Abstract
BY the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board last year, the unification of the underground train, bus, trolley-bus and tram systems of London has been accomplished. The British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association (Beama) has recently published a well-illustrated book giving an account of the part played by British manufacturers' in providing machinery and equipment for this great transport service. The account given proves the sound administrative qualities of those who have made London's “Underground” the foremost institution of its kind in the world. So far back as 1846, the prospectus which led to the foundation of the Metropolitan Railway was issued, the object being to encircle the metropolis with a tunnel. The scheme, of which Mr. Charles Pearson, a city solicitor, was the author, was at first received with derision, and it was not until 1863 that the first section of the line, from Farringdon Street to Bishop's Road, was opened. The seven stations which formed this line have now increased to 226, and considerably more than a million passengers per day are carried. Every weekday, 2,800 trains pass through Charing Cross station. After forty years of steam, the Metropolitan and the District Railways were equipped for operation ‘ electricity. The great extension of London's underground railways and the equipment for electrical operation of the older steam lines was started in 1902 by the formation of the Undergound Electric Railways Co. of London, Ltd., the site for the generating station being in Lots Road, Chelsea. The great success of the undertaking is due to the recognition by the administration of the fact that the position is continually changing and that progress cannot be checked or thwarted in a living organisation.
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London's Underground Railways. Nature 133, 132–133 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133132d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133132d0