The Tube

London metro has always been a fascination to me. A facsination due to its connectivity,the colourful insides of the trains,the pretty names they have and the differnt levels they operate at.

But why is it called a tube.It was always a wonder for me as to why it is called "The Tube" or "Tubes" and the station called the "Tube Station". I figured it out due to my curiosity and it goes this way.... London has a large connectivity of trains underground and the tunnels look like tubes running here and there and so are the trains... they are so rounded off that they look like tubes... hence the name.. Its so simple :) This picture shows the present day tube platforms.

Well the londoners can really boast about their tube history because the metro project started off way back in the 1800s.It is so hard to imagine men carrying those heavy materials to dig the tubes in various levels and connect them. London has had overground as well as underground tubes way back in the 1800s and currently serves 268 stations by rail! Have a look at this picture which shows the metro construction during the early 1800s.

Picture 3 shows us the central london railway locomotive in the tube station in the 1800s.

The underground station has subsurfaces and deep level classifications. You can travel to different places by taking tubes for different lines/routes in different storeys! The tube stations in london have Europe's longest escalators to reachout to the deepest railway track. Isn't that amazing!!This is the present day picture of the escalator at angel station.

Not to forget the point where tubes were saviours for civilians in the world war era.The authorities in London, after being put under pressure from public, did make use of about 80 underground Tube stations to house about 177,000 people. Back ,those lines were not electrified so the people could sit on the rails, keep their belongings and sleep peacefully in tube stations with their families.Hence,the tubes have helped millions during the world war.

There used to be a very sweet marketing strategy for the early birds to try out london metro. Have a look at this picture and read the message "Swift and Sure" :)

These days in london metro/tube stations, people make the place dirty by spilling out their drink,leaving newspapers on the chairs and stuff like that.There are also some negatives like delays in train, escalators being closed for a while but the bright side of these tubes should never be forgotten. In my eyes "The Tube" is still a wonderful achievement by man on earth.