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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| The London underground in facts and figures | The London underground in facts and figures |
| (3 months later) | |
| In Numbers | In Numbers |
| 1 in 300m Chance of any given tube journey resulting in a fatal accident. | 1 in 300m Chance of any given tube journey resulting in a fatal accident. |
| 2d The original flat-rate fare of the Central London Railway, now the Central line, earning it the nickname "the Tuppenny Tube". | 2d The original flat-rate fare of the Central London Railway, now the Central line, earning it the nickname "the Tuppenny Tube". |
| 1.171bn Passenger journeys made across the entire London underground last year. | 1.171bn Passenger journeys made across the entire London underground last year. |
| 33km per hour Average speed of a tube train, including stops. | 33km per hour Average speed of a tube train, including stops. |
| 9.5% Percentage of customers travelling on open-boarding routes without valid tickets. | 9.5% Percentage of customers travelling on open-boarding routes without valid tickets. |
| 50m Tube journeys made annually using a Freedom Pass. | 50m Tube journeys made annually using a Freedom Pass. |
| 60 metres The length of the tube's longest escalator, at Angel. | 60 metres The length of the tube's longest escalator, at Angel. |
| 270 Number of stations on the London underground. | 270 Number of stations on the London underground. |
| 6.3km The longest distance between two adjacent stations, from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer. | 6.3km The longest distance between two adjacent stations, from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer. |
| 300m The shortest distance between two adjacent stations, from Leicester Square to Covent Garden. | 300m The shortest distance between two adjacent stations, from Leicester Square to Covent Garden. |
| 265 The number of deaths on the tube in the past 10 years (excluding deaths from natural causes and terrorist attacks). | 265 The number of deaths on the tube in the past 10 years (excluding deaths from natural causes and terrorist attacks). |
| 320 Number of steps on the longest journey from surface level to platform, at Hampstead station. | 320 Number of steps on the longest journey from surface level to platform, at Hampstead station. |
| Miscellany | Miscellany |
| Tube baby The US talk show host Jerry Springer is the most famous person to have come into the world in a London underground station. He was born at Highgate station on 13 February 1944, where his mother had taken shelter from a Luftwaffe bombing raid. | Tube baby The US talk show host Jerry Springer is the most famous person to have come into the world in a London underground station. He was born at Highgate station on 13 February 1944, where his mother had taken shelter from a Luftwaffe bombing raid. |
| Tube daddy The father of the modern London underground was solicitor, reformist and parliamentarian Charles Pearson. He proposed the building of an "arcade railway" to run from Farringdon to Kings Cross below street level and successfully campaigned for parliament to authorise its construction. The final plans were not exactly the same, with a cut-and-cover tunnel used instead of his suggested open ditches, but the route was exactly as he had proposed. Pearson died in 1862, a year before the Metropolitan Railway's official opening, but in time to see construction well under way. | Tube daddy The father of the modern London underground was solicitor, reformist and parliamentarian Charles Pearson. He proposed the building of an "arcade railway" to run from Farringdon to Kings Cross below street level and successfully campaigned for parliament to authorise its construction. The final plans were not exactly the same, with a cut-and-cover tunnel used instead of his suggested open ditches, but the route was exactly as he had proposed. Pearson died in 1862, a year before the Metropolitan Railway's official opening, but in time to see construction well under way. |
| The stop that never started Keen-eyed passengers riding the Northern Line between Hampstead and Golders Green may have spotted the widened tunnels of North End station. In 1903, believing the area would be developed into houses for new commuters, financier Charles Yerkes's company, Hampstead Tube, began work on North End beneath open farmland north-west of Hampstead Heath. But their plans met fierce local opposition, and in 1904 social reformer Henrietta Barnet purchased the farmland and protected it as the Hampstead Heath Extension. In 1906, a year before the line was due to open, Yerkes's company abandoned work on its half-built station. | The stop that never started Keen-eyed passengers riding the Northern Line between Hampstead and Golders Green may have spotted the widened tunnels of North End station. In 1903, believing the area would be developed into houses for new commuters, financier Charles Yerkes's company, Hampstead Tube, began work on North End beneath open farmland north-west of Hampstead Heath. But their plans met fierce local opposition, and in 1904 social reformer Henrietta Barnet purchased the farmland and protected it as the Hampstead Heath Extension. In 1906, a year before the line was due to open, Yerkes's company abandoned work on its half-built station. |
| The stop that never was kept going, however, and during the second world war a revived North End served as an underground bunker for Churchill's war cabinet. By the time of the cold war, the station had become part of the underground's flood defence system, accessed through an entrance hut disguised as an electricity substation. Now publicly acknowledged, today North End functions as a storehouse for engineers and as one of the tube's many emergency evacuation routes. | The stop that never was kept going, however, and during the second world war a revived North End served as an underground bunker for Churchill's war cabinet. By the time of the cold war, the station had become part of the underground's flood defence system, accessed through an entrance hut disguised as an electricity substation. Now publicly acknowledged, today North End functions as a storehouse for engineers and as one of the tube's many emergency evacuation routes. |
| Tiny tube terrors The mosquitoes in the London underground are genetically different to their cousins on the surface. Tube mosquitoes - or Culex pipiens f. molestus - will bite mice, rats, dogs and, as regular passengers will have noticed, humans. Hence "molestus". | Tiny tube terrors The mosquitoes in the London underground are genetically different to their cousins on the surface. Tube mosquitoes - or Culex pipiens f. molestus - will bite mice, rats, dogs and, as regular passengers will have noticed, humans. Hence "molestus". |
| Two extremes The least-used station anywhere on the underground is Roding Valley. The busiest is Waterloo, with around 82 million passengers a year. | Two extremes The least-used station anywhere on the underground is Roding Valley. The busiest is Waterloo, with around 82 million passengers a year. |
| Underground, overground Bank is one of a small number of underground stations with no overground buildings at all. Bank's original ticket offices were built in the crypt of St Mary Woolnoth, which the church sold to the makers of the Central London Railway for £340,000. The station clock is immortalised in TS Eliot's The Waste Land: "To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours / With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine." | Underground, overground Bank is one of a small number of underground stations with no overground buildings at all. Bank's original ticket offices were built in the crypt of St Mary Woolnoth, which the church sold to the makers of the Central London Railway for £340,000. The station clock is immortalised in TS Eliot's The Waste Land: "To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours / With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine." |
Fatal Crashes | Fatal Crashes |
| 17 May 1938 A signalling failure on a District line train at Charing Cross station led to the tube's first passenger deaths from a crash since it opened in 1863. Six people were killed and 45 people injured when an eastbound Circle line train hit the back of a stationary Ealing-Barking train in the tunnels between Charing Cross and Temple. | 17 May 1938 A signalling failure on a District line train at Charing Cross station led to the tube's first passenger deaths from a crash since it opened in 1863. Six people were killed and 45 people injured when an eastbound Circle line train hit the back of a stationary Ealing-Barking train in the tunnels between Charing Cross and Temple. |
| 31 December 1945 Two Metropolitan line trains collided in heavy fog on an open-air section of the tube near Northwood. The impact was not fatal, but electrical arcing led to a fire in the rear two coaches of one of the trains, and three passengers suffocated in the smoke. | 31 December 1945 Two Metropolitan line trains collided in heavy fog on an open-air section of the tube near Northwood. The impact was not fatal, but electrical arcing led to a fire in the rear two coaches of one of the trains, and three passengers suffocated in the smoke. |
| 8 April 1953 Two trains collided in tunnels just outside Stratford station, resulting in the deaths of 12 passengers. The driver of the offending train claimed he had not seen the tail lights of the train ahead because of a cloud of a dust. The resulting inquiry concluded: "His severe head injuries may have accounted for that statement." | 8 April 1953 Two trains collided in tunnels just outside Stratford station, resulting in the deaths of 12 passengers. The driver of the offending train claimed he had not seen the tail lights of the train ahead because of a cloud of a dust. The resulting inquiry concluded: "His severe head injuries may have accounted for that statement." |
| 28 February 1975 Forty-three people were killed in mysterious circumstances when a train arriving at Moorgate station accelerated into the tunnel, hit the sand drag, smashed the buffer and thundered into the concrete wall at the end of the line. There was no evidence of malfunction on the train or track and the driver, Leslie Newson, was seen conscious and healthy at the controls seconds before the impact. Coroners returned a verdict of accidental death. | 28 February 1975 Forty-three people were killed in mysterious circumstances when a train arriving at Moorgate station accelerated into the tunnel, hit the sand drag, smashed the buffer and thundered into the concrete wall at the end of the line. There was no evidence of malfunction on the train or track and the driver, Leslie Newson, was seen conscious and healthy at the controls seconds before the impact. Coroners returned a verdict of accidental death. |
| There have also been several crashes in which only the drivers of the trains were killed. | There have also been several crashes in which only the drivers of the trains were killed. |
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