Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Tube users note some sobering facts..

My face when I found out what we have been breathing on our daily commutes 😳
Here is what actually happens underground.
Scientists at King's College London ran monitors measuring PM2.5 (fine particle pollution, the tiny stuff small enough to reach deep into your lungs) across the Tube network. Here's what they found:
📊 The Underground has around 15x more of this pollution than the roads above it
📊 The Victoria line is the worst. Median reading 361, with peaks up to 885
📊 The WHO safe limit is 15. So the typical Victoria line reading sits at roughly 24x over it
📊 Nearly half of it is iron oxide, metallic dust thrown off by brakes and wheels grinding in the tunnels
To be clear, this is exposure data, not proof that your commute alone will make you ill. But a daily journey adds up, and most of us never think about it.
So here is the small hack I use. I breathe through my nose 👃🏽
Why it helps:
✅ Your nose is a genuine filter. It traps a lot of the coarser dust before it reaches your lungs
✅ It warms and humidifies the air instead of pulling cold, dirty air straight down
✅ It produces nitric oxide, which helps your body actually absorb the oxygen you take in
But I am not going to oversell it. nose breathing does very little against the finest metallic particles, and those are the ones that penetrate deepest. It is a sensible habit, not a filter mask. Think marginal gains, not complete protection. 🛡️
Would I stop taking the Tube? Nope. But I keep my mouth shut down there, and now you know why 🤐
Have you thought about this? 👇🏽

When I was travelling to London a lot, I quickly switched from using the tube to a combination of buses and Brompton folding bike. I found the tube almost intolerable for heat, filth, and air quality.

My trip up to the Test match was brilliant but I struggled with the noise and filth of the experience on the tube.

Visit London reasonably often, and where possible we tend to walk - lots to discover round every corner and everything is suprisingly close.

The tube is a necessary evil at times, but I avoid if I can.

You lot should work for visit London.com ! Really selling the ceedy as Sir Lord Khan says..
During my working life in London I had to drive, rarely used those red things and the tube.
Now my Freedom Pass gets used to go into town, stores, restaurants, theatre etc and no longer ever drive in and park. Public transport really works most of the time.
Most things today are killing us ……..
Stay healthy and hydrated, MM

Just imagine what it was like when tube trains were steam hauled!

They had held the smoke and released it in areas where the tube was open. It was basically a cut and cover tunnel.
If you know where to look you can see build facades near Marylebone which have open tunnels behind for this.

So penalise the motorists to reduce pollution to keep people safe....
Then push them to public transport in significantly worse conditions.
I would hope TFL used the ULEZ income to reduce tube pollution....
How much income from charges? Is this being spent on worse pollution areas like the tube or being moved elswhere?
I haven't been to London since 2020. Several years after the previous vist. I stayed in Hounslow and tubed into where I was going. I remember the smells, noise, poor conditions. Moved to use buses instead.

Why's everyone got a downer on the tube? .... spent many a happy day as a kid with a day-rover ticket visiting the farthest reaches of the system ...as a 12/13 year old on my own. Always use it on the odd occasion I visit my old home town for an exhibition or some such .... lots of trains, far and away not the dirtiest of public transport systems ... and I grew up with the racket they make so doesn't bother me 🙂..... there's plenty of cities would give an arm for a system as good. Like so much in the UK, having invented things, or been a very early adopter, means we are sometimes constrained when it comes to matching other place's showcase transportation ... but beware of PR ... not all of Japan's trains are swishing along at 200 mph ... their local systems that most use struggle to match ours ... and those wonderfully efficient Germans have a notoriously unpunctual train service 😀


K

Glad you are happy with it K it was a dreadful experience for me as I’m used to no roof and a proper soundtrack not vibrating saucepan sounds. Granted my collar gets just as dirty with the roof off whilst making good progress.