London Underground

London Underground
File:Underground roundel sign at Epping.jpg
Overview
Locale	Greater London and Chiltern, Epping Forest, Three Rivers, Watford
Transit type	Electrified Metro Railway
Number of lines	12
Number of stations	275 served (253 owned)
Daily ridership	3 million (approximate)
Operation
Began operation	1863
Operator(s)	Transport for London
Technical
System length	408 km / 253 miles
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

The London Underground is an electric railway system that covers much of Greater London and some neighbouring areas. It is the world's oldest underground system, and is the largest in terms of route length. Services began on January 10 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway; most of that initial route is now part of the Hammersmith & City Line. Despite its name, about 55% of the network is above ground. Popular local names include the Underground and, more colloquially, the Tube, in reference to the cylindrical shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels.

The tube generally has two sections: deep-level (tube) and sub-surface.

The Underground serves 275 stations and runs over 408 km (253 miles) of line. There are a number of former stations and tunnels that are closed. In 2005–2006, 971 million passengers used the Underground and for the first time ever in 2006–2007, over one billion passengers were recorded. As of March 2007, just over 3 million passengers use the Underground each day, with an average of 3.4 million passengers on weekdays.

Since 2003, the Underground has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also administers Greater London's buses, including the famous red double-deckers, and carries out numerous other transport-related functions. The former London Underground Limited was a subsidiary of London Regional Transport, a statutory corporation.

History

Main article: History of the London Underground

The nickname "the Tube" comes from the circular tube-like tunnels through which the small-profile trains travel. This photograph shows a northbound Northern Line train leaving a tunnel just north of Hendon Central.

Beginnings

The Metropolitan Railway, the first section of the London Underground, initially ran between Paddington (Bishop's Road), now Paddington, and Farringdon Street, now Farringdon, and was the world's first urban underground passenger-carrying railway. It was originally built dual gauge – able to accommodate both Brunel's 'broad gauge' (7ft ¼in / 2140 mm) trains as well as the 4ft 8¼in (1428.75 mm) gauge of the other trains serving London. Following delays for financial and other reasons after the railway was authorised in 1854, public traffic began on 10 January 1863. 40,000 passengers were carried that day, with trains running every ten 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.

The early tunnels were dug using cut-and-cover construction methods. This included the District Line, which necessitated the demolition of a number of houses over the site of the line between Paddington and Bayswater.

The first trains were steam-hauled, which required effective ventilation to the surface. To overcome this problem, there were vents at various points on the route. This allowed the engines to expel steam and bring fresh air into the tunnels. One such vent is at Leinster Gardens, W2. In order to preserve the visual characteristics in what is still a well-to-do street, a five-foot thick concrete façade was constructed to resemble a genuine house frontage.

Advances in electric traction allowed later tunnels to be deeper underground than the original cut-and-cover method allowed, and deep-level tunnel design improved, including the use of tunnelling shields. The City & South London Railway (now part of the Northern Line), the first "deep-level" line and electrically operated, 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 Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway, 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 three tramway companies 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 Central London Railway was nicknamed the "Twopenny Tube" for its flat fare and cylindrical tunnels; the nickname was eventually transferred to the Underground system as a whole.

The 1930s and 1940s

In 1933, a public corporation called the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was created. The Combine and all the municipal and independent bus and tram undertakings were merged into the LPTB, an organisation that approximated in scope to the present-day TfL. It set in motion a scheme for expansion of the network, the 1935–1940 New Works programme, to extend some lines and to take over the operation of others from the railway companies; however, the outbreak of World War II froze all these schemes.

During the 1930s and 1940s, several railways were converted into (surface) lines of the Underground. The oldest part of today's Underground network is the Central Line between Leyton and Loughton, which opened as a railway seven years before the Underground itself.

From mid-1940, the Blitz (aerial bombing of London) led to the use of many underground stations as shelters during air raids and overnight. The authorities initially tried to prevent this, but later supplied bunks, latrines, and catering facilities.

Post-war developments

A London Underground 1995 Stock train pulls into Mornington Crescent station on the Northern Line.

Following the war, travel congestion continued to rise. The carefully planned Victoria Line on a diagonal northeast-southwest alignment beneath central London absorbed much of the extra traffic, opening in stages between 1968 and 1971. 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. In 1999 the Jubilee was extended to Stratford in London's East End, including the completely refurbished interchange station at Westminster, in several stages. The Jubilee's old terminal platforms at Charing Cross were abandoned but maintained operable for emergencies.

Since January 2003, the Underground has been operated as a Public–Private Partnership (PPP), where the infrastructure and rolling stock are maintained by private companies under 30-year contracts, but it remains publicly owned and operated, by TfL.

There was much controversy over the implementation of the PPP. Supporters of the change claimed that the private sector would eliminate the inefficiencies of public sector enterprises, while opponents said that the need to make profits would reduce the investment and public service aspects of the Underground. There has since been criticism of the performance of the private companies; for example the January 2007 edition of The Londoner, a newsletter published periodically by the Greater London Authority, listed Metronet's mistakes of 2006 under the headline Metronet guilty of 'inexcusable failures'.

Infrastructure

Zone 1 (central zone) of the Underground network in a more geographically accurate layout than the usual Tube map, using the same style

The Underground does not run 24 hours a day, because all track maintenance must be done at night, after the system closes. First trains on the network start operating shortly after 05:00, running until around 01:00. Unlike systems such as the New York City Subway, few parts of the Underground have express tracks that would allow trains to be routed around maintenance sites. Recently, greater use has been made of weekend closures of parts of the system for scheduled engineering work.

Rolling stock

Further information: London Underground rolling stock

1996 Tube Stock trains stabled at Stratford Market Depot

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

Stations

See also: List of London Underground stations and Closed London Underground stations

The Underground serves 275 stations, including Regent's Park tube station (closed for reconstruction until June 2007) and Shoreditch (closed, but served by a replacement bus service, until Shoreditch High Street station opens as part of the East London Line Extension). Fourteen Underground stations are outside Greater London, of which five (Amersham, Chalfont & Latimer, Chesham, Chorleywood, Epping) are beyond the M25 London Orbital motorway.

Lines

The table below lists each line, the colour used to represent it on Tube maps, the date the first section opened (not necessarily under the current line name), the date it gained its current name, and the type of tunnel used.

London Underground lines

Name	Map colour	First section opened	Name dates from	Type	Length /km	Length /miles	Stations	Journeys per annum (000s)
Bakerloo Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Brown	1906	1906	Deep level	23.2	14.5	25	95,947
Central Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Red	1900	1900	Deep level	74	46	49	183,582
Circle Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour;"|Yellow	1884	1949	Subsurface	22.5	14	27	68,485
District Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Green	1868	1868-1905	Subsurface	64	40	60	172,879
East London Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour;"|Orange	1869	1980s	Subsurface	7.4	4.6	8	10,429
Hammersmith & City Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour;"|Pink	1863	1988	Subsurface	26.5	16.5	28	45,845
Jubilee Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Grey	1879	1979	Deep level	36.2	22.5	27	127,584
Metropolitan Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Maroon	1863	1863	Subsurface	66.7	41.5	34	53,697
Northern Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Black	1890	1937	Deep level	58	36	50	206,734
Piccadilly Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Dark Blue	1906	1906	Deep level	71	44.3	52	176,177
Victoria Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:white;"|Light Blue	1968	1968	Deep level	21	13.25	16	161,319
Waterloo & City Line	style="background:#Template:LUL colour; color:black;"|Turquoise	1898	1898	Deep level	2.5	1.5	2	9,616

Subsurface versus deep-level tube lines

Underground trains come in two sizes, larger subsurface trains and smaller tube trains. A Metropolitan Line A Stock train (left) passes a Piccadilly Line 1973 Stock train (right) in the siding at Rayners Lane

Lines on the Underground can be classified into two types: subsurface and deep-level. The subsurface lines were dug by the cut-and-cover method, with the tracks running about 5 m below the surface. Trains on the subsurface lines slightly exceed the standard British loading gauge. 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 in a separate tunnel lined with cast-iron or precast concrete 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 subsurface lines. Lines of both types usually emerge onto the surface outside the central area, except the Victoria Line, which is in tunnel except for its depot, and the very short Waterloo & City Line, which runs entirely in the central area and has no surface section. Only 45% of the Underground is in tunnel.

While the tube lines are for the most part self-contained, the subsurface "lines" actually represent services run on the interconnected subsurface network. Each of the subsurface lines shares the track with at least two other lines, with the exception of the self-contained East London Line. This arrangement is somewhat similar to the New York City Subway, which also runs separate "lines" over shared tracks.

Unserved areas

Six London boroughs are not served by the Underground. Five of these are south of the River Thames: Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston and Sutton. This lack of lines and stations is sometimes attributed to the geology of that area, the region being almost one large aquifer. Another reason is that during the great period of tube-building in the early 20th century south London was already well served by the efficiently-run suburban lines of the London and South Western Railway, London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, then being electrified, which obviated Underground expansion into those areas. Suburban traffic was essential to the viability of the southern railways, while railways to the north and west were able to focus on long-distance traffic, which was profitable and was not subject to the short-term traffic peaks of suburban traffic. In contrast, suburban traffic obstructed their long-distance operations and required substantial infrastructure investment, without providing compensating returns.

The sixth borough is Hackney, with the exception of Manor House and Old Street stations on its boundary. Plans for the borough to be better served have been drawn up in the form of the London Overground. This is a new metro-style railway which is to take over the East London Line when its extension opens, scheduled for 2010.

International connections

The Underground serves Waterloo, for Eurostar trains, and Heathrow Airport. It also serves St Pancras (via King's Cross St. Pancras tube station), from where Eurostar trains will run from 14 November 2007, replacing the Waterloo Eurostar service.

Electrification

See also: Railway electrification in Great Britain

The London Underground is one of the few networks in the world that uses a four-rail system. The additional rail carries the electrical return that on third-rail and overhead networks is provided by the running rails. On the London Underground a top-contact third rail is placed beside the track, energised at +420 V DC, and a top-contact fourth rail is located centrally between the running rails at -210 V DC, which combine to provide a traction voltage of 630 V DC.

The advantage of the fourth rail system is that the two running rails are available exclusively for track circuits, of which there are many, though this was not the primary reason for adopting a fourth-rail scheme. Most of the deep-level tube lines run in cast iron tunnels (only some of the more recent constructions use concrete tunnel lining). Using a third-rail scheme necessitates that the return current is conducted through one (earthed) running rail. Such current is just as easily able to travel through the cast iron tunnel lining. Unless the joints between the sections are electrically sound, the current will arc across the sections causing considerable damage, or corrode the tunnel segments via electrolysis.

Further there are many cast iron gas and water mains in the vicinity of the tube tunnels, and the return current would travel along these just as easily. Some of these mains date back to the 19th century and the joints between separate sections would certainly not have been designed to be electrically sound, as deep-level electric tube trains were some way off.

The surface sections of the lines are constructed using fourth-rail purely to permit through running of the same trains, there being no other technical reason to do so.

The traction current has no direct earth point, but there are two resistors connected across the traction supply. The centre tap of the resistors is earthed, establishing the reference point between the positive and negative rails, by voltage division. The resistors are large enough to prevent large currents flowing through the earthed infrastructure. The positive resistor is twice as large as the negative resistor, since the positive rail carries twice the voltage of the negative rail.

Ticketing

Main article: London Underground ticketing

File:London-underground-travelcard.jpg

London Underground One-Day Travelcard

File:Oyster card front small.png

London Underground Oyster Card

The Underground uses TfL's Travelcard zones to calculate fares. Travelcard Zone 1 is the most central, with a boundary just beyond the Circle Line, and Zone 6 is the outermost and includes London Heathrow Airport. Stations on the Metropolitan Line outside Greater London are in special Zones A to D.

There are staffed ticket offices, some open for limited periods only, and ticket machines usable at any time. Some machines that sell a limited range of tickets accept coins only, other touch-screen machines accept coins and English (but not Northern Irish or Scottish) bank notes, and usually give change. These machines also accept major credit and debit cards: some newer machines accept cards only. In 2005 the Underground started to accept American Express.

More recently, TfL has introduced the Oyster card, a smartcard with an embedded contactless RFID chip, that travellers can obtain, charge with credit, and use to pay for travel. Like Travelcards they can be used on the Underground, buses, trams and the Dockland Light Railway. The Underground states that the Oyster card is cheaper to operate than cash ticketing or the older-style magnetic-strip-based Travelcards, and is encouraging passengers to use Oyster cards instead of Travelcards and cash (on buses) by implementing significant price differences. Oyster-based Travelcards can be used on National Rail throughout London. Pay as you go is available on a restricted, but increasing, number of routes.

Penalty fares and fare evasion

In addition to automatic and staffed ticket gates, the Underground is patrolled by both uniformed and plain-clothes ticket inspectors with hand-held Oyster card readers. Passengers travelling without a ticket valid for their entire journey are required to at least pay a £20 penalty fare and can be prosecuted for fare evasion under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 subject to a fine of up to £1,000 or three months' imprisonment. Oyster pre-pay users who have failed to 'touch in' at the start of their journey are charged the 'maximum cash fare' (£4, or £5 at some National Rail stations) upon 'touching out'.

Delays

According to statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the average commuter on the Metropolitan Line wasted three days, 10 hours and 25 minutes in 2006 due to delays (not including missed connections). Between September 17 2006 and 14 October 2006, figures show that 211 train services were delayed by more than 15 minutes. However, passengers are entitled to a refund if their journey is delayed by 15 minutes or more due to circumstances within the control of TfL.

Station access

Accessibility by people with mobility problems was not considered when most of the system was built, and older stations are inaccessible to disabled people. More recent stations were designed for accessibility, but retrofitting accessibility features to old stations is at best prohibitively expensive and technically extremely difficult, and often impossible. Even when there are already escalators or lifts, there are often steps between the lift or escalator landings and the platforms.

Most stations on the surface require use of at least a short flight of stairs to gain access from street level, and the great majority of stations sited underground require use of stairs or some of the system's 410 escalators (each going at a speed of 145 ft per minute, approximately 1.65 miles per hour). There are also some lengthy walks and further flights of steps required to gain access to platforms.

Some of the escalators in Underground stations are among the longest in Europe and all are custom-built. The longest escalator is at Angel station, which is 60 m (197 ft) in length, with a vertical rise of 27.5 m (90 ft). They run 20 hours a day, 364 days a year, with 95% of them operational at any one time, and can cope with 13,000 people per hour. Convention and signage stipulate that people using escalators on the Underground stand on the right-hand side so as not to obstruct those who walk past them on the left. (Since this is, oddly, the reverse of vehicular custom aboveground, it may be due to the fact that standees are gripping the handrail with their stronger right hands.)

TfL produces a map indicating which stations are accessible, and the more recent (2004) line maps indicate with a wheelchair symbol those stations that provide step-free access from street level. Step height from platform to train is up to 200 mm, and there can be a large gap between the train and curved platforms. Only the Jubilee Line Extension is completely accessible.

TfL plans that by 2020 there should be a network of over 100 fully accessible stations. This consists of those already accessible (recently built or rebuilt, and a handful of suburban stations that happen to have level access) along with selected 'key stations', which will be rebuilt. These key stations have been chosen due to high usage, interchange potential, and geographic spread, so that up to 75% of journeys will be achievable step-free.

Safety

File:Westminster underground.JPG

Westminster station — extensive structures are required to support Portcullis House above.

Suicides

Most fatalities on the network are suicides. Most platforms at deep tube stations have pits beneath the track, originally constructed to aid drainage of water from the platforms, but they also help prevent death or serious injury when a passenger falls or jumps in front of a train and aid access to the unfortunate person. These pits are known colloquially as "suicide pits" or "dead man's trenches". Delays resulting from a person jumping or falling in front of a train as it pulls into a station are announced as "passenger action", "customer incident" or "a person under a train", and are referred to by staff as a "one under".

The Jubilee Line extension is the first line to have platform edge doors. These prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks, and also contain the blast of air created as a train pulls into a station, thus maintaining the atmosphere within the station platform and the efficiency of air conditioning or heating. On the other hand, this reduces the circulation of air in the tunnels and thus increases temperatures on the trains.

Accidents

Main article: London Underground accidents

The Underground network carries almost a billion passengers a year. It is a very safe mass transport system, with just one fatal accident for every 300 million journeys.

Terrorism

Main article: London Underground terrorism

The Underground is an important part of everyday life for millions of people. This makes it a prime target for terrorists. Many warnings and several attacks, some successful, have been made on the Underground, the most recent on the 21 July 2005, although in that case only the detonators exploded. The most recent successful attack was on 7 July 2005, when three suicide bombers blew themselves up on three trains. The earliest attack on the London Underground was in 1885, when a bomb exploded on a Metropolitan Line train at Euston Square station. The IRA carried out over ten attacks between 1939 and 1993.

Overcrowding

Relatively few accidents are caused by overcrowding on the platforms, and 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. Restrictions are introduced at other stations when necessary. Crowded platforms with tracks on both sides, rather than one side being delimited by a wall, are particularly dangerous.

At particularly busy occasions, such as football matches, British Transport Police may be present to help with overcrowding.

According to a 2003 House of Commons report, commuters face a "daily trauma" and are forced to travel in "intolerable conditions".

Smoking

Smoking was allowed in certain carriages in trains until it was banned on all trains in July 1984. The ban was extended for a six-month trial period to all parts of the Underground in summer 1987, and was made permanent after the major King's Cross fire in November 1987. Smoking anywhere on the Underground system has since then been punishable by a fine. Drivers who detect smokers often refuse to continue the journey until the offending item is extinguished.

Photography

Photography for personal use is permitted in public areas of the Underground, but the use of tripods and other supports is forbidden as it poses a danger in the often cramped spaces and crowds found underground. Flash photography is also forbidden as it may distract drivers and disrupt fire-detection equipment. For the same reason bright auto-focus assist lights should be switched off or covered when photographing in the Underground.

Safety culture

The Underground's staff safety regimen has drawn criticism. In January 2002, the 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.

Age

Due to a combination of the age of the system and significant under-funding in the past, some parts of the Underground's infrastructure are substantially older than their equivalents in other cities. Recently the private infrastructure company Tube Lines was reported to be using online auction website eBay to find spare parts for some of its equipment which was so old that parts were otherwise unobtainable.

Future projects

Extensions and new stations

A diagram at Ealing Common, showing the layout of the Piccadilly Line at London Heathrow Airport once the T5 Extension opens.

• 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. The works have been substantially completed, and final testing and commissioning will be carried out during 2007. When the junction between PiccEx and the Heathrow Loop was built, the tunnel between Terminal 4 and Terminals 1,2,3 was out of service but it re-opened on 17 September 2006. The extension is due to open in 2008.

• A new station at Wood Lane is due to open in 2008 to serve a new shopping centre there.

• The Bakerloo line may be re-extended to Watford Junction via Watford High Street from its current terminus at Harrow & Wealdstone station. This is considered part of the Transport 2025 strategy, but no more precise timescale has been announced.

• TfL and Hertfordshire County Council would like to connect the Watford branch of the Metropolitan Line to the disused Croxley Green National Rail branch. It is most likely that the extension would join the branch between Croxley Green and Watford West stations. A new station would be added at Ascot Road as a replacement for Croxley Green, Watford West would be heavily refurbished and Watford (Metropolitan) would close. This extension would bring the Underground back to central Watford and the important main-line station of Watford Junction. The current timetable suggests a 2011 opening date, but the extension currently lacks funding and planning permission.

• The East London Line will close in December 2007 to allow it to be extended north from Whitechapel along the old Broad Street viaduct to Dalston then along the North London Line to Highbury & Islington, and south to West Croydon, Crystal Palace and eventually Clapham Junction. When it reopens in 2010 (with the connection to Highbury & Islington due for 2011), it will no longer be part of the Underground network, becoming instead part of the new London Overground network.

Line upgrades

Each of the network's lines is being given an upgrade to improve capacity and reliability. The upgrade consists of new computerised signalling, automatic train operation (ATO), and where needed new rolling stock, alongside track replacement and station refurbishment.

• During 2007, work began to install moving block signalling on the Jubilee Line and ATO equipment on its trains, for completion in 2009. When this work is complete, a similar upgrade will be performed on the Northern Line, for completion in 2012. Both lines already have modern rolling stock.
• The Victoria Line will receive new trains known as 2009 Stock from 2009 onwards. They will be higher in capacity and offer improved acceleration. A new ATO system will be brought into service once the old fleet has been withdrawn. When all upgrades are complete in 2013, train frequency will have improved from 28 trains per hour to 33.
• The Metropolitan Line, Hammersmith & City Line, Circle Line and District Line will receive new trains known as S Stock. It will be introduced in phases from 2009 to 2015 . New trains will feature inter-car gangways enhancing passenger safety, and improved acceleration and braking allowing an increase in train frequency The last trains to be replaced, 75 District Line trains, are currently receiving interim refurbishment. Lines that are currently served by six-car trains will get seven-car trains.
• The Piccadilly Line and Bakerloo Line will receive new rolling stock and other upgrades by 2014 and 2020 respectively.

Upgrade programmes on the Waterloo & City Line (without ATO) and Central Line are largely complete.

Other projects

• Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line will be completely rebuilt both above ground and below.
• Victoria and Kings Cross St Pancras stations are both due to receive new passageways and an extra ticket hall to improve capacity.
• In summer, temperatures on parts of the Underground can become very uncomfortable due to its deep, narrow and poorly ventilated tube tunnels: temperatures as high as 47°C were reported in the 2006 European heat wave. Conventional air conditioning has been ruled out on the deep lines because of the lack of space for equipment on trains and the problems of dispersing the waste heat this would generate. A year-long trial of a groundwater cooling system began in June 2006 at Victoria station. If successful, the trial will be extended to 30 other deep-level stations. The Underground also advises passengers to carry a bottle of water to help keep cool. Waste heat disperses better in the subsurface tunnels and the new S Stock trains due to be delivered from 2009 will have air-conditioning.

Main article: London Underground cooling

• On March 15 2007 it was announced that there will be a trial of mobile phone coverage on the Waterloo & City line. At the earliest, the trial will start in April 2007, when coverage will be available on the platforms at Waterloo and Bank stations. After this, the coverage will be extended to the tunnel between these two stations. The trial will look at the viability of extending coverage across the rest of the Underground network.
• Although not part of London Underground, the Crossrail scheme will provide a new route across central London integrated with the tube network.

Image

See also: London Underground in popular culture

TfL's Tube map and "roundel" logo are instantly recognisable by any Londoner, almost any Briton, and many people around the world. The original maps were often street maps with the location of the lines superimposed, and the stylised Tube map evolved from a design by electrical engineer Harry Beck in 1931. The map has been such a successful concept that virtually every major urban rail system in the world now has a map in a similar stylised layout and many bus companies have also adopted the concept. TfL licences the sale of clothing and other accessories featuring its graphic elements and it takes legal action against unauthorised use of its trademarks and of the Tube map. Nevertheless, unauthorised copies of the logo continue to crop up worldwide.

The roundel

The origins of the roundel, in earlier years 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 — its usage 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 adopted, with 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, at entrances and repeatedly along the platform, so that the name can easily be seen by passengers on arriving trains. In addition, some stations' walls are decorated in tile motifs unique to that station, such as profiles of Sherlock Holmes's head at Baker Street, and a cross containing a crown at King's Cross St Pancras.

The roundel has been used for buses and the tube for many years, and since TfL took control it has been applied to other transport types (taxi, tram, DLR, etc.) in different colour pairs. The roundel has to some extent become a symbol for London itself.

The use of the roundel with the station name in the blue bar dates from 1908

Typography

Edward Johnston designed TfL's distinctive sans-serif typeface, in 1916. A version of the typeface, modified to include 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 full stop, and is the origin of other punctuation marks in the face. TfL owns the copyright to and exercises control over the New Johnston typeface, but a close approximation of the face exists in the TrueType computer font Paddington.

Contribution to arts

The Underground sponsors and contributes to the arts via its Platform for Art and Poems on the Underground projects. Poster and billboard space (and in the case of Gloucester Road tube station, an entire disused platform) is given over to artwork and poetry to "create an environment for positive impact and to enhance and enrich the journeys of ... passengers".

See also

• 7 July 2005 London bombings
• British Transport Police
• Connect Project
• Inspector Sands
• List of London Underground-related fiction
• List of rapid transit systems
• London Post Office Railway and other features of Subterranean London
• London Underground air pollution
• London Underground trivia
• Lots Road power station
• Mind the gap
• Paddington Bear
• Transport in London (overview)
• The Tube (London Underground TV series)
• Underground Ernie
• Docklands Light Railway | (Croydon) Tramlink | Crossrail | London Overground
• The London Game
• Mornington Crescent (game)

Bibliography

• Day, John R. and Reed, John. The Story of London's Underground, Capital Transport 2001
• Garland, Ken. Mr. Beck's Underground Map, Capital Transport 1994
• Harris, Cyril M. What's in a Name? The origins of station names of the London Underground, London Transport and Midas Books 1977
• Hutchinson, Harold F. London Transport Posters, London Transport 1963
• Jackson, Alan & Croome, Desmond. Rails Through The Clay, Capital Transport 1993
• Lawrence, David. Underground Architecture, Capital Transport 1994
• Lee, Charles E. The Bakerloo Line, a brief history, London Transport 1973 (and similar volumes covering other lines, published 1972-1976)
• Meek, James. London Review of Books, 5 May 2005, "Crocodile's Breath"
• Menear, Laurence. London's Underground Stations, a Social and Architectural Study, Midas Books 1983
• Rose, Douglas. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History, Capital Transport 2005, ISBN 1-85414-219-4
• Saler, Michael. The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: 'Medieval Modernism' and the London Underground, Oxford University Press 1999
• Saler, Michael. "The 'Medieval Modern' Underground: Terminus of the Avant-Garde", Modernism/Modernity 2:1, January 1995, pp. 113-144
• Wolmar, Christian. Down the Tube: the Battle for London's Underground, Aurum Press 2002
• Wolmar, Christian. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City For Ever, Atlantic 2004, ISBN 1-84354-023-1

External links

Official

• Transport for London Home Page
• Maps
• Underground facts
• Tourist Information

Practical

• Geographically Accurate Tube Map
• Journey Planner
• British Transport Police
• London Transport Museum

Technical

• Clive Feather's highly detailed Underground Line Guides
• Richard's LU rolling stock page
• Technical Service Maps BCV/SSL/Tube Lines etc Technical Maps

Visual

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

General

• Going Underground
• London Underground Tube Diary and Blog — commuters' blog
• Disused Stations on London's Underground
• London's Abandoned Tube Stations
• 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.
• CityMayors article
• London Underground at Curlie