Currently on the London Transport Museum website is Future Generator. I’ve got to admit I’m a bit of a sucker for sci-fi projections of the future since reading 2000AD when I was younger. I saw the visions that designers in the 1950s had of the late 20th Century at the V&A earlier this year so it’s interesting to see what some of our current creatives have to say about what life will be like for our children…
Suppress your impatience and sit through the video at the start of Future Generator, the line animation and 3D work is very nice and it’s worth starting your thought processes here. Play with the interface, explore the different scenarios it presents. Frankly damn frightening if you ask me. I guess that means it worked.
If you get the chance to visit the museum then do. Its neatly located in a corner of Covent Garden Piazza, London.
On an additional note, I was coming home late one evening on the Piccadilly Line, the Victoria having been closed (as it often is this year) for scheduled work. Being the nosey type I leaned over the striped yellow and black tape to see what was going on. Occupying the whole platform was one of the new Victoria Line trains. It’s not often you see a new shiny tube train all clean without additional graffiti. From what I understand the main difference is the internal layout and that its a bit longer. Here are some reports and pictures from other eagle eyed commuters and ‘enthusiasts‘.
The new trains are meant to be more comfortable, faster and quieter – all good news. When I asked about air conditioning I was told that it was still a no-go, they just couldn’t work out how to do it. Being British I shuffled off with a nod, but the more I think about it the less satisfactory that is. In the summer you’re going to get transported in conditions that would make PETA have fits. In fact if you have a fit or faint on a train in summer the chances are you won’t be able to fall over. If you can’t work out how to cool down a tube train, then you’ve got the wrong team on it. I can think of quite a few industrial designers and engineers that would love such a challenge. The heat is probably one of the top gripes of commuters so as a nation that prides itself on being an ‘ideas economy’ full of creativity and inventors you wouldn’t think we’d settle for second best.
Finally some concept images for the tender for Thameslink new rolling stock.
