Subway Systems

The very first underground railway was in London, opened between Paddington and Farringdon on Saturday, January 10th 1863 by the Metropolitan Railway. It was built in response to the growing congestion on the streets of London (yes, it happened even then when horse-drawn traffic was pretty dense, as well as smelly!) and over 38,000 people used it on its first day of operation. The trains were steam powered and you an imagine the soot, smoke and grime associated with travelling below ground in such circumstances. Since then, of course, the London Underground has spread enormously, now having 12 lines covering 253 miles of track and 276 stations and the system is used by over 1 billion people each year.

The second underground system to open, and this you would probably never have guessed, was in Budapest. Built to link the city with the Budapest City Park it covered less than four kilometres, though had eleven stops. Single cars were used and the system was electrified from the very beginning. It opened in May 1896. Two cars from the original system are on display in the Underground Railway Museum in Budapest, complete with a (replica) of part of the tunnel.

The two photos of London Underground trains are of superb models made by MetroModels Ltd (www.metromodels.net). It's back to the UK for the third oldest system, this time in Glasgow. Opened in December 1896 the circular route of about 6.5 miles was originally cable-driven but was electrified in 1935 and uses deep tube trains, similar to those in London, though the trains are slightly smaller versions and run on a narrow-gauge track. Despite a couple of makeovers and station rebuilding, the circuit has never been extended from its original plan.

Many other systems worldwide followed and the world map now shows those cities which have dedicated underground railway systems. There are thought to be 162 cities with an underground railway system with a further 25 cities where construction work is underway or planned in the near future. Paris, with 134 miles of track and 380 stations, has the second largest system after London, then, in order, come Moscow (12 lines, 172 stations and over 8 million passengers per day) – see photo on the left of one of their magnificent stations, for which the Moscow subway is renowned.

Madrid (180 miles, 190 stations, 650 million passengers pa); Tokyo (3 billion passengers per year and 282 miles); Seoul (180 miles, 8 million passengers per day); New York (5 million per day, 462 stations); Montreal (45 miles with 65 stations); Beijing (only opened in 1969 but currently being extended to cover 300 miles); and Hong Kong (2.5 million passengers per day over 56 miles of track). Clearly a very efficient way of transporting people within cities.

If you have ever travelled on the métro in Paris or Montréal (or Santiago, Turin, Tokyo, Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Mexico City, Taipei or parts of Chicago) you will also realise that their underground trains run on rubber tyres, rather than steel rails (though the steel rails are there as well – part of a back-up system). This gives a smoother, quieter ride though uses more power and creates more heat. It is not often that one of these trains gets a flat tyre. Paris is unique (well, of course Paris is unique !) in that only about half its system runs on rubber tyres, the remainder, as our photo shows, running on conventional steel track.

There are two types of tunnel construction that have changed little since their invention. The first is ideal for near-surface lines (about 5-10 metres) and involves what is known as "cut-and-cover". It's not too difficult to understand this method, though it obviously involves much surface traffic disruption during excavation works. The second method, used for deeper lines (like the Tube in London and going down to about 20 metres, enough to tunnel under the Thames) are tunnels that are hewn out of the earth, sometimes hundreds of feet below the surface. The only sign on the surface of the tunnelling deep below are the station entrances, though most of the ticket offices are themselves below ground. Some systems, such as London and Paris, have sections of the system which run above ground.

Beijing, being one of the biggest cities in the world also has an impressive subway system – we shall have more on this shortly.

But many other countries have subway systems and some in cites you might not at first associate with underground railways. Cairo has a magnificent new subway system – clean, fast, cheap and efficient. Many cities in the former USSR have subways, including Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. a city of 2 million people. The photo to the left is of one station on the Baku metro and puts most London Underground stations to shame – and those of many other cities too.

This is a photo of the Pyongyang metro, North Korea, and although the trains look a little, experienced, shall we say, and the station a bit on the misty side, you can still see reasonable design work having gone into the station construction. The Pyongyang metro is, apparently, very efficient though not too many westerners get to visit.