Duchess of Cambridge gets a Baby on board badge (just in case she needs to take the Tube)
Author: Penelopy
08:15, 21 March 2013
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The Duchess, who is five months pregnant, joined the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Baker Street to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the underground network.
The badges, available from Transport for London (TfL), are designed to overcome the awkwardness often felt by pregnant women of having to ask someone to give up their seat.
The Duchess told Howard Collins, London Underground chief operating officer,
that she had seen the badges when she used to travel on the underground
before she became a royal.
Mr Collins said. "She
used to travel on the Tube so she probably saw them then. "She asked me 'How do they work?' and I said they're fantastic, they
really do make a difference - saves men the embarrassment of having to guess
if a woman is pregnant.
"She asked so many great questions of the staff and seemed really
interested in our work."
Watching guests laughed as Mr Collins handed over the gift and Kate held it
against her teal-coloured Malene Birger coat and joked "I'll make sure
I wear it at home".
The Duchess joined the Queen at her first public event in more than a week
after suffering from the symptoms of gastroenteritis.
The Queen arrived at a London Underground station on 20 March to mark the 150th
anniversary of the Tube - her first public engagement in more than a week.
The royal party were greeted by three senior transport figures Sir Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, and London Underground's managing director Mike Brown and chief operating officer Howard Collins.
Baker Street was part of the first stretch of the world-famous Tube network which ran between Paddington and Farringdon and opened on January 9, 1863, when it was known as the Metropolitan Railway.
It has been transformed over the past 150 years and Baker Street today is a busy central London station.