Analysis of London Underground - Essay Example

The London Underground London Underground Introduction The London underground is one of the most fascinating infrastructures one can hardly fail to notice once in London. It is argued to be the oldest and busiest underground railway network in the world1. One of the most fascinating things about the London underground is that it represents the changing history of the railway system. The London underground not only serves London city, but also other neighboring towns such as Essex, Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire. The Underground was officially opened in 1863, and currently forms part of Hammersmith & City, Circle, and Metropolitan lines. It is also the first railway network to operate electric trains, in 1890, which now forms part of Northern line. The purpose of this paper is to explore the history of the London underground, its map design, services, fare, and system. It will also discuss improvements that need to be made in order to improve its functionality, especially with regard to whether or not a ladies carriage should be opened. Finally, the paper will discuss the safety issues and the ridership statistics. History of London Underground The history of railway construction in the United Kingdom can be traced back to early 19th century in which six railway terminals were built on the outskirts of London at around 1854. This include the Euston, King’s Cross, London Bridge, Waterloo, Paddington and Bishopsgate. During this period, there was only the Fenchurch Street that was located at the central business district of London City. This saw an increase in traffic jams, partly due to the desire for rail travelers to be able to reach the city centre by road. Therefore, as a means to decongest traffic in London, a proposal that had been made in 1830s, to construct an underground railway to connect the London City with the mainline terminals was re-energized in 1850s. This was due to the public pressure exerted on the government by commuters who were concerned about the traffic congestion in the city, which led to a lot of delays to reach the London’s city centre where they worked. As a result, in 1855, an Act of Parliament was passed approving the building of an underground railway between Farringdon Street through King’s Cross and Paddington, which was to be called the Metropolitan Railway. The project received a financial backing from Great Western Railway (GWR) when it consented that a junction would be constructed to link underground railway and mainline terminus at Paddington. Moreover, the GWR also accepted to design distinctive trains to link with the new subterranean railway2. Emmerson notes that financial difficulties experienced in UK during this time delayed the construction of the underground railway for several years3. It is worth noting that Charles Pearson was one of the most influential people who contributed immensely to the starting of this project through his intense lobbying. He is said to have approved the idea of constructing the London underground railway for several years. Among his proposal includes the demolition of dilapidated and unhygienic slums, which were to be replaced with more modern structures where people would leave and provided transportation using underground railways to their workplaces within the city. His pioneering work was also seen when Pearson persuaded the City of London Corporation to assist in funding the project in 1859. The actual work for the construction of London Underground officially began in 1860, under the leadership of John Fowler, as the chief engineer. Nonetheless, Pearson passed on before this project could be completed. The Metropolitan railway was opened on 10 January 1863 and is reported to have been providing transport services to more than 26,000 commuters daily within its first few months of opening. A year later City Railway and Hammersmith was opened between Paddington and Hammersmith. Services were initially operated by GWR between Farringdon and Hammersmith streets. The Metropolitan then took over the services towards the end of March 18654. On the same year on 23 December 1865, the eastern extension of the Metropolitan leading to Moorgate Street was opened. Many years later, other brunches were opened leading to Swiss Cottage, Addison Road, and South Kensington Olympia. Halliday reveals that the railway was initially a dual gauge meant to allow the use of broad-gauge rolling stock of GWR and the widely used standard-gauge stock as well5. However, disagreement between Metropolitan and GWR forced Metropolitan to switch to standard immediately after GWR withdrew all its stock from the railway in 1863. This led to broad-gauge trains stopping plying on the Metropolitan in March 1869. Halliday reports that the Metropolitan District railway later began operating between Westminister and South Kensington on 24 December 1868 using Metropolitan Railway trains and carriages6. A company known as “the District” was then incorporated in 1864 to complete the construction of Inner Circle railway around London together with the Metropolitan. This plan involved the idea of constructing both an Outer Circle and an inner line. However, an intense antagonism soon developed between Metropolitan and the District. This delayed the completion of the Inner Circle project great deal. The rivalry between the two companies was over the competition to construct far more financially lucrative railways within London’s suburbs7. By 1880s, the underground had reached Chesham on the Metropolitan, Wimbledon, Hounslow and Whitechapel on the District and the east London’s railway’s New Cross. Towards the end of 19th century, the Metropolitan reported to have extended its lines far outside London to Verney junction, Aylesbury, and Brill, developing new suburbs along the route. First Tube Lines Emmerson reveals that a following the advances in the use of electric traction, tunneling shields and deep-level tunneling designs, later railways were built deeper underground8. It is noted that the use of these technologies caused much less commotion at the underground. It was also considered cheaper compared to the other initial methods, such as the cut-and-cover construction method. The City & South Lon don Railway began operation in 1890, between King William Street, which is now closed, and the Stockwell. This is the world’s first ever deep-level electrically operated railway. The railway was later extended to both ends to Moorgate Street in the north and Clapham Common, in the south9. Halliday notes that the Waterloo and the City Railway, which are also electrically operated railways, were opened in 1898. These were constructed and run by London and South Western Railway. Central London Railway, which is currently known as Central line, was opened in 1900. It operated services from Bank to Shepherd’s Bush. The building of Baker Street and Waterloo Railway also began in August 1898 but stalled after eighteen months due to shortage of funds. Design of Map Initially the London underground maps were mainly city maps, with overlay lines. However, this produced space problems, since the central stations were far closer together than the ones outlaid. Therefore, in order to do away with these problems, a more modern stylized Tube map was developed under the designer of electrical engineer Harry Beck in 193310. Beck worked to design a more understandable and readable map characterized by a schematic non-geographical layout, based on circuit diagrams incorporating the use of color-coding of lines. The design of this map also used vertical, horizontal, and 45 degrees segments with similar topography and approximate geography as factual routes11. The figure below shows the standard London underground map. Fig 1: The Standard map design of London Underground Courtesy of google maps Services The main reason why the London underground was constructed was to assist in reducing traffic congestion in London city and its environs12. It was meant to aid transportation of commuters from various parts of London to the city centers where they work. Emmerson notes that the underground serves 270 stations across UK and has 402 kilometers of track13. It is also Europe’s biggest metro system and one of the world’s busiest, handling more than a billion passengers yearly14. The 402 kilometer ground network is critical in the sense that it not only serves the people of London, but also the UK at large. For instance, the London underground railway is reported to serve 270 stations in London, among them being Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Paddington, Essex, Hammersmith, Russel Square, King’s Cross, just to name a few. Fare Travel card zonal fare system is the main method used in determining the amount of money each passenger is supposed to pay as fare. Tickets are sold in offices, which operate on fixed duration of time each day; however, passengers can purchase tickets from ticket machines at time of the day. The ticket machines are of different types, there are some that accept coins and notes while there are also advanced machines that accept credit cards15. Apart from the efficient ticketing service at London Heathrow, there is also the plain clothes as well as uniformed ticket inspectors. They ensure that every passenger has purchased a ticket and is using a valid ticket at the underground. There is a penalty put in place for passengers found to be using invalid tickets at the system; the passengers are expected to pay up to 40 pounds. In cases whereby the fine is not paid within 21 days as indicated under the regulation of railways act 1889, the passengers is expected to pay 80 pounds. There are also options of being prosecuted form fare evasion; the court can impose a fine of up to 1000 pounds or face a jail term of three months16. Prepay card users who do not pay their fare at the start of the journey are charged 6 pounds in peak hours. Off peak hours are however cheaper than the peak hours: passengers pay 4.30 pounds. Other prepay card users who fail to pay at the beginning of the journey are expected to pay up to 50 pounds if they care detected by the ticket inspector. System The eleven lines that serve London are divided into the subsurface routes as well as the deep-tube routes. The subsurface class is made up of the circle, metropolitan lines, district and the Hammersmith. Further, the deep tube routes consist of the waterloo and city lines as well as the Bakerloo. Other routes such as jubilee, northern, Piccadilly and Victoria also form part of the deep-tube routes17. London underground is connected to about 270 railway stations. However, there are about fourteen railway stations that are outside London, five of them being located on the metropolitan line. Some of the underground stations found on the metropolitan line include Amersham, Chesham, Chalfont & Letimer, and Chorleywood. Epping station is found on the central line. Further, there are other underground stations grouped under the term “London boroughs”. Six stations under London borough are not connected to the underground system of rail, they include: Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, Lewisham and Sutton18. The London underground consists of the Bakerloo line, central line, circle line, district line, Hammersmith and city line, jubilee line, metropolitan line, northern line, Piccadilly line, Victoria line, and waterloo & city line. Passengers are able to differentiate the lines since different colors have been assigned to each of them. In a complicated system of railway line, it is important to give directions and differentiate one line from the other. The management of the London underground is currently under the Transport of London, which was created in 2000 to replace London regional transport19. Safety Safety warnings are issued by the management to the passengers to prevent accidents. In addition, the management ensures that “mind the gap’ announcements are issued to passenger so that they can avoid going beyond the yellow line. It is important to note that there are few accidents that take place at the London underground. Most of the accidents reported to be frequent are of suicide attempts. In order to minimize deaths due to suicide attempts, the management has constructed pits beneath the track. The pits are important because they assist in preventing death or serious injury when passengers fall or decide to jump in front of the train. In addition, the pits beneath the train help in draining water from the platforms20. Transport of London has employees who monitor platforms in case there is overcrowding. In addition, the staffs ensure that no passenger enters the passageways as well as preventing passengers from joining overcrowded areas. Overcrowding is a major cause of accidents at the London underground network. Safety of passengers is important in any transport system. The London underground network has good reputation in terms of accident frequency. There is one fatal accident in about 300 million journeys bat the system. The security system also ensures that terrorist attacks are not a threat to the system. Terror attacks can be dangerous to the passengers if the security system does not put in place measures to screen passengers21. Improvement London underground lines should be improved so that their capacity and reliability be enhanced. There are plans put in place by the transport of London to equip the system with new computerized signaling. In addition, there is need to carry out track replacement so that worn out railway lines be replaced by new lines. Station refurbishment and track replacement ensures that services offered to the passengers are of high quality22. Due to the deep and poorly ventilated tubes at the London underground, passengers are likely to experience high temperatures in summer. The situation can only be improved if cooling systems are introduced. In 2006 the trial of a ground water cooling system took place to ascertain whether it is effective in controlling the high temperatures. Further, there is also the introduction of the S Stock trains in various routes since they have air conditioning facilities23. In public transport systems, it is not appropriate to open carriage system based on gender. Passengers should have the choice to travel in any carriage. Further, it can be seen as a set back to the advances in human rights and may experience legal challenges. The opening of a ladies carriage may reflect discrimination towards one gender. However, in order to make late night travel easier for women, it is important to introduce a ladies carriage. The problem with the idea is that a pervert might wait for women after knowing where they would alight late in the night. Further, it is possible that rowdy gangs of male may attack women in the carriages thereby causing unnecessary fights Ridership statistics According to transport for London, London underground services about 1.1 billion passengers in 2010/2011 financial year. The figures show an increase in the carriage level of the underground system from the previous years of its operation. In addition, the organization reports that about 42 million passenger journeys were recorded the underground system, more than any other year in their history of providing service to the public. Further, transport for London reports that a record of 90.6 million passengers used the system in December 2010. There has been an increase in passenger volumes of 14 percent in the last seven years. In the last fifteen years, tourism for has also recorded a 40 percent rise in the number of passengers at the underground network24. The ridership figures were realized due to the dedication of the management team to initiate upgrade of the facility in its 148 year history. The management was able to replace the signaling system, build more tracks as well as introduce more advanced trains. Further, the upgrade was able to help passengers move around London and other areas faster in more comfortable trains25. Apart from December 2010, the London underground also witnessed large volumes of passengers from 17noctober to 13 November 2010. During this period, the number of passengers that used the facility stood at over r90 million. Other systems such as the Docklands Light Railways recorded about 6.7 million passenger carriage26. Bibliography Doring, Tobias. London Underground. London: Reclam. 2003. Emmerson, Andrew. The London Underground. Long Island City, NY: Osprey Publishing. 2010. Glover, John. London Underground. London: Ian Allan. 1997. Halliday, Stephen. Amazing & Extraordinary London Underground facts. New York, NY: David & Charles. 2012. Long, David & Magarigal, Jane. London’s Underground: Architecture, Design and History. London: History Press 2011. Martin Andrew. Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube. London: Profile Books Limited. 2012. Pascoe, Elaine. The London Underground. Oxford: Blackbirch Press. 2004. Pascoe Elaine. The London Underground. London: Blackbirch Press. 2004. Smith Stephanie. Underground London. London: Little, Brown Book Group. 2010. Transport for London, London Underground racks up record ridership figures: 19th April, 2011. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/19814.aspx retrieved on 17th July, 2012. Read More