London Underground

London Underground
Official website - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube
Official Underground Map: http://www.transport-for-london.gov.uk/tfl/tube_map.shtml
The London Underground is a metro system which covers the Greater London area and beyond. It is an electric railway which, despite its name, runs both above and below ground. It is usually referred to by Londoners as either simply "the Underground" or, more familiarly, as "the Tube". It is the oldest and biggest such underground system in the world. Operations began on 10 January 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway; most of the initial route is now part of the Hammersmith & City Line.
The Underground currently serves 274 stations and runs over 253 miles (408 km) of lines. There are also a number of stations and tunnels which are now closed. In 2004–05, total passenger rides or journeys reached a record level of 976 million, an average of 2.67 million per day.
Since 2003, the Underground has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also schedules and lets contracts for London's buses, including the famous red double-decker buses. Previously London Regional Transport was the holding company for London Underground.

A history of the London Underground:
The first section of the London Underground (the "Metropolitan Railway") ran between Paddington and Farringdon and was the world's first urban underground passenger-carrying railway. After delays for financial and other reasons following the scheme's adoption in 1854, public traffic eventually began on 10 January 1863. 40,000 passengers were carried over the line that day, with trains running every 10 minutes; by 1880 the expanded 'Met' was carrying 40 million passengers a year. Other lines swiftly followed, and by 1884 the Circle Line ("Inner Circle") was completed. All these early lines used steam-hauled trains, which required effective ventilation to the surface. Advances in electric traction later allowed tunnels to be placed deeper underground than the original cut-and-cover method, especially as deep-level tunnel design (including the use of tunnelling shields) improved. The first "deep-level" line, the City & South London Railway, now part of the Northern Line, opened in 1890.
In the 19th century, digging deep level tunnels, especially under water was a dangerous and tricky business. Several attempts to cross the Thames had ended in failure, even with lives being lost. Brunell's Thames Tunnel (used today by the East London Line) was the first successful tunnel under the Thames but its construction was costly and very difficult. When it was discovered that steam traction could be replaced with electricity, tunnels could be dug that were much deeper. James Henry Greathead had devised a new method of tunnelling which employed compressed air to prevent leaking in conjunction with a circular drilling shield to bore circular tunnels (about 3 metres in diameter) much deeper into the ground, which were then lined with cast iron rings. When mining the soft north London clay however, the air pressure was hardly ever needed, as the clay is waterproof.

Due to the speed at which these tunnels could be mined, many stations were envisaged on each of the lines that were created and most of these stations are still in use today. A small number however have fallen into disuse over the years.
In the early 20th century, the presence of six independent operators running different Underground lines caused passengers substantial inconvenience; in many places passengers had to walk some distance above ground to change between lines. The costs associated with running such a system were also heavy, and as a result many companies looked to financiers who could give them the money they needed to expand into the lucrative suburbs. The most prominent of these was Charles Yerkes, an American tycoon who between 1900 and 1902 acquired the Metropolitan District Railway and the as yet unbuilt Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (later to become part of the Northern Line). Yerkes also acquired the Great Northern & Strand Railway, Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (jointly to become the core of the Piccadilly Line) and Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (to become the Bakerloo Line), creating the Underground Electric Railways of London Company Ltd (Underground) on 9 April 1902. That company also owned many tram lines and went on to buy the London General Omnibus Company, creating an organisation colloquially known as the Combine.

Take Aldwych for example, at the end of a disused railway siding right in the heart of London. Or Down Street, where some of Winston Churchill's World War Two cabinet meetings were held... or Brompton Road, used as a World War 2 anti aircraft Ack Ack command centre, with maps from this era still on the walls today! Evidence of these stations remains both on the surface and also beneath the ground if you know where to look.
In 1933, a public corporation called the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was created. The Underground Group, the Metropolitan Railway and all the independent bus and tram lines were placed under the Board, an organisation which approximated in scope the current Transport for London. The Board set in train a scheme for expansion of the network—he 1935–40 New Works plan—which was to provide extensions of some lines, and to take over the operation of other lines from their current operators; however, the outbreak of World War II froze all these schemes. From mid-1940, the Blitz led to the use of many Tube stations as air-raid shelters, first on an ad hoc basis which the authorities tried to prevent, but later with proper bunks, latrines and catering facilities. Following the war, travel congestion continued to rise. The construction of the carefully planned Victoria Line on a diagonal northeast-southwest alignment beneath central London attracted much of the extra traffic caused by expansion after the war. The Piccadilly Line was extended to Heathrow Airport in 1977, and the Jubilee Line was opened in 1979.
Although not strictly part of the Underground System, the Tower Subway was the world's first underground tube railway. Constructed using the revolutionary Greathead Shield invented by James Henry Greathead (used subsequently for many of the other tubes), the train (actually a single carriage) was cable operated and was effectively used as a shuttle service between the two banks of the Thames. The railway unfortunately was only open from August 2nd 1870 until November the same year due to very poor patronage.

The tunnels were resurrected as foot tunnels but even this was short lived as they were again made redundant by the building of the nearby Tower Bridge in 1894 and were permanently closed to the public and the tunnels were equipped with pipes to provide hydraulic power. Today the tunnels are used as a conduit for water mains pipes and also for the transmission of fibre optic cables for computer networks across the Thames.

London Underground Trivia
An estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, and can often be seen running around the tracks. TV personality Anthea Turner has written a series of children's books about these (London Underground mice).
Only two people have had their coffins transported on the Underground: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo.
Regent's Park, Piccadilly Circus, The Abbey CourtCorner and Bank stations have no associated buildings at or above ground level, the stations, except for access stairs, being entirely underground.
On 13 May 1924, a woman named Daisy Hammond gave birth on a Bakerloo Line train at Elephant and Castle. Press reports that the baby had been named Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor were widely reprinted, and not debunked until 2000 when she was traced for a TV interview. In fact she was named Mary Ashfield Eleanor; the chairman of the Underground Group, Lord Ashfield, was her godfather.
Watch out for green grapes.
Everyone's seen the comedy banana skin routines in silent movies, but green grapes seem to cause more problems on the London Underground than banana skins. More accidents have been caused by people slipping on grapes than on discarded bananas.
Let them eat chocolate
The Cadbury's Whole Nut chocolate bar is the biggest seller in the chocolate machines on tube station platforms. Cadbury's have the contract for supplying these vending machines. At their Bourneville HQ in Birmingham, a Cadbury spokesperson said: "We are delighted to have won the biggest vending contract in the UK. The Tube is a great shop window for us with three million potential buyers every day." So if you don't like Cadbury's chocolate and you're stuck at tube stations you'll have to go hungry!
Stations to avoid if you're feeling depressed
Victoria and King's Cross record the highest number of tube suicides each year. This isn't surprising as Victoria is the tube's busiest station with 85 million passengers each year and King's Cross has 70 million passengers each year. The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am. This is contrary to popular belief amongst commuters who always think "one unders" or "track pizza" (to use a delightful New York phrase) cause delays in the rush hour.
Stations to avoid if you don't like mice
The best places to spot mice running around the tracks of the underground are Waterloo station (northbound on the Bakerloo line) and any platform at Oxford Circus.
Underground conditions

Strange but true.

More of the London Underground is open than in a tunnel. Tell yourself this fact if you suffer from claustrophobia. The air in the underground is on average 10°C hotter than the air on the surface. A fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James Park, Euston and Piccadilly stations in an effort to make the tube smell better on 23rd March 2001. It was taken out of action on 24th March 2001 as it was making people feel sick.
• The record for visiting all 275 stations in the shortest possible time currently stands at 18 hours, 35 minutes and 43 seconds. It is held by Geoff Marshall and Neil Blake.[6]
• St John's Wood is the only station which contains none of the letters of the word 'mackerel'.
• In January 2005 London Underground announced that it would play classical music at stations prone to loitering by youths. A trial had shown a 33% drop in abuse against staff. This had been first tried, with success, on the Tyne and Wear Metro. [7]
• There are only two Underground stations that have all five vowels in them—South Ealing and Mansion House. Heathrow Terminal 4 also contains all five vowels, if 4 is spelled out as four.
• A fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James's Park, Euston and Piccadilly Circus stations on 23 March 2001, in an effort to make the Underground smell better. It was taken out of action on 24 March 2001 as it was making people feel sick.
• The Jubilee Line is the only line which intersects all others. The District Line meets all other lines except the Metropolitan Line—which it misses by approximately 20 m at Aldgate.
• Arsenal is the only Underground station named after a London football club (it was previously known as Gillespie Road). West Ham comes close, but the full name of the football club is West Ham United.
• The 1967 film Quatermass and the Pit (U.S. Title: Five Million Years to Earth) revolves around alien bodies and spacecraft being discovered in the fictional Hobbs End tube station.
• Die Another Day (2002) features the fictional defunct Vauxhall Cross tube station.

Longest journeys
If you're mad enough to want to spend a lot of time on the Underground without changing trains take a trip on the Central Line and go from West Ruislip to Epping - it's over 34 miles.
If you don't like being underground don't go on the Nothern Line and travel between Morden and East Finchley on the City branch of the Line. You'll be in a tunnel continously for over 17 miles.

Shortest Journey
Please please please don't just take a journey the one stop on the tube between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line. It's only 0.16 miles and if you take into account the fact that you're going to get on escalators and lifts at each end, it's much quicker to walk!

Busiest Lines
The busiest line on the system is the District Line which carries over 180 million passengers each year over its 40 mile length. It's also one of the slowest in my opinion although I've no factual evidence to back this up, just five years of experience.
In terms of passengers per mile, the Victoria Line is the busiest, carrying about 175 million over its 13.25 mile length each year.

Busiest Stations
Try to avoid these if you can or at least expect them to be crowded. The busiest station on the Underground is Victoria, closely followed by Oxford Circus, both of which are the start or end points for over 85 million passengers each year. The next largest is King's Cross with nearly 70 million passengers each year. All of these stations are on the Victoria line, so now you can see why it's the busiest tube line.

• According to Kevin Kline's character Otto in the movie A Fish Called Wanda, the London Underground is a political movement.
• Neil Gaiman's novel Neverwhere and the BBC television production of the same name are set in a fantasy world that parallels the structure of the London Underground.
• Albus Dumbledore, headmaster in the Harry Potter book series, has a scar above his left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.
• The 1998 film Sliding Doors shows two parallel universes, hinging on whether the central character (Gwyneth Paltrow) catches a particular Tube train or not.
• Amateur Transplants has written and performed a song, also called "London Underground" (see London Underground Song lyrics), which deals with many of the gripes commuters encounter while taking the Tube. This has also been incorporated into a flash animation.[5]
• The Underground features in the board game Scotland Yard.
• The London Game is a board game by Seven Towns that involves travelling on the London Underground.
• A truly trivial game relating to the Underground is Mornington Crescent.
• Paul Weller of the band The Jam wrote the song "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight".
• The secret lab in the 1970s TV series The Tomorrow People was in a disused Underground station.
• There is a sub-genre of horror based on subterranean humans living in disused sections of the London Underground and preying on any unlucky commuters they find. These include the 1972 film Death Line and 2004's Creep.
• In the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London, Tottenham Court Road Underground station is among the many London landmarks where the titular werewolf attacks.
• The 1968 Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear is set in the tunnels of the Underground and deals with an invasion by robotic Yeti; it is one of the programme's most iconic ever episodes.