Identify a London Underground Line just by listening to it (tubesoundquiz.com)

by nelson687 59 comments 184 points
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59 comments

[−] walthamstow 38d ago
Incredible fun. I got every one wrong except the line I live on and use all the time. I couldn't tell any of the others apart much, but I knew my line instantly, without any doubt. Fascinating.
[−] spuz 38d ago
It seems a little unfair to include the circle and metropolitan lines as they use the same rolling stock and run on the same tracks in the centre of the city.
[−] allegretto 38d ago
Got the Northern line wrong despite doing this quiz on a Northern line train. :(

«The screeches in the audio are not that bad, it can’t be the Northern» was my thinking.

[−] ssss11 38d ago
I got 6 out of 9 and haven’t lived there in 10 years. Felt some nostalgia hearing some of them though!!!
[−] dudefeliciano 38d ago
love this kind of games, if we ever get consumer grade smell-o-vision i will make the same to identify berlin underground lines by smell
[−] player_piano 38d ago
Oh Northern line, I would recognize that ear-splitting screech anywhere.
[−] iam-TJ 38d ago
This should become a new round to compliment Mornington Crescent [0] on the BBC Radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Sorry_I_Haven%27t_a_Clue

[−] MrsPeaches 38d ago
Loved this!

A bit deep to put district and circle as options on the same question. Don’t they use the same rolling stock and cover very similar stations?

I found Bakerloo was the easiest to identify.

[−] bb123 38d ago
Nice! It would be fun to include some of the other sounds on the tube like the door closing chimes or the sounds the doors make when opening and closing.
[−] KaiserPro 38d ago
7/9, Met because I don't ever use it, and confused the circle for northern, which when I heard the northern line was a rookie mistake.
[−] CamouflagedKiwi 38d ago
5 / 9

Found much of it pretty hard - I'd be confident of telling a modern subsurface line from a deep one, or the Jubilee (which to me at least has a very distinct motor sound), but for lots of the others I was guessing - sometimes with luck though, apparently.

[−] hobofan 38d ago
From the title I had assumed this would be about the "old" classic "Conductor" Google Experiment by Alexander Chen[0] or a recreation of it.

[0]: http://mta.me

[−] dmd 38d ago
Never been to London, got 6/9. Presumably anyone who did this and got a poor score isn't posting, so only people like me who got good scores by chance are represented.
[−] basisword 38d ago
The ones I knew I got instantly. I think it's a mix of the speed + frequency that gives it away (rather than the various screeches people associate with various lines).
[−] joshuafuller 38d ago
I spent a single day in the London tube about 3 weeks ago on travel. Have never been on the tube before. Was a cool experience. Somehow I got 7/9 on the quiz.
[−] jeffwass 38d ago
Somehow I got a 7 out of 9, even though I felt like I was mostly guessing. Surface vs deep lines have more rumble but that’s about it that I consciously knew of.
[−] mpascale00 38d ago
It was fun to guess these without being familiar. I sort of guessed based on vague knowledge of age and name familiarity. Maybe I was lucky.
[−] Markoff 38d ago
I'd like this for subway escalator sounds, I loved one somewhere in Prague city center which made exactly Sicario soundtrack rhytm.
[−] ricardobayes 38d ago
Hah, I just thought of this randomly the other day that London metro lines have such distinct soundscapes.
[−] OPBoot 38d ago
Enjoyed that. Not lived in London for 30 years, but some sounds never leave you...

I got 5/9 on the Tube Sound Quiz!

(better than random!)

[−] dole 38d ago
As a Yank, first thought that came to mind was using geolocation by mains hum because you can.
[−] tgulacsi 38d ago
5/9 - I've never been in London and never heard these sounds before :)
[−] manojlds 38d ago
Elizabeth is the only one I use frequently so I got them mostly wrong.
[−] IshKebab 38d ago
Quite fun. It doesn't make sense to have it as a list of multiple choice questions though since by the end you know the answers by a process of elimination. I'd change it so you see all the sounds and lines and have to match them up.
[−] virtyaluk 38d ago
Got the Northern and Jubilee right as I use them the most.
[−] JoshBlythe 37d ago
4/9 for me... no 'Lizzy Line though?!
[−] vishkk 38d ago
Pretty cool —- should do it for NYC subways!
[−] personalityson 38d ago
Never been to London, 3 out of 9 correct.
[−] tremarley 38d ago
I got 7/9
[−] pivoshenko 37d ago
Lol very funny!
[−] totalmarkdown 38d ago
[flagged]
[−] fennecfoxy 38d ago
Eh they all sound like SCREEEEEHEEEEECHCCCCHEEEEEE now anyway because TFL are incapable of doing basic maintenance overnight (such as grinding the rails) without using expensive contractors that eat money up.

After being in Paris over the weekend the state of the underground cleanliness/noise is just absolutely shameful.