speeds of Underground lines | District Dave's London Underground Site District Dave's London Underground Site The Administration team are: Chris W, Dstock7080, londonstuff, rincew1nd, and seaeagle The Moderator team are: antharro, DistrictSOM, Dom K, metman, MoreToJack, Rich32, superteacher, tut and whistlekiller2000 speeds of Underground lines Back to Top Post by on May 2, 2011 18:38:53 GMT Does anybody know which is the fastest underground line, i would say the fastest ones are Jubilee, Central and victoria line and the slowest i would say is the Northern line and the Sub suface lines exept the Metropolitan line which used to travel up to 70mph however they rearly go over 50 mph these days. I dont know the offical fastest line could anybody help please? Post by cj on May 2, 2011 19:04:42 GMT Rarely go over 50? LOL. I'd say the Jubilee Jubilee is fastest, the Met coming in second.

I've clocked an A stock doing 65 up the Met and from experience my GPS is very accurate with speed if not reading slightly under... but they aren't supposed to do that. The Jubilee is blazingly fast through some of the JLE sections when under TBTC. Last Edit: May 2, 2011 19:08:25 GMT by cj Back to Top Post by on May 2, 2011 19:13:45 GMT Yes, the Jubilee line will be the fastest as it can do speeds of 62mph and now its in ATO all trains will be quicker. However when the Jubilee line was in manual i still thought they were pritty quick. The S stock is limited to 50mph am sure. It must be pritty terrifying traveling at 70mph on a A stock! Back to Top Post by metman on May 2, 2011 19:17:35 GMT The S stock design speed is 62mph but it is capped to enable safe working within the current signalling system... see earlier thread......

May 2, 2011 19:13:45 GMT @jardine01 said: Yes, the Jubilee line will be the fastest as it can do speeds of 62mph and now its in ATO all trains will be quicker. However when the Jubilee line was in manual i still thought they were pritty quick. The S stock is limited to 50mph am sure. It must be pritty terrifying traveling at 70mph on a A stock! ATO itself doesn't make it quicker. The new signalling system allows the trains to work at their full potential rather than to a fixed signalling system designed for the performance curves of something like 72ts or on the north end of the line probably older on the old signals! TBTC has a constant calculation of overlap based on the speed. That means that a train going slower can come closer to the train ahead, and also means that they can reach fast speeds without having to worry about compromised overlaps or signal placement. That's the beauty of moving-block signalling, and will most certainly benefit the S stock when it is installed on the SSL - hopefully much better than the current crawl that is the SSL in the central area!

May 2, 2011 19:13:45 GMT @jardine01 said: Yes, the Jubilee line will be the fastest as it can do speeds of 62mph and now its in ATO all trains will be quicker. However when the Jubilee line was in manual i still thought they were pritty quick. The S stock is limited to 50mph am sure. It must be pritty terrifying traveling at 70mph on a A stock! 96ts is rated for a top speed of 75mph not 62mph like the 92ts or the S Stock. However that doesn't mean they will ever do 75mph or there is any benefit from having a higher top speed, especially on a line which doesn't run out far like the Central or Metropolitan where top speed would be more beneficial. Trains running at a lower speed are allowed closer to the train in front. In todays world it's about the frequency and not the top speed.

150 facts for 150 years of the London Tube | The Independent History 150 facts for 150 years of the London Tube From 'suicide pits' to the 'Tubites': collected trivia about the capital's Victorian subterranean transport system in celebration of its Sesquicentennial Wednesday 9 January 2013 11:59 BST Click to follow 150 facts for 150 years of the London Tube 1/28 The London Tube is celebrating its 150th anniversary Getty Images Victorian tile signs have been updated with more modern ones in some stations Getty Images London Mayor Boris Johnson travelling on the Tube Getty Images Bank station during the London 2012 Olympics GettyImages Oyster cards were introduced on the Tube in 2003 Getty Images The entrance to Westminster Underground with Big Ben in the background Getty Images 9/28 Shoppers keen to catch the Boxing Day sale queue outside Bond Street for the Tube station to open early AM Getty Images The Tube's famously dirt-covering patterned seat fabric Getty Images A woman at Oxford Circus station Getty Images 12/28 World War II, 25th, September, 19

40, Members of the public huddle together in a London underground station Getty Images London Underground workers building the Piccadilly Line extension at Turnpike Lane in 1930 Getty Images 14/28 Queen Elizabeth II travels on a tube train after the official opening ceremony of London Underground's Victoria Line in 1969 Getty Images 15/28 Mayor of London Boris Johnson at the opening of the ticket hall at King's Cross St Pancras Station in 2009 PA 16/28 17/28 Emergency services at Chancery Lane Underground Station in London after a tube train derailed in 2003 PA 18/28 In this file picture taken on September 4, 2007 passengers jostle to enter the Underground station at Waterloo Station in central London, as commuters battled with severe transport disruption to get to work as unions staged a second day of strikes on the capital's underground system AFP 19/28 London resident Jean Farrow, 36, one of the first directly recruited female drivers sitting at the front of a tube train at Hammersmith station PA Londoners take shelter in the London Underground during the Blitz PA David

 Cameron travelling by tube on the Underground to the O2 Arena in London PA 22/28 A London Transport official showing the Prince of Wales the controls in the driver's car of a Jubilee Line train in 1979 PA Passengers on the London Underground in 1955 PA 24/28 Lord Ashfield handing over the silver key to Col.

Moore Brabazon during the opening of the Northern line, London in 1926 PA 25/28 Torchbearer and London Underground employee John Light carrying the Olympic Flame onto an underground train at Wimbledon Station, London PA The fire-damaged escalators at King's Cross underground station in London in 1987 PA Two 'buskers' entertain travellers by playing musical instruments on the London Underground in central London AFP An underground train heads into Central London on the Piccadilly Line on day of winter AFP The London Tube is celebrating its 150th anniversary Today it is 150 years since the first Tube journey. Here’s a fascinating fact for each year of its operation: The visionaries One of the leading visionaries of underground railways was Londoner Charles Pearson (1793-1862), who first envisaged a Fleet Valley rail tunnel in 1845. Pearson also campaigned for the removal of an inscription on the Monument blaming the Great Fire of London on Catholics and the overturning of the ban on Jews becoming brokers in the City of London.

John Fowler (1817-98) was the man tasked with designing the engineering solutions to Pearson’s idea for the first underground railway. Fowler’s other works include the Forth Railway Bridge. Oxford Circus station was designed by Harry Bell Measures (1862-1940), who established his career by designing some of the grandest homes in the capital. The architect who engineered most of the District line was John Wolfe-Barry (1836-1918), who also designed Tower Bridge. In 1843 the Thames Tunnel was completed and opened. It was designed by Marc Brunel (Isambard Kingdom’s father) and was the first tunnel ever to be built under a navigable river. It’s now part of the London Overground line. Tube Firsts The journey of the first Tube train took place on 9 January 1863. The first Tube line was built and financed by a private company, the Metropolitan Railway. The Tube’s first escalator was installed at Earl’s Court in 1911, featuring a diagonal finish to the stairway, meaning the right foot reached the top moments before the left.

In 1907 a spiral escalator opened at Holloway Road. Getting bigger In 1884 there were over 800 trains running around all or part of the Inner Circle every day. A full journey on the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern Line), from Stockwell to the City, took just 18 minutes. Between 1891 and 1893 five more Tube railways under London were authorised by Parliament. In 1896 the Glasgow District Subway opened. It was the only complete underground railway opened in the UK outside of London. The Waterloo and City line was the only other line to be built before the turn of the century. The Great Northern and City line (between Moorgate and Finsbury Park) was mostly completed by 1902. The tunnels on the Central line twist and turn because they follow the curves of London’s medieval street plan. There is a prevalent north/south divide on the Underground; less than 10 per cent of stations are south of the Thames. The Underground was funded entirely by private companies until the 1930s.

Building works It took 21 years (from 1863 to 1884) to complete the Inner Circle of tube lines in central London. London’s current Crossrail development is Europe’s biggest construction project, as well as its most expensive. If completed on time it will have taken nine years for Crossrail to be completed. Just 70 years after it was first proposed. Each tunnel-boring machine for Crossrail costs £10m and the trains will cost another £1bn. Kennington is the only surviving City and South London Railway station that remains close to its original condition, still featuring a domed roof. Funding for a deep-level “Route C” line, better known as the Victoria line, was approved in 1955. The grand opening of the Victoria line, or “London’s Pride”, was on 7 March 1969. Queen Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch to take the Tube, when she took the inaugural ride on the Victoria line from Green Park. Accidents and incidents The first accidents on the underground occurred within a couple of months of opening in 1863, involving slow-moving collisions at Farringdon Street station.

The space below tube tracks are colloquially known as “suicide pits” as they help reduce the chance of death or serious injury should someone jump in front of a train. Around 50 passengers a year commit suicide on the Underground, however the Jubilee line is the only line to feature protective screens along the platforms. Smoking was finally banned across the Tube network following the King’s Cross fire in November 1987, which killed 31 people. Nicknames When the Circle Line opened in 1884, the experience of riding it was described in The Times as “a form of mild torture”. The “Tube” became a proper name for the first time in the early 1900s, after the Central London Railway (now the Central Line) was nicknamed the “Twopenny Tube”. The “Twopenny Tube” nickname was conceived by the Daily Mail, five days after it opened. The claustrophobic carriages on the early underground trains became known as “padded cells”.

Going both ways In 1903 the Central London line became the first railway in Britain to be worked entirely by multiple-unit trains – meaning the trains no longer needed to be turned around when they reached each end of the line. By 1905 all the Tube lines had adopted multiple-unit trains. Shopping The “Twopenny Tube” line significantly boosted profits to shops based around Oxford Street and Regent Street. In 1909 Selfridges department store lobbied (unsuccessfully) to get Bond Street station renamed after itself. More successful was Brent Cross. Brent station was named after the shopping centre when it opened nearby in 1976. The Central London Railway released a ladies only Christmas shopping ticket as a special promotion in 1912. First World War During the First World War, women began to make up staff shortages on the Underground. When Maida Vale station opened on 6 June 1915 it was entirely staffed by women. By the end of 1917 the Metropolitan Railway had 552 women on its staff.

Police reports of German bomb raids on London in 1917 estimated that 300,000 people were taking shelter in Tube stations. A white marble memorial at Baker Street station commemorates the 137 Metropolitan Railway employees killed during the First World War. The extension of the Piccadilly line northwards was largely down to passenger pressure; In 1923, a 30,000-signature petition was delivered to the Ministry of Transport. Design In the 1860s only basic signage – the station name and exit – was provided on the Underground. One of the first rail maps, produced by the District line in 1892, featured the slogan “Time Is Money” on the cover. The Tube’s world-famous red circle logo, known as the “roundel”, first appeared in 1908. Around 60 stations had the Metropolitan line’s red diamond instead of the “roundel” between 1919 and the 1970s. The Underground Sans font, still used in a modified form for all the Tube’s posters and design, was created by Edward Johnston in 1916.

In 1907 a photographic survey was taken of all station exteriors in order to establish ways in which a more uniform design style could be achieved. Etiquette posters warning people to move down the car and to let passengers off first have been produced since the early years of the Tube, some by celebrated cartoonist George Morrow. The Victoria line commissioned artists to produce original tile motifs for each station, including the seven trees which give Seven Sisters its name. The map The first free Underground map was released in 1908, a joint marketing enterprise produced collaboratively by the various private companies which ran the separate lines. The classic diagrammatic Underground map designed by Harry Beck was first produced in 1933, inspired by electrical circuit diagrams. The map was originally offered to the Underground by Harry Beck in 1931, but it was rejected as it was considered too radical for the public. Harry Beck was paid 10 guineas, or £10.50, for his Tube map design. Beck spent two years pestering the Underground to print a trial run – which was enthusiastically received by Londoners.

Beck remained very involved with changes and updates to his map for over 25 years until eventually falling out with London Transport. In 1959 his name was removed from the map, until the 1990s, when he was once again acknowledged as its creator and “H.C. Beck” reappeared on the large-format station maps. In 2006 the London Underground map came second in a BBC competition to find the public’s favourite British design of the 20th century. In 2009 the angular representation of the river Thames was briefly removed from the map, but quickly replaced after a public outcry. Property Chiltern Court, the largest apartment block in London, was opened over Baker Street station in 1929. You can buy a three-bed flat there today for £1.1m. From 1933, London Transport was responsible for an area of 2,000 square miles within a 20- to 30-mile radius of Charing Cross. Once formed, London Transport inherited an underground railway network covering 227 miles and carrying some 415 million passengers each year.

Mind the gap The original recording of “Mind the gap” was made in 1968 featuring the voice of sound recordist Peter Lodge. While most lines still use Peter Lodge’s recording of “Mind the gap”, others use a recording by voice artist Emma Clarke. The Piccadilly line uses the voice of Tim Bentinck, better known as David Archer from The Archers. Art Scottish sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi designed the mosaic murals at Tottenham Court Road station, which were completed in 1984. In the 90s, due to a boom in graffiti, the “silver” tube trains were replaced with the red, white and blue painted ones still seen today. Southwark Station’s blue cone wall, built as part of the Jubilee line extension’s new generation of stations, was inspired by an 1816 stage set for The Magic Flute. Since 2003, musicians require a licence to busk on the Tube. The ceramics on the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern line) were inspired by the designs of artist William Morris. Architects Charles Holden is perhaps one of the most prominent station architects.

He based Arnos Grove on Stockholm Public Library and Gants Hill was inspired by the Moscow Metro. All 46 stations designed by Leslie Green have distinctive tile patterns to help regular customers recognise them. Green’s stations – such as Covent Garden – were all steel-clad to allow premises to be built on top of them. Sir Norman Foster designed Canary Wharf station, which opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee line extension. Prices The original trains had three different classes, costing three, four and six pence for a single journey. l A single cash journey in Zone 1 now costs £4.50. The Oyster card touch ticketing system was introduced in 2002. If you paid a full cash fare between Covent Garden and Leicester Square (0.16 miles) it works out at over £28-a-mile. Biggest, longest, lift-iest Each year, every Tube train travels 114,500miles/184,269km. The average speed of a train is 33km/20.5 miles per hour. Only 45 per cent of the network is actually in tunnels. There are 426 escalators.

Waterloo has the most: 23. The total number of lifts, including four stair lifts, on the Underground network is 164. The deepest lift shaft is at Hampstead station and is 55.2m. The shortest lift shaft is at King’s Cross and is just 2.3m. The total number of carriages in the Underground’s fleet is 4,134. The total number of stations currently served is 270. The total number of staff on the Underground is approximately 19,000. Baker Street is the station with the most platforms: 10. The long and short of it The total length of the Tube network is 402km/249 miles. The longest continuous tunnel runs between East Finchley and Morden (via Bank) and is 27.8km/17.25 miles long. The longest distance between two stations is between Chesham and Chalfont and Latimer on the Metropolitan line, which are 6.3km apart. The shortest distance between two stations is from Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line, which are a mere 300m apart.

The longest journey you can take without a change is 59.4km from West Ruislip to Epping on the Central line. The longest escalator on the network is at Angel and is 60m long, with a vertical rise of 26.5m. The shortest escalator is at Stratford, taking passengers up just 4.1m. The deepest station below street level in central London is Bank, which is 41.4m deep. In outer London, Hampstead is the deepest station below street level, at 58.5m. Passenger numbers The first-ever day of public service was enjoyed by 40,000 passengers. In 1908, the first full year of operation for all three lines, the Hampstead Tube (now part of the Northern Line) carried 25 million passengers, the Bakerloo 28 million and the Piccadilly 34.5 million. Passenger numbers grew rapidly and by 1918 the Underground was carrying 70 per cent more people than in 1914. Currently 1,107 million passengers are carried every year.

The busiest station in London is Waterloo, which has 57,000 people entering during the three-hour morning peak. 82 million passengers travel through Waterloo each year. During 2011/12, London Underground carried a record number of passengers, with 1.171 billion journeys made. This is 64 million more than in 2010/11. Speeds In central London, trains cannot drive faster than 30-40mph because of the short distances between stations. The Victoria line can reach speeds of up to 50mph because the stations are further apart. The Metropolitan line has the fastest train speeds, sometimes reaching over 60mph. Ghosts A prototype smokeless locomotive built in 1861 by Robert Stephenson and Co never made it into service, earning it the nickname “Fowler’s Ghost”. Disused stations, known as “ghost” stations, such as those at Aldwych, Down Street and Lord’s, often find alternate work as film and TV sets. A ghost named Annie Naylor, a dead milliner, aka the “Screaming Spectre”, is said to haunt Farringdon station.

Likewise, actor William Terris “haunts” Covent Garden. Second World War Rapid expansion of the Underground services into London’s suburbs throughout the 30s were brought abruptly to a halt with the outbreak of the Second World War. The Underground was central to evacuating children and expectant mothers from London to the countryside in 1939. Within a couple of days, London Transport successfully evacuated 600,000 vulnerable Londoners. Brompton Road station on the Piccadilly line, which was closed in 1934, was converted into an underground Operations Room for London’s anti-aircraft control during the war. During the war, signs warning passengers to carry their gas marks were on display at every Underground station. Despite having been previously used as shelters in 1917, the government felt that the Underground should be used for transport, not shelter. Posters were put up warning passengers that Underground stations “must not be used as air-raid shelters”. On 7 September 1940, the East End experienced the first of many heavy bombing raids. People rushed to the Underground stations and staff were unable to resist.

Many people got round the Tube sheltering ban by buying cheap penny travel tickets and then refusing to leave the platforms. Trains continued to run throughout the blitz, leading to especially crowded stations mixed with travellers and those seeking shelter. The press described those sheltering in the Underground as “Tubites”; London Transport called them “squatters”. It wasn’t long before around 177,000 people were sheltering in the Underground’s deep-level stations every night. “Droppers” would get into the station early and drop items of clothing against the wall to reserve the prime spots, which would then be sold for up to half a crown each. Some communities of shelterers on the Underground set up committees and newsletters to campaign for better facilities. On 8 October 1940 the government announced a U-turn and ended the unenforceable ban on sheltering in the Tube. For Christmas 1940, London Transport staff distributed over 11,000 toys, presented by America’s Air Raid Relief Fund to children sheltering in stations. Numbered bunk beds and a ticketing system were quickly installed to reduce queuing and stop “droppers”.

By the end of the war there were over 22,000 beds installed in Underground stations. A popular war-time addition to the Underground was the “Tube Refreshment’s Service” which distributed seven tons of food to those sheltering every night. Between September 1940 and May 1941, 198 people were killed when Tube shelters were hit directly by bombs. One of the worst bombing incidents to affect the Underground shelters was on 14 October, when a bomb pierced the road surface, killing 64 people sheltering on the platform below. On 13 January 1941, Bank station was hit, killing 56 people. Details of the incident were strictly censored. The worst single incident to occur in London during the war was on 3 March 1943, when 173 people were crushed to death in a stairwell at Bethnal Green station – not a single bomb was dropped on the capital that night. Around 200 London Transport workers were killed on duty during World War Two. Despite a ban on geographic transport maps during the war, the Tube map was still permitted, presumably because it wouldn’t have been much help to Nazi paratroopers.

Nature London Underground manages about 10 per cent of green spaces in London, playing host to everything from deer to grass snakes. It has been estimated that around half a million mice are living across the Underground network. The mosquitoes that live in the Tube tunnels have evolved into a unique species known for its voracious biting. They were named Culex pipiens molestus by biologists. The website “Animals on the Underground” has made 35 different animals shapes from Beck’s Tube map. Events In 1956, to fill staff shortages, London Transport began to directly recruit in Barbados and Jamaica. By 1969 over 4,000 staff from the West Indies had been recruited by London Transport. The Tube celebrated its centenary in 1963 with a series of events including a parade of underground trains at Neasden depot. In 1978 Hannah Dadds became the first woman to be employed as an Underground train driver. The Tube usually only runs for 24 hours during New Year, however it also stayed open all night for the 2012 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. Three babies have been born in the London Underground.

The most recent was a boy, born in December 2008. All these facts are taken from Underground: How the Tube Shaped London by David Bownes, Oliver Green and Sam Mullins (Allen Lane, £25); London Underground by Design by Mark Ovenden (Particular, £20) and Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube (Profile, £8.99). All out now. Transport. London Underground and more… | Kalpachev photography Transport. London Underground and more… Posted by: admin October 5, 2013 in London , transport Leave a comment Photos and images of transport in London. Underground, tube stations, tube, metro, buses in London and more.

Facts and figures about London Underground Tube Number of miles/km travelled by each Tube train each year: 114,500 miles/184,269km Total number of passengers carried each year: 1,229 million Average train speed: 33km per hour/20.5mph Length of network: 402km/249 miles Proportion of the network that is in tunnels: 45 per cent Longest continuous tunnel: East Finchley to Morden (via Bank) – 27.8km/17.25 miles Total number of escalators: 426 Station with most escalators: Waterloo – 23 Longest escalator: Angel – 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m/90ft Shortest escalator: Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m Total number of lifts, including four stair lifts: 167 Four passenger conveyors – two at Waterloo and two at Bank Deepest lift shaft: Hampstead – 55.2m/181ft Shortest lift shaft: King’s Cross – 2.

3m/7.5ft Vertical lifting platforms highest rise: Walthamstow 1.98m/6.5ft Vertical lifting platforms shortest: Hainault 0.64m/2.1ft Carriages in London Underground’s (LU’s) fleet: 4134 Total number of stations served: 270 Total number of stations managed: 260 Total number of staff: 19,000 approx Stations with the most platforms: Baker Street – 10.

Moorgate has 10 platforms but only six are used by LU (two are used by First Capital Connect and two were formerly used by Thameslink services) Busiest stations: During the three-hour morning peak, London’s busiest Tube station is Waterloo, with 57,000 people entering. The busiest station in terms of passengers each year is also Waterloo with 82 million The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908 London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890, when the first deep-level electric railway line was opened The Tube’s world-famous logo, ‘the roundel’ (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar), first appeared in 1908 Investment and performance LU transferred from the control of the Government to Transport for London (TfL) on 15 July 2003 TfL is investing billions of pounds into upgrading the Tube During 2011/12 LU: Carried record numbers of passengers with 1.171 billion journeys made.

This is 64 million more passenger journeys than the previous year, which itself had set a new record Operated a new record of train kilometres, up 5% on last year to 72.4 million train kilometres Beat all previous customer satisfaction evaluation scores. This year the score was 80 out of 100 the highest since records began Improved reliability, as measured by the amount of delays to customers, with the number of customers hours lost to delays at their lowest since measurements began in 1999. Implemented a co-ordinated and consolidated reliability improvement programme, redoubling efforts to ensure a more consistently reliable service for customers. The programme encompasses a range of measures to predict and prevent failures on the network. Find out more here Completed the Victoria and Jubilee line upgrades increasing capacity with a faster more frequent service to cope with the ever increasing passenger demand and reduce delays Made significant progress with the Sub-Surface Railway upgrade awarding a major signalling contract and rolling out new air conditioned trains on the Metropolitan line. Added a 66th Tube station which is step-free from street to platform at Farringdon. Other key step-free stations include Stratford, Southfields (for Wimbledon), Green Park and King’s Cross St. Pancras.

Average train speed 33km per hour (20.5mph) including station stops In central London, trains cannot reach speeds of more than 30-40mph because of the short distance between stations On the Victoria line, stations are wider apart and trains can reach speeds of up to 50mph On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60mph Maximum number of trains required for scheduled peak period service London Underground: 150 fascinating Tube facts - Telegraph Telegraph 150 London Underground facts (including the birth of Jerry Springer in East Finchley station) It's closed today, but it's still interesting Credit: John Stillwell Jolyon Attwooll , Travel writer 9 January 2017 • 11:00am You can't ride it today, thanks to industrial action. But you can learn a few things about the Tube instead. 1. There is only one Tube station which does not have any letters of the word 'mackerel' in it: St John's Wood. 2. The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour including station stops. 3.

The busiest Tube station is Waterloo, which was used by around 95 million passengers in 2015. In 2014 Oxford Circus took top spot, in 2009 it was Victoria, and in 2005 it was King's Cross, 4. On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60mph. The Night Tube service started on August 19, 2016 Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS 5. The shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the underground network is only 260 metres. The tube journey between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line takes only about 20 seconds, but costs £4.90 (cash fare). Yet it still remains one of the most popular journeys with tourists. 6. Many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War, but the Central Line was even converted into a fighter aircraft factory that stretched for over two miles, with its own railway system. Its existence remained an official secret until the 1980s. 7.

Angel has the Underground's longest escalator at 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m. 8. The shortest escalator is Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m. 9. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels. 10. The longest distance between stations is on the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles. The history of the Tube in pictures 11. The longest continuous tunnel is on the Northern line and runs from East Finchley to Morden (via Bank), a total of 17.3 miles. 12. Aldgate Station, on the Circle and Metropolitan Lines, is built on a massive plague pit, where more than 1,000 bodies are buried. 13. The longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping, and is a total of 34.1 miles. 14. The deepest station is Hampstead on the Northern line, which runs down to 58.5 metres. 15.

In Central London the deepest station below street level is also the Northern line. It is the DLR concourse at Bank, which is 41.4 metres below. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels 16. The TARDIS, (Dr Who’s transport) can be found outside Earl’s Court station. Or at least an old police call box can. 17. The London Underground manages about 10 per cent of all green spaces in London. 18. Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms. 19. Over 47 million litres water are pumped from the Tube each day, enough to fill a standard leisure centre swimming pool (25 metres x 10 metres) every quarter of an hour. 20. The London Underground trains were originally steam powered. 21. The station with the most platforms is Baker Street with 10 (Moorgate also has 10 platforms but only six are used by Tube trains - others are used by overground trains). 22.The District Line has the most stations: 60.

There are 270 stations on the network Credit: Dominic Lipinski 23. The Waterloo and City Line has the fewest stations (no intermediate stations) 24. The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908. 25. London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890 due to the shape of the tunnels. 26. The first deep-level electric railway line also opened in 1890. 27. The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar) 28. The station with the most escalators is Waterloo with 23. 29. The total number of passengers carried during 2013/14 was 1.265 billion – making it the world's 11th busiest metro. 30. The highest station above sea level is Amersham, at 147 metres. What we love about the London Underground 31. Tube trains travelled 76.4 million kilometres last year. 32. The Northern line has the highest maximum number of trains required for scheduled peak period service: 91.

The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” Credit: Reuters Photographer 33. The Waterloo & City line has the fewest scheduled for peak period service at just five. 34. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles. 35. In 1926, suicide pits were installed beneath tracks due to a rise in the numbers of passengers throwing themselves in front of trains. 36. The eastern extension of the Jubilee line is the only Underground line to feature glass screens to deter "jumpers". 37. The earliest trains run from Osterley to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, starting at 4.45am. 38. The greatest elevation above the ground level is on the Northern line at Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis road, Mill Hill: it rises a total of 18 metres (60ft). 39. One of the early names proposed for the Victoria Line was the Viking line. 40. In 1924, the first baby was born on the Underground, on a train at Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo line. The Tube's prettiest stations 41.

The American talk show host Jerry Springer was born at East Finchley during the Second World War: his mother had taken shelter in the station from an air raid. 42. Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames. 43. The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and Mark Twain on board. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles Credit: PA 44. The tunnels beneath the City curve significantly because they follow its medieval street plan. 45. The Central line introduced the first flat fare when it opened at the turn of the 20th century. The tuppence fare lasted until the end of June 1907 when a threepenny fare was introduced for longer journeys. 46. Charles Pearson, MP and Solicitor to the City of London, is credited with successfully campaigning for the introduction of the Underground. He died in 1862 shortly before the first train ran. 47. The first escalator on the Underground was installed at Earl's Court in 1911. 48.

The first crash on the Tube occurred in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers. 49. Harry Beck produced the well known Tube map diagram while working as an engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office. He was reportedly paid 10 guineas (£10.50) for his efforts. 50. Harry Beck’s map was considered too big a departure from the norm, but the public liked it and it became official in 1933. 51. Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003. 52. Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise. 53. The phrase "Mind the gap" dates back to 1968. The recording that is broadcast on stations was first done by Peter Lodge, who had a recording company in Bayswater. A photo posted by bologna|2001|galvani (@_f_r_e_0_1_) on Aug 18, 2016 at 4:53am PDT 54.

The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke. On the Piccadilly line the recording is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in The Archers. 55. The Jubilee Line was the only Underground Line to connect with all the others until the East London line ceased to be part of the Underground in 2007 (now the Central Line does too). 56. Approximately 50 passengers a year kill themselves on the Underground. 57. Fewer than 10 per cent of Tube stations lie south of the Thames. 58. The total number of lifts on the Underground, including four stair lifts, is 167. Ye Olde London Underground Credit: Getty 59. Smoking was banned on the Underground as a result of the King's Cross fire in November 1987 which killed 31 people. A discarded match was thought to be the cause of that inferno. 60. An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system. London's lost Tube stations: in pictures 61.

1961 marked the end of steam and electric haulage of passenger trains on the London Underground. 62. One of the levels in Tomb Raider 3 is set in the disused Aldwych tube station, featuring scenes of Lara Croft killing rats. 63. In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Hogwarts headmaster has a scar that resembles a map of the London Underground on his knee. 64.There are only two tube station names that contain all five vowels: Mansion House, and South Ealing. 65. Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916. The font he came up with is still in use today. 66. Amersham is also the most westerly tube station, as well as the highest (see above). 67. A macabre statistic is that the most popular tube suicide time is around 11am. 68. In January 2005, in an attempt to alleviate a problem with loitering young people, the London Underground announced it would play classical music at problem stations. Which buildings survived the Great Fire of London? 69.

The Underground has the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863. 70. The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington (Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines. London Underground: 10 of the funniest videos 71.The Underground was first used for air raid shelters in September 1940. 72. During the Second World War, part of the Piccadilly line (Holborn - Aldwych branch), was closed and British Museum treasures were stored in the empty spaces. 73. The London Passenger Transport Board was nationalised and became the London Transport Executive in 1948. 74. The first Tube tunnel was opened in 1880, running from the Tower of London to Bermondsey. 75. The Central Line used to be nicknamed as the 'Twopenny Tube' for its flat fare. 76. Dot matrix train destination indicators were introduced onto London Underground platforms in 1983. 77.

The single worst accident in terms of fatalities on the Underground occurred on February 28, 1975 at Moorgate, when 42 people died. 78. The Piccadilly line extended to serve Heathrow Terminal 4 in 1986. 79. Penalty fares were only introduced in 1994. 80. The Tube carried one billion passengers in a year for the first time in 2007. London Underground quiz 81.The last manually operated doors on Tube trains (replaced by air-operated doors) were phased out in 1929. 82.The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979. A photo posted by Merve (@lknmerve) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:25pm PDT 83. A census carried out on September 27, 1940, found that 177,500 Londoners were sleeping in Tube stations. 84.

During the war, special supply trains ran, providing seven tonnes of food and 2,400 gallons of tea and cocoa every night to people staying in the Tube. 85. Covent Garden is believed to be haunted by the ghost of William Terris who met an untimely death near the station in 1897. 86. Another station that is believed to be haunted is Farringdon. The so-called Screaming Spectre is believed to have been a milliner. 87. The Seven Sisters Underground station is believed to have been named after a line of elm trees which stood nearby until the 1830s. 88. The fictitious station of Walford East, which features in the long-running soap opera Eastenders, is supposed to be on the District Line. 89. Every week, Underground escalators travel the equivalent distance of going twice around the world. 90. According to TFL, London Underground trains travel a total of 1,735 times around the world (or 90 trips to the moon and back) each year. 91.

A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot. 92. A small section of the old London Wall survives in the trackside walls of Tower Hill station at platform level. One of the largest pieces of the wall also stands just outside this station. 93. Finsbury Park station has murals that show a pair of duelling pistols, harking back to a time when men would visit the park after hours to defend their honour. The Jubilee line receives the most complaints Credit: © Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo/Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo 94. In 2012, the most complained about line was the Jubilee. 95. The London Underground is thought to be the third largest metro system in the world, in terms of miles, after the Beijing Subway and the Shanghai Metro. 96. The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris. 97. The coffin of Dr.

Thomas Barnardo was carried in funeral cortege on an underground train in 1905, one of only two occasions this is known to have happened. 98. The Underground helped over 200,000 children escape to the countryside during the Second World War. 99. During the war, some stations (now mostly disused) were converted into government offices: a station called Down Street was used for meetings of the Railway Executive Committee, as well as for the War Cabinet before the Cabinet War Rooms were built. 100. Brompton Road (now disused) on the Piccadilly, Line was apparently used as a control room for anti-aircraft guns. 101. Only five London Underground stations lie outside the M25 motorway The Night Tube is finally here Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS 102. The Underground runs 24 hours a day at New Year, during special events (such as for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics), and on selected lines at the weekend. 103.

According to a 2002 study air quality on the Underground was 73 times worse than at street level, with 20 minutes on the Northern Line having "the same effect as smoking a cigarette". 104. The former poet laureate John Betjeman created 'Metroland' series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973. Ride the Emirates Air Line cable car with this 360° video 105. The Oyster card was introduced in 2003. 106. The worst civilian death toll on the Underground occurred at Bethnal Green Tube tragedy in 1943, when 173 people died. It is the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network. 107. The largest number of people killed by a single wartime bomb was 68 at Balham Station. 108. The 100th anniversary of the roundel (the Tube Logo) was celebrated in 2008 by TfL commissioning 100 artists to produce works that celebrate the design. 109.

The largest Tube car park is at Epping and has 599 parking spots. 110. The Central Line has the most tube stations with no surface building (Bank, Bethnal Green, Chancery Lane, Gants Hill, Notting Hill Gate) 111. Of the stations that have stairs, Hampstead Station has the most steps (320 in total). 112. There are 14 journeys between stations that take less than a minute on average. 113. King's Cross St Pancras tube station is served by more Underground lines than any other station on the network. 114. Seven London Boroughs are not served by the underground system, six of them being situated south of the River Thames. 115. The total number of carriages in London Underground's fleet, as of January 2013, was 4,134. 116. The total number of stations served on the network is 270. 117. London Underground transferred from the control of the Government to Transport for London (TfL) on July 15, 2003. 118.

Scenes from the film Sliding Doors were shot at Waterloo station on the Waterloo & City Line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District Line. 119. Filming on location in the Underground costs £500 per hour (plus VAT) unless you have a crew of less than five. 120. You can now no longer go around the Circle Line in a full circle. From 2009, the Circle Line terminated at Edgware Road. 121. Greenford on the Central Line was the last Tube station to use wooden escalators. They were replaced in 2014. 122. Arsenal (originally Gillespie Road) on Piccadilly line is the only station named after a football team. 123. There are three tube stations on the Monopoly board: Liverpool Street Station, King’s Cross and Marylebone. Watch | How to land at Britain's trickiest airport 03:57 124. The number of stations that only use escalators is 12 125. Nineteen stations just use lifts. 126.

The River Westbourne was funnelled above a platform on Sloane Square in a large iron pipe suspended from girders. It remains in place today. 127. The first tube station to be demolished was Westbourne Park on the Metropolitan Line. It was re-sited in 1871. 128. There is a mosquito named after the Tube – the London Underground mosquito, which was found in the London Underground. It was notable for its assault of Londoners sleeping in the Underground during the Blitz. 129.The London Underground Film Office handles over 200 requests a month. 130. In Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature film The Lodger (1926) featured the director making a cameo on the Tube. 131. The record for visiting all the stations on the London Underground network – known as the Tube Challenge – is currently held by Ronan McDonald and Clive Burgess of the United Kingdom, who completed the challenge in 16 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds on February 19, 2015 132.

The Tube Challenge record did not appear in the Guinness book of records until its eighth edition in 1960, when it stood at 18 hours, 35 minutes. 133. An interactive novel has been published, set on the London Underground. You can read it here . 134. In cockney rhyming slang, the London Underground is known as the Oxo (Cube/Tube). 135. Around 30,000 passengers went on The Metropolitan Line on its first day of public business – January 10, 1863. 136. There were claims the first baby born on the Underground was called Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor (so that her initials would have read TUBE) but this story later proved false – her actual name was Marie Cordery. London brunch 137. On August 3 2012, during the Olympic Games, the London Underground had its most hectic day ever, carrying 4.4 million passengers – but that record was beaten on Friday December 4 2015, when 4.82 million people used it. 138.

St James is the only Underground Station to have Grade-I protected status. It includes 55 Broadway, the administrative headquarters of London’s Underground since the 1930s. 139. The most recent Tube birth – a boy – was in 2009. 140. The most common location for filming is Aldwych, a disused station. 141. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen travelled on the Underground for the first time in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess Marion Crawford and Princess Margaret. Apr 30, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT 142. Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986, the idea of American writer Judith Chernaik. 143. A series of animal shapes have also been highlighted in the London Underground map, first discovered by Paul Middlewick in 1988. They're created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map. 144. A fragrance known as Madeleine was trialled at St.

James Park, Euston, and Piccadilly stations in 2001, intended to make the Tube more pleasant. It was stopped within days after complaints from people saying they felt ill. 145. There were eight deep-level shelters built under the London Underground in the Second World War. One of them in Stockwell is decorated as a war memorial. 146. After the war, the deep level shelter at Clapham South housed immigrants from the West Indies. 147. A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map. 148. The first ever air-conditioned, walk-through Underground train ran on the Metropolitan line in 2010. 149. The average distance travelled by each Tube train annually stands at around 114,500 miles. 150. Alcohol was banned on the Tube – and all London Transport – from June 2008. Editor's note: Note that one or two facts have changed since this article was first published in 2014 and this has been updated to reflect those changes. The Best Hotels In London

Question: On which of London’s tube lines do trains reach the greatest speeds?
Answer: Metropolitan