London Underground

Sure you use it often and may not know all their history and curiosities it has. The first section of the metro, called Metropolitan Railway, initially took a journey between Paddington (Bishop's Bridge) and Farringdon Street, a temporary station near the present Farringdon station. This line became the first path underground passenger railway in the world.

The London Underground, known colloquially as “The Tube” because of the form of their tunnels, is the oldest and the second largest in the world. It became operational in 1863 and currently has 270 stations and 11 lines. Every day three million passengers use the London Underground, around billion a year. Because of the Blitz (bombing of London by German aircraft), since mid-1940 many Metro stations were used as air raid shelters. in which they even develop health and food facilities.

The escalators in the London Underground stations include some of the longest in Europe. The longest escalator is at Angel station, 60 meters long, with a vertical height of 27.5 meters. It operates 20 hours a day, 364 days a year, with 95% of them operate at any time, and can be used by 13,000 passengers per hour. The regulation and signaling indicates that people should go on the right side so as not to obstruct the passage of people who want to climb the ladder taking steps.

London has been praised for being the city with the best public transport. It currently contribute to the arts through the Platform for Art and Poems on the Underground programs, due to posters and marquees are delivered to the artwork and poetry just to create an atmosphere of positive impact and make travel more pleasant. Many stations also have unique designs inside to help passengers to identify them. Often these stations are embedded in the theme local significance, for example, the tiles of Baker Street Station incorporates repetitions of Sherlock Holmes silhouette, and Tottenham Court Road Station has semi-abstract mosaics Eduardo Paolozzi representing the music industry in Denmark Street.

“Mind the gap” is the expression used in the London Underground from 1969 as a warning to passengers of the existence of a gap between the platform and the train car when entering or leaving it. Over time it has become a symbol of London transport and a tourist element of the city, and has spread to suburban transport services of other cities such as Toronto, Hong Kong, Seattle or New York.