A day on the London Underground

Long ago, in 1863, London opened the first railway under the ground anywhere in the world.

The first trains used steam engines. They puffed smoke in the tunnels!

On 10 January 1863, the world's first underground railway opened in London: the Metropolitan Railway, running across the city from Paddington to Farringdon. Workers built it by digging a trench along the streets, lining it with brick, roofing it over and rebuilding the road on top. This is called cut-and-cover.

The first trains were pulled by steam locomotives, and the tunnels filled with smoky fumes. Still, the line was a success: it carried 9.5 million passengers in its first year.

Britannica credits the idea to Charles Pearson, a city solicitor, as part of an improvement plan soon after the Thames Tunnel opened in 1843. After ten years of discussion, Parliament authorized 3.75 miles (6 km) of underground railway between Farringdon Street and Bishop's Road, Paddington. Work began in 1860 by cut-and-cover: trenches along the streets, given brick sides and a roof of girders or a brick arch, with the roadway restored on top.

The Metropolitan Railway opened on 10 January 1863; The National Archives calls it the world's first underground railway, running west to east from Paddington to Farringdon. Its steam locomotives burned coke and later coal, and despite sulfurous fumes it carried 9.5 million passengers in its first year.

Later, builders dug tunnels much deeper under the ground.

They used a digging tool called a tunneling shield. The tunnels are shaped like tubes. And the trains ran on electricity.

Cut-and-cover meant digging up the streets. A later line went much deeper. Workers used a tunneling shield, developed by J. H. Greathead, to dig tunnels deep enough to stay clear of building foundations, pipes and cables, without stopping the traffic above.

In 1890, the City and South London Railway opened on one of these deep lines. It was the first electric underground railway, and every journey on its 5-kilometer line cost the same fare: twopence. The name London Underground first appeared in 1908.

From 1866 the City of London and Southwark Subway Company, later the City and South London Railway, built a 'tube' line with a tunneling shield developed by J. H. Greathead. The tunnels were driven deep enough to avoid building foundations and utility works, without disrupting street traffic. Cable haulage was planned, but electric traction replaced it before opening.

The line opened in 1890 as the first electric underground railway, with a uniform twopence fare on its 3-mile (5-km) route. From 1900 the American railway magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes drove the building of more tubes and the electrification of the cut-and-cover lines, and the 'London Underground' name appeared in 1908. In the half century after nationalization in 1948, steam locomotives were completely replaced by electric ones, and the first air-conditioned cars arrived in 2010 (Britannica).

Lots and lots of trips are made on the Tube.

In one recent year, people made about four million trips a day. On some weekend nights, some lines run all night long.

The Tube is busy. Transport for London (TfL) counted 1,216 million journeys in the year 2024/25 and said around four million journeys were being made each day. In 2025/26 there were 1,204 million journeys, about 12 million fewer than the year before.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the Night Tube keeps running on the Jubilee and Victoria lines and on most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines. TfL is also adding lifts so more stations have step-free access, from the street to the train without stairs. In February 2025, work began at Leyton station on two lifts and a bridge over the tracks.

TfL's quarterly performance report for Q4 2024/25 gave full-year Underground demand of 1,216 million journeys, 38 million more than 2023/24 but 44 million below budget, with around four million journeys being made each day. Its Q4 2025/26 report gave 1,204 million journeys, 12 million fewer than 2024/25 and 3 percent below what TfL expected; TfL linked the softer demand to factors including changes in commuting patterns. Underground passenger income in 2025/26 was £2,738 million, up 4 percent year on year but below budget.

The Night Tube runs on Friday and Saturday nights on the Jubilee and Victoria lines and most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines (TfL map, September 2026). The 2024/25 report described the Mayor's aim of making 50 percent of the Tube network accessible; works began at Leyton, on the eastern Central line, in February 2025 to add step-free access through two lifts and an overbridge, plus a larger ticket hall.

The Tube map has a bright color for each line.

It shows which stations come next and where you can change trains. It does not show how far apart they really are. That makes it easier to read!

Early maps of the Underground were drawn to scale, like a street map. But as new stations were added in the suburbs, the stations in the middle got squeezed into a confusing cluster.

In 1931, Harry Beck, an electrical engineer and draftsman, sketched a new kind of map. Drawn like a diagram of an electrical circuit, it showed only how stations connect, not the real distances between them. The first printed edition is dated 1933. The public liked it at once. Today's map, with a different color for each of the 11 Underground lines, still follows his idea.

The V&A, which holds Beck's original 1931 sketch (pencil and colored inks on squared paper), explains the problem it solved: the geographically accurate map used since 1919 had become hard to read, because adding suburban stations to scale crowded central stations into a confusing cluster. Henry C. Beck (1901-1974), an electrical engineer and draftsman, applied the principles of electrical circuit diagrams, showing the relationships between points rather than the distances between them.

The V&A dates the first completed printed edition to 1933 (its record reads '1-[19]33') and notes that the public took to the diagram immediately, while management took longer to accept it. Its catalog states that all versions and imitations of the modern Underground map derive from this sketch, and that virtually all metro systems now use Beck's idea. The map is a diagram, so a journey that looks short on it may be long on the ground, and the reverse.