but I find the whole system
fascinating.

I've found this is true of most escalatory systems, not just LUGs (having nearly been killed coming out of the cinema watching "Monsters Inc." just over a year ago in the great 5 Ways Escalator Disaster [Narrowly Averted] of 2002), sometimes the bottoms too...

no, no, no. The key assembly point for tourists is that spot where you emerge onto the platform from the station corridors. Especially at Waterloo. There is the potential for some sort of skittles-like game involving real people canonning into the herd and knocking the furthest ones onto the track.

What a great thought......

Adds a great deal of excitement when one is playing the beautiful game live as is my want to do whenever I visit the capital

I don't know what you're all going on about. I read it in Let's Go London. It says the very best place to wait for a train is at the bottm of the stairs

They do love to do some fun things on the underground. Assemble at the top of escalators and also stand on the left of them while using them. Also another great one is stopping a whole party of them just as they get on the platform so everybody else has to risk falling on the rails just to get past.
All this said I enjoy and am an active participant in doing these things as soon as I am somewhere unfamiliar. Maybe its a built in human reflex that goes "I'm not from here so lets try and be as annoying as possible" Or perhaps people think its a good way to make new friends?

It used to be my job to shout at the tourists standing on the left of the escalators. They never listened. I gave up after a while. (That's how you can tell staff are new - they think that Tube users will listen to them.) Interestingly, if there is too much weight on the escalators, they slow down and stop, which is quite amusing. "Well, I warned you," I used to think, whilst smirking to myself and re-starting the escalator.

OK, I'm game. What is wrong with standing on the left? In Oz, the convention on escalators is to stand on the left and walk on the right side.

I guess its to do with us driving on the left? I dunno... If you stand on the left you get shouted at and on the right its fine.

Having now been a tourist on the Underground I now know that uklanders follow the European convention of standing on the left and walking on the right on Escalators.

In Japan and Oz it is the other way round.

Tourists
Post: 1

Posted Jul 31, 1999 by Peta
Why do they always assemble at the very top of the escalator.... So that everyone streaming up the escalator piles into the back of them... then they smile at you in a friendly way..

Or the very FRONT of the Bus?
Jeeze, How I HATE that!!!! <!!
New York or London, it's the same all over!!!
L.D. (Who sincerely hopes to NEVER be THAT kind of Tourist!!!

The reason behind the convention of standing on the right on Underground escalators is simply that much of the deep-level system was developed by Charles Yerkes, a native of America where, of course they drive on the right. When escalators were installed the original signage instructed people to stand on the right and this has continued to be the practice to this day. Everywhere else in the UK, eg department stores, even in central London, people will usually stand on the left.

I have to confess that I get on the escalator on the left-hand side, but I do move over to the right hand side to avoid getting thumped by irate regular users (despite living in close proximity to Hainault tube station (no escalators) I don't use the tube that often, mainly due to the fact that following an accident on an escalator in Boots in Ilford, I've become very wary of the flippin' things, which probably makes me the saddest person on the planet), but on the rare occasions when I can conquer my fear (usually in the understanding company of my brother), that is the only way I can get on them.. Getting off at the other end is no problem, in fact it's a bit of relief.. I've just realised this makes me sound like one of the 'Underground Nutters', but there you go..
Childoftheseventies.

What I want to know is why is London Underground so insanely expensive? Especially if you are a clueless tourist and don't know all the deals. I got a return ticket from El Paso Texas and stayed at a hostel for five days and ate occasionally for a total of about $700. I spent another $250 on London Transport and when I tried to walk all the Bow River etc tow paths and ended up somewhere industrial there wasn't a living soul around who knew any more than I did how to get back to Russell Square, or even where the nearest Tube station was. Someone told me to take a bus and I did but it didn't take me where I thought it would. I love the stairs at Russell Square. I hope they never try to improve them.

A good guide to getting around London is the A-Z.

Excuse the Monty Python, but no it's not...........