LONDON | DLR, Underground, Tramlink

[Justme]

Thanks Tubeman!

[nick_taylor]

Two pictures I took of the descending travelator at Bank station going down to the Waterloo & City line platforms:






One of the most colourful travelators for sure

[Falubaz]

it's wonderful!!! are there more such thinks in LON???

[spsmiler]

Originally Posted by Justme

@ spsmiler, what an amazing contrabution to this thread. Thanks for your excellent photographs and summarys! I hope you hang around this forum for a while to continue posting such brilliant details about London railways!

just one question, did I understand right that in Kew Gardens station the North London line trains arrive at the same platform of the tube trains?

sorry for the delay, I've been away.

anyway, thanks to tubeman you now have the answer!

btw, betwen Rayners Lane and Uxbridge the small profile Piccadily Line trains and large profile Metropolitan line trains also share tracks and station platforms.

The tubetrains are lower than the platform and the larger traisn are higher than the platform.

It makes disabled access very difficult - and wheelchair access almost impossible (without a strong person to help).

Another issue is that the tube trains are narrower, so there is a wider gap between the train and the platform. This also applies on the Central line between Leyton and Epping because although Underground trains started using that route in the late 1940's the last mainline trains stopped travelling here in 1971.

Simon

[Jayayess1190]

I want to visit london really bad now

[Jayayess1190]

The Tube is AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hkskyline]

London Subway Lines May Be Closed for 'Months'

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- London's Waterloo & City and Northern subway lines, which serve more than 700,000 passengers every weekday, may be shut for "months" at a time for maintenance and upgrading work, the system's owner said.

London Underground Ltd. is considering the benefits of closing the lines for periods beyond the current overnight and weekend shutdowns, which restrict the amount of work that can be done, Managing Director Tim O'Toole told the London Assembly's Transport Committee today.

Tube Lines Ltd. and Metronet, which have 30-year contracts to maintain and upgrade the subway, are struggling to improve the network while continuing to operate a service for its 3 million daily passengers. Closing lines for longer periods would allow more work to be done to improve the world's oldest and Europe's largest underground rail network.

"It's the kind of thing we are willing to do if we see we are going to get the payback," O'Toole said of the proposed line closures. Terry Morgan, chief executive of Tube Lines Ltd., which is responsible for work on the Northern Line, said he has given London Underground a proposal that includes plans for longer shutdowns. He declined to say how long, though said the line may be split into seven sections and closed in turn.

The Northern Line, the system's busiest, carries about 710,000 passengers a day. It extends from Morden in south London to High Barnet and Edgware in the north, via two routes: one through the City and the other through London's West End theater district. The Waterloo & City line, which is the responsibility of Metronet, operates a non-stop shuttle service from Waterloo rail station to Bank in the capital's financial district, known as the City. It carries more than 40,000 people a day.

"Clearly it's going to be a great concern for London businesses," Dan Bridgett, a spokesman for London Chamber of Commerce, said in a telephone interview. "But we have been calling for a long time for new investment in the Tube, so provided its going to result in tangible benefits, perhaps it's a price we have to pay."

Parts of the Northern Line are "driving us all nuts," said O'Toole, who during the past two weekends has closed the City branch of the line for maintenance work. Closing the line for longer periods of time would cut short the work program by about two years, Tube Lines' Morgan said.

Brian Cooke, chairman of London Transport Users Committee, said research carried out by the group had shown that commuters were prepared to put up with such a closure if it produced "tangible" results.

If the shut down is properly planned and London Underground gives out details of alternative travel arrangements, "commuters will actually welcome" it, Cooke said in an interview. "One has to accept that there is going to be pain to get the gain."

[Justme]

^Well, if it brings the improvements ahead as far as they claim, then maybe it's not a bad thing. But it would be a hassle of cause.

[redstone]

Can someone post photos of the first lines and stations?
Thanks!

[nick_taylor]

Was looking for some pictures - but found these ones instead









































Baker Street - one of the oldest underground stations on the planet:





One of the more interesting stations in London, Clapham Common:

[Justme]

Nick, you found some of the best photo's of the underground I have seen!

[Tubeman]

They're great! Agreed

redstone; Baker Street is THE oldest Metro / Subway station in the World (jointly)

It opened in 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon Street. I posted an engraving of Baker Street back then elsewhere; I'll try to find it.

[James]

What makes the photos Nick posted so amazing is that they were originally Black and White pictures, and the amount of time that the photographer must have spent to colourise them is unbelievable.

[hkskyline]

The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden has a large collection of old Underground maps. It's quite a fascinating exhibition :
Some Photos

[Crusader]

the London underground needs a radical overhaul. it desperately needs modernization.

[Bitxofo]

Originally Posted by Crusader

the London underground needs a radical overhaul. it desperately needs modernization.

Yes, I agree with you!

[hkskyline]

Tube Lines says better performance justifies controversial rise in profits
By Michael Harrison
7 May 2005
The Independent

Tube Lines, one of the two private-sector consortia which have taken over the London Underground, is set to court fresh controversy by revealing an increase in profits.

The consortium, which is responsible for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, is thought to have achieved a significant improvement on the £45m profit it made in its first year of operations. Details of Tube Lines" latest profits for the financial year which ended in April are due to be released in July.

Terry Morgan, the chief executive of Tube Lines, did not disclose the specific profit figure but said the business was performing well and justified the money it is making from the Underground contract by pointing to improved performance.

Major upgrades to the Northern and Jubilee lines are running ahead of schedule and Tube Lines has also exceeded the targets set by London Underground for punctuality and train failures. The programme to modernise or refurbish the 100 stations which Tube Lines is responsible for is on track.

Mr Morgan said investment in the network was ahead of schedule at about £350m last year and would rise again in the current financial year to at least £380m. Tube Lines, whose two shareholders are the Spanish transport group Ferrovial and the US construction giant Bechtel, has pledged to spend £4.4bn in the first seven and a half years of its 30-year contract to modernise the Underground. The Spanish company has taken over the stakes in Tube Lines formerly owned by the UK contractors Amey and Jarvis.

A report in March from the Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the manner in which the Tube contracts had been awarded through a public- private partnership, saying this had already cost taxpayers £1bn in fees and higher financing charges.

But Mr Morgan said the MPs" report had ignored all the benefits delivered by the PPP. Investment in the Underground is now three times higher than before Tube Lines took over in January 2003, while there has been a 30 per cent decline in the cost of track renewals and a 40 to 50 per cent increase in the amount of track being replaced. Escalators, meanwhile, are being replaced in 10 or 11 weeks " less than half the time it used to take.

Mr Morgan"s counterpart at Metronet, the consortium selected to take over the rest of the Tube network, was fired last month. John Weight was removed because of Metronet"s "unacceptable" performance levels and delays to its investment programme.

[spsmiler]

I had better be careful,

suffice to say that as a British taxpaeyer I can think of better places for my money than a private contractor's sharedholder's pockets.

Simon

[tommygunn]

[IMG][/IMG] [/IMG]
Tube being built

[superchan7]

Anyone have pics of the very first trains that ran on the Underground?