The Tube

20 things you never knew about the London Underground

1. The Central line covers the longest route - from West Ruislip to Epping you will travel 34 miles without changing.
   
2. The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line. It opened on the 10th January 1863.
   
3. The Waterloo and City line covers the shortest route - 2 kilometers, but considering it only covers two stations - Waterloo and Bank, it doesn't take Stephen Hawkins to work that one out..
4. The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. It's quicker to walk this distance than travel on the tube.

5. Tube carriages originally had no windows and buttoned upholstery and were nicknamed "padded cells". No change there then.

6. Bank has more escalators than any other station on the tube - 15 plus two moving walkways - count em!

7. Fish and Parcels is the slang name for the District Line.

8. The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am.

9. The Jubilee Line Extension was the most expensive railway line ever built. It cost USD 330 million per kilometre.
   

10. All 409 escalators do the equivalent of two round the world trips every week.

1. People were smaller when the carriages were built in the 1860's - which is one of the reasons why you'll find your journey so uncomfortable today.

2. The air in the underground is on average 10°C hotter than the air on the surface.

3. People who commit suicide by throwing themselves under tube are called "one-unders". In New York they are known as "track pizza". Choose your preference.

4. Green grapes cause more accidents on the London Underground than banana skins.

5. Anthea Turner and her sister Wendy have written a series of children's books about mice living on the London Underground. An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system so that should keep them both busy for a while.

6. Only one person was ever born in a tube carriage and her name is Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor - check out her initials. She was born in 1924 on a Bakerloo line train at Elephant & Castle.

7. Victoria and King's Cross record the highest number of tube suicides each year. This isn't surprising as Victoria is the tube's busiest station with 85 million passengers each year and King's Cross has 70 million passengers each year.

8. The Cadbury's Whole Nut chocolate bar is the biggest seller in the chocolate machines at tube stations.

9. A fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James Park, Euston and Piccadilly station in an effort to make the tube smell better on 23rd March 2001. It was taken out of action on 24th March 2001 as it was making people feel sick.