London Underground | |
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Info | |
Locale | Greater London, Chiltern, Epping Forest, Three Rivers and Watford |
Transit type | Rapid transit |
Number of lines | 11 |
Number of stations | 270 served (260 owned) |
Daily ridership | about 3.23 million |
Website | www.tfl.gov.uk/tube |
Operation | |
Began operation | 10 January 1863 |
Operator(s) | London Underground Ltd; part of Transport for London (TfL) |
Technical | |
System length | 402 kilometres (250 mi) |
Track gauge | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Track gauge/data' not found. |
The London Underground is a system of electric trains in London, UK. It is the oldest underground railway in the world. It started running in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway. After the opening the system was copied in many other cities, for example New York and Madrid. Even though it is called the Underground about half of it is above the ground. The "Tube" is a slang name for the London Underground, because the tunnels for some of the lines are round tubes running through the ground. The Underground serves 270 stations and over 408 km of track. From 2006 to 2007 over 1 billion passengers used the underground.