If you want a few curious facts about the London Underground for a pub quiz or just the office, here are a few useful easy to quote ones.
1. The first London Underground line was the London’s Metropolitan line which was opened on January 10 1863. This was also the oldest underground line in the world. There was actually an overground line called the The Thames Tunnel which was created by Isambard and his father Mark which still exists.
2. The shortest distance between two tube stations is just 0.16 miles between Leicester Square to Covent Garden. Although most people only go by the underground map, it is actually quicker to walk this distance than take the tube between the stations.
3. Bank Station has the most escalators of any Tube station, with fifteen escalators and two moving walkways. Of course whether all of them are working at the same time is possibly more debatable.
4. The longest escalator in Europe is fitted at Angel Tube station which has a massive 318 steps. The shortest one is found at Chancery Lane station.
5. In total, there are 409 escalators on the London underground stations which do around 50,000 miles a week.
6. The first underground escalator was installed at Earl’s Court station in 1911.
7. The deepest part of the network is at Hampstead Heath station which is 192 feet below ground level, although the line just outside is as low as 220 feet below the ground.
8. If you want to stay on the underground, it is possible to go from West Ruislip to Epping without changing trains, at a massive 34 miles.
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8 Comments
Hamstead Heath is an overground station, hamstead is the underground (northern line, edgeware branch) station that may have this fact attached to it.
But correct me if I’m wrong
Some great facts ready for Pub Quizzes here!
Yes, Hampstead Heath is overground. The Thames Tunnel, on the other hand, is underground. The clue’s in the name.
Leicester Square/Covent Garden must be closely rivalled by Charing Cross/Embankment. It almost seems like the two platforms are right next to each other, separated by a thick wall.
Fact 4 is wrong, and has been since at least 2003:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Pobedy_%28Moscow_Metro%29
I’ve been on the Angel escalator and the Park Pobeby one, and I can attest that Park Pobedy is way longer.
(And yes, Moscow is in Europe.)
A few parts here look a little out of date.
Data from the TfL website shows that there are four stations with more escalators than Bank:
17 – London Bridge & Westminster
20 – Canary Wharf
23 – Waterloo (two of which like Bank, are moving walkways)
I’d argue that Embankment to Charing Cross is the shortest distance between 2 stops. You can see both stations from each platform and walk it in less than 30 seconds
I love these facts! I already knew about the short distance between Leicester Sq and Covent Garden and was pleased to tell it to anyone who asked, but now I have even more facts in my sleeve. Thanks!
What an interesting post about the London Underground. I loved reading it, don’t love travelling on it too much though.