London underground

The London Underground is an electric mass transit railway system or a metro system that covers the whole area of London and beyond the city of London. It runs both above and below ground. It is also known by the name of "the Tube", for its round-shaped tube like tunnels through which small trains move.

The London Underground is a very old underground system and, is also considered one of the three largest underground systems in the world. In the recent past, the total number of passengers journey on the metro has been 976,000,000 (approx.), which makes an average of 2,670,000 a day. At present, the Underground serves 274 stations, and it runs over 253 miles of lines.

The London Underground has been considered a part of Transport for London (TfL), administering buses in London. These buses also include the famous red double-decker buses, which have seats for large number of passengers, that is, normally between 60 to 80 passengers. In the past, London Regional Transport (LRT) used to run the Underground and other bus services. The LRT was directly accountable to the Secretary of State for Transport, a member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The London Regional Transport Act had set provisions for establishment of subsidiary companies to run the London Underground.

Commencement

It started its operations on 10 January 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway, to be run between Paddington and Farrington. There were almost 40,000 passengers seated on the train that day, and the trains were running throughout the day, arriving the station every 10 minutes.

2005: Underground faced terrorist attacks

London faced a serious terrorist attack in the month of July in the year 2005. On 7 July 2005, a series of coordinated suicide bombings struck the whole of London’s public transport system, comprising the Underground trains between Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations, Russell Square and King's Cross St Pancras stations, and Edgware Road and Paddington stations. These bombings killed 56 civilians and injured over 700 people.

Also, a No. 30 double-decker bus was exploded at Tavistock Square, while routing from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick.

On 21 July 2005, another series of attempted bomb attacks again disrupted the whole of London’s public transport system, killing only a single person, at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations and on a bus in Shoreditch. It was later revealed that all four bombs had failed to explode as planned.

Flooding

Underground has been increasingly suffering from the problem of flooding. After the breweries industries and paper mills extracting large amounts of water were closed during 1960s, the ground water of London has been intensifying to an unimaginable extent. By mid 2001, the London Underground has been able to pump out around 30,000 cubic meters of water from the tunnels every day.

The London Underground had to withstand the danger flooding from the River Thames, until the Thames flood barrier was built in 1986. It is a structure created to control floods on the River Tames in London, and is the world's second largest movable flood barrier after the Oosterscheldekering in Netherlands. The barrier also reduced the dependence on floodgates, but they remain in service and are tested thrice in a year for its operations such that they continue to run elsewhere on the line.

Network

In the London Underground, all tracks are maintained and checked for discrepancies at night after the day operations end, and due to this it does not run throughout the day. Moreover, the London Underground does not have express tracks so that trains can be rerouted around the maintenance sites.

Rolling Stock

The London Underground makes use of a variety of rolling stock, which has been built amid 1960 and 1996. Two distinct types of lines run on the underground, viz. the sub-surface lines, and the deep-level ‘Tube’ lines.

Sub-surface lines rolling stock is usually identified by a letter, whilst tube line rolling stock is identified by the year in which it was designed. Practically, all lines are worked by a single type of stock. Only the District Line, running through the central area in shallow cut-and-cover tunnels, uses both C and D rolling stock.

Stations

Technically, the London Underground serves 275 stations. At present, both Heathrow Terminal 4 and Queensway are closed, which reduces the figure from 275 to 273 stations. The Heathrow Terminal 4 has been closed on a temporary basis, since the Heathrow loop has to be modified for servicing of a new two-platform Piccadilly Line terminus, also called Terminal 5.

Sub-Surface versus tube lines

As said earlier, the lines on the Underground are of two distinct types, namely, sub-surface lines and deep level ‘Tube’ lines.

The sub-surface lines were dug by the cut-and-cover method, with the tracks running about 5m below the surface. This method is a simple method of construction for shallow tunnels where a long narrow ditch is excavated and roofed over.

Trains, which run on the sub-surface lines, have a loading gauge, such that trains can move through smaller tunnels. The deep-level ‘tube’ lines run about 20 m below the surface, with each track running in a separate tunnel lined with cast-iron rings. The loading gauge in these lines is smaller in comparison to the sub-surface lines.

South London

The South London experiences lack of lines for the Underground. Furthermore, it is unfeasible for cut-and-cover lines to go under the River Thames, even though the East London Line is almost based on sub-surface lines. In addition, the District Line crosses the River Thames by bridge in two locations in the West London, that is, at Putney and at Kew. In fact, it seems that during the period of tube building around the end of the 19th century, South London already had suburban lines of the London and South Western railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway running. Thus, at the end, the Underground did not find it necessary to develop those areas. At present, the area is served by suburban rail services run by the South West Trains, Southern and South East Trains franchise holders.

Connections to airports and eurostar

The London Underground connects with international Eurostar trains (Waterloo), and runs up to Heathrow Airport (Piccadilly Line). Even though the latter is slow and frequently crowded, it is a cheaper way to travel to the city center than the Heathrow Express, as it is not part of the network of the London Underground.

The Underground links to Stansted Airport, located in the English county of Essex about 30 miles north of London, are at Liverpool Street, towards the northeastern corner of London, and Tottenham Hale. While, the Underground link to Gatwick (located in West Essex about 25 miles south of London), is Victoria, which is served by the District, Circle and Victoria Lines.

Ticketing

The ticketing of the London Underground is based on fares calculated by Travelcard zones. This includes fares for use on the Underground only.

Travelcard Zone1 is the most central zone, and has a boundary just beyond the Circle Line. Travelcard Zone 6 is the most outlying zone, and includes London Heathrow Airport. Zones 1 to 6 cover the Greater London, the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The outside Greater London is covered by a group of ancillary zones named A, B, C and D. Out of these four ancillary zones, Zone D is the most remote and consists of Amersham and Chesham in the Chiltern district. However, these zones are not used in the capital, but the Metropolitan Line only. The tickets for inner zones are cheaper as compared to outer zones.

There are staffed ticket offices available which are open for limited periods only. Machines selling a limited number of tickets do not accept paper money, whereas kiosks accept coins and paper money, and also accept major credit and debit cards. Newer machines may accept payment only by card, not by coins or paper money.

Single tickets

The structure for ticket fares has been made simpler with effect from January 2006. For instance, journeys passing through between one and four of the zones will be priced at a flat rate of £3, irrespective of the duration of the journey. At the same time, journeys passing through five or six zones will be priced at a flat rate of £4.

As far as return tickets are concerned, they will be sold at twice the price of a single ticket. A travelcard is often cheaper than a return ticket and will automatically be provided by ticket machines and ticket office staff.

Travelcard

A Travelcard is an inter-modal ticket used in most public transport in London. It is issued by Transport for London and National Rail outlets. Its validity ranges from one day to one year. These cards are also available for daily use, 3-day, 7-day, monthly usage, and for odd periods from one month to a year, which allows unlimited rides in two or more zones.

Travelcards fetch better value for money than single tickets if one intends to enjoy a couple of journeys or more. There are also Off-peak Travelcards and Peak Day Travelcards available for the same. Off peak Travelcards are also known as ‘Day Travelcards’ and are sold only after 09:30, and remain valid until 04:30 on the day after the date of issue. Peak Day Travelcards are also charged high. It is, however, to be noted that Travelcards are not sold for only one zone.

Oyster Card

Oyster cards are a type of electronic tickets designed in 2003 for use on Transport for London and National Rail outlets within the Greater London (London, England). These cards allow an explorer to touch the card on one of the yellow readers positioned on the automatic entrance and then exit gates. One is not required to feed it through a card ticket reader.

From January 2006, the fares of Oyster cards will vary from £1 to £3.50. Charges for early mornings, evenings and weekends will amount to a maximum of £2.

Oyster Cards have a system called ‘Capping’, which ensures that on each day of use no more than the equivalent travelcard price (discounted by 50p) is deducted from the balance. The balance can be automatically topped up with funds from a credit or debit card when the balance becomes low. This feature is known as ‘auto top-up’.

Penalty fares and fare evasion

Passengers who are traveling without a ticket (single, travelcard or an oyster card) will be required to pay a £20 fee as penalty or appear for a trial case for fare avoidance. In addition, passengers holding Oyster Cards fail to touch-in at the start of their journey will also be considered to have been traveling without a ticket, and thereby, would be penalized.

Used Day Travelcards (illegally resold) will also be considered invalid as Day Travelcards are not transferable, and such tickets might be confiscated by the Underground staff and inspectors.

Safety

The London Underground provides complete safety for passengers. Though suicides are common, but only one suicide attempt goes successful per week across the network. This is because there are deep tube stations having pits between the tracks at platforms, known as ‘suicide pits’ that keeps a body away from the path of an incoming train.

In addition, smoking anywhere on London Underground stations and trains has been regarded as illegal, and is strictly punishable.

However, a number of derailments have been reported in the recent past, but none of them has resulted into serious loss of injury or loss of life.

But, the system is reported to have been suffering from lack of funds from the past two decades. It has been found that it very old carriages and signals and lack of spare parts for some of its equipment.

The Future

Planned Investment

The UK Government is planning to fund around £16 billion till 2030, in order to cut delays, refurbish lifts and escalators, and for a new station to serve the Wembley Stadium. This will enable the Victoria Line to receive new signaling systems. In addition the Jubilee Line will be funded to about £160 million for new signaling equipment and new trains. However, the Bakerloo will not receive any new trains until 2019.

The Victoria and sub-surface lines is expected to receive 1,738 new cars between 2008 and 2015, which will be built in Derby. The Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith and City Lines are expected to receive 190 new trains, built by Bombardier. The Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd. shall continue to supply signaling equipment; Westinghouse has already supplied with 75% of installed control equipment.

East London line extension

The East London Line Extension for both northwards and southwards are under construction. Once it gets completed by 2010, it will close down the current Shoreditch station, and the extension will run on the old Broad Street via duct to Dalston and then Highbury and Islington, to connect to the Victoria Line. In the south zone, two branches (running to West Croydon and Clapham Junction) will be opened, using existing railway lines only.

Piccadilly line extension to terminal 5

The Piccadilly Line Extension (or PiccEx) is a new station built for Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport, which consists of a two-platform station, two sidings where trains can be stabled, approximately 3 km of 4.5 m diameter bored tunnels, a ventilation shaft and two escape shafts. Civil works for the two tunnels, the vent shaft, and one escape shaft and the structure of T5 station have been completed and track work is now being installed. The extension is expected to start operating in 2007.

Metropolitan line works in watford

TfL is planning with Hertfordshire County Council, to connect the Watford branch of the Metropolitan Line to the disused Croxley Green Network Rail branch.

Cooling

During summer, the temperature almost heats up like anything, which makes it a hell-like situation for passengers to stay without air-conditioners, as there is not much a space to install units on trains. However, after the successful development of a prototype of Heat Pumps in 2005, a new fleet of trains for the sub-surface lines is expected to come up with air-conditioners installed in them, in the year 2009.

For the time being, passengers are suggested to carry water bottles with them to satisfy their thrust.

Unauthorised use

TfL is well known for taking legal action against unauthorized use of its trademarks. In spite of that, unauthorized use of its logo is speeding up like anything worldwide.

The London Underground on British Television

There are various Television programs on the Underground providing information on its history, engineering, or information of general interest. Though some of these programs are one-off showings, they are repeated on a regular basis on channels like Discovery and History Channel. Some of these programs are Most Haunted, The Tube, What the Victorians Did for Us, Super Structures, Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, and many more are still to come.

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