Portal:London transport

The London transport portal

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London transport

The London transport system is one of the oldest and largest public transport systems in the world. Many components of its transport system, such as the double-decker bus, the Hackney Carriage black taxi and the London Underground, are internationally recognised symbols of London.

Most transport services in London are controlled by Transport for London (TfL), an executive agency of the Greater London Authority. TfL-controlled services include the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, the London Overground, Buses and Trams, most of which accept payment by the Oyster card. TfL also administers the congestion charge zone and the low emission zone.

London has a comprehensive rail network with several major railway stations linking to the rest of the country. International travel is possible from St Pancras International which connects to mainland Europe through the Eurostar service, or from one of six international airports, including Heathrow or Gatwick.

The M25 is an orbital motorway which enables vehicles to avoid travelling through central London and is one of the busiest motorways in Europe.

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Selected article
The Northern line is an underground railway in London, that is coloured black on the London Underground Tube map. The line's two branches carry 206.734 million passengers per year—the highest on the London Underground system. For most of its length it is built as a deep-level tube line. Despite its name, it is the Underground line that extends furthest south. There are 50 stations on the Northern line, of which 36 are underground. The line has a complicated history and the current complex arrangement of two northern branches, two central branches and the southern branch reflects its genesis as three separate railway companies that were brought together and combined in the 1920s and 1930s. The original routes were extended several times so that by 1926 the line served Edgware in the north and Morden in the south. Ambitious plans to take over and incorporate London & North Eastern Railway's Northern Heights branch lines and extend the line to Bushey were mostly cancelled following the Second World War. (Full article...) All selected articles
Selected biography
Henry Charles Beck (4 June 1902 – 18 September 1974), known as Harry Beck, was an English technical draughtsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office. London Underground was initially sceptical of Beck's radical proposal, an uncommissioned spare-time project, but tentatively introduced it to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933. Beck's approach to the map was to remove all geographical content except the River Thames so that the focus could be on the arrangement of lines and stations and to enable the central area to be expanded map. Beck first submitted his idea to Frank Pick in 1931 but it was considered too radical because it didn't show relative distances between stations. After a successful trial of 500 copies in 1932, distributed via a select few stations, the map was given its first full publication in 1933 (700,000 copies). It was immediately popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since. Beck's contribution to the visual style of London Underground is recognised with a plaque at what was his local Underground station, Finchley Central; with a blue plaque at his birth place in Leyton and the Beck Gallery at the London Transport Museum. (Full article...) All Selected biographies
Did you know...
...that the ticket hall at Bank station is partly built in the crypt of Nicholas Hawksmoor's church, St Mary Woolnoth? ...that the first railway terminus in London was Spa Road station in Bermondsey, opened by the London and Greenwich Railway on 8 February 1836? ...that the horse-drawn freight only Surrey Iron Railway between Wandsworth and Croydon was the first railway in London when it opened in 1803? ...that trains on the Waterloo & City line never see the light of day? ...that London Underground stations Padddington and Paddington are about 400 m apart on foot, but over 20 kilometres apart by train? More Did you know...
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Selected pictures

Image 1An air raid shelter in a London Underground station during The Blitz.
Image 2Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
Image 3Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
Image 4Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
Image 5Gondolas of the Emirates Air Line cable car cross the River Thames from Greenwich Peninsula to Royal Docks.
Image 6Shaftesbury Avenue from Piccadilly Circus, in the West End of London, 1949.
Image 7Eurostar Class 373 trains at St Pancras station.
Image 8Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
Image 9The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
Image 10London Underground A60 Stock (left) and 1938 Stock (right) trains showing the difference in the sizes of the two types of rolling stock operated on the system. A60 stock trains operated on the surface and sub-surface sections of the Metropolitan line from 1961 to 2012 and 1938 Stock operated on various deep level tube lines from 1938 to 1988.
Image 11The multi-level junction between the M23 and M25 motorways near Merstham in Surrey. The M23 passes over the M25 with bridges carrying interchange slip roads for the two motorways in between.
Image 12The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
Image 13Victoria line 2009 Stock train at Euston.
Image 14Sailing ships at West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs in 1810. The docks opened in 1802 and closed in 1980 and have since been redeveloped as the Canary Wharf development.
Image 15Thames Clippers service catamaran on the River Thames.
Image 16Tram 2548 calls at Arena tram stop. This is one of the trams on the Tramlink network centred on Croydon in south London.
Image 17Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
Image 18London General Omnibus Company B-type bus B340 built in 1911 by AEC. One of a number of London buses purchased by the British military during World War I, this vehicle was operated on the Western Front.
Image 19The newly constructed junction of the Westway (A40) and the West Cross Route (A3220) at White City, circa 1970. Continuation of the West Cross Route northwards under the roundabout was cancelled leaving two short unused stubs for the slip roads that would have been provided for traffic joining or leaving the northern section.
Image 20TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
Image 21Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
Image 22Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
Image 23Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
Image 24Escalators at Westminster Underground station descend between beams and columns of the station box to reach the deep-level Jubilee line platforms.
Image 25"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
Image 26A Hansom cab at Somerset House.
Image 27Camden Lock or Hampstead Road Lock in Camden Town, north London is the only twin lock on the Regents Canal.
Image 28Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
Image 29Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
Image 30The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
Image 3155 Broadway, headquarters of the UERL and its successors, is a Grade I listed building in Westminster designed by Charles Holden.
Image 32Tower bridge; a bascule bridge across the River Thames.
Image 33A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
Image 34Arguably the best-preserved disused station building in London, this is the former Alexandra Palace station on the GNR Highgate branch (closed in 1954). It is now in use as a community centre (CUFOS).
Image 35View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
Image 36Duck tour converted DUKW amphibious vehicle exiting the River Thames.
Image 37Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
Image 38Stockwell bus garage, Stockwell, a Grade II* listed building.
Image 39The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
Image 40Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
Image 41Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
Image 42The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
Image 43London Overground Class 378 train on the East London Line in Hoxton.
Image 44Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
Image 45London Underground Battery-electric locomotive L16 designed to operate over tracks where the traction current is turned off for maintenance work.
Image 46Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
Image 47Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
Image 48Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
Image 49Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.