1.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
2.
City of London
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The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate
3.
Fenchurch Street railway station
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Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City, the station and all trains are operated by c2c. The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was rebuilt in 1854 when the LTSR, the ECR also operated trains out of Fenchurch Street to relieve congestion at its other London terminus at Bishopsgate. The line from the station was electrified in 1961, and controversially closed for seven weeks in 1994, Fenchurch Street is one of the smallest railway termini in London in terms of platforms, but one of the most intensively operated. It has no interchange with the London Underground. The station frontage is on Fenchurch Place, adjacent to Fenchurch Street in the City of London, the station has two entrances, one on Fenchurch Place and another on Coopers Row, near Tower Hill. It has four platforms arranged on two islands elevated on a viaduct, the station has been Grade II listed since 1972 and the conference venue One America Square is built adjacent to it. Following privatisation in 1994, the station was run by Network Rail, since 1996, the station has been served by the National Express Groups c2c who have a franchise to run services until 2029. Fenchurch Street is in the central London Travelcard zone 1 like other stations in the city. The nearest is Tower Hill about 0.2 miles to the southeast, London Buses route 40 passes the station. Services from Fenchurch Street run towards East London and south Essex, including Barking, Upminster, Chafford Hundred Lakeside, Tilbury Town Basildon, Southend Central, the typical off-peak service consists of eight trains per hour, During peak periods services are increased up to 20 tph. Most peak services have 12 cars, although the stations capacity is small compared to other London terminals, it has a high footfall, averaging around 16 million passengers annually. The area around Fenchurch Street is one of the oldest inhabited parts of London, the station was the first to be granted permission by the Corporation of London to be constructed inside the City of London, following several refusals against other railway companies. The original building, designed by William Tite opened on 20 July 1841, serving the London and Blackwall Railway and it had two platforms connected via a stairway to the booking hall. Steam locomotives did not use the station until 1849 because before this time trains were dragged uphill from Blackwall to Minories, the reverse journey eastwards required a manual push from railway staff. William Marshalls railway bookstall established at the station in 1841 was the first to be opened in the City of London, following the opening of the London and Blackwall Extension Railway on 2 April 1849, services operated from Fenchurch Street to Bow & Bromley. Some were extended to Victoria Park & Bow where an interchange existed with the Eastern Counties Railway from Bishopsgate, the station had two heavily used platforms and a double track line from Stepney onwards. Following a reduced income at Blackwall, LBR shareholders voted to align with the ECR and jointly construct the London, Tilbury, services would split at Stratford, one service to Bishopsgate and the other to Fenchurch Street along the reopened line via Bow & Bromley
4.
Tower Gateway DLR station
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Tower Gateway is a Docklands Light Railway station near Tower Hill and the Tower of London. It is situated within the Tower ward of the City of London and it adjoins the tracks to Fenchurch Street station and is located on the site of a former station called Minories. Tower Gateway is within London fare zone 1 and it is a short walk from both Tower Hill tube station and Fenchurch Street. Access at street level from the Minories is via escalator, stairs or lift at the end of the station. A pedestrian crossing connects the station with Tower Hill station, its closest London Underground connection, a narrow secondary staircase entrance at the eastern end of the platform, improved considerably in the early 2000s, descends to Mansell Street. It serves the eastern edge of the City of London financial district and it was opened in 1987 as the western terminus of the initial DLR system and the station closest to central London. The underground extension to Bank, which opened in 1991, diverges from the route between Tower Gateway and Shadwell, the next station to the east. It dives down a steep ramp not far from the end of the platforms. Tower Gateway is the terminus for the less busy service to Beckton, journeys to other branches of the DLR normally require a change. In keeping with the DLRs original basic lightweight philosophy, Tower Gateway is an elevated terminus. As built it had two tracks and a cross-over, when the extension to Bank opened, its importance was substantially reduced. Before reconstruction it had a narrow central platform, and a single track leading from the main route to a set of points immediately prior to the platforms. Further major alterations began on 30 June 2008, London Buses routes 42,78,100 and RV1 and night route N551 serve the station. Docklands Light Railway website - Tower Gateway station page More photographs of this station
5.
Docklands Light Railway
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The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. The system uses minimal staffing on trains and at interchange stations. Similar proposals have made for the Tube. The DLR is operated under a franchise awarded by Transport for London to KeolisAmey Docklands and it was previously run for over 17 years by Serco Docklands, part of the Serco Group. The system is owned by Docklands Light Railway Ltd, part of the London Rail division of Transport for London, in Fiscal Year 2014, the DLR carried 110.2 million passengers. It has been extended several times and further extensions are under consideration, the docks immediately east of Central London began to decline in the early 1960s as cargo became containerised. They had been connected to the railway network via the London and Blackwall Railway. The opening of the Tilbury container docks, further east in Essex, finally rendered them redundant, as early as 1972, consideration was given to how to redevelop the moribund Docklands. Travis Morgan & Partners were commissioned by the London Docklands Study Team to consider the issue, the Greater London Council formed a Docklands Joint Committee with the Boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets in 1974 to undertake the redevelopment of the area. A light railway system was envisaged, terminating either at Tower Hill tube station or at Fenchurch Street, but both options were seen as too expensive. This was intended to be the stage of the Fleet line – which had been renamed the Jubilee line. The government created the London Docklands Development Corporation in July 1981 to coordinate the redevelopment of the Docklands, the need to provide a cheap public transport solution led to it commissioning London Transport to evaluate a number of exclusively light rail options. The core of the route ran alongside the Great Eastern line out of London, three terminus options were proposed at the west end, at Tower Hill, Minories and Aldgate East. The Tower Hill option would have required a low-level interchange to be constructed alongside the existing Underground station, the Minories option, a high-level station virtually on the site of the old Minories railway station, was selected and became the current Tower Gateway DLR terminus. However, it became apparent that there was no capacity on the existing network for integrating the DLR into the Underground. Two southern terminus options were put forward, at Cubitt Town and Tiller Road, on the west side of Millwall Dock, with two possible routes to reach them. The central option required the West India Docks to be infilled or bridged and would run down the middle of the peninsula, the contract for the initial system was awarded to GEC Mowlem in 1984 and the system was constructed from 1985 to 1987 at a cost of £77 million
6.
Tramlink
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Tramlink is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in London since 1952 and it is owned by London Trams, an arm of Transport for London, and operated by FirstGroup. The Tramlink is the fourth-busiest light rail network in the UK behind Manchester Metrolink, Tyne and Wear Metro, in 1990 Croydon Council with London Regional Transport put the project to Parliament and the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994 resulted, which gave LRT the power to build and run Tramlink. In 1996 Tramtrack Croydon Limited won a 99-year Private Finance Initiative contract to design, build, operate, TCL was a partnership comprising FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation, Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey, and Royal Bank of Scotland and 3i. TCL kept the revenue generated by Tramlink and LRT had to pay compensation to TCL for any changes to the fares, TCL subcontracted operations to CentreWest Buses. One of the leading to its creation was that the London Borough of Croydon has no London Underground service. There are four routes, Route 1 – Elmers End to Croydon, Route 2 – Beckenham Junction to Croydon, Route 3 – New Addington to Wimbledon, and Route 4 – Therapia Lane to Elmers End. Route 2 runs parallel to the Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction line of the Southern network between Birkbeck and Beckenham Junction – the National Rail track had been singled some years earlier. At Woodside the old station buildings stand disused, and the platforms have been replaced by accessible low platforms. From Woodside to near Sandilands and from near Sandilands almost to Lloyd Park, Tramlink follows the former Woodside and South Croydon Railway, including the Park Hill tunnels. The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon mostly follows the single-track British Rail route, closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink, a partial obstruction near this point has necessitated the use of interlaced track. A Victorian footbridge beside Waddon New Road was dismantled to make way for the flyover over the West Croydon to Sutton railway line, the footbridge has been re-erected at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway. In March 2008, TfL announced that it had reached agreement to buy TCL for £98m, the purchase was finalised on 28 June 2008. The background to this purchase relates to the requirement that TfL compensates TCL for the consequences of any changes to the fares, in 2007 that payment was £4m, with an annual increase in rate. In October 2008 TfL introduced a new livery, using the blue, white and green of the routes on TfL maps, the colour of the cars was changed to green, and the brand name was changed from Croydon Tramlink to simply Tramlink. These refurbishments were completed in early 2009, the tram stops have low platforms,35 cm above rail level. They are unstaffed and have automated ticket machines, in general, access between the platforms involves crossing the tracks by pedestrian level crossing. There are 39 stops, most being 32.2 m long and they are virtually level with the doors and are all wider than 2 m
7.
Aldgate
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Aldgate was the eastern-most gateway through the London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the East End of London. The road is situated 2.3 miles east north-east of Charing Cross, John Casss school, where a plaque records the former placement of London Wall, is sited on the north side of Aldgate. The etymology of the name Aldgate is disputed and it is first recorded in 1052 as Æst geat but had become Alegate by 1108. Writing in the 16th century, John Stow derived the name from Old Gate, however, Henry Harben, writing in 1918, contended that this was wrong and that documents show that the d is missing in documents written before 1486–7. Alternative meanings include Ale Gate in connection with a putative ale-house or All Gate meaning the gate was free to all, other possibilities canvassed by Harben include reference to a Saxon named Ealh, or reference to foreigners or oil or awl. It is thought that a gate at Aldgate spanned the road to Colchester in the Roman period, when London Wall was constructed. The gateway – which probably had two circular towers – stood at the corner of the modern Dukes Place, on the east side of the City, with a busy thoroughfare passing through it. It was rebuilt between 1108 and 1147, again in 1215, and reconstructed completely between 1607 and 1609 “in a more classical and less functional style”, like London’s other gates, Aldgate was “fortified with porticullises and chained” in 1377 due to concerns about potential attacks by the French. The gate was removed in 1761, it was temporarily re-erected at Bethnal Green. Aldgate did have defensive functions, and, between its early 13th and early 17th-century reconstructions, was breached on only two occasions. The first occurred during the Great Rising in the summer of 1381 when thousands of insurgents from surrounding region, assisted by sympathizers within and without, the second breach came in the summer of 1471 when troops led by the Bastard of Fauconberg forced open the gate. The Augustinians priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate was founded by Matilda, within Aldgate ward, a short distance to the north of the gate, Jews settled from 1181, until their expulsion in 1290 by King Edward I. The area became known as Old Jewry, Jews were welcomed back by Oliver Cromwell, and once again they settled in the area, founding Londons oldest synagogue at Bevis Marks in 1698. While he was an official, from 1374 until 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer occupied apartments above the gate. London’s aldermen had first conceived of renting unneeded space over the City gates earlier in the century, although keenly sought after due to their location, the rooms “were built for military occupancy and remained rough-hewn nonprivate”. Chaucer likely occupied the tower on the south end of the gate. A1585 sketch of Aldgate’s north tower reveals a room of approximately 16 by 14. The space would have been “cramped, cold, rudimentary in its sanitary arrangements, in about 1420 the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was founded in Aldgate, but it later moved to nearby Whitechapel
8.
Circle line (London Underground)
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The Circle line is a London Underground service in a spiralling shape, running from Hammersmith to Edgware Road and then looping once around central London back to Edgware Road. Coloured yellow on the map, the 17-mile line serves 36 stations. Most of the route and all of the stations are shared with the other three lines, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. On the Circle line and the Hammersmith & City line combined,21 of the 36 stations are below ground. The first section opened in 1863 when the Metropolitan Railway opened the worlds first underground line between Paddington and Farringdon with wooden carriages and steam locomotives, due to conflict between the two companies it was October 1884 before the inner circle was completed. The line was electrified in 1905, and in July 1933 the two companies were amalgamated into the London Passenger Transport Board, in 1949 the Circle line appeared as a separate line for the first time on the Tube map. In December 2009 the closed loop around the centre of London on the side of the River Thames was broken at Edgware Road. The signalling system is being upgraded and the C Stock trains have recently replaced by new 7-car S Stock trains. In the same year a committee report recommended an inner circle of railway lines connecting the London termini that had been built or under construction. In the next year the Metropolitan District Railway was formed to build, the Metropolitan western extension opened in 1868 from a new station at Paddington to South Kensington. By May 1870 the District railway had opened its line from West Brompton to Blackfriars via Gloucester Road and South Kensington, the Metropolitan provided the clockwise or outer rail trains, the District the inner rail or anti-clockwise. As well as the circle, other routes circumnavigated London. Both of these routes were cut back to Earls Court in 1900 for the circle and 1909 for the outer circle. The GWR service survived as a service from the Hammersmith & City line to Addison Road until 1940. The Midland Railway briefly ran a super outer circle from St Pancras to Earls Court from 1878–1880, today London Overground runs services between Clapham Junction, Willesden Junction and Dalston Junction and between Dalston Junction and Clapham Junction. The use of steam led to smoke-filled stations and carriages, which was unpopular with passengers. Experiments were carried out on the Earls Court to High Street Kensington section, following this an AC system was suggested, and this was accepted by both parties. However, the District was looking for a way to raise the finance needed and in 1901 found an investor, after arbitration by the Board of Trade the DC system was taken up, and the railways began electrifying the routes, using multiple-unit stock
9.
Liverpool Street station
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The station opened in 1874 as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railways main London terminus. By 1895 it had the largest number of platforms on any railway station in London. During the First World War, an air raid on the station in 1917 led to 162 deaths, in the build-up to the Second World War, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. Liverpool Street was built as a station with provision for the Underground. A tube station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway, and the station today is served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, Liverpool Street is the third-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom after Waterloo and Victoria, both also in London. It is managed directly by Network Rail, a few daily express trains to Harwich International provide a connection with the Dutchflyer ferry to Hook of Holland. Stansted Express trains provide a link to Stansted Airport and Southend Victoria-bound services stop at Southend Airport, most passenger services on the Great Eastern Main Line are operated by Greater Anglia. Since 2015, the Shenfield metro service has been controlled by TfL Rail, a small number of late-evening and weekend services operated by c2c run via Barking. The station is split into two halves, the west side for the Lea Valley Lines services and the east side for services via Stratford. The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Liverpool Street is, Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway which served Norwich, the GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheriting Bishopsgate as its London terminus. Consequently, the GER planned a more central station, the station was planned to be around 630 by 200 ft in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street. The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway Act 1864, the station was built on a 10 acres site previously occupied by the Bethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent to Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmens trains from the station. The station was designed by GER engineer Edward Wilson and built by Lucas Brothers, the overall design was approximately Gothic, built using stock bricks and bath stone dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the offices of the GER, including chairmans, board, committee, secretary. The station was built with a connection to the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway, with the platform sunk below ground level, the Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875, their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875. Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874, the original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881
10.
Metropolitan line
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Coloured magenta on the tube map, the line is 41.4 miles in length and serves 34 stations. Unlike the tube railways, the tunnels are just below the surface, just under 67 million passenger journeys were made on the line in 2011/12. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. The central London lines were electrified by 1907, but electric locomotives were exchanged for steam locomotives on trains heading north of Harrow, after the railway was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 the line was cut back to Aylesbury. Steam trains ran until 1961, when the line was electrified to, the Hammersmith & City line was shown on the tube map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990, when it appeared as a separate line. The current S7 and S8 Stock trains entered service between 2010 and 2012, the track is mostly underground between Aldgate and Finchley Road, save from Barbican and Farringdon as well as the Baker Street platforms. Baker Street is the terminus for some trains not continuing on to Aldgate. The disused Metropolitan line platforms at Willesden Green and Neasden are still in place despite Metropolitan line services having been withdrawn in 1940. The Watford branch is due to be diverted to Watford Junction by 2020, resulting in the closure of Watford station, the extension will link up with the London Overground Watford DC Line and would provide an interchange with the West Coast Main Line. The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933 and it opened on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the worlds first underground railway. In 1871, when plans were presented for a railway in Paris. The modern word metro is a form of the French word. The railway was extended from both ends and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with electric multiple units operating between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street, to remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the railway purchased electric locomotives, exchanged for steam locomotives at Harrow from 1908. In 1910, a silent film recording was made showing large portions of the journey from Baker Street to Aylesbury and Uxbridge. The film survives and is publicly available, unlike other railways in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, thus benefitting from the increase in the value of its land caused by the building of the railway. After World War I it promoted its housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand, to improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in the 1920s
11.
District line
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The District line is a London Underground service that crosses Greater London from east to west. From Upminster, the terminus, the line runs through Central London to Earls Court before dividing into three western branches, to Ealing Broadway, Wimbledon and Richmond. There is a branch that goes from Earls Court to Kensington. A branch also runs north from Earls Court to Edgware Road via Paddington, the track and stations between Barking and Aldgate East are shared with the Hammersmith & City line, and between Tower Hill and Gloucester Road and on the Edgware Road branch with the Circle line. Some of the stations are shared with the Piccadilly line, unlike Londons deep-level tube railways, the railway tunnels are just below the surface, and the trains are of a similar size to those on British main lines. The District line is the busiest of the lines as well the fifth busiest line overall on the London Underground with over 208 million passengers in the year 2011/12. The original Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. Services were operated at first using wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, electrification was financed by the American Charles Yerkes, and electric services began in 1905. In 1933 the railway was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board, in the first half of the 1930s the Piccadilly line took over the Uxbridge and Hounslow branches, although a peak-hour District line service ran on the Hounslow branch until 1964. Kensington has been served by the District line since 1946, the trains carried guards until one-person operation was introduced in 1985. The signalling system is being upgraded, and the current D Stock trains are to be replaced by new 7-car S Stock trains by spring 2017, the Metropolitan District Railway was formed to build and operate part an underground inner circle connecting Londons railway termini. The first line opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster, by 1871 when the District began operating its own trains, the railway had extended to West Brompton and a terminus at Mansion House. Hammersmith was reached from Earls Court, services were extended to Richmond over the tracks of the London and South Western Railway and branches reached Ealing Broadway, Hounslow, as part of the project that completed the Circle line in October 1884, the District began to serve Whitechapel. Services began running to Upminster in 1902, after a link to the London, electric multiple-units were introduced on other services in 1905, and East Ham became the eastern terminus. Hounslow and Uxbridge were served by 2 or 3-car shuttles from Mill Hill Park, some also served South Acton. Services were extended again to Barking in 1908 and Upminster in 1932, in 1933 Piccadilly trains reached to Hounslow West, the District continuing to run services with an off-peak shuttle from South Acton to Hounslow. Most of the cars on the District line were the 1904–05 B Stock type with wooden bodies. The off-peak District line services on the Hounslow branch were withdrawn on 29 April 1935, following bombing of the West London Line in 1940 the LMS and the Metropolitan line services over the West London Line were both suspended
12.
Hammersmith & City line
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The Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground runs between Hammersmith and Barking. Coloured salmon pink on the map, it serves 29 stations in 15.8 miles. It runs below ground in the section between Paddington and Bow Road, between Farringdon and Aldgate East it skirts the City of London, the capitals financial heart. The tunnels are just below the surface and are a size to those on British main lines. In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway began the worlds first underground railway service between Paddington and Farringdon with wooden carriages and steam locomotives. The following year, a railway west from Paddington to Hammersmith was opened, the line was then extended to the east, in stages, reaching the East London Railway in 1884. The Hammersmith & City route was shown on the map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990. The track and signalling systems are being upgraded, and the old 6-car C Stock trains have been replaced by new 7-car S Stock trains in a programme to increase capacity by 65 per cent by 2019. The line runs parallel to the Great Western Main Line between Paddington and Westbourne Park, and parallel to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway between West Ham and Barking. The line was mostly under the New Road using the cut-and-cover method between Paddington and Kings Cross and then in tunnel and cuttings beside Farringdon Road. From 1865 the Met ran trains to Hammersmith and the GWR trains to Addison Road, in 1867 the line became jointly owned by the two companies. A year earlier some services had been extended via London & South Western Railways Hammersmith railway station, the railway was extended east of Farringdon and a terminus opened at Aldgate on 18 November 1876. In October 1884 the Met extended some Hammersmith services over the ELR to New Cross, the 6-car electric multiple units were jointly owned by the Met and GWR until 1923 when the GWR sold theirs to the Met. On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies, to relieve congestion on the District line east of Whitechapel from 1936 some trains from Hammersmith were diverted from the East London line to Barking. However, this caused problems and from 1941 Barking was again served by trains from Hammersmith. From 1937 new steel O stock trains, with remotely operated by the guard. It had been intended to operate the new trains with four or six cars, services to Kensington via the curve at Latimer Road were suspended in 1940 after bomb damage to the West London line and not restarted after the war. When the similar trains running on the Circle line were lengthened to six cars in 1959 and 1960, aluminium C Stock trains, with public address systems and originally unpainted, replaced these trains from 1970
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