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First Day of the London Tube

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Work on the world’s first underground railway started in 1860 when the Metropolitan Railway began building a tunnel more than three miles long from Paddington to Farringdon Street. It was largely financed by the City of London, which was suffering badly from horse-drawn traffic congestion that was having a damaging effect on business. The idea of an underground system had originated with the City solicitor, Charles Pearson, who had pressed for it for years. It was he who persuaded the City Corporation to put up money and he was probably the most important single figure in the underground’s creation. In the 1850s Charles Pearson devised a plan to build an ‘Arcade Railway’ beneath the Farringdon Road to connect the Great Northern railway at Kings Cross with Farringdon, in the City of London, thereby reducing traffic on the capital’s congested streets. He died in 1862, only a few months before his brainchild came to life.

It was, on the face of it, a stupid idea. Running trains, and steam trains at that, in tunnels underneath the London streets. In 1862, the Times described it as an ‘insult to common sense’ and it was probably right. But the London Underground turned out to be one of the great engineering feats of modern times, the world’s only steam-driven underground railway and the first electrified underground railway. It helped drive London’s rapid expansion and got people to work on time.

The system's first tunnels were built just below the surface using the cut and cover method. Later, circular tunnels – which give rise to its nickname the Tube – were dug through the London Clay at a deeper level. Brick walls were built along the sides, the railway tracks were laid at the bottom and then the trench was roofed over with brick arches and the roads were put back on top. Stations were lighting by gas.

Built round the clock by shifts of navvies, the line had to avoid numerous water and gas pipes, drains and sewers.

The line was opened to the public on January 10th, 1863, a Saturday, and people flocked to try it out. The first section linked the City with the railway stations at Paddington and King’s Cross. More than 30,000 passengers crowded the stations and pushed their way into packed trains. The underground had been mocked in the music halls and derisively nicknamed ‘the Drain’. There were predictions that the tunnel’s roof would give way and people would fall into it, while passengers would be asphyxiated by the fumes.

In fact the railway was a tremendous success and The Times hailed it as ‘the great engineering triumph of the day’. In its first year it carried more than nine million passengers drawn by steam locomotives that belched out choking quantities of smoke. The tunnels were made as small as possible in order to reduce construction costs. The coaches themselves were small and narrow. No wonder that people called this underground line a ‘sardine-box-railway’. The small windows in the trains were made in the roof so that passengers could see nothing. The oil and gas lamps used gave little light, so passengers had to take candles with them. Steam locomotives filled the tunnels with steam and smoke. And the passengers were forbidden to smoke in the carriages.

Over the next two years the line was extended further east and in the other direction. Other lines were soon added to the growing network, deeper underground tunnelling was introduced and the steam trains were replaced by electric trains. When put into service, electric trains eliminated steam and smoke and ensured much more frequent services for passengers. The first underground electric railway was opened in 1890. It was the first line, which was called ‘the tube’. In the first twelve months 9.5 million passengers were carried and in the second twelve months this increased to 12 million

Since that time underground railways have spread rapidly all over the world. London Metropolitan was followed by metros in Budapest, Berlin, and Paris, and later on in the rest of Europe, North and South America, Russia, Japan, China, and India. About 120 cities worldwide currently have metro networks, carrying more than 150 million passengers daily. The reason is the same as 100 years ago – traffic congestion and environmental protection.

According to the statistics, the London Underground is the oldest and longest (415km) metro system in the world. Now the system serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometers (250 mi) of track.

 




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