Travelling on the tube is extremely stressful, and we’ve got the evidence to prove it.
Although we love to, we can’t really complain about the Underground. It’s actually Quite Good. But, when you’re squashed into a train carriage with a stranger’s armpit in your face, it isn’t easy to love.
While it is an excellent means of transportation, we can’t help but whinge when we’re stuck at a red signal, sweating in the 30°C heat, or delayed by more than about four minutes.
But rather than just taking our word for it, London-based Beeja Meditation decided to conduct actual research into London’s most stressful tube lines. They’ve taken into account factors such as delays, station closures and average temperature, and given each tube line a ‘stress score’ out of 100.
So, without further ado, the most hellish tube line is….. yep, you guessed it, it’s the Central line. I told you there’d be no surprises in this article! (Thank you for reading it anyway, I really appreciate the support.)
The Central line snatched the crown for Most Stressful Tube Line and not just by a little bit, either. With a stress score of 73.83 (which, frankly I think is generous), its closest rival is the Piccadilly line with a score of 65.53, followed by the District line with 57.94.
The Central line had the highest number of ‘lost customer hours’, experienced 221 station closures in a year, and was the second hottest tube line with an average temperature of 26.35°C.
In comparison, the least stressful line is the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines* which carry less than half the number of passengers that the Central line transports within a year, has had less than half the station closures and less than half the lost customer hours, and has only had 59 delays of more than 15 minutes, compared to the Central line’s 180.
*Okay it’s technically Waterloo & City but I refuse to count it on the basis that it only consists of two stops, so of course they had less station closures and carried less passengers.