Transport in London

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Transport in London

London's transport forms the hub of the road, rail and air networks in the United Kingdom. It has its own dense and extensive internal private and public transport networks, as well as providing a focal point for the national road and railway networks. London also has a number of international airports including one of the world's busiest, Heathrow and a seaport.

London Underground. Colloquially known as the Tube, London Underground is the first metro system in the world, having begun operations in 1863. More than 3 million passengers travel on the Underground every day, amounting to over 1 billion passenger journeys per year for the first time in 2006. The Underground has 11 lines, most of which connect the suburbs to Central London and provide a distribution role around the city centre, particularly from major railway terminals. london transport

International services are provided by Eurostar from St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels Midi via the Channel Tunnel, with intermediate stops at Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent and Lille Europe in Nord/Pas de Calais. This new link, brought into service on 14 November 2007 cuts journey times by some 20-25 minutes compared with services previously routed to Waterloo Station, putting Paris 2 hours 15 minutes from London and Brussels 1 hour 51 minutes away.

As well as the Eurostar's international services, Southeastern now operates high-speed commuter services using the HS1 line. It runs new 140 mph, Class 395 trains, from London St. Pancras to Faversham, North Kent and the Medway towns via Ebbsfleet, as well as to Folkestone and Dover Priory, to Canterbury and to Margate via Ebbsfleet and Ashford International. The highspeed trains serve all stations on HS1, including Stratford International (the only station on HS1 not to be served by Eurostar) and will in 2012 provide the Javelin shuttle service for visitors to the Olympic Games' main venue in Stratford.

Tramways. The former tram system in London was the oldest in the world dating back to early Victorian time and still remains the largest tram network at its peak. The extensive tram lines disappeared from the streets of London by the mid-20th century, but a new tram system was opened in 2000 to serve the large employment centre of Croydon on the southern edge of London. Named Tramlink, it connects Croydon and its surface railway stations to surrounding suburbs and to the town centre of Wimbledon to the north-west. An extension to Crystal Palace is being planned. Two other tram schemes in London were proposed: the West London Tram along the busy Uxbridge Road bus corridor in west London (postponed indefinitely on 2 August 2007), and the Cross River Tram through central London between Camden in the north and Brixton and Peckham in the south (cancelled in November 2008 due to funding problems).

The Kingsway tramway subway, an underground route along Kingsway, is the only remaining evidence of the old tram system. The London Passenger Transport Board was formed in 1933, taking over the London County Council trams. It was decided soon after to replace all trams in London by "more modern vehicles." The abandonment programme began in 1935 with trams in South-West, West, North-West, North and East London mostly being replaced by trolleybuses.

The replacement programme proceeded swiftly until 1940 when the last pre-war conversion occurred, leaving only the "South London" trams and the "Kingsway Routes" 31, 33 and 35, the only tram routes left operating into North London to survive the war. Prototype "Kingsway Trolleybus" no. 1379, with exits on both sides of the vehicle, was constructed for feasibility tests through the Subway, but these were unsuccessful as trolleybuses would have had to run on battery power through the subway, headroom restrictions making it impossible to use overhead current collection. In 1946 it was decided to replace all London's remaining trams "as soon as possible", this time by diesel buses. The first Kingsway subway route to be withdrawn was Route 31 on 1 October 1950 with the remaining two routes, 33 and 35, being withdrawn after service on Saturday 5 April 1952, the last public services being 'specials' shortly after midnight on the Sunday. During the early hours of the next morning the remaining vehicles still north of the subway were run through to the depots south of the Thames.

Roads. London has a hierarchy of roads ranging from major radial and orbital trunk roads down to minor "side streets". At the top level are motorways and grade-separated dual carriageways, supplemented by non-grade-separated urban dual carriageways, major single carriageway roads, local distributor roads and small local streets.

Most of the streets of central London were laid out before cars were invented and London's road network is often congested. Attempts to tackle this go back at least to the 1740s, when the New Road was built through the fields north of the city; it is now just another congested central London thoroughfare. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new wide roads such as Victoria Embankment, Shaftesbury Avenue and Kingsway were created. In the 1920s and 1930s a series of new radial roads, such as the Western Avenue andEastern Avenue, were constructed in the new suburban outskirts of London but little was done in the congested central area.

Cycling. Cycling in London has enjoyed a renaissance, particularly since the turn of the millennium. Cyclists find that they enjoy a much cheaper, and often quicker, way around town than those travelling by public transport or car.

Over one million Londoners own bicycles but as of 2008 only around 2 per cent of all journeys in London are made by bike: this compares poorly to other major European cities such as Berlin (5 per cent), Munich (12 per cent), and Amsterdam (55 per cent) and Copenhagen (36 per cent). Nevertheless this is an 83 per cent increase compared to that in 2000. There are currently an estimated 480,000 cycle journeys each day in the capital.

The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, launched 30 July 2010, aims to provide 6,000 bicycles for rental. Bikes are available at a number of docking stations in central London.

Buses. The red double-decker London bus has entered popular culture as an internationally recognised British icon, and while the design and operation of London buses has changed over the years, the vehicles still maintain their traditional red colour.

London's bus network is extensive, with over 6,800 scheduled services every weekday carrying about six million passengers on over 700 different routes making it one of the most extensive bus systems in the world and by far the largest in Europe. Catering mainly for local journeys, it carries more passengers than the Underground. In addition to this extensive daytime system, a 100-route night bus service is also operated, providing a 24-hour service.

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