Toronto subway
The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. It is a multimodal rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail lines operating predominantly underground and one elevated medium-capacity rail line, collectively encompassing 75 stations and 76.9 kilometres of track. In 1954, the TTC opened Canada's first underground rail line known as the "Yonge subway", under Yonge Street between the existing Union railway station and Eglinton Avenue with 12 stations. With an average of 915,000 passenger trips each weekday recorded during the fourth quarter of 2017, the system is Canada's second busiest after the Montreal Metro and second longest by track length after the Vancouver SkyTrain. There are four operating rapid transit lines in Toronto, one line under construction, another planned: Line 1 Yonge–University is the longest and busiest rapid transit line in the system, it opened as the Yonge subway in 1954 with a length of 7.4 kilometres, since grew to a length of 38.8 kilometres.
Today, the line is U-shaped having two northern terminals looping on its southern end via Union station. Line 2 Bloor–Danforth, opened in 1966, runs parallel to Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue between Kipling station in Etobicoke and Kennedy station in Scarborough. There is a plan to extend Line 2 eastwards from Kennedy station to Scarborough Centre station. Line 3 Scarborough known as the Scarborough RT, is an elevated medium-capacity rail line serving the city's eponymous suburban district, it opened in 1985 running from Kennedy station to McCowan station. This is the only rapid transit line in Toronto to use Intermediate Capacity Transit System technology. There is a plan to dismantle Line 3 after Line 2 is extended to Scarborough Town Centre. Line 4 Sheppard opened in 2002 running under Sheppard Avenue East eastwards from Sheppard–Yonge station on Line 1 to Fairview Mall at Don Mills station. Line 5 Eglinton is a 19-kilometre light rail line under construction along Eglinton Avenue, scheduled to open in 2021.
The line will have 25 stations, of which 15 will be underground, while the remaining ten will be at-grade stops located in at the road's median. Line 6 Finch West is a planned 11-kilometre, 18-stop line to extend from Finch West station on Line 1 Yonge–University to the North Campus of Humber College located in the median of Finch Avenue, it is scheduled for completion with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion. Here is a list of line and station openings on the Toronto subway system. Canada's first subway, the Yonge subway, opened in 1954 with a length of 7.4 kilometres. The line ran under or parallel to Yonge Street between Union station, it replaced Canada's first streetcar line. In 1963, the line was extended under University Avenue north to Bloor Street to connect with the Bloor–Danforth subway at the double-deck St. George station. In 1974, the line was extended from Eglinton station north to Finch station; the Spadina segment of the line was constructed north from St. George station to Wilson station in 1978, in 1996 to Downsview station, renamed Sheppard West in 2017.
Part of the Spadina segment runs in the median of Allen Road – an expressway known as the Spadina Expressway – and crosses over Highway 401 on a bridge. Six decades of extensions gave the line a U-shaped route running from its two northern terminals and looping on its southern end at Union station; the latest extension from Sheppard West to Vaughan Metro Centre opened on December 17, 2017, making the line 38.8 kilometres long, over five times its original length. Opened in 1966, the Bloor–Danforth subway runs east-west under or near Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, it replaced the Bloor streetcar line. The subway line ran between Keele station and Woodbine station. In 1968, the line was extended west to Islington station and east to Warden station, in 1980, it was further extended west to Kipling station and east to Kennedy station. Opened in 1985, the Scarborough RT is a light metro line running from Kennedy station to McCowan station; the TTC started to construct the line to use Canadian Light Rail Vehicles.
However, the provincial government forced the conversion to Intermediate Capacity Transit System technology because the province was funding the project and it owned a company that made the light metro vehicles. This line was never extended, the current plan is to close and dismantle the line, replacing it with an extension of Line 2 to Scarborough Town Centre. Opened in 2002, the Sheppard subway runs under Sheppard Avenue from Sheppard–Yonge station to Don Mills station; the line was under construction when a change in provincial government threatened to terminate the project. However, Mel Lastman, the last mayor of the former City of North York, used his influence to save the project. Despite the construction of many high-rise residential buildings along the line since its opening, ridership remains low resulting in a subsidy of $10 per ride; the line was intended to be extended to Scarborough Centre station, but because of the low ridership and the cost of tunneling, there is a plan to extend rapid transit eastwards from Don Mills station via a surface light rail line, the Sheppard East LRT.
Metrolinx is funding the 19-kilometr
Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority is the operator of mass transit in Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and CTA bus service. The CTA is an Illinois independent governmental agency that started operations on October 1, 1947 upon the purchase and combination of the transportation assets of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines streetcar system. In 1952, CTA purchased the assets of the Chicago Motor Coach Company, under the control of Yellow Cab Company founder John D. Hertz, resulting in a unified system. Today, the CTA is one of the three service boards financially supported by the Regional Transportation Authority and CTA service connects with the commuter rail Metra, suburban bus and paratransit service, Pace; the Chicago Transit Authority provides service in 10 surrounding suburbs. The CTA provided a total of 532 million rides in 2011, a 3 percent increase over 2010 with ridership rising to levels not seen for 20 years.
CTA operates 24 hours each day and on an average weekday provides 1.7 million rides on buses and trains. It has 1,800 buses that operate over 140 routes traveling along 2,230 route miles. Buses provide about one million passenger trips a day and serve more than 12,000 posted bus stops; the Chicago Transit Authority's 1,450 train cars operate over eight routes and 222 miles of track. Its trains provide about 750,000 customer trips each weekday and serve 145 stations in Chicago and seven suburbs; the CTA operates in Chicago and the bordering suburbs of Forest Park, Skokie, Oak Park, Cicero, North Riverside and Wilmette. The CTA accepts payment with a Ventra Card which can be purchased with a single-ride, 1 day unlimited ride, 3 day unlimited ride, 7 day unlimited ride, 30 day unlimited ride, a Ventra disposable ticket, contactless credit or debit card, certain smartphones. Unlimited ride. CTA buses accept cash. Up to three children under 7 can ride free with a fare-paying rider; the CTA has many free and discounted fare options, for elementary and high school students and university students, people with disabilities, senior citizens, military service members.
Only buses allow riders to pay directly with cash at a farebox and no change is given. Exact fare is required. Since January 7, 2018, the bus full fare is $2.50, disabled & seniors is $1.25 and students is $.75. No cash transfers are available; some rail station turnstiles accepted cash but this feature has been removed in an effort to speed up boarding. Cash at rail stations is only accepted at Ventra Vending Machines to purchase Ventra paper fare cards; the CTA no longer sells Transit Cards. All remaining Transit Cards must have been used by July 1, 2014. In its place CTA has adopted the Ventra Card system; the Ventra Card can be purchased online, Ventra Vending Machines at CTA rail stations, at authorized retailers like Walgreens, CVS Pharmacies and check cashing locations. Ventra is an electronic fare payment system for the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace that replaced the Chicago Card and the Transit Card automated fare collection system. Ventra launched in August 2013, with a full system transition slated for July 1, 2014.
The Ventra payment system includes several options of payment, including a contactless smart card powered by RFID, a single day or use ticket powered by RFID, any personal bank-issued credit card or debit card that has an RFID chip, a compatible mobile phone. Which includes Samsung Pay and Android Pay. Ventra is operated by Cubic Transportation Systems. Riders when using Ventra pay. Disabled & seniors who are 65 or older pay. Elementary and high school students 7-20 years old: Valid 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on school days pay $.75 during school hours and pay $1.10 during weekends and holidays. Transfers within two hours are $.25 full fare, $.15 for disabled and students. Ventra readers on buses and rail station turnstiles can accept contactless payments directly from mobile devices. Riders can pay a PAYG fare by touching mobile phones with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay—or any contactless bankcard with the contactless wave symbol; the Chicago Transit Authority produced a monthly television show, from May 2003 through December 2011.
The show was hosted by Dale Rivera, Jeanne Sparrow, Omar Barragan. Connections was broadcast on City of Chicago Public-access television cable TV channels 23 & 49, as well as on Comcast's CN100 in the Chicago media market, including areas of Michigan and Indiana. Connections featured news and information about the CTA and services it provides. Individual segments from Connections are available on CTA's YouTube channel; as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 for all transit operators in the U. S. all CTA buses are handicap accessible, the ramp on every bus is available for use upon request by anyone who has trouble with steps temporarily. The majority of train stations CTA operates have elevators or ramps to provide access for customers with disabilities. All trains include accessible rail cars. CTA provides the means to view alerts regarding elevator status at the CTA's Elevator Status Alerts page or by calling an Elevator Status Hotline at 1-888-YOUR-CTA. Accessibility alert notifications appear, by default, in CTA "Train Tracker", a station arrival prediction tool appearing on its website.
Until 1973, CTA's fleet included a large number of electric trolley buse
IND Eighth Avenue Line
The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System, the Eighth Avenue Subway name was applied by New Yorkers to the entire IND system; the line runs from 207th Street in Inwood south to an interlocking south of High Street in Brooklyn Heights, including large sections under St. Nicholas Avenue, Central Park West, Eighth Avenue; the entire length is underground, though the 207th Street Yard, which branches off near the north end, is on the surface. Flying junctions are provided with the IND Concourse Line, IND Sixth Avenue Line, IND Queens Boulevard Line. Most of the line has four tracks, with one local and one express track in each direction, except for the extreme north and south ends, where only the two express tracks continue. Internally, the line is chained as Line "A", with tracks A1, A3, A4, A2 from west to east, running from 800 at the south end to 1540 at the north end.
The whole line is served at all times by the A train. The C provides local service south of 168th Street. In addition, the B provides weekday local service and the D full-time express service between the Concourse Line and Sixth Avenue Line junctions, the E runs local from the Queens Boulevard Line junction at 50th Street south to World Trade Center; the A, C, E are colored blue on signs because they run via Eighth Avenue through Midtown Manhattan, while the B and D are orange since they use the Sixth Avenue Line through Midtown Manhattan. The following services use all of the Eighth Avenue Line; the trunk line's bullets are colored blue: The Eighth Avenue Line begins as a two-track subway under Broadway at 207th Street in Inwood. A flying junction just to the south brings two tracks from the 207th Street Yard between the main tracks, merging after Dyckman Street; the subway leaves Broadway to pass under Fort Tryon Park to the north end of Fort Washington Avenue, which it follows to 175th Street before turning southeast under private property.
The small 174th Street Yard lies under Broadway, with two tracks exiting to the south under that roadway. When the George Washington Bridge was designed in the 1920s, provisions were made for a lower deck that would carry these two tracks north from the yard and across the bridge, as well as two commuter rail tracks. However, when the lower level was added in 1962, it instead carried a roadway; the two main tracks from Fort Washington Avenue enter Broadway near 172nd Street and running underneath a public school at 174th Street, other private property, the yard tracks in a double-decker tunnel. A few blocks the lower tracks separate to straddle the yard tracks at 168th Street; the local/express split begins here, with the local tracks coming from the yard and the express tracks coming from Inwood. Contrary to standard practice, the two local tracks are in the center and the two express tracks are on the outside. Except during late nights, the local service ends at 168th Street, reversing direction on the yard tracks.
South of 168th Street, the express tracks lower below the local tracks, forming another double-decker tunnel, this time under St. Nicholas Avenue. North of 145th Street, the lower tracks rise into the center, the three-track IND Concourse Line enters St. Nicholas Avenue below the four-track Eighth Avenue Line. 145th Street is a two-level transfer station, with two island platforms on each level. To the south, the Concourse Line tracks rise and merge with the Eighth Avenue Line, carrying the B onto the local tracks and the D onto the express tracks; the resulting four-track line continues south under St. Nicholas Avenue and Eighth Avenue, which becomes Central Park West at 110th Street. Most of the line under Central Park West is built on two levels with both local tracks to the west and only local stations; the two northbound tracks are above the two southbound tracks. Approaching 59th Street–Columbus Circle, where Central Park West becomes Eighth Avenue, the subway again spreads out into a single four-track level.
A flying junction south of 59th Street takes B and D trains east under 53rd Street, merging with two tracks from 57th Street to become the four-track IND Sixth Avenue Line. The two-track IND Queens Boulevard Line in 53rd Street, curves south into a lower level of the 50th Street station, merges to the south, taking E trains onto the local tracks. An unused southbound-only lower level at 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal was accessed only from the southbound track from the Queens Boulevard Line. Plans for the 7 Subway Extension required demolishing the lower level to make room for the new IRT Flushing Line tracks; the four-track line continues south under Eighth Avenue to 14th Street, where it turns southeast under Greenwich Avenue and south under Sixth Avenue, above the four-track IND Sixth Avenue Line. The two-level West Fourth Street–Washington Square station allows easy transfers between the two lines. Just to the south are track connections between the local tracks of each line, not used by current normal service patterns.
The Sixth Avenue Line turns east into Houston Street after passing the connections. Canal Street, under Sixth Avenue, is the last normal four-track station on the line. Crossovers in each direction, beyond the station, take C and late night A trains between the local tracks to the north and the express tracks to the south; as the subway turns from Sixth Avenue into Church Street, th
Umeda Station
Umeda Station is a railway station in Kita-ku in the northern commercial center of Osaka, Japan. It is the busiest station in western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005. Umeda Station is served by the following railways: Hankyu Railway Hanshin Electric Railway Osaka Metro The freight terminal of Japan Freight Railway Company, closed in 2013, was called Umeda; the nearby stations Ōsaka, Nishi-Umeda and Higashi-Umeda are within walking distance and connected by a large complex of underground malls. The underground Umeda terminal of Hanshin Electric Railway is located south of Ōsaka Station, next to underground of Hanshin Department Store; the Hanshin station first opened on December 21, 1906 as a ground level station and moved to the present underground location on March 21, 1939. There are four tracks on the second basement. There are east ticket gates on the second basement and center ticket gates and west ticket gates on the first basement; the Umeda terminal of Hankyu Railway is located northeast of Ōsaka Station.
The station first opened on March 1910, as a ground-level station. The original location of the station was southeast of Ōsaka Station and the Hankyu tracks crossed the Tōkaidō Main Line by an overpass; the station was elevated on July 5, 1926. When Osaka Station was elevated in 1934, Hankyu's elevated tracks were forced to be removed and new Umeda Station was built to handle new ground-level tracks; the switching of tracks were carried out on June 1, 1934. This station facility was used until November 28, 1971, when the move of station to the present location was completed; this move was because of a sharp increase of transit. The existence of JNR tracks on the northern end of the 1934 station prevented the expansion of the station so that the station could not handle long trains. After the opening of the current huge elevated station, spaces around and beneath the station, as well as the site of former station, were extensively redeveloped. One of the symbols of the commercial complex surrounding the station is the BIG MAN video screen above the Kinokuniya bookshop and necessary places to meet in this bustling railway station.
The Hankyu Department Store, built next to the station in 1929, was a pioneer of the successful business model of department stores run by urban railway companies in Japan. The store is still in business at the original location after the move of the station. There are ten bay platforms serving nine tracks on the third floor. There are south ticket gates on the third floor and center ticket gates and on Chayamachi ticket gates on the second floor. Umeda is the transferring point of three lines of the metro: the Midōsuji Line, the Tanimachi Line and the Yotsubashi Line. Among them, only the Midōsuji Line station is named Umeda, with the station number M16; the Tanimachi Line station is Higashi-Umeda and the Yotsubashi Line station is Nishi-Umeda. These three stations are connected with each other by underground walkways. Regular tickets of the subway, Surutto Kansai cards and IC cards are valid until the passenger gets out the ticket barrier of the station; the transfer between the three Umeda stations is an exception of this principle.
Umeda Station on the Midōsuji Line started its operation on May 1933, as a temporary station. The station was moved to the present location on October 6, 1935; the station with an island platform and two tracks was built amid one tunnel, but on November 5, 1989, the station was expanded to a tunnel that existed next to the station. The two tunnels are separated by a wall with some passages. There is an island platform with two tracks on the second basement. There is a wall with passages in the center of the platform. On the upper level of the platform, there are north, center-north-west, center-north-east, center-south and south ticket gates. Umeda Freight Terminal of Japan Freight Railway Company was a freight terminal on the Umeda Branchline of the Tōkaidō Main Line owned by West Japan Railway Company; the station was built to separate freight services from Ōsaka Station and began operation on December 1, 1928. The yard of the terminal was located to the north in the backyard, of the Ōsaka Station.
The freight terminal ceased to handle freight on March 16, 2013 and its function was succeeded by newly established Suita Freight Terminal and other nearby yards. The station was closed on March 31, 2013; the site called Ōsaka Station North Area or Ume-kita, will be redeveloped. The JR West Limited Express trains still use the freight line to transfer from the Osaka Loop Line to the JR Kyoto Line bypassing Ōsaka Station. No passenger trains have stopped at Umeda Station of JR Freight. Hankyu Department Store, Hanshin Department Store HEP Navio Hankyu Men's TOHO Cinemas Umeda HEP Five Hankyu San-Bangai Books Kinokuniya Hankyu Terminal Building Hankyu 17 bangai Hankyu Gr
Osaka Metro
Osaka Metro is the rapid transit network in the Osaka Metropolitan Area of Japan, operated by Osaka Metro Co. Ltd.. It serves the city of Osaka and the adjacent municipalities of Higashiosaka, Moriguchi, Sakai and Yao. Osaka Metro forms an integral part of the extensive mass transit system of Greater Osaka, having 123 out of the 1,108 rail stations in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto region. In 2010, the greater Osaka region had 13 million rail passengers daily of which the Osaka Municipal Subway accounted for 2.29 million. Osaka Metro is the only subway system in Japan to be classified as a tramway, whereas all other subway systems in Japan are classified as railways. Despite this, it has characteristics typical of that of a full-fledged metro system; until March 31, 2018, the network was operated by the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau as Osaka Municipal Subway, was the oldest publicly-operated subway network in Japan, having begun operations in 1933. A proposal to privatize the Osaka subway was sent to the city government in February 2013 and was given final approval in 2017.
The rationale behind privatization is that it would bring private investors to Osaka and could help revive Osaka's economy. The new private operator took over operations on April 1, 2018; the network's first service, the Midōsuji Line from Umeda to Shinsaibashi, opened in 1933. As a north-south trunk route, it is the busiest line in the whole network. Both it and the main east-west route, the Chūō Line, were extended to the north and east, respectively; these extensions are owned by other railway companies, but both Osaka Metro and these private operators run their own set of trains through between the two sections. All but one of the remaining lines of the network, including the Yotsubashi Line, Tanimachi Line, Sennichimae Line, are independent lines with no through services; the lone exception is the Sakaisuji Line, which operates through trains to existing Hankyu Railway lines and is the only line to operate through services to existing railway lines that are not isolated from the national rail network.
Nearly all stations have a letter number combination, the letter identifying the line served by the station and the number indicating the relative location of the station on the line. For example, Higobashi Station on the Yotsubashi Line is known as Y12; this combination is heard in bilingual Japanese-English automated next-station announcements on board all trains, which provide information on local businesses near the station. Only Hankyu stations served by the Sakaisuji Line do not follow this convention. Osaka Metro stations are denoted by a white-on-dark-blue icon placed at ground-level entrances, depicting an "M" based on a coiled ribbon, which would form an "O" when viewed from the side, with the "Osaka Metro" wordmark set in Gotham. "Osaka Metro" is the official branding in Japanese, is always represented as such in official media. Individual lines are represented by a public-facing name and a specific color, as well as a single Latin letter, paired with a different number at each station for easy identification.
Icons for each line are represented by a solid roundel in the line color, superimposed with the line’s letter-designation in Parisine. An older branding is the “Mio-Den” mark, which depicts an old-fashioned depth-marker, the logo for Osaka City, over the kanji for electricity, short for “electric train”; this mark is still present on newer trainsets and staff uniforms as a connection to the subway network’s roots. When it was run by the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau, the subway used a logo known as the “Circle-Ko” symbol, a katakana “ko” for “transport” superimposed over a circular capital “O” for “Osaka”; this remains on many trainsets and at stations, but is slated for replacement with the Osaka Metro logo as the changeover progresses. There are eight lines, operating on 129.9 kilometers and serving 123 stations. Table notes In addition, there are one new line that are planned. However, on August 28, 2014, the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau met about creating the extensions of the five of the six lines listed below, have stated considering the current cost of the new extensions, the government has considered using light rail transit or bus rapid transit instead.
Osaka Metro is now experimenting with bus rapid transit on the route of the Imazatosuji Line extension, with “Imazato Liner” service between Imazato and Yuzato-Rokuchōme slated to begin in April 2019. With Osaka being the host of Expo 2025, there are plans to extend the Chuo Line northwest onto Yume-shima, with a terminus on Sakura-jima north of Universal Studios Japan. Provisions were put in place for such an extension when the existing road tunnel between Cosmosquare and Yume-shima was built, but the current state of the artificial island meant it would have been unlikely to proceed
Side platform
A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for each direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with an island platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two side platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of side platforms is provided on a dual-track line, a single side platform is sufficient for a single-track line. Where the station is close to a level crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the'near-side platforms' configuration, each platform appears before the intersection and with'far-side platforms' they are positioned after the intersection. In some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length.
Most stations with two side platforms have an'Up' platform, used by trains heading towards the primary destination of the line, with the other platform being the'Down' platform which takes trains heading the opposite way. The main facilities of the station are located on the'Up' platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge, subway or a track crossing. However, in many cases the station's main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two side platforms with several island platforms in between; some are in a Spanish solution format, with two side platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks. Island platform Split platform
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
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