Episode 6 The Tube

This programme contains some strong language.

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 4 million people

on the move.

Is the customer asleep on the platform? Get him on the train.

It's not easy when the tube is undergoing the biggest upgrade in its history.

We have got five minutes, I want this site cleared!

Cameras will reveal an underground world

we have never fully seen before.

10,421 mobiles since April.

Listen to what I'm saying, pay as you go. You just went.

Over the barrier, this guy running up the stairs! You need to stop him.

We are just 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.

You know people are going home by the way they look,

the way they act, their face, their facial features,

you can see they are tired and worn out and ready to go home.

Stand outside the yellow boxes, please. Thank you.

PA: 'There is another train directly behind this.'

The evening rush hour is in full swing.

The tube is taking a million weary Londoners home.

Hello, guys. Move down, please. There is tea and cakes at the back.

Keep moving, please. Can't stop there, my friend.

Number seven has stopped, somebody has pressed the diamond.

We are going to reverse number six.

There you go. There'll be a lot of people not going to the gym tonight!

Watch all the miserable faces, man.

Faces as long as a wet week. If they're going to work,

they should at least have a smile or something on their face.

Or don't look so goddamned miserable.

Like most people, I have a timetable to go home,

I know what time I finish,

what time the National Rail trains are to get me home.

But not all tube staff go home in the evening.

As the rush hour is finishing,

6,500 underground workers are getting ready to start their day.

Tunnel cleaner Alan Whitting travels to a different station every night.

I love it, if you look around, there's nobody here to bother you,

you ain't got to rush around for seats,

you ain't got to be crammed in, and it's such an easy ride in.

A lot of people would love to have that.

I have a job that actually allows me to do it.

I do not think I'm missing out, I think I'm lucky, because

I have got a great job, great bunch of guys I work with.

Here we go. I am just part of it, just going along with it.

The early hours are the only time when the stations

and tracks can be properly cleaned.

Some workers are more eager than others to get going.

Nobody here yet. Surprise, surprise(!)

On the other side of London,

engineering workers get ready to go underground.

Gentleman, for those who don't know me, I'm Marshall,

the site person in charge, I'm in charge for the job tonight.

Tonight, we are rerailing.

For some people, it is the best time of day to be working.

I love nights, I love it.

It's the best thing that ever happened for me, man.

I didn't know people worked at night.

When I found out, I went, "I'm having some of that."

I'm a night person, basically. I'm a vampire. I only come out at night.

There are 10 different teams here tonight,

getting ready to repair track, signals and points.

But before the night workers can start,

they have to wait for the stations to be closed.

At Camden Town, that's easier said than done.

SHOUTING AND CHATTER

With five minutes to go before last trains, it is the job

of customer service assistant Debbie Moore to get the clubbers moving.

It's the end of the month, payday.

This is generally what Camden is like as a rule.

The good, the bad, the ugly. You get a bit of everything here.

Never dull.

The last train going south is at 12.24.

Three minutes! Yes.

Run, run. She needs to get cigarettes, just wait.

Run to the shop!

If you're going south, you have about two minutes.

If you're going south, you've got about one minute.

Train is coming in now, you need to hurry up.

The last train south has gone,

but there is still time to catch the final train going north.

I have got northbound only, Edgware, Barnet.

Going south is buses only now. Where are you going to?

See that white building?

You need to turn right, go to the second bus stop, get the 88.

-Where's the train going?

-No, there's no more southbounds. You missed it.

-What about that one? Just let us in.

-Sort yourself out.

If you listen to me, I'll tell you what bus to get.

-I missed the last train, I'll just get a bus!

-HE LAUGHS

ALARM SOUNDS

Fantastic, so nothing has stalled.

Soon as we see that one moving, I'll get them to ring the list

and we'll decide what to say.

At the Network Operations Centre,

duty manager Andy Hogg is overseeing the last trains across all 11 lines.

That was the last District, leaving West Ham.

That is going eastbound towards Upminster, and you can see

the last one's gone through Canning Town, Jubilee, so it's 12.33.

We're pretty much now at the end of traffic.

Contrary to popular belief,

we don't turn the power off and put our feet up and go to sleep.

We have to shut the line down at night to give the engineers

a few hours at least to go and do some work.

The wear and tear, purely on infrastructure, is colossal.

Each train takes a pounding.

The track itself is solid steel, but it wears out, even signals going

green and red, there are moving parts in the signals, relays that are going

back and forward every minute, and we have to do maintenance on them.

The more we can do, the less problem we have during the day

with disruptions because of infrastructure failures.

The Underground has always relied on getting its repairs

and cleaning done during the night.

NARRATOR: 'Just look at all this dirt. 100 tonnes of it every year.'

In the 1950s, passenger numbers and investment declined, night work

was just a matter of maintaining the existing infrastructure.

Come on then, you're invited!

Today, demand is soaring,

and the tube is in the middle of its biggest ever upgrade.

Night workers must modernise the system, as well as maintain it.

All right, lads, make way. Make way. Get out! Shut up.

Your chariot awaits, ladies.

Marshall and his team are on their way to a rail replacement job

at Regent's Park station.

-It is a big job tonight, isn't it?

-Major job tonight, guaranteed.

It's not easy, what we're doing tonight, at all.

Problems always turn up unforeseen.

Something breaking down, that's our worst nightmare.

If a tool or equipment breaks down, we're in serious trouble.

Hopefully nothing breaks down, fingers crossed.

I call us the invisible rats. As in tunnel rats.

We come down here, we do what we've got to do,

the public don't know about us. While we're working,

they're sleeping.

When we finish, they go to work in the morning.

If the people saw what we done on the track every single night,

they'd be amazed.

Night on the Underground is short.

They will have only four hours to complete the work.

Less if the station is late closing.

Can't get into the station until the passengers are clear.

We're always impatient, that's why you see us walking around,

we're always impatient to get to work straight away,

but we've got to be patient and wait.

Finally, the last train of the night leaves Camden.

Hello, where are you going?

-Sorry?

-Where was you going?

Belsize Park.

Last train's gone.

Another day at the office.

See how quiet it is now? It's lovely.

Some passengers refuse to accept the bad news about last trains.

ARGUING AND SWEARING

< Let them in!

Get your foot out.

Right.

We've literally just missed it, about three minutes ago.

I don't know, it's not on, is it?!

Yeah, it's definitely early for the last train, we need to be going home now.

JEERING

By 1am, the Tube staff finally have the Underground to themselves,

and peace reigns.

BELL TOLLS

At Waterloo, it takes supervisor David Latham an hour to bar and bolt the station.

I've been here 14 years, and it's the longest I've ever had one job.

I was a lecturer at University before I come here.

Network installations, computer installations.

I just got fed up with it,

I saw a bloke I knew from one of the pubs I used to go in,

he'd started here, said, "You want to try it?"

Within two weeks, I was here.

Dave will be left alone now to look after the station for the whole night.

'My relief will come in at 7 o'clock.'

Once all the escalators are turned off, you could hear a pin drop through the station.

'Then once I've locked up and had a quick check round,

'I basically haven't got a lot to do until I have to go and do the checks in the morning.'

See what I mean about the silence?

HE CHUCKLES

With the last customers gone, more than 4,000 train carriages can be taken off the tracks

and housed at one of 15 depots across London.

Good morning, Tower?

234 on 4-9, you're clear to stable on 2-9, 29 south.

Victoria Line depot controller Gary Hart has been putting trains to bed for 19 years.

What we're doing,

we're steering trains into depot...

RINGS BELL

That bell indicates that I've got a train just coming down to me now.

Yeah, 227 on 4-9, you're clear to 3-2 32 south.

Gary steers trains home with the same control desk used every night

since 1968, when the line opened.

This is directing the train. At one stage it was there, which would send it up that way.

With that, the train there is going to go to 29 South.

Every indication indicates a four car unit,

that is 16 cars, in other words, two trains.

It looks complex, but it's like... everything's easy when you know how.

Some people think it's boring, but...

..when it's really going, you don't get a chance to think, really.

You're just... concentration all the time.

Cos if I don't do my job correctly, it can mean to say

that the Victoria line doesn't have a service.

240152, you're all clear down to Stockwell 48.

Simply getting all these trains off the tracks in the right order

takes two hours every night.

235 on 49, you're clear to stable on 31, 31 South.

We have a wash road over here,

which cleans the trains externally.

Trains get cleaned every few days.

The trains are shampooed going in...

..and rinsed off going out.

That's the exam shed there.

The trains have to be examined underneath for wheel cracks,

everything imaginable has to be taken to pieces

and put back together again and examined.

Now the trains are off the tracks, an important decision can be made by this man...

-Hello, power control.

-..at a secret location in central London.

Canning Town to Belsize Park on the northbound

and Elephant and Castle to Clapham Common on the southbound. Thank you, ta.

We do actually have all the power for the underground.

It's a lot of responsibility.

Safety-critical decisions, could be life-threatening decisions as well.

-Line clear for you...

-Power controller James White is in charge of the Northern line tonight,

the tube's most complex line.

I sort of describe the job as like an air traffic controller

but with electricity.

James used to work in track maintenance before joining the power control team.

I'm one of the youngest ones.

I did my apprenticeship when I was 18 and then worked my way up.

I was wearing overalls before and stuff like that.

I still get a rash on my neck where I'm not used to wearing a collar

but it does make a difference.

People speak to you nicer when you go into shops dressed up smart so yes, I do enjoy it.

James and his team are responsible for switching the current off

along all 249 miles of track.

It looks like a computer game,

but you don't get no extra lives or nothing like that on here.

I can make a mistake now and turn on the wrong section

and potentially kill people.

With the power off,

Marshall and his 25 strong gang at Regents Park station can get going.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

At the same time, seven miles away at Blackhorse Road,

Alan Whiting joins fellow tunnel cleaners,

or "fluffers" as they head down to start work.

24-year-old Harry Reeves is in charge.

There's always going to be work for people cleaning down in tunnels, definitely.

A train can't clean a tunnel.

Ah... Another night, mate.

This is probably the cheapest, most efficient way to do it.

Tonight, Harry's men must remove dust and fluff

from more than 300 metres of track.

They clean a different stretch each night.

This is a tunnel from Walthamstow all the way down to Brixton,

which means that it does get dusty in here.

There's nowhere for the air to go.

They have big air systems in here but it doesn't do an adequate job

for the train drivers, so you have to come in here and do it manually.

These pipes here, they need to be done,

the walls needs to be done. It gets very, very dusty down here.

The average person loses round about 80 hairs per day.

Just a normal person's dirt, basically.

Let's get this rail in. Thank you.

Over at Regents Park, Marshall and his team have four hours to remove a worn out rail

and install a five ton, 90 metre long new section.

When you first work here, it's terrifying.

The first time in this environment is totally weird,

totally oh, scary, yes, very much so.

Trains, currents, rails, hammers,

cos all tools are flying all over the place,

so you've got to be very careful.

It should be just outside the station somewhere.

Mr E!

Spanner!

I need a spanner! The big one, quickly!

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

In the process, you jack this rail up. Once we've jacked it up,

we cut right in the middle of the bed, here.

They do the same at the far end and once both cuts are done,

they take out the O rail, put it to one side

then they put this rail in, it comes in through here.

Now the fun begins.

CRASHING

The new rail was brought into the tunnel two weeks ago

in preparation for the job tonight.

Now it must you manoeuvred exactly into position.

Take it up, take it up.

Hold it there.

Take it away!

Being in the tunnels working at night time can be very depressing.

Sometimes I say they should paint stars in the tunnel segments, because it is depressing.

Sometimes you can work outside

and you think you never want to work in the tunnels again.

Yo, my friend, mind out the way.

Benny, are we ready?!

They are halfway through the job

and as they get close to lining up the new rail, there is a problem.

The light's not working.

You don't know what's happening?

INAUDIBLE

No.

They're having trouble getting the lights on.

Go and help him out sorting out the lighting.

The first time this has happened this week.

Excuse me for a minute.

If they can't fix the lighting in the next hour,

they won't finish in time.

At the moment, a little bit of a delay.

We can't work properly without proper lighting.

Only him! Only him!

The technique for replacing track overnight

has barely changed in the last 60 years.

NEWSREEL: 'They lug up the old rail, 100 yards at a time, mind you.

'Then they replace it.

'Replace the whole lot.

'It takes some doing too.

'Last train at night to first train in the morning is about four hours

'and you can't skimp this job.'

The work of the fluffers today,

removing dust and fibres from the tunnels

is also as much as it was in 1958.

'That's what they're called - fluffers. They're VIPs too.

'Not just here to tiddly up the place. This is fire prevention work.

'If all this dust, paper and fluff was allowed to pile up,

'you'd only need one spark, and woof!'

But the fluffers themselves have changed.

Where once they were women, now they're men with vacuum cleaners.

The fluff has changed too.

Different part of London, the type of fibres that you find

and the fluff changes across the network.

Certainly in west London, there's more cotton and more wool

and fine woollen fabrics in the fluff.

And you get parts of east London and south London,

the amount of polyester in the fluff actually changes,

the composition of the fluff. Um, yes.

I've found credit cards, Oyster cards, wallets, everything.

I find a T-shirt every now and again.

The best thing I found was a tenner.

-How you finding it, all right?

-Yes.

-Easy, 'innit?

Harry has been a fluffer for two years.

Six nights, every week, six nights.

Mind that there.

I only have Saturday nights off.

I can't have too many days off, mate.

Because if we don't work, we don't get paid.

So, you get the hours in, you know?

He's only recently been promoted to boss of the team.

Just looking to make sure all the walls have been done down to the floor,

to make sure all the cables have been nicely hoovered off,

which they have.

They're meant to clean 360 metres of tunnel tonight,

but they're a man short.

This is where you're going to start on this light, yes?

You're going to be doing this side.

Tonight, it's about nine lights, it's about 90 metres each.

Because we needed to cover 360 metres,

so we just give everybody nine lights,

so then everybody does their 90 metres.

Nobody wants to be hoovering a tunnel.

Then you've got someone telling you you ain't done a good enough job, of hoovering a dirty tunnel.

You don't need that in your life.

My girlfriend hates me working nights.

She hates it. But my girlfriend says, "You waste the whole day in bed."

It's not like I waste the whole day in bed.

I have to get up and work all night, you know?

And I'm sure more people than just myself have had arguments

with their partners over something like that.

She would like it if I could work in the daytime,

but to be honest, I quite enjoy working nights now.

Now that I'm used to it and I've adapted to it.

While the fluffers clean the tunnels,

a separate team are at work at the platform edges.

Good evening, my name is Vladimir Penchev, I will be your PM and first-aider for tonight.

Every two weeks, the stations get their own deep clean.

Hazards we've got is slipping and tripping.

The juice is off, we can go safe on the track.

The reason to come here is looking for a better life.

If you ask every single foreigner, they say the same thing.

But I was lucky, to be honest.

I really was so lucky, because I never was without a job.

If you're looking for a job, every time you'll find it.

That is my philosophy for every single thing.

I was cleaning one school.

-But I didn't like it, to be honest.

-LAUGHS

It's a lot of kids around and everybody's laughing to you

because you're the cleaner.

But it's nothing shaming, to do the job, any job, it's not a shame.

I think funny is the Government is giving money to people for not working.

I don't understand this one at all.

I never see a country like this one in the world.

I worked in a lot of countries to be honest, I never saw that.

DISTANT TRAFFIC SOUNDS

Night is the time when the tube's most vulnerable equipment,

pounded during the day, can be looked after.

Like the 8,000 points across the system.

Movable rails, allowing trains to change from one track to another.

Points can be the tube's Achilles heel,

causing huge delays when they fail.

Michael and Fiona Perryman are two of the underground's

850 points and signals technicians, who must prevent a failure.

Tonight, they've been sent to Bank station,

where another maintenance team is already doing work that may disturb the nearest points.

What's happened is the sleepers have dropped a little bit.

They've only dropped by four mill,

So it will be straight and it's dipped.

They're now clearing out the valley

and packing underneath it to raise it up,

even though it's only four mill, just to raise it up to make sure

that it's all back level

and why we're here, because they're working around our equipment,

and we want to make sure from what they've done,

they haven't affected our equipment,

and it's safe for the trains to run in the morning. So...

This shouldn't take long. Touch wood.

Michael and Fiona met four years ago.

My dad and her dad were apprentices together on the underground when they were 16.

So they've known each other for years. My mum was her boss.

My mum's the apprentice manager of the Underground...

So she got to send me to whichever depot she wanted

and I ended up here.

-How long have you been married?

-Since September.

-September this year.

-We're pretty much with each other 24-7.

-24 hours a day, really.

-We haven't managed to kill each other yet.

-We're all right.

INAUDIBLE SPEECH

The rail repair has finished, but Michael and Fiona have found

a different problem with an electric motor that changes points.

-No, only getting 13 volts.

-'How are you getting on?'

-Trouble in paradise.

-'Lovely.'

There just isn't enough electricity to make the points move.

Now I'm not getting 110 where I should.

At the minute, I'm looking for 110 volts.

And I'm only getting 13 volts at the minute.

Everything is going straight through.

-No.

-No, nothing.

-'Can you check on your 1B?'

-No.

Now they have only two hours to find and fix the problem

before getting off the track to make way for the first train.

The Tube has 274 stations in use.

But there are also 18 abandoned, or "ghost" stations,

that passengers never see.

Roy Kenneth, the Tube's emergency planning manager,

is checking the security of Down Street disused station,

just off Piccadilly in central London.

It's the thrill of being somewhere where most people don't go,

these hidden spaces, there's lots of them under our feet.

Down Street isn't very far from Green Park

and it's not very far from Hyde Park Corner.

The station itself was hardly being used,

so the company at the time took the decision to close it.

The station originally closed in 1932 and then was used during the war

as an air raid shelter for the Railway Executive.

I warn you now, it is not pleasant in there. It's dark, it's very smelly.

It's a bit wet through here, as well.

Britain's entire rail network was run from Down Street during the war.

75 people worked, ate and slept down here,

keeping the railways running, even at the height of the Blitz.

'Londoners take to shelter, unafraid.

'Old and young, their spirits undismayed.'

SIRENS WAIL

Churchill used these rooms too, for War Cabinet meetings

before a purpose built bunker was opened, and often slept here.

They used to say this is Winston Churchill's bath tub.

Brick walls were built along the platforms

to conceal this complex from passing Tube trains,

which might have been carrying German spies.

There's a whole series of offices and committee room spaces,

telephone exchange, this would have been manned

by a couple of telephonists, transferring

the calls from the Railway Executive to whoever they needed to talk to.

This is the grey room.

It's an electrical switch room that for some reason,

everything in the room has been painted grey,

including the lights and the lightbulbs,

we don't know why.

The Underground's lost stations were once busy with passengers,

but now, no longer wanted, they are almost all silent and shuttered.

These ghost stations are unmarked on any Tube map.

We pass through them without realising they are there.

TRAIN RUMBLES PAST

DISTANT CREAKING

-What's that sound?

-I don't actually know.

The rumble was the train, I don't know what the other noise was.

Maybe it's the ghost!

HE CHUCKLES

Is anyone here?

The strange acoustical effect when you walk up the stairs,

it sounds like someone is walking up behind you.

That's caused many a person to run out in fright.

If we go through this way here...

It is quite a lonely place, and certain areas are completely black.

Your imagination starts playing up. The slightest noise becomes loud.

And you start thinking, what is that noise?

You imagine all sorts of things.

HE CHUCKLES

There can be ghost stations within working stations,

as Dave Latham at Waterloo knows.

Still is the word I would use, I think.

Because none of the escalators are running, nothing is working at all.

You can walk round

and hear your own footsteps, and everything echoes.

Some people like it, some people don't.

A lot of the stations, they reckon are haunted, so some people

really worry when they start walking round, but it doesn't bother me.

This is where people used to come in from the old Eurostar.

Completely unused. There is nothing they can use it for.

We had a ticket office down there, car hire was all down there.

I am one of these people, in fact, my mum said it a while ago,

both me and my two sisters can be on our own, we enjoy our own company.

I don't know, I can't understand people that need people round them.

When I was at school, I was really lazy, I never done any homework.

I was one of those kids.

If I had had the dedication that I have now in my life

towards things, I probably would have done a lot better at school

and probably would have got to go to university.

-What would I study?

-Yeah.

-Astrophysics and particle physics.

Probably go and be a scientist in CERN,

go and work on CERN in Switzerland.

I would like to have the chance to go and do that,

but you know, looking back,

made your bed, got to lie in it. Making the best of the situation,

coming down here, trying to work my way up in the Underground.

So, that's what I've got to work up towards, you know.

Got to aim high, or you will never get anywhere.

30 year, I work in theatre.

At this moment,

I am no good time from culture,

no good. No.

I am clear. Very, very good.

My son student, Edinburgh. Yeah.

Need money. I work, for my son.

-Sorry!

-STARTS UP CLEANING APPARATUS

Bye.

For the last 12 years, Mick Denyer has led a nocturnal life,

like the animals he deals with.

I would rather do this on a night time than a daytime.

It's the only time they come out as well, so...

Mick is one of 40 pest controllers,

covering the entire network.

Tonight, he has been called to the west end of the Piccadilly line.

All right? Someone has put out a fault for a mouse.

You might be able to smell, actually.

-Has anyone actually seen it?

-No. But it was heard, though.

-OK.

-Initially, I did see the mouse on the ceiling.

-OK.

It is quite a scare, because it might bite you

and things like that, they have got diseases,

they are really filthy sorts of rodents.

We have got a dead mouse on a trap just above your head, basically.

How on earth did it get up there?

Sorry.

The bite's not a disease,

it's actually infection in the urine, isn't it?

I prefer them not to be in the station at all,

you can never get rid of them, that's the only problem.

-OK, all finished.

-Thanks for removing that smell.

-No problem at all.

Thank you very much.

London Underground makes tens of millions of pounds selling advertising space.

Adam Lenski and his team try to change seven posters a night.

Some of the posters, it's really hard to match up.

It's a problem with the paper, it sticks too much,

so it's harder to move it.

But after some time, you get used to it.

When I get home, when I am in my bed,

newspaper, or read something on my phone,

then as my eyes are moving, they close little by little,

then after that, like a baby for five or six hours.

Nothing can wake me up, literally.

I am stripping the backing.

The backing is the sticky thing that we stick the poster on.

Basically, it is like double-sided tape, only much stronger.

If you do a lot of it, it just sticks to your skin,

then after some while, you get really rough skin on the fingers.

Before, this was all done with paste,

like huge wallpaper, something like that.

But after some time, it was very dirty, it wasn't looking very good.

So that's why it has changed to this, the process looks much better.

Most of the stuff that we post, not to be rude, is mundane.

Only a few of them that you catch a glimpse of, you are interested in.

We used to have someone to help us with the rubbish,

but know we have to do the rubbish ourselves.

The worst-case scenario is, the station supervisor can kick us

off the station and we only done half of the poster,

that can lead to us not working in Camden for a while.

So, yeah.

When I am travelling on the Underground, then I am

actually quite proud, if I was on the station,

I had done this job, so I can...

If I am travelling with my girlfriend, my friends,

I am just saying, "Yeah, I've done this one."

But when I am on the station posting bills, it is completely different,

I am just doing my job, getting it done and that's it.

-WOMAN: Would you say you are a perfectionist?

-Yes.

I would say that, yes, I am trying to get them perfect.

It's not always possible,

but I am trying to get them as close to perfection as possible.

The tops are going a bit down. The bottoms are going up.

So, it's not perfect, but you won't notice it.

Good morning. My number is 7834, November 3803.

The tracks are now safe for trains to run.

Thank you. Goodbye.

Even my son is a pest controller. My other son, he is a hairdresser.

Tell us, Mick, how many kids have you got?

Oh, ten children.

HE CHUCKLES

They range from about 36 down to the age of three.

Will you have more kids?

-I don't think so.

-HE LAUGHS

I can't, I work nights.

The missus works days, we never get the time.

Plenty you've had so far!

Well, now, I didn't always use to work nights then!

Hello!

The dead of night is the best time for Mick to carry out

one of his most unpleasant duties.

We are going to sort some guano out today.

And if there is any pigeons in the way,

we will have to try and get rid of them somehow.

As you can see, it's all spikes and everything else,

and the pigeons are still getting in. And they will just eat anything.

Anything at all. Burgers, food they've thrown on the floor.

It's not very nice for people to come and sit in the station

when there is pigeon poo on the seats and stuff,

because you're going to work,

so you don't want to be smelling of pigeon poo.

There he is.

You've got to aim for the head so you get a quick kill.

GUNSHOT

Sorry, mate.

It's your last resort.

I don't really like killing animals.

But it's just a job I've got to do.

I think we're causing the actual problem of the pest.

We clean up our act and they'll probably go somewhere else.

London will be coming back to life soon.

The underground's night workers are running out of time.

At Canary Wharf station, the cavernous spaces call for the specialists.

Industrial abseilers, that's what we are.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

Then they ask you what you do. "We're cleaning windows."

"Oh, is that it?" you know?

Can I have a tea break, please?

No, we ain't got time for a tea break.

I never want to get down.

I'm a bit behind, to be honest.

We're on a deadline.

Lee Crane and Carl Ballantine are given just four hours

to clean the inside of the glass roof once a year.

The team comes down from Suffolk specially for the job.

I'm getting in a muddle here.

I've never known it to be this dirty.

It's absolutely filthy.

-That's how dirty London is!

-LAUGHTER

But it has to be done.

It has to be cleaned.

I don't really like coming to London.

I don't like the traffic.

-Too busy for me.

-I mean, it's nice to work here and see everything,

but it's also nice to go back to Suffolk.

I think it's about time we packed up, Lee.

-Oh!

-We'd better hurry up cos we've got about half an hour

to pack up and get out of here.

Looks all right.

We usually only do one row a night anyway.

But we've done all right, considering.

Big cities are always going to be dirty and smoggy, ain't they, so...

BANGING AND SHOUTING

Marshall and his team are also under pressure

to finish laying the new section of rail.

I'd say we lost 20 minutes on setting up the lighting.

But every second counts, every minute counts,

but we're good at our job, so we'll make up time.

Get this bar out, please.

Dropping down!

Right, ease off, ease off, ease off!

Steve, we're ten!

I'm not happy with that.

-Yeah?

-No.

Yeah, I'm happy now.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Come on, gentlemen. One man put the shackle on,

the rest of us keep this rail up.

We've got ten minutes. I want this track put to bed.

Ten minutes and no more.

That trolley goes non-stop to the start of the job, ASAP.

Let him through. Nobody stops the trolley.

Mayo, you've got three minutes!

Len, you should be clear!

Les, have we finished with the power?

Set the signals, yeah?

Marshall and his gang have finished the work with half an hour to spare.

The invisible people have done their job.

And the public can be happy now.

Les, darling, well done, babes.

All good.

WHISTLING

Harry and his fluffers are calling it a night.

It's a job, you know. It's not the greatest job in the world,

I'd much rather win the Lottery.

I'll have about ten houses, I think, then I'll just sit on my bum

all day and do nothing.

That's what I'd love to do, but, you know...

no time for that, mate.

We have to work hard for our money in this world.

Another night down.

How do you feel about getting up and doing it all again tomorrow?

Love it! I'm looking forward to it.

You know, I could be at a different station tomorrow.

Got to be optimistic, ain't you?

Always look on the bright side of life.

As the night workers leave, the underground is returning to life.

Line by line, the power to the tracks is being switched on.

Hello, power control.

Current will slowly come on, section by section as the train moves along

at Old Street, Euston City on the northbound. Thank you.

Eventually, all of them will meet in the middle until the whole line itself is recharged

and the service will be back running as normal.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's that time of day again.

Can we have everyone to their positions, please?

We are about to open the station.

Activity's starting again.

When you open the station, you know you're nearer to going-home time.

Morning.

Go home, cup of tea, sandwich, bed for a couple of hours, then up.

This morning, driver Ann O'Grady is on the early shift.

You run this out, Janet.

INDISTINCT REPLY

'It's my train.

'It's not the line controller's train, it's not the supervisor's train, it's my train.'

Just be careful where you walk and watch out for trip hazards.

This one here has over 460 volts.

Isn't that right, Janet?

Right...

now...

CLANKING AND HISSING

Take the key out.

Sorted.

There...

Now, that red should go off and the green should come on.

There we go - brake test passed.

The Victoria Line trains, carefully stabled overnight

in the correct order for the morning timetable, are powered up.

I think the train's still got to wake up.

Good morning. Are we up for... ready for service?

Good morning, Tower, this is train 211 on 31 South, cleared down to stop board 49, thank you.

Yeah, 214 on 31 South,

you're cleared down to stop board 49.

Yeah, 211 out.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Right, had my pilot light, so we'll head off. And I have a green.

I'll just give a little toot as I approach the platform

to warn anybody that I don't see.

TOOTING

Yeah, that's it.

Just put the pressure on.

With trains on other lines starting to run, Michael and Fiona are almost out of time.

Trains on this line, the Waterloo and City,

enter service later than elsewhere.

But there is still no sign of the faulty points being fixed.

Er, what have you got on 1C and 2D?

-Are we on the left?

-No, we're on the right, aren't we?

Oh, wait, we do want 1C and 2D.

On the left hand.

Because we're getting close to the time,

probably going to have to book late surrender, which means

call in the tech and delaying the time the juice comes on.

We had it on the open switch, but not on the plugs.

WOMAN: 1Bs are now reversed.

Yeah, nothing.

'A point failure, 9 times out of 10,'

will show up as an open circuit, like a switch not working on your lighting.

So you keep pushing the switch and the light's not working.

So it's just an open circuit.

Tracing the open circuit involves laboriously combing through

miles of wiring in the signal relay room.

'What about the condition of those relays?

'Is the NWR up - D2, A11?'

Pillar D1...

and then...A11.

Echo 7?

All right, I'm getting nothing.

Really?

We're still narrowing things down, so we're getting closer all the time, but...

now it's come to late surrender as well, so there's more pressure.

Obviously speed things up.

MAN: What's your plan?

We'll keep having a go at the moment, and if the worst comes to the worst,

we're still not holding up the first train yet.

Certainly it's delay, but not a service catastrophe.

Maybe the tappets need adjusting.

At last, a breakthrough.

Power is restored to the points.

Got voltage.

Whay! CHEERING

WOMAN: What's happened? Has it started working?

I don't know what happened. None of us do, really.

-It just started working.

-Yeah.

I don't know...

LAUGHS

6.21, first train.

-6.21, first train.

-What sort of time is it now?

-You don't want to know.

-LAUGHS

Er...

-MAN: Six hours.

-Yeah. So about 20 minutes.

Yeah, that's it, lovely. Thanks.

TANNOY: 'Ladies and gentlemen, there are currently

'minor delays on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines

'and the Waterloo & City line is suspended.

'All other lines are operating a good service...'

Waterloo & City line suspended.

Good morning. My name's Mike, reference number W6185.

All staff and equipment clear of the track, it's safe for trains to run.

Thank you very much, have a good morning. Bye.

Literally, literally, yeah. They've got six minutes.

They've said, er...they've announced that it's suspended,

but I think that's just a precaution to let people know, but...

first train should be out on time now.

Which is good.

Just literally, what, six minutes until...

until the trains.

But, right, let's go, let's get out.

99% of them have no idea. They think we arrive half an hour before them and open the doors.

They don't realise you've been there since ten o'clock the night before.

You don't want to run up the stairs,

you want to walk up the stairs to open the gate up.

-Bit worn out.

-Bit worn out! Used it too much!

-Yeah.

I don't dislike passengers at all.

If it wasn't for passengers, I wouldn't have a job!

-There you go.

-Thank you.

All they worry about is the trains running on time. They only worry about us if we delay them.

Which is a thankless task, but we don't mind.

That's life. I'd be exactly the same as them.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd