The Economist has done a great service for the travelling public on the tube in London, by revealing some excellent graphics of the noise levels along certain tube lines, in particular the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern & Victoria lines. Its results certainly appear to mirror my experience of noise levels on the tube, in particular between Edgware Rd and Paddington on the Bakerloo line and between Kings Cross and Finsbury Park on the Victoria line where is can exceed the 85 decibel level and even goes above 100 db’s at times. 

Now it may be bad for passengers in the tube themselves but also spare a thought for residents above the tube lines and stations. Take for example Baker St where we have both the Bakerloo line and Jubilee line going into the station along Melcombe St above. This also happens to be where we have had the most complaints about the tube noise particularly with the night tube service. 

The same can be said of the resident complaints in Pimlico on the Victoria line between Victoria & Pimlico tube station.

It would be even better if we got similar readings along all the other lines not covered above, so as we have a comprehensive study of tube noise along the whole tube system. It is also time TfL acknowledged the noise problems on are tube system for both passengers and residents at particular spots along the whole network as show very well on these graphs above. After all they are still a public body and should accept this a statutory nuisance they are causing.