Rotterdam metro time measurements and giants at the end of the lines

A while ago I was inspired to measure (with a stopwatch on the go) the time it takes for the Rotterdam metro to travel between each and every station , in order to find out which two metro stations are the furthest apart. Before I went through with that plan, however, someone reminded me that I was (literally) inspired by the methodology of a psychopathic metro slasher. The general Rotterdam metro schedule is actually available for download on RET.nl (in pdf form too). You can get them for lines ABC, line D and line E, listing the times the metro arrives at key stations in the system. These pdfs also include specific scheduling differences during weekends and holidays. Apart from these standard schedules for reference, the live metro schedule is updated every day on the RET site, informing the public on any newly announced changes. The act of getting on the metro and then personally measuring and composing this schedule for yourself is redundant on every practical level.

On a poetic level, however, a worthwhile produce of this personal measurement would be the very experience itself. Measuring metro times can be an exercise that helps you to REALLY take the metro, an exercise that helps to train your attention on the carrying public-transport mechanism itself instead of on other things in the environment and other things on your mind. Watching numbers go up on a stopwatch has a specific effect on how you experience and understand the passing of time. (I wanted to say it's really fast and really slow at the same time, but that's just gibberish though) The metro ride between the stations Portugaal and Tussenwater takes 1 minute and 34 seconds, for example, but WHAT DOES THAT NUMBER MEAN? Try measuring it once for yourself and maybe you'll figure it out. Anyways even if this psycho-poetics is not up your alley, there is no harm in measurement as confirmation. If you really can't spare the effort to perform measurements while travelling on the actual metro, you can also do it while watching these recorded videos of the Rotterdam metros' entire routes.

As for me, my purpose was never in knowing the exact time it takes for the metro to travel between every single station, but rather to FIND the two stations that takes the longest time in between, and therefore the two that are furthest apart from each other. Instead of spending hours with a stopwatch on the carriages, I have approached this in two ways. First, I've checked the schedule on RET.nl to find the two stations that has the longest time in between: Slinge and Rhoon on Line D. On this schedule the distance takes 5 or 6 minutes to travel, that's more time than between any other two stations in the system. Secondly, I have looked at the Rotterdam metro routes on Google Maps, and through some measurements using the Google MyMaps tools I've determined that truly there are no distance between any two stations greater than the distance between Slinge and Rhoon: 5.25 km (approx).

Only then, as confirmation, did I get on the Metro Line D to travel through those two stations and stopwatch-time it for myself. I did some test measurements in the stations before. The standard is to measure from the moment the metro doors close to the moment they open again at the next station. The final result of the measurement between Slinge and Rhoon was 4 minutes and 43 seconds. This is the longest time it would take to ride between any two metro stations in the Rotterdam metro system. If you wish to perform any activities while travelling on the metro between these two stations, this is approximately the time you can work with in your agenda. Another interesting thing to do during this time may be to listen to a song that's exactly that length. Or maybe play a game of charades? It's 4 minutes and 43 seconds of non-stop travelling in a closed metal box. It's whatever you make of it.

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I've never been to the end of Line D (station De Akkers), so when I went out to take the measurement I thought I'd also go on to see what's there. And then at the very end of the metro line I saw two white whales. I definitely wasn't expecting them.

De Akkers

From Google Earth

After some internet research I found out that the sculpture was created by Rotterdam architect Marteen Struijs in 2002, so at least I know where they came from. But the key question remains: what are these things? Power animals? Guardian spirits? Alien intruders? To complete the narrative, I went to the other end of the metro, the far end of Line B at Nesselande, to look for clues.

Nesselande

No whale heads here, but the end of this side of the metros is again situated in water, and maybe that is continuity enough. I think the whales are not guardians or mascots. The whales ARE our metros. Our city is their ocean, and we travel in the bellies of the beasts, under and above grounds, to the day's various destinations. It is at times like these that I wish I've read Moby Dick.

Regardless of whether you've read MD or not, once you have given the metros the characters of living things, travelling with them become that much more fuzzy. It's difficult to lay your emotions on cold metal moving boxes, but it's easier to lay them on warm-bodied mammalian giants if they are willing to share your concerns. There were times where I left some places to catch a metro, but only on the metro did I realize I probably should have stayed. But blaming yourself is the worst. You can blame the White Whales instead. They will let out that all-majestic deep hum, and carry your stupid shit to the end of the lines.

Not Rotterdam: The longest distance between two metro stations (Taipei)

wikipedia.com

I haven't been updating this Rotterdam blog because I haven't been in Rotterdam recently. Instead I'm in Taipei trying to look at as many things as possible. I grew up in TP and it's likely that on a subconscious level this city had curated many of my urban fetishes. Or, in the phrasing of an architecture book I flipped through in a bookstore today, Taipei had taught me my urban mother-tongue. I like car exhausts. I like messy street signs. I like natural colours situated in grey. I like cheap & efficient public transport. I like 24/7 food. I like busy but warm-hearted people. There is a lot to think about and it's taking me a while to figure out where to start.

We can start with metros. It's a good place to start. My very first experience of metro travelling was with Taipei MRT and it's still my favourite metro system today. The Wenshan line is completely automated and runs on elevated rails through the city, it's almost like a theme-park scenic ride. The other lines are mostly underground, they are inviting and cozy and efficient and clean and are everything that metros should be.

eurotrib.com

A few weeks ago there was a metro tragedy in Taipei that shocked the city greatly. While travelling on a carriage between two stations, a mentally disturbed university student whipped out two knives and stabbed 28 people,  killing 4 of them. This kind of crazy slasher incident had never happened before in Taipei and many grew paranoid. After the attack, for a while the police assigned special-force operatives equipped with sub-machine-guns to patrol metro stations in order to scare off any similar attempts. A lot of the city's inhabitants felt that this was inappropriate and looked like a police state. If anything it only made the metros scarier.

The emotions had since settled down, the sub-machine-guns are removed and when I took the MRT today it wasn't very scary at all. Anyways I guess what matters the most for commuters is not how safe the metros actually are, but rather how safe they feel about it. 

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When reading about the young attacker and his methodologies, a specific item drew my attention: He had allegedly observed the MRT system very thoroughly to select the time and place for his crime. The ride between Longshan Temple Station and Jiangzicui Station takes a total of 3 minute and 46 seconds, it's the longest time between any two consecutive MRT stations in Taipei, and this guy figured that between these two stations he has the longest window to stab the maximum amount of people on a moving train before they can get off the carriage. He did end up stabbing a high number of people, and for his purpose this was an effective plan. If he chose a random ride between two random stations, it is likely that his crime would have been of a smaller scale.

At the observation stage he had allegedly timed the metro ride between every MRT station with his wrist watch, to know exactly how long each ride would take. This sounds a lot like something I would do for this blog. Luckily I am not a psycho murderer and my observations do not serve any sinister end. If a psycho murderer does find this blog, however, and were to use my urban patterns to design a ritualistic murder spree in Rotterdam, there is little I can do about it. Urban observations consist of methodologies that produce data, which can then be used to to generate meanings that may in turn inspire further actions. Starting from the generation of meanings, the process gets dynamic and can possibly be volatile. Texts such as this one only offer potentials.

Rotterdam Beurs metro station

When I get back to Rotterdam by the end of the month I hope to also measure and record the time it takes between each metro station. I will then also find out which journey between two specific stations takes a longest time. The practical implications is that during this journey the metro carriage is its own world, for a minute or two segregated from any external authorities or control. It forms a temporary stand-alone space that can develop its own rules. The tragic murder of innocent people is one extreme development, but it is certainly not the only possible development. What else can people do with the metro's momentary social pocket-reality? Here are a few ideas:

1. Practice radical politics
-Leftist, rightist, anarchist, any
-Distribute slogans and pamphlets
-Start your own country, start your own non-country
-Run this (non)country for 2 minutes

(The Netherlands is pretty open with its freedom of speech, and people can often practice political communication without being censored. This is not the case in many countries, in which the metro pocket-reality is more relevant for political actions. In some countries advocating gay rights is considered to be radical politics. If I were a gay man who would like to kiss my boyfriend on the metro as a political statement, in a country where this is taboo, for example, I should rather do it between the two stations that have the longest metro ride between them so we can have the longest kiss.)

2. Practice radical cultist religions
-Evangelism
-Worship & rituals
-Being possessed by a spirit who will use your mouth to speak a prophecy. (S)He has over 2 minutes to do it!

3. Play very very loud music, play very very vulgar music
-"Abrasive", "annoying", "that's not music that's just noise" etc

4. Perform very very loud theatre, perform very very vulgar theatre
-I imagine some form of cabaret

5. Perform an actual orgy
-Variety of participants
-Different genders and sexual orientations

6. Consume drugs
-Alcohol: we already see this sometime
-Others

7. Violate copyright laws
-Screen a part of a movie
-Share other copy-righted arts for free

8. Advertise for cigarettes and other items that are not allowed to be advertised
-Advertise in purposely misleading fashions targeting children
-Subliminal messaging

9. Talk about my stupid poetry
-Usually no one can stand that sappy tripe, it's basically a crime in the regular social reality, but I imagine a setting in which I can indulge myself the poet's sentiments for two minutes. At the beginning of June I was writing a pathetic song called Season Finale but then oh wait wait wait wrong blog again

10. Combine any 2 or more of the above

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Some of these actions are not necessarily what I would like to see or what I would enjoy. I would be quite uncomfortable if someone is too drunk or too high on the metro, for example. I would also be uncomfortable if anyone practices hate-speech loudly on a metro carriage. The purpose of this blogpost is to point out that if one or more passengers plan to perform any of these actions on the metro, they can choose to do so between the two stations that have the the longest journey time, so as to perform the action for as long as possible before being forcibly stopped by law-enforcement personnels or any external actors (or before loosing the audience). Such is the possible implications of the time-span. Whether and how these actions would offend or disturb other passengers is a different discussion. Why do I smile if I see a gay couple lightly kiss on the metro, but would frown if I see a group of people having coked-up sex while worshipping an ancient fertility god? Does it make a difference whether these actions are performed on a moving metro carriage or any other public/private space?

For one thing, the actual performance of said coked-up sex on the metro would stimulate us to think about the issue. More possibly, just knowing that the specific metro journey takes a relatively long time can stimulate us to imagine said coked-up sex, or any other things we can do with this time. I have listed drastic options, but you can very much also do things like holding the hands of the person beside you through the longest metro ride.

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Update: Since I've written this post I have travelled between Longshan Temple Station and Jiangzicui Station two times. Both times my friend timed the journey with a stopwatch and the travelling time is consistently 3 minutes 10 seconds. Maybe they have speeded up the ride? Maybe the news article was inaccurate? Maybe the murderer was too disturbed to measure correctly? Many maybes.
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Update: In November 2014 I have found the two Rotterdam metro stations that has the longest distance in between.

Parking Garage Views in Kralingse Zoom

I was waiting for the metro in Kralingse Zoom station, and my specific metro was not coming in for another 7 minutes. I had plenty of time to do something worth-while. I noticed that the stairs leading toward the newly-built parking garage were finally in use, so I went up to check it out. I went up all the way to the top (4th) level which was the roof, I stepped out of the little staircase space and looked around.

HOLY MOLLY ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS SHIT'S AMAZING

Granted, it was afternoon and I didn't eat anything since I woke up in the morning and was basically operating on two cops of coffee, I wasn't expecting much out of that day until I get some calories in. But man, I was SO pleasantly surprised. This is, by far, the best view in the area and probably one of the best (& freely accessible 24/7) views in greater Rotterdam. It's a precious find.

What I'm digging in particular is the openness of the surroundings, and the fact that you can look out very far in every direction. Whichever side you face, there's a sense of horizon and you are easily immersed in the panorama. I estimate that this place will be amazing for sunrise/sunset watching and I plan to come back to do some of that. During the winter when the sun rises late and sets early, the timing should be easy to schedule.

Here are a few things you can look at on this site. There's a lot more.

I was way captivated by the location and could not get myself to leave in 7 minutes. I was quite pressed for time however and really needed to catch the next metro. On any other day I would have definitely waited for the sunset. 

The next night I travelled through the Kralingse Zoom station again, and having no scheduling restrains this time around, I decided to go experience the night view. My poor photography really doesn't convey how exciting it is to spot the neon logos all across the darkened skyline. 

With some of the tallest buildings in the country and world-renowned iconic architecture , Rotterdam probably has the most visually interesting cityscape in the Netherlands. It'd be a waste to NOT look at it regularly. The other place I know that is good for watching the physical city is at Wilhelminapier. It's a photographer-favourite and the view there is, needless to say, phenomenal. But I hope to discover more viewing spots like this one in Kralingse Zoom that are outside of the main city, that enables wider and more inclusive perspectives.

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(I don't know if you have noticed, but it's pretty obvious that this blog is heavily inspired by Urban Adventures in Rotterdam. There's an article he did years ago about going on the rooftops of parking garages and appreciating the views. It is, as he had described, "an unexpected island of privacy in the urban chaos". This is where I have picked up the practice.)

How to REALLY take the metro in Rotterdam

wikipedia.com*

I have been living in Rotterdam for years and I've always travelled by metro. In fact I have probably spent more time on the metros than I ever have in my favourite places. Yet I have never paid attention to the different metro carriage models and their specific attributes. How many carriages of the 5200 series are still in service? How many doors does the 5300 series model have? What's new about the 5600s? How many people are they designed to carry? I didn't know the answer to any of these questions. When you come to think about the attitude that causes this ignorance, it draws you in a discussion about what it means to be alive.

In the Russian formalist literary tradition, critics talked about the vices of habitualization and how it devours our human experience.  An excerpt from Tolstoy's diary may illustrate what this means:

I was cleaning and, meandering about, approached the divan and couldn't remember whether or not I had dusted it. Since these movements are habitual and unconscious I could not remember and felt that it was impossible to remember - so that if I had dusted it and forgot - that is, had acted unconsciously, then it was the same as if I had not. If some conscious person had been watching, then the fact could be established. If, however, no one was looking, or looking on unconsciously, if the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been.**

The formalists then argued that one of the purposes of arts is to defamiliarize us with the familiar, and in doing so enables us to experience life afresh in full. Every property of every aspect of reality must not be taken for granted, for when they're taken for granted they're as good as being taken away (from our perception). In this regard art can serve as reminder and sometimes as guide.

Now I don't like to talk about how being alive can be an art in itself, I try to avoid the tasteless and jarring phrasing. When I say something like that I fear being beaten up by the higher power that punishes bad artists. It's a great fear. 

But I WILL put it like this:

What is the difference between taking the metro 100 times and 1000 times? I think the difference doesn't inherently exist per se. The difference needs to be made.

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For the great majority of time I have imagined travelling as means to an end. I would listen to music or read a book on the train. I would scribble down these lines in my stupid notebook on the bus. Sometimes I do psycho people-watching. But I do these things either to pass the time, or to efficiently utilize the time for other priorities. I do OTHER things while I travel, but I don't DO travelling. I don't DO being on a metro. What does that even mean?

Lately I've been trying to figure it out. I've been trying to find meanings in being on a metro in Rotterdam. It consists of noticing details and patterns and also doing a little research. Below I will introduce one of the attention-areas I've been developing and I invite you to develop your own.

Currently there are 4 types of metros running in the R'dam system. The 5300s, the 5400s, the 5500s and the 5600s. The 5300s were the oldest, 5600s the newest, the rest were in between. Out of all these different metro series, only the 5400s were each given a unique theme in interior graphics***. There exist 18 of these 5400 carriages, and here is a list of their specific themes:

Number	Theme	Specifics
5401	Jungle Animals	tiger, butterflies, gorilla
5402	Ancients	Ancient architectures
5403	Egypt	Pyramids. Tutankhamen.  Hieroglyphs on top. Meanings?
5404	Rotterdam
5405	Roses
5406	Rotterdam Landmarks	Euromast, Erasmusburg,
5407	Dutch Nature	frogs, sheep, chapels, windmills (kinderdijk?)
5408	Sun Flowers
5409	Sport
5410	Old Rotterdam (Photos)	Stadhuis, the harbour, hofplein etc
5411	Ocean (Big animals)	Sharks, Walrus etc
5412	Safari/Africa	African women, African animals
5413	Tulips	Colours: Orange, Yellow, Pink, Red
5414	Dutch Nature	frogs, sheep, chapels, windmills (kinderdijk?)
5415	Ocean (Tropical)	Corals, tropical fishes, clown fishes
5416	Music and Instruments	Instruments: violins, guitars etc
5417	Iconic Cities	Paris, London, Sydney, New York
5418	Forest Birds	owls, close up bird faces

At first I thought to discover all the themes myself, and whenever I caught a 5400 I would note it down. I did this for a week or so, and then I found out that the information is available on wikipedia. Wikipedia literally only lists the themes though, and the specifics are still left for me to map out as my ambitions grew. I have not caught some of these numbers yet since I started mapping them, and this table still needs more filling in. The version presented above is only the first 3 columns of my spreadsheet, the full version includes more details. 

I intend to also take pictures and eventually build up a comprehensive mini database for the 5400s' themes. The 5410 with Old Rotterdam photos is particularly interesting and I want to list out every location in those shots. It'd be a magical experience to take an metro heading to Hofplein, and on your way also witness a graphic memory of how the place looked like 60 years ago. You can imagine yourself travelling through time as you travel through space, and symbolically this can be real too. Are you ready to sniff on that spacetime muse glue? 

The other outstanding one was 5403 with the Ancient Egyptian theme. I have a friend who had been telling me about ancient Egyptian mythologies and their newly discovered parallels to concepts in quantum physics (He's reading a book about it). Usually I'm under the impression that the layman's understanding of quantum physics is highly inaccurate, but as someone who has absolutely no knowledge in the field, it's perhaps hypocritical for me to pass this judgement. The hieroglyphic patterns inside these metro carriages might be arranged randomly, or they might spell the secrets of causality, of the after-life and of a spiritual macrocosm. You can do the research. Or at the very least you can do some more imagining with the metro's graphic assistance, and enchant yourself in doing so. How does it feel like to journey through a Pharaoh's death and rebirth as you travel to work on each new dawn?

The 5400s create opportunities for new meanings on yet another level. The carriages are periodically recombined into sets of 2 or 3 before they start their service on that day (I don't know how often they do this---to be researched), and as such 2 or 3 themes are randomly chained in an order. This creates 2 or 3 scenes that can very easily be imagined as the background settings for one continuous narrative. How does one travel from a game of tennis into a sunflower field? What does this journey mean to you? You can develop your own system of interpretations and your own theories. You can even go as far as charming your friends by getting on a metro with them in the weekend, walk them through the carriages and read them the meanings of this particular combination as if you were reading tarot. They might think that you have finally cracked, or they may choose to welcome the inspiration. That's their call.

The 5400s travel on metro lines A, B and C. They cannot recombine with carriages from other series, so whenever you see one 5400 you know that the rest of the chain are also themed. They come in at least two at a time, because each carriage only has driver's controls on one end, and they need at least two carriages to connect tail-to-tail. You can enjoy them in ways described above, you can enjoy them otherwise, and you can develop various meaningful ways to enjoy other metro series too. When you do, it'll be really cool if you tell me about it because I'd love to know what I'm missing out. Truly, there is so much to miss out. I don't even know the first thing about listening to different metro motors start.

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* The opening picture in this post was from a metro in the 5200 series. They're pretty old and Wikipedia said that they're being completely phased out in 2013. I don't remember being on one in a long while, I'm assuming that they're mostly already relieved from service. But if you ever get to be on one in these last months, consider yourself lucky. I would even encourage you to take a picture if you have some sort of camera on you. Unlike newer models, the 5200s were fraught with graffiti and they represent a lost era. I think the reason for this graffiti difference was that the 5200s did not have interior security cameras installed. These were artefacts from a time before an open surveillance society. Perhaps it was worrying that no one could know for sure what happened on the metros, but it is also worrying that now the only people who know are those who have access to the tapes.

** Leo Tolstoy's Diary, entry dated February 29, 1897

*** except 5407 and 5414 which are identical. 


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EDIT: after I've written this post I've been taking the metro more often and caught the 5200 a few times. Maybe they're letting them serve a final tour? Maybe they have postponed the phase-out? Here's a photo.