I got on one of the new Metropolitan Line trains this morning. At first I was sad coz my favourite seat isn’t there on the new trains. I like the one right at the front/back of the old-style Met line trains. Where you can box yourself in with the fire extinguisher and have minimal contact with the other passengers as the train fills up.

(I get on at the first stop, so my seat is usually available. And if not whoever’s in it gets an evil glare as I pick instead the second-best. If I have to resort to third-best I’m quite sad since this is just normal-seat territory).

However, the new Met Line train was so quiet, it was eery. You could hear newspapers rustlling. Even people breathing. You could have had a conversation in there, except everyone else would have been able to hear too.

If all the tube trains end up that quiet we’ll be able to talk to each other on the trains like they do in Paris. There’ll be yet another place it’s socially unacceptable for me to retreat into my anti-social silent book-reading mindstate.

Still, be good for my ears I guess.