London Needs the Tube and the Tube Needs Londoners

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Bloomberg Opinion will be running a series of features by our columnists that consider the long-term consequences of the crisis. This column is part of a package on the future of transportation. For more, see Lionel Laurent on how public transportation can spark urban recovery and David Fickling on why passengers will pay the price for the airline industry’s troubles.

Recently, I caught myself waxing nostalgic about the daily journeys on the London Underground that I abandoned just before lockdown. Only a few months ago, I was that middle-aged woman inching onto an indecently crowded commuter carriage, stuck for what seemed like an eternity under some tall person’s sweaty armpit, gripping a germ-covered pole as the car rumbled and jerked through a dark tunnel. Overcrowding and ear-splitting noise levels on the Tube made some journeys torture. There are laws against animals crammed so tightly into an enclosure.