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The London Underground is a metro system that covers the Greater London area and beyond. It is an electric railway and, despite its name, runs both above and below ground. Surprisingly, about 55% of the network is above ground. It is usually referred to by Londoners as either "the Underground" or, more familiarly, "the Tube", owing to the cylindrical shape of its deep-bore tunnels. It is the oldest underground system and one of the three largest 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 275 stations and runs over 253 miles (408 km) of lines. There are also a number of stations and tunnels that are now closed. In 2004–2005, 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 administers London's buses, including the famous red double-decker buses, and carries out numerous other transport-related functions in the capital. Previously, London Regional Transport was the holding company for London Underground.

History

Beginnings:

The Metropolitan Railway, the first section of the London Underground, 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 on 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 Inner Circle (today's Circle Line) was complete. 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 allowed, and deep-level tunnel design improved, including the use of tunnelling shields. The first "deep-level" electrically operated line, the City & South London Railway, now part of the Northern Line, opened in 1890.

Into the 20th century

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 as well as electrify the earlier steam operated lines. 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, the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (jointly to become the core of the Piccadilly Line) and the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (to become the Bakerloo Line) to form Underground Electric Railways of London Company Ltd 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. On 1 January 1913 the UERL absorbed two other independent tube lines, the C&SLR and the Central London Railway, the latter having opened an important east-west cross city line from Bank to Shepherd's Bush on 30 July 1900.

The 1930s and 40s

In 1933, a public corporation called the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was created. The Underground Group, the Metropolitan Railway and all the municipal and independent bus and tram lines were merged into 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 — the 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 Underground 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.

Post-war developments

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, taking over part of the Bakerloo Line with new tunnels between Baker Street and Charing Cross. The Jubilee line was extended to Stratford in London's East End in 1999 in several stages, including the opening of the completely refurbished interchange station at Westminster.

Since January 2003, the London Underground has been operated as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), where all the infrastructure and rolling stock is maintained by private companies under 30-year contracts whilst it remains publicly owned and operated by Transport for London (TfL). See History of the London Underground for full details.

King's Cross Fire

On 18 November 1987, a devastating fire broke out in King's Cross St Pancras station, killing 31 people. The fire was the result of a discarded match igniting rubbish and grease beneath wooden escalators. As a result of this disaster, smoking was banned throughout the Underground, wooden escalators were replaced and various measures were put in place to help prevent a repeat of these events.

Bomb attacks in 2005

On 7 July 2005, a series of bombs exploded on Underground trains between Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations, Russell Square and King's Cross St Pancras stations, and Edgware Road and Paddington stations. A double decker bus at Tavistock Square was also destroyed in the attacks. The explosions killed 56 people, and resulted in over 700 injuries. A second series of minor explosions occurred two weeks later on 21 July 2005 at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations and on a bus in Shoreditch. Little damage was done and only one person was injured, and it was later discovered that all four bombs had failed to detonate as intended.

Network

The Underground does not run 24 hours a day because all track maintenance must be done at night after the system closes (unlike systems such as the New York City Subway, only a very few parts of the Underground have express tracks that would allow trains to be rerouted around maintenance sites). Recently, greater use has been made of weekend closures of parts of the system to allow scheduled engineering works.

Rolling stock

The Underground uses a range of rolling stock built between 1960 and 1996. Types of stock designed for use on sub-surface lines are usually identified by a letter (such as A Stock as used on the Metropolitan Line), while tube line rolling stock is identified by the year in which it was designed (for example, 1996 Stock as used on the Jubilee Line'). Virtually all lines are worked by a single type of stock, the one exception being the District Line which uses both C and D stock. Two types of rolling stock are currently being developed — 2005 stock for the Victoria Line and S stock for the sub-surface lines, with the Metropolitan Line A Stock being replaced first. Rollout of both is expected to begin about 2009.

For more information on the Underground's rolling stock, see London Underground rolling stock.

Stations

The Underground nominally serves 275 stations, but with Heathrow Terminal 4 and Queensway currently closed, at present it serves 273. The temporary closure of Heathrow Terminal 4 is for the Heathrow loop to be modified for servicing of Terminal 5, a new two-platform Piccadilly Line terminus.

Fourteen stations are located outside Greater London and of these, five are beyond the boundary of the M25 motorway.

See also: List of London Underground stations, Closed London Underground stations.

Lines

The table below describes each of the Underground's lines, giving the colour presently used to represent the line on the ubiquitous Tube maps, the date the first section opened and the type of tunnel used.

Sub-surface versus tube lines

Lines on the Underground can be classified into two types: sub-surface and deep level. The sub-surface lines were dug by the cut-and-cover method, with the tracks running about 5 m below the surface. Trains on the sub-surface lines have the same loading gauge as British mainline trains. The deep-level or "tube" lines, bored using a tunnelling shield, run about 20 m below the surface (although this varies considerably), with each track running in a separate tunnel lined with cast-iron rings. These tunnels can have a diameter as small as 3.56 m (11 ft 8.25 in) and the loading gauge is thus considerably smaller than on the sub-surface lines, though standard gauge track is used. Lines of both types usually emerge onto the surface outside the central area, the exceptions being the Victoria Line which is in tunnel for its entire length save for a maintenance depot, and the Waterloo & City Line which, being very short, has no non-central part and no surface line. In total, only 45% of the length of the Underground network is in tunnel.

South London

The lack of lines in the south of the city is sometimes attributed to the geology of that area, the region being almost one large aquifer; additionally, it is impossible for cut and cover lines to go under the River Thames. Rather, the reason seems to be that during the great period of tube-building around the end of the 19th century, South London was already well-served by the electrified and efficiently run suburban lines of the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and so there was no need for the Underground to expand into those areas. Indeed, to this day, the area is served by a large number of suburban rail services run by the South West Trains, Southern and South East Trains franchise holders (see Rail transport in the United Kingdom). More recently, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has been built to serve the east of Central London, and extends as far south as Lewisham. The Underground interchanges with the DLR at several stations, including Bank, Canary Wharf and Stratford. Despite these new links, many residents of south and south-east London feel neglected by the Underground proper.

Connections to airports and Eurostar

The Underground connects with international Eurostar trains at Waterloo, and runs to Heathrow Airport (Piccadilly Line). Although the latter is slow (52 minutes nominal to Green Park) and often crowded, it is a far cheaper way to travel to the city centre than the Heathrow Express, which is not part of the Underground network.

Links to Stansted Airport via the Stansted Express are at Liverpool Street (on the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines) and Tottenham Hale (on the Victoria Line), and Gatwick can be reached via the Gatwick Express and Southern services from Victoria, served by the District, Circle and Victoria Lines. There are currently doubts over the future of the Gatwick Express as a separate service. Gatwick Express possible termination

London City Airport can be reached using the Docklands Light Railway from Canning Town (Jubilee line), Shadwell (East London line) or Bank (Central, Northern, Waterloo & City, District and Circle lines). The extension to London City Airport was completed in December 2005

Ticketing

London Underground uses Transport for London's Travelcard zones to calculate fares, including fares for use on the Underground only. Travelcard Zone 1 is the most central, with a boundary just beyond the Circle Line and Travelcard Zone 6 is the most outlying and includes London Heathrow Airport. All of Greater London is covered by zones 1 to 6, although stations in the outlying reaches of the Metropolitan Line outside Greater London are in the special zones A to D.

There are staffed ticket offices open for limited periods and ticket machines usable at any time. While some machines which sell a limited number of tickets accept only coins, other touch-screen ticket machines will accept coins and English paper money — though not Northern Irish or Scottish notes — in good condition, and usually give change. These machines also accept major credit and debit cards and some newer machines will accept payment only by card.

Summary of ticket types

The following tickets are available from London Underground and Transport for London ticket agents for use on the Underground:

Detailed information on tickets and pricing is available from the Transport for London website.

Penalty fares and fare evasion

In addition to the automatic and staffed ticket gates at stations, the Underground is patrolled by both uniformed and plain-clothes ticket inspectors equipped with hand-held Oyster card readers. Passengers travelling without a ticket valid for their entire journey are required to pay a £20 penalty fare or face prosecution for fare evasion. Oyster pre-pay users who have failed to 'touch in' at the start of their journey are also considered to be travelling without a valid ticket.

Station access

Accessibility by people with mobility problems was not widely considered when the system was built and most older stations continue to be inaccessible to disabled people. Whilst recently-built stations have been designed for accessibility, retrofitting accessibility features to old stations is considered prohibitively expensive and technically extremely difficult due to the design issues mentioned above. Even when escalators and lifts are already fitted, there are often further flights of steps between the lift or escalator landings and the platforms.

Transport for London now produces a map specifically indicating which stations are accessible and the more recent (2004) line maps indicate with a wheelchair symbol those stations which provide step-free access to street level. Step height from platform to train is often as high as 200 mm on some lines, and there can be a large gap between the train and some curving platforms. Only the Jubilee Line Extension is completely usable by the unassisted wheelchair-using traveller, except possibly Waterloo.

While many stations on the surface involve a short flight of stairs to gain access from street level, virtually all underground stations use some of the system's 410 escalators (each going at a speed of 145 ft per minute, approximately 1.65 miles per hour) 112 lifts, or a combination of both. There are also some lengthy walks and further flights of steps required to gain access to the correct platform once underground.

The escalators in London Underground stations are among the longest escalators in Europe and all are custom-built for each station. They must run 20 hours a day, 364 days a year and cope with 13,000 people per hour, with 95% of them operational at any one time. Convention and signage dictates that people using escalators on the Underground stand on the right-hand side or walk on the left-hand side.

Safety

The London Underground has an excellent passenger safety record. Most fatalities on the network are suicides. Most platforms at deep tube stations have a pit excavated beneath the track. Originally, they were constructed to aid drainage of water from the platforms, but they also help prevent death or serious injury and the accompanying disruption in the event of a passenger falling or jumping in front of an oncoming train. These pits are known colloquially as "suicide pits". Delays resulting from a person jumping or falling in front of a train as it pulls into a station are announced as "passenger action" or "a person under a train", but are referred to by staff as a "one under".

Relatively few accidents are caused by overcrowding on the platforms, although staff monitor platforms and passageways at busy times and prevent people entering the system if they become overcrowded. Camden Town station is exit-only on Sunday afternoons (13:00–17:30) for this reason, and Covent Garden has access restrictions at times due to overcrowding.

Smoking was banned on all trains in July 1984, except for a middle carriage. The ban was extended, for a six-month trial, to all parts of the Underground in summer 1987, and this was made permanent after the King's Cross fire in November 1987. Smoking anywhere on London Underground stations and trains is now illegal, and is punishable by a large fine.

While photography for personal use is permitted in public areas of the Underground , tripods and other supports are forbidden due to the often cramped spaces and crowds found underground. Flash is also forbidden due to its potential to distract drivers and disrupt fire-detection equipment. As their effects are often similar to those of flash, bright auto-focus assist lights should also be switched off or covered up when photographing the Underground.

There have been a number of derailments in recent years, although there have been no serious injuries or any loss of life so far.

The Underground's staff safety regimen has drawn criticism. In January 2002, London Underground was fined £225,000 for breaching safety standards for workers. In court, the judge reprimanded the company for "sacrificing safety" to keep trains running "at all costs." Workers had been instructed to work in the dark with the power rails live, even during rainstorms. Several workers had received electric shocks as a result.

Due to a combination of the age of the system itself and significant under-funding in the past decades, some components of the Underground's infrastructure are substantially older than their equivalents in other cities. Recently, one of the private infrastructure companies, Tube Lines, was reported to be using eBay to find spare parts for some of its equipment because they were not available any other way.

The future

Planned investment

The UK government has promised £16 billion of funding over the years until 2030, with early priorities to cut delays and improve reliability including refurbishments of lifts and escalators, more thorough cleaning and a new station serving the new Wembley Stadium. The Victoria Line will receive new signalling systems and 47 new trains, along with renewal of track and equipment on many other lines. The Jubilee Line received four new trains and 59 new carriages in December 2005, bringing the total to 63 seven-car sets built by Alstom, although the new rolling stock was not built in the UK. It is also scheduled to receive £160 million for new signalling equipment from Alcatel Canada Transport Automation Solutions. The Victoria and sub-surface lines will receive 1,738 new cars between 2008 and 2015, to be built in Derby. The Bakerloo Line will not receive new trains until 2019, with supplementary stock likely coming from the Victoria Line. The Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines will receive 190 new trains, built by Bombardier, meaning all sub-surface trains will be of the same design giving easier maintenance. The trains will feature inter-car gangways enhancing passenger safety, and improved acceleration and braking allowing an increase in train frequency, in the case of the Victoria Line from 28 trains per hour to 33. The last trains to be replaced, 75 District Line trains, are currently receiving interim refurbishments.

Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd. will continue to supply signalling equipment; already 75% of installed control equipment has been supplied by Westinghouse.

Cooling

In the summer weather, temperatures on parts of the Underground can become very uncomfortable for passengers due to the design of its deep tube tunnels. Normal air conditioning has been ruled out because of the lack of space available to install units on trains and the problems of dispersing the heat generated. Heat pumps were trialled in 1938 and were proposed again several years ago to overcome this. Following a successful demonstration in 2001 funds were given to the School of Engineering at London's South Bank University to develop a prototype; work began in April 2002. A cash reward of £100,000 was offered by the Mayor of London during the hot Summer of 2003 for a solution to the problem but the competition ended in 2005 without a winner being announced.

The new fleet of trains for the sub-surface lines (Circle, District, H&C, Metropolitan and East London lines) will come with air-cooling. The first air-cooled trains are due to arrive in 2009.

There are posters on the Underground suggesting that passengers carry a bottle of water.

Extensions

Below are possible and planned extensions on the Underground.

Bakerloo Line re-extension to Watford

The Bakerloo line originally ran all the way to Watford Junction via Watford High Street but this was cut back to Harrow and Wealdstone station in late 1982. Recently plans for the re-extension have surfaced and already have been approved as part of TfL's to manage some of North London's railways under the London Railway Authority. However, plans for when the re-extension will take place have not been disclosed. London Rail Authority including Bakerloo line

East London Line extension

Preparations are under way to extend the East London Line (ELL) both northwards and southwards while replacing the current 'sub-surface underground' service with one resembling "Metro" surface trains. The northern extension will see the current Shoreditch station closed and the line run on the old Broad Street viaduct to Dalston and then Highbury & Islington, to provide interchange with the Victoria Line. To the south, two branches are planned, mainly using existing railway lines. The first will run to West Croydon, with a spur to Crystal Palace, while the second would run to Clapham Junction. These changes will by 2010 transform the line to a larger transport artery.

The stations between Shoreditch and Dalston will be:

• Shoreditch High Street
• Hoxton
• Haggerston
• Dalston Junction

It is also proposed that together with the existing West London Line and North London Line, the extended ELL could by 2016 form the basis of the long-sought 'Orbital Rail route'.

Metropolitan Line works in Watford

TfL, together with Hertfordshire County Council, plans to connect the Watford branch of the Metropolitan Line to the disused Croxley Green Network Rail branch. This will bring the Underground back to central Watford and the important main line station Watford Junction. If this happens the current Watford (Metropolitan) station will probably close.

More detailed information on all projects can be found at AlwaysTouchOut.com

Piccadilly Line extension to Terminal 5

A new station is being built on the Piccadilly Line to serve Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport. The extension (called PiccEx) consists of a two-platform station, two sidings where trains can be stabled, approximately 3 km of 4.5 m diameter bored tunnels, a ventilation shaft and two escape shafts. Civil works for the two tunnels, the vent shaft, one escape shaft and the structure of T5 station have been completed and track work is now being installed. The junction between PiccEx and the existing Heathrow Loop is now being constructed: this work requires that the tunnel between Terminal 4 and Terminals 1,2,3 stations be taken out of service until September 2006. The extension is due to be opened in 2007. Terminal 5 will be staffed by British Airports Authority staff, trained and licensed by London Underground Limited. Trains will run from Hatton Cross to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3, platform 1, thence to Terminal 5.

Image

Iconography

Transport for London's Tube map (pdf) and "roundel" logo are instantly recognisable by any Londoner, almost any Briton, and many people around the world. The stylised Tube map as we now know it (original maps were often street-maps with the location of the lines superimposed) evolved from an original design by electrical engineer Harry Beck in 1931. See Tube map for an in-depth analysis of its history and its topological nature. The map has been such a successful concept that virtually every major rail system in the world now has a map in a similar stylised layout. Many bus companies have also adopted the concept to represent their routes.

The roundel

The origins of the roundel, which in earlier years was known as the 'bulls-eye' or 'target', are more obscure. While the first use of a roundel in a London-transport context was the 19th-century symbol of the London General Omnibus Company — a wheel with a bar across the centre bearing the word GENERAL — the usage of the roundel on the Underground stems from the decision in 1908 to find a more obvious way of highlighting station names on platforms. The red disc with blue name bar was quickly adapted, with the use of the word "UNDERGROUND" across the bar, as an early corporate identity. The logo was modified by Edward Johnston in 1919.

Each station displays the Underground roundel, often containing the station's name in the central bar, both at entrances to the station and repeatedly along the platform so that they can easily be seen by passengers on arriving trains. In addition, some stations' walls are decorated in tile motifs that are unique to the station, such as profiles of Sherlock Holmes's head at Baker Street station, or a cross containing a crown at King's Cross St Pancras station.

Since TfL took control of London's transport the roundel has been applied to other transport types within the city (bus, taxi, tram, DLR, etc.) in different colour pairs. The roundel has become a symbol for London itself.

Typography

Edward Johnston also designed Transport for London's (TfL) distinctive sans-serif typeface in 1916. A version of the typeface, since modified to include a lower case, continues in use today, and is called "New Johnston". The new typeface is noted for the curl at the bottom of the minuscule l, which other sans-serif typefaces have discarded, and for the diamond-shaped tittle on the minuscule i and j, whose shape also appears in the period / point / full stop and as the origin of other punctuation marks in the face. Transport for London "is the owner of all rights of copyright and otherwise now existing in the New Johnston typeface"; but a close approximation of the face exists in the TrueType computer font Paddington (not be confused with a different, very thick and slightly seriffed font of the same name).

Unauthorised use

TfL is known for taking legal action against unauthorised use of its trademarks and of the Tube map, in spite of which unauthorised copies of the logo continue to crop up worldwide. Ranges of clothing and other accessories featuring TfL's graphic elements are available.

See also

• London Underground trivia
• Connect Project
• Docklands Light Railway | (Croydon) Tramlink | Crossrail
• Inspector Sands
• List of London Underground stations | Closed London Underground stations
• List of London Underground-related fiction
• List of metro systems
• London Post Office Railway and other features of Subterranean London
• London Underground in popular culture
• London Underground rolling stock
• Lots Road power station
• Mind the gap
• Northern City Line
• Transport for London

References

• James Meek, London Review of Books, 5 May 2005, "Crocodile's Breath"
• Christian Wolmar (2004) The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City For Ever, Atlantic
• Christian Wolmar (2002) Down the Tube: the Battle for London's Underground, Aurum Press
• John R. Day, John Reed (2001), The Story of London's Underground, Capital Transport Publishing
• Michael Saler (1999), The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: 'Medieval Modernism' and the London Underground, Oxford University Press
• Michael Saler (1995), "The 'Medieval Modern' Underground: Terminus of the Avant-Garde", Modernism/Modernity 2:1, January 1995, pp. 113-144
• Ken Garland (1994), Mr. Beck's Underground Map, Capital Transport Publishing
• Alan Jackson & Desmond Croome (1993), Rails Through The Clay, Capital Transport Publishing

External links

Practical

• Transport for London Home Page and Journey Planner and Maps
• Information for Tourists
• Story of the London Underground
• London Transport Museum
• Collection of Google Earth locations of London Underground stations (Requires Google Earth software) from the Google Earth Community forum.
• London Underground facts

Technical

• Clive Feather's highly detailed Underground Line Guides
• Richard's LU rolling stock page

Photographs

• London's Transport Museum Photographic Collection — A site of historical Transport for London images.
• London Underground Architecture Gallery — at Metro Bits.
• Photo Essay of The London Underground
• nycsubway.org's Photographs of London Underground

General

• Going Underground
• London Underground Tube Diary and Blog — commuters' blog
• Disused Stations on London's Underground
• A very complete timeline
• alwaystouchout.com — a database of transport projects proposed or under way in London, including Underground projects
• Old Tube Architecture conservation — Victorian artefacts in need of protection.
• The London Underground Tube Challenge Forum
• CityMayors article

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• Electric railways
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