How was the London Underground dug?

The work involved using a construction method known as cut-and-cover, where a trench would be dug below an existing road. Track would then be laid in the trenches, and shored up on either side by a lining of brick. The trenches would then be roofed over and the road re-built on top.



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It has been over 90 years since the extensions to the Northern Line were dug by hand. Today there are 8 monster tunnel machines, 1000 tons a piece, digging out tunnels underneath London. With Crossrail's machines digging as deep as 40 meters the effects of ground settlement must be assessed and monitored.

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About half of the underground lines, in terms of length, are actually on the surface when out of the central area. It is easier and safer to dig at depth in London because of the nature of the soil and to avoid other infrastructure and the Thames.

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The deepest station is Hampstead on the Northern line, which runs down to 58.5 metres. 15. In Central London the deepest station below street level is also the Northern line. It is the DLR concourse at Bank, which is 41.4 metres below.

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The Metropolitan line is the oldest underground railway in the world. The Metropolitan Railway opened in January 1863 and was an immediate success, though its construction took nearly two years and caused huge disruption in the streets. Read more about the Metropolitan line.

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Liverpool James Street railway station, together with Hamilton Square underground station in Birkenhead are the oldest deep level underground stations in the world, while London's underground stations were just below the street surface built by means of the cut-and-cover method.

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Initially, these early underground railways used steam trains. The technology for the safe tunnelling of tubes deeper below London had been developed by 1870, but the first successful tube railway was not practical until electric power and safe lifts were perfected in the late 1880s.

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The section of underground railway between Wapping and New Cross has been open for public traffic since 7 December 1869, but the tunnel's existence goes back decades earlier. In 1825, French engineer Marc Brunel started work on the Thames Tunnel, the very first underwater tunnel anywhere in the world.

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If you encounter an emergency on a train If the train is at a station, it will stop. If it is in a tunnel, it will keep going to the next station. If the train is on a surface section, we may tell you to evacuate between stations. If this does happen we will stop other train movements and switch the power off.

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The Shanghai Metro is the world's longest metro network at 803 kilometres (499 mi) and has the highest annual ridership at 2.83 billion trips.

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THE world's deepest metro system is the Pyongyang Metro in North Korea which is 110 meters deep. The tunnel was built as part of an underground military facility. THE world's deepest metro, underground station is the Arsenalna Station on the Kiev Metro in Ukraine, at 107 meters deep.

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The New York Subway has more stations than the London Underground. Both systems have almost the same route miles. The New York Subway has more track miles because many routes have four tracks rather than the London Underground's two tracks.

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London Underground train speeds vary across our network, from as slow as 15MPH, up to 60MPH. The speed of the trains can be impacted by a range of factors including the track infrastructure, the type of signalling system, the distance between stations, and the frequency of services in the timetable.

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Smaller tunnels are cheaper to dig out then bigger tunnels. This was especially important over hundred years ago before modern tunneling techniques. The oldest tunnels in the London Underground is dug out by hand and even increasing the diameter by a feet means way higher labor cost.

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