What Sophie Said

Ah, the tube. It’s an interesting place. I’ve seen all sorts on the tube since moving here, and underground is a strange old world. It seems to operate by different rules. Setting aside the fact that it’s downright odd to spend well over an hour of my day, every day, underground, here are ten people who baffle me on the tube. 1. People who push and shove when it’s not even busy. Let’s face it, pushing and shoving is never ok, and some people turn into animals when hurrying at rush hour, but this confuses me even more when it’s not even busy. Once, I was walking to the Piccadilly Line at midday, it was fairly quiet, and a woman pushed me hard into a wall to pass me, when there would have been metres of space if she’d passed round the other side of me, or said excuse me. She in particular is in my bad books, as it made me drop and smash my phone, too. 2. People who fall asleep. I’m a bit in awe of these people. Firstly, I feel so uncomfortable and hot and out of place on t...

I hate the tube. I mean, it’s convenient, it’s efficient (when it’s running on schedule) and it’s really easy to navigate. But sitting underground in a metal tube whizzing through black tunnels just doesn’t sit right with me. Despite the fact my anxiety is at a much more manageable than it used to be (when train and car journeys were close to impossible), the tube conjures up many of those old feelings and I regularly have to employ my various ‘stop panicking’ tactics. Stopping in tunnels in a fun one. Very often, whether it’s because a passenger alarm has been sounded on another train, or one has technical difficulties, or a train has not moved away from the platform in front quickly enough, the tube stops in the middle of a tunnel. Immediately my heart starts racing. I’m trapped. I have no signal so no one knows where I am. Why have we stopped? How long will I sit here? Very often it’s for less than a minute, but every second stretches on and on. It’s especially fu...