Episode 1 The Tube

Good morning, it's me again.

Below London's streets exists another world.

The madness is my swimming pool. I'm at home in that kind of water. What can I say?

Every day, 20,000 workers struggle to keep four million people on the move.

What, there's a customer asleep on the platform? Get him on the train.

And it's not easy when the Tube is undergoing the biggest upgrade in its history.

We've got five minutes! I want this site cleared!

Now cameras will reveal an underground world we've never fully seen before.

10,421 mobiles since April.

Listen to what I'm saying. Pay as you go. Yeah? You just went!

This guy running up the stairs. We need to stop him.

HORN BLARES

We're the underground part of the city.

London comes down here every single day. It is part of their world.

It is part of everyone's world.

I love you.

This programme contains some strong language

During the week, Liverpool Street Tube station is a busy commuter hub.

But on Friday nights, it takes on a very different personality.

Seven-five to base.

We've got someone urinating on the end of platform five. Over.

-Did you see him actually do it? Over.

-Yeah.

He's urinated all over. Over.

TANNOY: Customers on the escalator, please use the escalator safely and correctly.

Mind the doors means mind the doors! Do not jam the doors!

Excuse me, mate. Are you OK?

-TANNOY:

-This is a customer announcement for customers on westbound platform two.

I do apologise for the last train being cancelled at short notice.

This was due to...er, significant vomit in the carriages.

Your next westbound service will be in one minute, calling all stations to Hammersmith.

Control assistant Mark Davies is the all-seeing eyes of the station.

I watch customers to make sure they don't injure themselves,

beat each other up, burn the place down.

You've got to keep an eye on 'em.

This is customer information.

Customers, you're reminded that drinking alcohol from an open container

is forbidden on all London Underground stations and trains.

This particular announcement is for the gentleman with the leather jacket,

brown leather jacket on the westbound Central Line

with a can of Grolsch.

Generally speaking, they're all right about it, you know?

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday to... # Anybody else? # ..you... #

-Excuse me. Excuse me!

-Are you after him?

-Yes.

Hey, mate. Excuse me, mate. You've got to take the Oyster card with you.

MAN SLURS Yeah, you've got to come back.

Go over the far side. Over here, mate.

Just tap your card on there.

It's a bit concerning, really, that these people

hold our lives in their hands.

They're the financial people of this world.

But it's not just the money men. It's the doctors and the lawyers.

And you just have to be a bit of a babysitter.

-"Top up pay as you go." How much do you want to put on?

-A fiver is fine.

Put your PIN number in now, yeah?

You've got men in suits that are powerful,

and they are like children and you have to treat them like children.

Hold on tight. Walk this way.

We turn into Mummy and Daddy sometimes.

Oh, look. She's fallen over on the escalator.

But she is all smiles, so she hasn't hurt herself.

There's no reason to condemn them because they've had a drink.

In fact, that's the point. You have a drink and you use public transport rather than drive.

We don't want to see them get all smashed up, beat each other up, hurt theirselves.

They can delay the service by having a fight, as well.

And that upsets a lot of people.

ALARM BLARES

NOC, station emergency?

The network operations centre is the control room for the whole of the Tube,

monitoring the 500 individually numbered trains that move around the network at any one time

and coordinating with staff across 274 stations.

Hello, it's the NOC. Apparently, the ambulance has just arrived outside.

Duty manager Andy Hogg and his team are poised to deal with

any incident that could cause a delay to the service.

25-year-old female, drunk, collapsed and hit her head.

Male, 30, fell down escalator.

Female, 20, ankle injury, fallen down the stairs, drink related.

Arm injury following running into the side of a train.

Female, 20, intoxicated. Welcome to Friday night on the Underground.

Hello. What hospital was this casualty taken to?

All requests for emergency services come through here. That way it's co-ordinated,

and I then can assess, is it just going to affect that station,

or will it have a bigger effect?

Right, the police are there at the moment, are they?

Which direction is it, please? Northbound King's Cross, OK, thanks very much.

There's a fight on a train King's Cross Northern Line.

Where would we be without our Friday night punch-up?

The train's been there eight minutes with a train behind in the tunnel.

The train's on the move, but we could have had trains down tunnels for a long time.

You don't know how bad something's going to get until it goes there.

No, you'll be met on arrival and taken to casualty.

How would you characterise the work on Friday nights?

Together with the station staff and the train staff, um...

Picking up the pieces.

Excuse me. Excuse me.

Where are you travelling home to?

East London? West London?

What, there's a customer asleep on the platform? Go and get him, Steve.

Get him on the train.

Liverpool Street.

There we go. "Where am I?" I do like the control room, to be honest.

I quite like computer games, that sort of thing.

All the staff, I move them about and put them where they need to be.

The customers are like the horde,

and you've to sort of juggle the staff about to do all the jobs.

It can be quite fun in here if you enjoy that sort of thing.

Contractor announcement. Member of initial cleaning services,

please attend the B way in for code 3.

Nice(!)

Must have been a good night.

Rather than say "can you go and clear up the sick?",

or "can you go and pick up some poo and wash some wee?",

we use code numbers.

So it's 1 for blood, 2 for urine and faeces, 3 for vomit,

4 for spillage, 5 for broken glass and 6 for litter.

And...

If it's anything that's not on that list, then we use a code 7,

although I don't know what other horrors you might have.

They're all quite nasty, aren't they?

When people get drunk enough, vomit after vomit. Vomit after vomit.

Nobody apologises, never ever.

I never had any case where somebody apologised for that. Never.

They can vomit in the middle of the concourse, they just don't care.

They vomit sometimes on the walls, on the doors. On the windows.

And, you know, I think people just become animals.

I used to be a cyclist, a professional cyclist for many years.

I used to be...

My best result was second in Soviet Union in 25 kilometres distance.

So I didn't get any profession. That's why I came here.

I had never been in the United Kingdom. I had in my...

I imagine it, United Kingdom, it felt like paradise country,

like everybody so polite and nice and clean country.

I was surprised. I was shocked.

Because they don't feel ashamed just in front of everybody, throw bottle or rubbish.

I would be ashamed to do it.

Right, can everyone hear me OK? Welcome to Harrow on the Hill.

We're working between Northwick Park and North Harrow on the Met Line.

Friday nights also mean the beginning of engineering works.

Site rules, you've got steel toecap boots, gloves and hard hat.

Six years ago, London Underground decided that the only way

to revitalise its run-down infrastructure, neglected after years of underinvestment,

was to deliberately shut down large sections of the network every weekend and send in the engineers.

More trolleys out, start running them up.

One of the most pressing jobs is replacing over 140 kilometres

of railway track, which is worn and in need of renewal.

At Harrow on the Hill, on the north end of the Metropolitan Line,

an ambitious weekend of track replacement is about to begin.

I've taken over from the station supervisor,

so now the whole station is under our control.

We're going to be renewing this track here.

This whole track through the platform will be renewed, new concrete sleepers and rail.

We've got about 150 men working tonight.

Then during the weekend, on each shift there will be about 100 men a shift.

Move them two, will you?

Them next two that way, and the middle two over.

In order to replace the track, the whole of this section of railway

must first be completely disconnected.

An army of signal engineers are carefully removing

the hundreds of trackside cables which control power, signals and radio systems.

We've got plenty of men on track now moving rails into position

ready for installation tomorrow night.

Can you give us a shout once you get the first machine on, please, mate?

From the time they arrive on site,

the engineers have just 52 hours to replace the track.

With the railway in pieces, any setback will cause

severe disruptions to the service on Monday morning.

68 and 69 to Wembley Park have been cleared of the track,

and it is safe for trains to run, yes?

At engineering headquarters in central London,

a team are closely monitoring progress to make sure everything runs to schedule.

From the time we start, we're thinking about,

"Are we going to be OK to hand back?"

And if we're not going to be OK to hand back,

what do we need to do to make sure that we are?

Everyone from those out on the ground that are digging the holes

to those in here who are managing it from a distance.

There are times when, due to circumstances beyond someone's control,

we haven't been able to hand back.

There's a hell of a lot of people that travel from the Metropolitan railway area into London,

and obviously there will be a lot of people missing

from their office desks and whatever else on Monday morning.

There is a lot of pressure on the site managers

and the site person in charge, plus also the men on the ground,

to make sure we get the job handed back on time.

Fingers crossed!

We'll hand it back Monday morning.

The next train is the last train.

Next train is the last train, last train, last train, yeah? Last train.

Last train, mate.

I don't know what happens, but they seem to always forget

that we do finish somewhere around midnight,

trains start drying up and eventually come to an end.

Every Friday, they seem to forget that.

LAST TRAIN! LAST TRAIN!

-Excuse me! It's finished now.

-Oh, right, cheers.

-You're welcome.

Er... How do I get to Waterloo?

Ten miles south of central London, Morden station is at the very end of the Northern Line.

Journeys end for many customers,

whether they planned it that way or not.

TANNOY: This station is Morden. This train terminates here.

Wakey, wakey, rise and shine! It's the end of the Northern Line.

Need you to change now, mate. It's all finished.

Hello, my love?

Hello?

It's the real deep sleepers, when you have to literally lift them off,

escort them up the stairs all the time,

and you've got to be quite assertive with them,

otherwise they stay on the train for ever.

Mate! Come on! Open your eyes, mate, come on.

-Wha...?

-Don't "wha" me.

Hello, matey. All change now, please. Thank you.

How come you're at Morden?

I'm at Morden now? Am I?

No, this is Kennington.

-This is Morden.

-Oh, is it really? No. Is it?

Oh, I'm at Kennington now. And then I'll switch over to the Northern Line

and then head towards Morden from there.

I think we're at Morden.

Are we? Are we at Morden?

Oh! I'm on the wrong tube altogether.

Oh, wow.

Is it the end of the Tube now? I need to get a bus.

Come on, you need to get off the train.

Mate, don't keep putting your head back down.

'The easiest way, if they've got a bit of luggage

'and they're holding onto it,

'is take the luggage and they get up and follow it. It makes life easy.'

Where do you need to get to?

Blood flowing yet?

-Blackhorse Road.

-You need to use the night buses out the front now.

Are you a member of staff? Excuse me.

Can I get to Clapham Common from here?

Yes, if you go outside, sir, out the front of the station,

-N155 will take you straight there, every 15 minutes.

-A tube?

-No, bus.

-I can't get on the Tube?

-No more trains, sir.

I was at Chalk Farm, went out to dinner with some friends

and fell asleep on the train.

-Was it a good night?

-Wonderful!

This is actually the first time I've done this.

But my flatmate has done this before. I've never done this! I'm like, "Shit!"

Last train. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Hello, mate. All change, please.

Keep going, there's no more trains,

you need to use the buses out the front.

No, my friend, this way.

No, no, no. Come on, keep going.

'Anybody who comes in my station,

'I've got a sense of responsibility for. Doesn't matter who they are.'

If the worst comes to the worst, I'll get them a cab.

If I've got to pay for it, I'll pay for it.

But just to make sure they get home safely. I've done that once before

and I got the money back the next day from the lady,

so that was sweet. And a box of chocolates.

-Goodnight.

-Goodnight.

There we go. All done.

-Where do the trains go from here?

-Into the depot.

They go into their little bedroom and have a little kip for the night.

Once the Underground stops, the entire fleet of trains

are taken into depots across the city to be cleaned and maintained.

This depot now, I've got to go on seven road, but at the back.

I go to the furthest one, and someone else will go behind me then.

This will be me now.

I'll be back now about 3:30am, I reckon.

Let's hope there will be a night feed waiting for me with the baby.

I'm off the weekend, which is nice.

-TANNOY:

-'Ladies and gentlemen,

'the last train to central London has departed this station.'

The engineers at Harrow have been working through the night.

You need sleepers for that end.

The old track, which has been in use for over 40 years,

is being cut into sections and loaded onto engineering trains.

You've got to line the panels up perfectly on the train,

so that when it goes out to Network Rail it doesn't catch anything.

The guy up there is the load examiner.

If he says no, it stays here and then trains don't run.

We've got about 90 metres of power to take out.

The dig's a bit behind. But once the power is out,

we'll get our two machines back on the dig and blast it then.

It's been nicknamed Horror on the Hill

because we've done quite a few jobs round here and every job seems...

Something little goes wrong and then it snowballs

and then we're panicking to hand the track back

at the end of the Sunday night/Monday morning.

Replacing this 341-metre section of track

is costing London Underground over £1 million.

Are you stripping that one down?

It's just a small part of a £10 billion plan

to restore the entire Tube network over the next 15 years.

David Waboso is London Underground's director of capital programmes.

As the man responsible for the whole upgrade plan,

his weekends are spent visiting engineering sites

across the network.

This weekend, we've got quite a lot of work on.

The north end of the Met Line is closed, that's where we're going.

We're doing some work on the District Line.

This is the original Tube network, goes back 150 years now.

The Circle Line is closed

and we're doing some tube renewing work on the Northern Line.

Any weekend, this is a fairly typical mix of rail stations, drainage,

civil engineering, track and some systems work.

We have to do it to keep the network going because it's just so old,

so much of it needs renewing.

With several engineering jobs every weekend,

and only a limited amount of time in which to do them,

the works have overrun in the past,

causing huge disruption to passengers on Monday morning.

You can't do this sort of thing,

where you are taking away parts of the network,

and be anything but very aware of the impact

of not getting it back in time.

It's a huge responsibility and something that,

if you do fail, you just want, you know,

you want to curl up in a corner. It's terrible.

-Is this the...?

-We're just renewing this.

-Platform three. 341 metres BTR.

-Just as....

At the far end of the site,

engineers have been held up by some damaged equipment.

What's the issue with the Connect cable?

The tamping tie went through the orange pipe.

The crew said that, they were on their headsets between each other,

that broke down in-between communications, they couldn't stop him.

A piece of heavy machinery has cut through one of the radio cables

that allow drivers to communicate with the rest of the network.

That's where the... On both sides, yeah.

-It's not dangerous. Is it all right for now?

-Yeah, yeah.

You can see. Both sides.

He's actually cut the cable, has he?

He's gone through the sheathing and it's showing a fault.

I don't know how they missed that. A great big orange pipe.

They've gone through a cable that runs our radio, which is...

I need to find out how that happened and why that happened.

No radio, no train service. I'm worried about that.

That's how suddenly you can go

from everything being in control in a weekend

to adding another two, three, four hours worth of work.

So we've got to get that sorted today.

Are we sure this Connect cable thing is under control?

How do you know it's 1.5 hours worth of work and not 10 hours?

That's on my worry list.

Electricians are brought in to try and repair the cable,

which is vital to the running of the railway.

You always look at it and I say, without sort of...

You think, "I've got to get all this back in for Monday morning."

That's what you think.

And there's all these people here who have to work safely.

The railway is in pieces and it's all got to go back.

Whilst everything is being done to prevent commuters being delayed on Monday morning,

there's no avoiding the disruption that these planned closures cause weekend passengers.

All change, please. All change. This train terminates here.

Because of the engineering works,

the Tube has not run a full weekend service for over four years.

All change, please.

This weekend, there are six separate line closures.

You need to take the Northern Line to Moorgate,

Circle Line to Tower Hill,

then walk round to Fenchurch Street, it's the c2c from there.

They just shut everything down. The Circle Line don't go round in a circle.

And you're just left to your own devices.

And all you get is, "Use the Northern Line."

Hello. What's the Northern Line?

TANNOY: 'Ladies and gentlemen, because of planned work,

'we have no train service from this station today.'

On any weekend, up to 70 of the network's 274 stations are closed.

-There's no line...

-There's nothing working today or tomorrow.

-So I have to get the bus?

-Yes, it's just outside.

We went to the cinema here

and usually we get the Tube from Northwood.

So we've had to drive here and just park down the road here.

All last summer, every weekend, it's been closed. Every weekend.

-You need to go outside and take a bus just outside.

-There's no...

Train. God, they're hopeless.

There's nothing we can do.

They have the power. Not us.

-No trains!

-You jump on a bus outside.

-I came all the way up the stairs!

-All you need to do...

All this Oyster money going up, going up,

it's not convenient for your family.

And there's no sign saying the trains were not working.

They put up all the fares,

but they've hardly got any loos, they've hardly got any lifts.

What about people with families and young children?

-BABY CRIES

-Horrible, it is.

He's upset now because we thought

he'd have some nice feeding on the train

and now we're back outside again.

OK, darling. It's horrible, isn't it?

London Transport!

-Right, where we going?

-Rayners Lane.

-Rayners Lane?

You're out of luck. You want the other side of the road!

They're not inconvenienced.

If they lived out in the sticks, they wouldn't have any transport.

Where I am, the last bus is 10 o'clock at night.

In London, they don't realise how lucky they are

with any form of transport every few minutes.

When I'm on holiday near Skegness,

the last bus was five o'clock in the evening.

They don't realise how lucky they are, waiting a few minutes.

And I'm glad of it, it's given me some work.

Without this, I wouldn't have the hours and pay the gas bill.

For the stations that remain open,

the Tube is busier than ever before at the weekend.

Every Saturday, three million people use the Underground.

Although, unlike the weekday commuter,

many of them are completely new to the system.

OK, thank you.

-Those tickets, I thought they were for the Underground for the whole weekend?

-No.

I want to go to Kew Gardens, what do I have to do?

That ticket won't be good enough.

This receipt does not belong to this Oyster card.

Can I get places to visit, the brochure with places to visit?

'Saturdays and Sundays is totally different to working in the week.'

They don't really know where they are or where they want to go.

A lot of them can't understand the Underground system,

like how the maps go. They ask us a lot about the buses, you know,

the tour buses that go around, where they can get that from.

A lot of people want to know where Trafalgar Square is,

we're near enough the nearest station anyway.

I feel like sometimes, I have to be an A-Z.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-To Big Ben?

-Big Ben, you need to go to Westminster.

-OK.

-Can you walk?

-What, from here? You can do, it's a nice day out.

90% of tourists who visit London

take on the challenge of using the Tube.

Not all of them succeed.

Your husband is at Goodge Street.

-Where?

-Your husband is at Goodge Street. One stop.

This way, one stop. Yeah?

-And then he's going to come back here.

-He is here?

-He is at Goodge Street.

-You know that?

-Yes.

Yeah, number 2 to base, over.

Even if they manage not to lose each other,

the inexperienced travellers must still get to grips with the Underground's famous map.

I don't understand it at all, I just follow him.

Let's have a look, see where we are.

There's not enough information.

For argument's sake, all the lines that you have got here,

they're colour-coded, but they're also numbered.

But they're only numbered on the ramps,

they're not numbered on the map.

Well, we are going to the... Tower Castle.

Tower Castle? Tower Bridge.

-Tower Bridge?

-Yes, Tower Bridge. It's not easy.

You need your brain to remember, and do some walk.

This one here.

The only one I find confusing is the Northern one, the Northern Line.

When you're on the Northern Line, you're going north or south,

and I get confused.

North North, North South?

We are still waiting for this French family.

Do you know any more about it, over?

'I told you, get his wife to turn left.'

Thanks. Out.

There they are, they're over there. This will be interesting.

-You lost each other!

-I had an old map, not good.

And so, we went wrong and so, everything is OK,

thanks to the people of the Underground, it's OK.

I've been here since I started the job,

10 years, 10.5 years,

and I think they will be carrying me out in my wooden box.

I love working here, I wouldn't work anywhere else.

I would not like to be at a quiet station. I like the hustle and bustle

and I like the interaction with customers as well.

Tomorrow I am going to Heathrow, which ticket do I need?

-Are you just going to make one single journey tomorrow?

-Yes, please.

It's going to be £5 for a single. OK, thanks a lot.

The train arriving on platform two will terminate here.

All change, please, all change, please.

-Liverpool Street, please?

-Platform three.

-Thank you.

'The people you have to watch out for,'

particularly tourists,

are people who aren't used to making the daily commute,

who just ended up on the system.

The first train will be that one.

-Thank you.

-That one, there.

Number eight, that will get you there. All the best.

London, it's overwhelming for some people.

It can be overwhelming for most people.

We are not designed to live with this number of people.

We can't, millions of people, we can't have a connection with.

You can't have direct relationships, friendships.

We are designed more for villages and small, you know, communities.

If you have any form of illness or bereavement or problem,

London can be a very, very hard city to live in.

Train on platform two is the westbound District Line,

for all stations to Richmond.

This train will shortly depart. Thank you.

On Saturday nights, many stations in the centre

experience their busiest and most challenging time of the week.

At Leicester Square, in the heart of the West End,

it's already 10 o'clock.

But another 20,000 customers are still expected to pass through.

The platforms are quite clear,

so just a matter of them blocking up the entrance staircase, but trains

are coming quite frequently, so if we can send them down the stairs.

Downstairs, this way, Piccadilly Line, downstairs,

there's a train in a minute.

Down here, mate. Train in one minute.

Station supervisor Wasim Malik is trying to control the flow of passengers onto the platforms.

We are in the heart of the West End, the hub of the West End.

You've got the cinemas, the clubs, the pubs,

and everyone wants to get home,

everyone just thinking about themselves.

Obviously, we are here just to keep some sort

of order. It can be difficult.

Move onto the cream bit.

Guys, follow the cream bit, please.

# Ga-Ga, ooh-la-la! #

Take your friend out, sober him up, come back in about 15 or 20 minutes.

-Fine, thank you very much.

-You need to leave the alcohol behind.

I'm not going to drink it on the train.

Either leave it behind or I will call one of the police over.

Just put it on the floor.

As well as being the busiest night-time station,

Leicester Square also has one of the highest levels of crime on the whole network.

They've been pickpocketed on the train.

You said the bank of...?

-Sao Paulo.

-Thank you.

-On a weekend, you can get three or four a shift.

-Really?

-Mmm.

The worst that society can conjure up come through

and manifest themselves in Leicester Square.

All sorts of vices, alcohol abuse, drug abuse,

all sorts of people come through.

It sort of numbs you to the reality of society, how bad society can get.

But I am a religious person, so I don't let it affect me too much.

-Sorry.

-Platform number four,

-there is a fight on platform four.

-There is a fight on platform four.

Can you send Paul to assist me, please?

Have you called BTP?

Excuse me, please.

Where's the assailant?

-Where?

-'Looks like a knife of some description.'

Where is the person who did it?

Right, it's an alleged stabbing.

We need BTP urgently.

Any other witnesses to this incident? SHE SCREAMS

I think I've been stabbed. Ohh!

Any other witnesses to this incident?

Did you see anything?

SHE WAILS

Why are you all standing round?

The female got stabbed and was chucked onto the tracks

by a man standing, and she's been stabbed.

That's basically what's happened, really.

The boyfriend at the moment is getting quite hysterical,

because he's upset. Look, he's going to get arrested now.

Enough! You need to calm down! Calm down!

-Stay still, for your own good, stay still!

-Get off me!

Calm down!

Calm down!

Get him away.

I don't want any trains leaving platforms three and four at the moment, please.

'Do you want to go non-stop in both directions?'

Yes, yes. Both directions.

'OK, we'll get non-stop in both directions.'

Platform four is now a crime scene.

The line controller has ordered drivers to pass without stopping.

It is 11.30 at night, the station's busiest time.

And within minutes, there is a crowd of hundreds of stranded customers.

-It's not going to be stopping at this station now.

-It's not stopping?

Aah. No more trains tonight?

-I'm closing this platform.

-I'm getting on this train.

It's not stopping.

-It looks like it's stopping.

-I told you, it's not stopping.

Leave the platform, please.

Well, how am I supposed to get where I'm supposed to be going?

Can you put a call out for Imam to come up to the ticket hall area, please, over?

'OK, thanks, Paul.'

You'll be all right if you go now.

I'm not going to row with you about this.

-I can only help you to where...

-It's a failure of your organisation.

I can only help you to where you're going now.

Your organisation has failed. Your organisation has failed yet again.

Where are you going to?

Is it quicker to walk to Charing Cross?

-Yeah? Is that quicker?

-Yes.

It's a busy weekend night,

and it's 30 minutes before the paramedics arrive on the scene.

Excuse me, do you know what happened?

-A stabbing.

-OK.

All I know is he pushed her, I didn't see the stabbing, OK? Right?

Over 200 people a year are seriously injured on the Underground.

All incidents are recorded and saved on CCTV.

The footage shows the girl being pushed onto the live tracks

by another customer before a station cleaner pulls her to safety.

Crazy, isn't it?

In the confusion, it's difficult to establish

whether a stabbing has also taken place.

The police will now need access to the tracks for their investigation.

And 20 minutes before last trains,

the Northern Line is suspended here completely.

There is no Northern Line services from this station.

Anyone for the Northern Line, make your way to Charing Cross.

You will be able to get the Northern Line from there.

This station is now closed, this station is now closed, I'm afraid, all lines operating

have now departed, this station is now closed.

The last train goes at 38 minutes past.

It's 34 now. I make this last train every night.

It's standard procedure, it's a crime scene.

Then why don't you just say that?

No-one cares, I used to work...

I worked at Holborn once, there was a person dead on the floor and people...

on the escalator, and people still trampling over him just to get to the platform.

No-one cares. It's just this tunnel vision people have,

they want to get to wherever they want to get to.

Welcome to London. Welcome to the Underground.

Sunday morning at the western end of the Central Line.

Ruislip Depot is rolling out its first trains of the day.

Depots aren't only a place for trains to spend the night,

it's also where all the essential maintenance work takes place.

With fewer trains in service, Sundays are a busy day for the mechanics.

Power on 48 west.

Just need to jump up in the cab to power this baby up.

Normal.

I'll do my end door.

Zero.

Two and a half.

Normal.

There you go, that's it. All set. Simple as that.

Running for 19 out of every 24 hours and covering over 200 miles a day,

tube trains need to be regularly maintained.

Every single train on the network is given a full mechanical examination once a fortnight.

We are doing a 14-day exam.

It's like an MOT for the train.

Right, they're too small, so they're going to have to be changed.

At the moment, I'm just checking

to see whether these brushes need changing.

Mark has gone round and done the brakes and John is checking the gearboxes.

Powered by an electrical current running through the track,

the workings of a tube train are not isolated to a single engine,

but spread through all the carriages.

Each one of the 32 motors, gearboxes and brakes

and all 64 wheels must be in full working order.

If they weren't checked, anything could happen.

You could have failures on the line, trains out of service,

disgruntled passengers, you know.

Disgruntled bosses, even, if the trains were out of service.

So, there is a knock-on effect.

So you never get bored of Tube trains?

Well, I suppose I've always been fascinated by them,

even more so since I've been working on them.

My wife thinks I'm a bit of an anorak, especially when we go away to Europe or something like that

and you see all the different styles of trains and that.

She finds it quite funny when I get excited to see a different train going by and all that.

That's by the by.

Come on, boys, you're a bit slow, aren't you?

-Going out to get a screwdriver.

-Oh, right.

-TANNOY:

-'This is Shepherd's Bush. This is a Central Line train to Tottenham Court Road.'

Just testing the radio.

'One, two, three, four, five.'

That was Sonia.

-The radio.

-Who's Sonia?

-Sonia, she's the person that does the announcements.

'This is Bethnal Green. This is a Central Line train to White City.'

-Since when was she called Sonia?

-Well, because "Son-yer nerves."

'PA test. One, two, three, four, five.'

It's Andy Hogg, NOC. Can you give me a call back urgently, as soon as you get the message? Cheers, ta.

On the rest of the network, it's business as usual.

Farringdon's done and dusted. Putney, they've got the severe, Stonebridge we know about

and now the Victoria Line is going to join the party.

NOC, hello, Victoria.

In the last ten years, passenger numbers at the weekend have doubled.

With two million customers moving around the network, Sundays are no longer a day of rest.

You're OK to remain at good service, yeah?

It's a different sort of busy.

The timetables are different because the number of trains at certain times of the day have to vary,

because we have to respond to what is going on in the weekend.

If Arsenal are playing at the Emirates, I'm keeping a close eye on the Pic and the Vic

because that's the one that'll be affected. Everything that's going on,

I've got an understanding of the potential failures, so I'm keeping an eye on things.

It is good, it keeps you on your toes, or it should do, anyway.

I mean, some days, as I say, everything goes absolutely swimmingly.

So far, today, it has been.

But some days, it goes just one failure after another

and you think, "I've done something wrong today, the gods are against me."

In east London, the approaching Olympics has meant

that Stratford station has been massively extended.

Today, it's having to cope with the biggest shopping centre

in Europe opening on its doorstep.

Please make your way upstairs towards John Lewis.

Excuse me, can you carry on walking through? You're causing a blockage.

Quick, we're getting a pram block. Let's get going.

You've heard of a logjam, this is a pram jam.

Having a good time shopping? You'd think there was a recession on, wouldn't you?

Come through together.

Peter May is one of 20 extra station staff who've been brought in to deal with the rush.

When I was a kid, I lived at King's Cross.

And King's Cross station was my playground.

So, yeah, I like the smell of the underground.

I always wanted to be a train driver,

a London Underground train driver.

I ain't got there yet, they won't let me in, yet.

Believe me, when I first started this job, a weekend was never like this, not on the weekend.

Easily over 1,000 people just got off of one train.

And it's on the weekend. It's increased exponentially.

People are supposed to be at home enjoying themselves,

having a beer in the garden.

Not like this.

At Harrow on the Hill, the engineers have been working all weekend.

The running track has been replaced.

Now, all 341 metres have to be secured into place

with heavy duty metal clips.

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, it's tedious.

I hate it, doing this. It's just never-ending.

Clear all this, yeah?

The pressure starts at the top and gets filtered down, doesn't it?

So, you know, we just get shouted at,

"Hurry up. Do this, do this, do that, do that."

So, it gets passed down, I get screamed at

and I scream at my lads and then they go home and moan about me.

Still got to clip the rail up, they've got to drop the top stone,

the welders have got to come through, it's got to be tamped,

then the conductor rail's got to go in, then you got to build the shoulders,

do all the snagging, bits and bobs, there's still plenty to do.

Are we running late, or are we on time?

-On time.

-Cool.

-Hopefully.

Terry Bannister is Harrow station supervisor.

If the engineering works overrun, he'll be unable to open the station

to his regular commuters tomorrow morning.

At the moment they're putting down the signalling cables,

the track's down and they've also got the juice rail has got to go down.

I've seen it happen several times and I still think,

"How are they going to do all of that work and get up and running

"in time for Monday morning?"

The first train is the 5:31 in the morning.

It's got to come through Uxbridge, so it's got to come through these lines.

It could be tight.

Right, what are we doing now?

There's a couple of doors open down there, I'm going to shut them up.

Monday morning is the gold medal, I suppose you could call it,

of the service.

If you get Monday morning right then I think everybody will be happy.

I'll do the alarms and the porter switches.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yeah, loud and clear.

Just testing the alarms to the cab.

Hello?

Can you hear me, mother?

Obviously not.

What would happen if this wasn't ready for tomorrow morning's service?

It wouldn't bear thinking about.

We'll have the whole world on top of us, I think.

They'll want to know why and... you know.

But then again, if it's beyond our control, then what can we do?

-Is there one more, Mark?

-Yeah, there is, mate, but it's not working.

All they're concerned about is getting the train there on time

and getting into work, that's it.

-Will this get them there?

-Course it will!

Of course it will, it's my baby!

Basically we're flat out, very, very busy at this moment in time.

We've got a lot of people out we need to coordinate between.

We've got my men, then we've got signals doing their signal work,

power people doing the power work and we've also got trains

that we need to exit, so Sunday night can be very, very stressful.

It's not connected.

It's out of date. It doesn't pass the gauge.

You're standing, nothing will happen, yeah.

The engineers at Harrow are beginning to run out of time.

Signal technicians haven't even started the final stage

of rewiring the railway.

On Friday night I think about 100 cables were removed,

various cables, there's different types of cables, as you'll see.

Some of them are bigger than others, some of them take more work than others.

But, yeah, it's all basically to be reconnected.

Once all the machinery and everything's off,

we power everything back up and test everything to make sure

everything's gone back without no problems.

Hopefully everything's working.

They should be off and finished here with all their machinery

by 11 o'clock, which gives us a four-hour window

-to finish reconnecting anything that's not reconnected, and test it.

-What if they're delayed?

If they're delayed, we're delayed, and the public's probably delayed in the morning.

I will call and give him the times and then we'll take it from that, yeah?

At engineering headquarters, Bernie Webb's team are waiting

for the engineers to clear the tracks so they can repower the line.

I'm going to do something a little bit strange, now, though.

I'm going to go up one floor in the lift,

because I'm quite superstitious.

We are a superstitious bunch.

If I have a really bad night and things have really gone badly,

and I will always look to see what I was wearing

and I won't wear that article of clothing for a really long time.

If it happened twice, it's in the bin. I'm just going to take this.

Hello, Bernie.

Hi, Lee.

Yeah, yeah I've been speaking to Diego,

he says it's got a bit of a hold-up out on the ground.

They're sailing a bit later than they should be.

So, it's really a question of, it looks like it is going to be another half an hour.

We can live with that. Any more than half an hour, though, we can't.

As the weekend draws to a close, stations across the network begin to shut down for the night.

PHONE RINGS

Good evening, Morden. Hello, London Bridge, how can I help?

At most stations, a supervisor stays on duty all night...

..ready to deal with any eventuality.

As you can see down here, there's poo everywhere.

They seem to fly in, do their business and go.

There's one just over there, two just over there on the cable run,

one up the other end.

Probably 50 or 60 pigeons here at any one time.

Well, the owl, initially, was as a deterrent,

like a scarecrow, but it hasn't worked.

The first night they put it in we've got a picture

of a pigeon sat on his head.

Now they've plumbed in this big thing down the other end,

the big speaker that puts out these sounds.

ZAPPING NOISES

That sounds more like the old '80s video games.

They're great noises.

If you see behind me, you can see that the pigeons are still sat there,

not moving, it's not affecting them at all.

I've got a feeling our pigeons down here are deaf, anyway.

With the sounds of the trains coming in.

-What time are you here till?

-Seven.

Seven o'clock in the morning.

It's booking on contractors now,

closing the station, final sweep, have a walk round, make sure everybody's off.

London never sleeps, it's true what they say.

It's 3:15 in the morning, and just a quarter of an hour behind schedule,

the 100 engineers at Harrow are ready to hand back the railway.

All the men are starting to take all the tools up.

Half past five, I think, this station opens.

We'll be long gone.

I enjoy my work, I enjoy seeing the likes of now,

where you can see what we've done and it looks good.

I think it's about 25 to 30 years that track will last.

Before it needs renewing.

To see it all work on the weekend is very satisfying, like.

Given the green light, code green, everything OK.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Bernie.

Oh, hey, Lee.

Really, all signal testing completed?

Excellent, well done, mate, thank you very much.

It's nothing to do with those people working solidly out on the ground

and under loads of pressure. It was always going to be OK,

the lucky grey shirt.

I think I probably won't bother washing it,

I'll just wear it every day until something goes wrong.

Just start worrying about next weekend now.

Ladies and gentlemen, service update from the control room.

There is a good service in operation on all London Underground lines.

Monday morning is fairly sombre,

most of the passengers are in a bad mood anyway

cos the weekend's over and they've got to start that daily slog.

Please move right down into the carriages using all available space.

And even though it's packed and it can be a bit smelly

and if you're little, your nose in some bloke's armpit,

it's like a can of sardines and you can't read your book,

it's a good service because the trains are coming through,

thick and fast, there's no delays.

Amersham passengers, your next fast service will depart from platform number three.

I don't think any customers are really aware that the track

was pulled out, replaced, ready for them on Monday morning.

They haven't a clue what has happened over the weekend.

They just want to get to work, don't they? That's all they want.

There's a lot of people in the background that you don't

see or hear from that are working very hard to make that happen.

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