The penguin walk

Didn't intend to do another health and safety blip so soon, but I was relieved to have survived!

I arrived back to Kyiv in the early morning and entered the metro at chas pik (rush hour). Truly terrifying, small passageways linking stations and hundreds of people. Once you commit you have to go with the flow and shuffle through the dimly lit corridors (christened by one of my students as the penguin walk). Not a place for claustrophobics.

This blip was taken as I emerged from the worst of it and by chance at one of Kyiv's most attractive Metro stations (Teatralna).

It interests me how the people become a docile mass. I dread to think what would happen in a fire or other emergency. There don't seem to be any obvious escape routes and it's a real stampede risk, but for the collective consciousness of acceptance which may or may not hold in such a situation.

The best analogy that I can think of is British football grounds before the Taylor report. People treated like cattle. We all know what was needed before modernisation there. I fear the metro in Kyiv is a disaster waiting to happen.