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	274
Daily ridership	2.7 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 all-electric railway system that covers much of the conurbation 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 10 January 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 Underground serves 274 stations and runs over 408 km (253 miles) of line. There are a number of former stations and tunnels that are closed. In 2004–2005, total passenger journeys reached a record number 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 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 southbound Northern Line train leaving a tunnel just north of Hendon Central station.

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. 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 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 stations situated underground 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'.

Network

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 sub-surface 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 sub-surface 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 274 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 Underground is one of the few railways electrified on the four-rail system. In addition to the two running rails there are two rails that supply power to the trains, one outside the running rails electrified at +420 V DC, the other in the middle at -210 V, producing an overall traction supply voltage of 630 V.

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:Bakerloo Line colour; color:white;"|Brown	1906	1906	Deep level	23.2	14.5	25	95,947
Central Line	style="background:#Template:Central Line colour; color:white;"|Red	1900	1900	Deep level	74	46	49	183,582
Circle Line	style="background:#Template:Circle Line colour;"|Yellow	1884	1949	Sub-surface	22.5	14	27	68,485
District Line	style="background:#Template:District Line colour; color:white;"|Green	1868	1868-1905	Sub-surface	64	40	60	172,879
East London Line	style="background:#Template:East London Line colour;"|Orange	1869	1980s	Sub-surface	7.4	4.6	8	10,429
Hammersmith & City Line	style="background:#Template:Hammersmith & City Line colour;"|Pink	1863	1988	Sub-surface	26.5	16.5	28	45,845
Jubilee Line	style="background:#Template:Jubilee Line colour; color:white;"|Silver	1879	1979	Deep level	36.2	22.5	27	127,584
Metropolitan Line	style="background:#Template:Metropolitan Line colour; color:white;"|Magenta	1863	1863	Sub-surface	66.7	41.5	34	53,697
Northern Line	style="background:#Template:Northern Line colour; color:white;"|Black	1890	1937	Deep level	58	36	50	206,734
Piccadilly Line	style="background:#Template:Piccadilly Line colour; color:white;"|Dark Blue	1906	1906	Deep level	71	44.3	52	176,177
Victoria Line	style="background:#Template:Victoria Line colour; color:white;"|Light Blue	1968	1968	Deep level	21	13.25	16	161,319
Waterloo & City Line	style="background:#Template:Waterloo & City Line colour; color:blue;"|Teal	1898	1898	Deep level	2.5	1.5	2	9,616

Sub-surface versus tube lines

Underground trains come in two sizes, larger sub-surface 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: 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 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 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. 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.

Unserved areas

In London there are a total of six London boroughs which are not served by the London Underground. Fives of these are located to the south of the River Thames, which are 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 and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, then being electrified, which obviated Underground expansion into those areas. (Railways to the north and west could focus on long-distance traffic, and so were less interested in the suburbs.)

The sixth borough is the Hackney, with the exception of Manor House tube station 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.

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. From early 2007 Oyster-based Travelcards can be used on National Rail throughout London, and pay as you go is available on a restricted, but increasing, number of routes.

Pricing

Pricing is fairly complex, and changes from time to time; it is best checked on the TfL website. Prices are high by international standards, particularly for passengers who do not use Oyster cards: the minimum cash price for a journey in Zone 1 is £4 (2007), which can make a very short journey (e.g., Leicester Square to Covent Garden) cost £12 per mile.

Summary of ticket types

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

Ticket	Paper	Oyster	Off peak version	Notes
Single	Yes	Yes	Yes (on Oyster)	Paper tickets are more expensive.
Day Travelcard	Yes	No	Yes	The maximum daily spend on Oyster is capped at 50p below the Travelcard price.
3-day Travelcard	Yes	No	Yes
Weekly Travelcard	No	Yes	No
Monthly Travelcard	No	Yes	No	Requires registration.
Annual Travelcard	No	Yes	No	Requires registration.

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 at least required to 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'.

Station access

Escalators at Bank station on the Northern Line.

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. 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.

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 one of the safest mass transport systems in the world, 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 hundreds of thousands of Londoners. This makes it a prime target for terrorists. Many warnings and several attacks, some successful, have been made on the Underground.

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.

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 large 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.

Planned investment

The government has promised £16 billion of funding 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 a new signalling system and 47 new trains, and other lines will have renewal of track and equipment. The Jubilee Line received four new trains and 59 new cars in December 2005, bringing the total to 63 seven-car sets, built by Alstom. It is also scheduled to receive £160 million for new signalling equipment from Alcatel Canada Transport Automation Solutions. The Victoria Line 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. Bombardier is supplying the sub-surface lines with 190 new air-conditioned trains, and lines that are currenty served by six-car trains will get seven-car trains.

New 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 refurbishment.

Piccadilly Line extension to Terminal 5

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. Civil works for the two tunnels, the ventilation shaft, one escape shaft and the structure of T5 station have been completed and track is being installed. Building the junction between PiccEx and the Heathrow Loop meant that the tunnel between Terminal 4 and Terminals 1,2,3 was out of service until 17 September 2006. The extension is due to open in 2008. Terminal 5 will be staffed by airport staff, trained and licensed by the Underground. Trains will run from Hatton Cross to platform 1 at Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3, thence to Terminal 5.

East London Line extension

Preparations are under way to extend the East London Line (ELL) both northwards and southwards. Shoreditch station closed in June 2006 and the line north of Whitechapel will be diverted to run on the old Broad Street viaduct to Dalston and along the North London Line to 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, the second to Clapham Junction. The extension to Clapham Junction is currently unfunded.

The initial stations north of Whitechapel will be:

• Shoreditch High Street
• Hoxton
• Haggerston
• Dalston Junction

When the extension is open, the East London Line will become a more important transport artery, and, as it will be part of the London Overground service, it will no longer be part of the Underground. Services will still be provided by TfL, and the London Overground will almost certainly be depicted on the Tube map. If the extension to Clapham Junction is built, the London Overground system will include the proposed 'Orbital Rail route' (see Orbirail).

Works in the Watford area

The Bakerloo line originally ran to Watford Junction via Watford High Street, but was cut back to Harrow & Wealdstone station in late 1982. Recently plans for the re-extension have been approved as part of TfL's London Overground plans, but it is not clear when the re-extension would take place.

TfL and Hertfordshire County Council plan 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 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.

Proposed interchanges

West Hampstead currently has three seperate rail stations within 200 metres of each other - a London Underground station providing Jubilee line services, a Silverlink station on the North London Line and a Thameslink station. There are plans to combine this cluster of stations into one large interchange, along with additional platforms for Metropolitan Line and Chiltern Railways services.

TfL and Waltham Forest have proposed to link Walthamstow Central station with Walthamstow Queens Road railway station via paths or a subway to give better interchange between the two stations.

Cooling

Main article: London Underground cooling

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 sub-surface tunnels and the new S Stock trains due to be delivered from 2009 will have air-conditioning.

Image

See also: London Underground in popular culture

File:Way out tube.jpg

'Way Out' sign indicates the exit — these tiled signs are typical in stations designed by Leslie Green, many of which survive.

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

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

• 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.
• Photo Essay of The London Underground
• nycsubway.org's Photographs of London Underground
• London Underground Edwardian Tile Patterns (Warning: pop-ups)

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