Not in London (wails!), but in Berlin — where they run a small number of special open-top tours through their underground train tunnels.
These two hour subway cabrio tours are notable for the carriage you ride in – totally open top, with no glass reflections or ceilings to get in the way. Unsurprisingly, you’ll be wearing a hard hat on the trip.
The tours take place in on Friday evenings so as to avoid disrupting the normal service between April and September. Some background info here.
Imagine a really long roller-coaster ride, without the upset stomach, and a million times more exciting. With hard hats. That’s the U-Bahn Cabrio Tour.
The headset based audio guides are only available in German, so that might be an issue, but if not, and you fancy the sort of trip that London Underground SHOULD be offering, then tickets are now on sale here.
What to say about the fantastic “ride the Berlin U-Bahn” shown in the You tube clip? I don’t know, maybe we’re lucky in London, but it’s all a bit too rectilinear and grey for my liking. I notice the clip was edited so they might not have included any of the more roller coaster-y bits. I am also perplexed by the omission of the erstwhile only border station of Friedrichstraße.
I only have experience of the Hamburg one which also has its fair share of 1970s mustard orange tiles and trains, but you turn a corner and you’re on the set of 2001 A space Odyssey complete with LED wall-wash lighting!
If they can do these trips on a Friday night in the capital of Germany, what’s the (endless list of) reason[s] it can’t be done here? Once even…