Was London Underground dug by hand?

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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It was still a back-breaking job for the men working at the face of a tunnelling shield, with the vast majority of construction work still done by hand. Unlike the cut-and-cover method, which only required shallow trenches, the 'deep level' lines were built far below ground, with actual tunnels being built.

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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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The line was built just below street level using a technique known as 'cut and cover'. A trench about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug. Brick walls were then constructed, and the cutting roofed over with a brick arch. A two-metre deep layer of topsoil was laid on top and the road above was rebuilt.

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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. It also may result from the fact that London is quite hilly and trains don't like going up hills, so the tube goes through the hill.

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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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The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris. There are 64 lifts in the system. The deepest station, Hampstead (58.5 metres below ground), also has the deepest lift shaft, descending 55.2 metres. The largest Tube car park is at Epping with 599 parking spots.

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The underground or tube in London is the oldest transport system of its kind in the world. It opened on 10th January 1863 with steam locomotives. Today, there's an underground network of 408 kilometres (253 miles) of active lines that will take you anywhere in the city.

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Our network includes 272 functioning Tube stations, but at least another 40 Overground and Underground stations exist that are no longer used for travel.

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In the early 1960s the Metropolitan line was electrified as far as Amersham, and steam locomotives no longer hauled passenger trains. The Victoria line, a new tube line across central London, opened in 1968–71 with trains driven automatically.

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While the railways were transporting people and goods around the country at unprecedented speeds in the 19th century, traffic in inner cities was becoming chaotic. The answer the Victorians came up with was simple: move the whole problem underground. In 1863, the world's first underground railway was built.

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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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Despite its name, only 45% of the system is under the ground: much of the network in the outer environs of London is on the surface.

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The Central Line was opened in 1900 and is forty six miles long, making it the longest line of the system, between the stations of West Ruislip and Epping. The Central Line is one of only two lines which have stations outside the boundaries of Greater London.

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The designer of the iconic Underground map, Harry Beck, based his design on an electrical circuit diagram. The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour, including station stops. On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60 mph.

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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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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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Because Hampstead is on a steep hill, the station's platforms are the deepest on the London Underground network, at 58.5 metres (192 ft) below ground level; and it has the deepest lift shaft on the Underground, at 55 metres (180 ft).

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