1. The idea of a London underground network was first proposed in the 1830s, with the Metropolitan Railway granted royal assent to build a line in 1854.
2. The tube has a reputation as a trail-blazer not just for being the first underground railway anywhere in the world - it was also the first public metro to introduce contactless payment, in 2014.
3. Ironically the London underground’s first tunnel was actually built in Kibblesworth in the north-east of England. The town was chosen for the first test tunnel due to its
similar geological properties to the capital, and was used for two years in the development of the first underground train.
4. In January 1963 the world’s first underground railway opened between Paddington and Farringdon, with steam locomotives hauling 38,000 passengers in gas-lit wooden carriages on the first day.
5. The initial construction work cost £1.3million (over £160m in 2018).
6. It even created its very own word – the metro!
7. The first deep-level tube line tunnels were dug in the 1880s directly under roads, meaning permission from property owners above was not needed.
8. The iconic tube map was created by electrical designer Harry Beck in 1931, based on an electrical circuit diagram.
9. The deepest London underground station is on the Northern line at Hampstead, some 58.5m below ground level, roughly the height of a 17 storey building!
10. Today the underground is the world’s fourth largest underground network at 402km.
11. It is also the world’s 11th busiest, carrying over 1.3bn passengers in 2017/18.
12. The longest distance between stations is 6.3km – from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer.
13. The shortest distance between stations is 0.3km – from Leicester Square to Covent Garden.
14. There 440 passenger escalators throughout the network.
15.But only four moving walkways, two at Bank and two at Waterloo.
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