The Tube 🚆

We live in London and have stopped using the underground though the overground usually isn’t as bad if used outside peak travelling times. However, in school holidays is bedlam. My DH is disabled so we use the buses or uber.
And you are right, at times the underground is so crammed it is dangerous, and nobody polices this.

Over 40 ????

I travel regularly on the Tube and I’m 78

Did you look around you at the (approximate) age of your fellow travellers? I bet most of them were between 30 and 50 ish

Could you perhaps have a fear of enclosed spaces and crowds?
To be fair, if a platform or train is crowded I have been known to hang back and wait for the next train and I would never walk along the train side edge of a platform, but while I do not think you should force yourself to do something which clearly causes you distress, you need to be realistic. Buses can be equally unpleasant when crowded.
Maybe you might need to talk to somebody about this?

Often it can be quicker and a tad cooler to catch a bus. Always worth checking on a map or on TFL Plan your journey to see other ways of getting to where you want to go.
The Tube has always been pretty hot and crowded but even hotter now and busy with tourists. And don't get me started on enormous rucksacks banging into you.

Luckily my trip on the tube a couple of weeks back will be the only one for a while.

We use black cabs or depending where we are going the taxi boats on the Thames, especially when we have GC with us.

I have always been a tad scared on the underground, so tend to avoid using it if possible, despite growing up in London.

I rather enjoy my underground trips on my visits to London (79). I like people watching and it’s certainly more interesting than my hometown. The bus however is nice for seeing more of the city.

I wasn’t so pleased to lean against a wall in the underground recently and find myself stuck to it with chewing gum! Best linen Burberry jacket too..
Remember, if you are tired of London, you are tired of life.
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I travel on one of the hotter, noisier tube lines every week, and try to avoid the rush hour, but someone almost invariably offers me a seat if it is standing room only. It can be pretty unpleasant in this weather at the moment, but it is frequent and fast. And I was in my forties over forty years ago.

I agree that anyone over 40 is a bit OTT, we travelled regularly on the underground until my DH had a massive stroke almost 2 years ago and we were in our seventies then.
But I can understand how unpleasant it can be when crammed, personally would never use it early morning or late afternoon, and not very often in peak holiday season.
Buses can be crammed also but have a limit on standing room and will sail past bus stops when the driver decides enough people are on board.

I use the tubes without difficulty at 82. As MawsRosie says, hang back and wait, if the platform or train is too crowded for you.

Buses are out for me as I suffer from travel sickness on them - especially, stop/start urban buses, Recently I have used taxis when the tube journey is a long one and includes a lot of walking and when I reach my destination I am going to be walking round an exhibition, Kings Cross to the V&A for the recent Schiaperelli exhibition, for example.

Millie22 I was in London on Wednesday and had the truly awful experience on being on the Underground network on an extremely warm day.

I really don't think it is an ideal place to be if you are over about 40.

I suspect the heat, not age.

I agree with hanging back if the platform is crowded. The tubes are usually so frequent that the next train is likely to be less crowded. Worked for us when we were there a few weeks ago for a hospital visit midweek when it was really hot.

I have memories of spending many an hour stuck underground during the IRA bombings when the cars would get very, very hot and sticky.

I travelled on the Underground recently as part of a long journey on a very hot day, with a small but heavy grip, during the rush hour. I found everyone, staff and passengers, kind and helpful to an elderly woman who didn't know whether to insert or flash her card at the barriers, or which platform to head for, and one person even offered me her seat. It reminded me of living in London in the Swinging Sixties again.
Avoid if over 40 indeed!

I moved to London in the 80s and travelled to work by tube. It was busy ar rush hour but being young, I could cope. I travelled on a line stopping at Wembley Park so the football supporters and police meant the tube was heaving.

I am lucky to live on the outskirts, so I see a lot of houses and sky etc rather than travel underground. The last carriage is good to travel in because so many can't be bothered to walk the length of the platform. Rarely do I stand, I am usually offered a seat and I thank them profusely.

It is easier for me because I can't climb stairs, that so many now have lifts.

My line has a semi fast journey where the tube stops once and then on to Baker Street. I love it, but I do know my way around which helps. For me it is free and being 82, that is appreciated.

I hated travelling on it years ago when I commuted. Dirty, unbearably hot in the summer, often some huge rucksack attached to a body holding a map obstructing doors, flashers, being squashed up against someone's armpit. That's before we all got twitchy about acts of terrorism, first the IRA and then came the others, still a threat Although having travelled on the New York subway that takes some beating in the filthy stakes, even worse than the London tube if that's at all possible.