Friday, 9 September 2011

Foreign: (a bit of) Warsaw Metro

I had a few minutes for a brief exploration of the post-Communist Warsaw Metro system.  Well, system is a bit keen as there's only one line.  And, from what I saw of a quick spin, it's all a bit sensible and functional, in a Heathrow-extension-of-the-Piccadilly-Line type way.


All the thrills of a double-decker Hounslow West.


The old rolling stock will give caravan-fanciers something to enjoy.  
Good thing that veneer is waterproof.


The Metro entrances I saw were uninspiring Thatcherite blue-frame canopies.  Presumably the Polish civic planners were keen to make up for having missed out on the delights of the 80s.


Yawn.  DLR-chic.


However, Plac Wilsona seems to be a pointlessly lovely (although probably accidental) homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Bored-looking commuters ride a short escalator into an elliptical abduction fantasy of soft pink and blue uplighting.


[Insert Star Trek cliché here]


Thank god it's not modelled on DS9 </geek>


Plac Wilsona reminds me of the utterly random Star Trek-themed Page's Bar pub in Westminster, which had a model Starship Enterprise hanging in pride of place over the pool table, and the occasional fan in full Worf-from-season-3 gear.  Whilst surely too niche an interest to be a viable business proposition, Page's Bar was more interesting that the pub that replaced it, the expensive-and-humdrum Westminster.


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