I used to know a guy who worked in the Control Room at Lots Road. I am sure I remember him telling me something about Lights in stations giving indications of issues with traction current. Specific lights would go out in a certain order or something. Maybe I imagined it.
@@xr6lad Happy New Year from Seattle, where we're still 19 hours out. So tell us...What's it like in the future? Does everybody have a flying car, yet? Or, (being Australia), is it all roving motorcycle gangs battling for fuel in the post-apocalyptic wasteland? Either way..Cheers, mate! 🍺
The generally-overlooked Post Office Railway / Mailrail is all underground excepting its tiny office-basement depot. The Metropolitan was a tunnel built to take mainline traines from the suburbs - but then so was The Great Northern & City, which ironically remained isolated and virtually all undergound until the 1970s. By contrast, the early tube lines were built to compete with local bus/tram - so the City & South London, Waterloo & City, Central London, and Baker Street & Waterloo were all entirely underground when new. The somewhat random linking of the early tubes to the suburbs using a mix of old and new surface lines started really early, with the Piccadilly opening with a re-used bit of the District Railway. It's interesting how the Victoria hasn't (yet) had a surface extension tacked on.
I think the first extension of an early tube line (in the strict sense) into the outer suburbs came a bit earlier, in the form of the Bakerloo extension to Watford in 1917, in conjunction with the LNWR. The Hampstead Tube extension to Edgware, on a completely new route, came second in 1924, with the City Tube extension to Morden following soon after in 1926, again on a new route. So the Piccadilly extensions (to Cockfosters on new route, and to Hounslow and Uxbridge on route taken over from the District as you say) were effectively joint fourth, unless I've missed a bit.
@@risingchads Haha! I wouldn't count as an extension anything that was part of a line as opened, nor for that matter would I count Hammersmith (in zone 2) as an 'outer suburb' any more than Finsbury Park - it's not in the same league as Watford, or even Edgware. But of course it is true that the Piccadilly was very closely connected with the District even at the planning stage, and that did set it up for the later westward expansion.
A great extension to the Victoria would be south from Brixton to Croydon or linking the Victoria to the Central line Hainault loop via a fairly small tunnel extension to Leytonstone which would then lower the complexity of the ‘loop’
@@ahuman9143I think the original plan was for the Victoria line to surface at South Woodford and take over the Hainault loop. There were signs cautioning ATO working all the Way from South Woodford to Hainault although only Woodford to Hainault had actual ATO in operation until 1992 when the new stock was introduced on the Central line.
The Glasgow Subway is famously completely underground, although its maintenance depot has always been above ground. Prior to modernization, trains used to be lifted by crane onto and off the tracks. Modernization brought the installation of points and an access ramp between Govan and Ibrox where trains can exit the tunnel system to terminate for maintenance and repairs, cleaning or storage. Though the system is not the oldest underground railway in Glasgow, as that distinction belongs to a three-mile (or 5 km) section of the Glasgow City and District Railway opened in 1886, now part of the North Clyde Line On the Pyongyang Metro, all of its stations are underground too! Construction of the metro network started in 1965, and stations were opened between 1969 and 1972 by Kim Il Sung. Most of the 16 public stations were built in the 1970s, except for the two most grandiose stations, Puhŭng and Yŏnggwang, which were constructed in 1987. The Pyongyang Metro is among the deepest metros in the world, with the track at over 110 meters (360 ft) deep underground. Due to the depth of the metro and the lack of outside segments, its stations can double as bomb shelters, with blast doors in place at hallways.
Another entirely underground system is the Buenos Aires metro, though it's not very deep -large portions were built using cut and cover and many stations don't even feature a mezzanine. What's even weirder is that digging in Buenos Aires is very, very expensive, since the city is built on swampy ground with a very high water table. Then again, building viaducts is also a challenge for the same reason.
TAlking of Glasgow underground, anyone with an interest in undergrounds should watch this. Their motive power was insane. A chain ran around the loop, when I train wanted to move, it grabbed hold of it, when it wanted to stop at a station it let go of the chain.
One other distinction of the Victoria Line is that it was the first line where it was assumed that the cities of London and Westminster owned *all* of the land below ground, so the lines go the shortest distance between stations, directly under properties above. The first Underground lines ran under the roads because they were forced to because you had to dig the road up to dig the railway. But when the Tubes were being built this was no longer a consideration. Nevertheless the builders continued to follow the routes of the streets above. Anybody who's travelled to Bank on the Central Line knows about that, with a lot of going around unnecessary and noisy corners.
I seem to recall that at least some of the road-following deep-level tube lines were built thus because land ownership was considered to extend down to the centre of the earth, and rather than wrangle with property owners the underground railway companies followed the streets, because they are public property.
The Jubilee Line section from St.John's Wood to Bond St via Baker St is quite old, opened pre WW2. It is all in Westminster. It is a huge swan neck not following road alignments mainly because the Met line took them.
@@johnburns4017 Only the section from Baker Street to Finchley Road pre-dates WWII-being built in 1938 as part of the Bakerloo Line. The section from Baker Street to Bond Street was built in 1979 when the Jubilee Line itself was opened.
For the East Finchley Archer, there's a lot of mystery behind its actual meaning as the sculptor Eric Aumonier never gave an explanation as for why he built an archer there. One could say it doesn't symbolize anything. At a time when the UK was fighting a war but still expanding its capital, you could say it's just a simple way of expressing the strength of its people. And then there's of course the reasoning that it was for the Northern Line tunnel like you mentioned and the arrow is supposed to go to Morden, but the arrow being at Morden doesn't hold water when it opened in 1926, fourteen years before the archer (also it was Domino's Pizza that claimed it was stolen). So if it's because of the Northern Line tunnel, then the arrow itself is the train. And then there's another interesting explanation that the reason it's an archer is because the station is on the edge of the site of the Royal Forest of Enfield, where the court and commoners used to hunt. This was the Bishop of London's stomping ground, hence nearby Bishops Avenue.
Under the circumstances, I'm inclined to wish you a Happy New Year and to say thank you for bringing so many interesting aspects of transportation in the UK to the surface and light of day!
Thank you Jago, this video made me think out-of-the-trainshed ! In fact, I looked up "underground" in my own language and was quite surprised that "untergruendig" as an adverb exists in German! Thus, the superlative "untergruendigst" is only logical and - IMHO - perfectly feasible, given that both are derived from anglo-saxon roots. Have a healthy and prosperous new year, all!
Seven Sisters used to be my station. If I left for work early, I could catch one of the empty, cold trains straight from the Northumberland Park depot. It's the little things!
Another fascinating video as always. I will however pull you up on an error if I may. You spoke about the Morden to East Finchley tunnel and then you added on the Charing Cross branch and the Battersea Power Station branch. However you neglected to include Camden Town to (just short of) Golders Green on the Edgware branch which is another 4 miles or so. This still keeps the Northern firmly at the top of the tree in terms of miles underground though. Thanks again Jago. I always look forward to your videos.
Agreed, and there is also the short tunnel at Hendon Central! The Northern Line could also be considered to be the "undergroundest" in a different way - furthest below ground level (under Hampstead Heath). As it's a new word, who's to say we can't define it differently?!
Many thanks for your wonderful videos , many years ago i worked replastering the platforms on the northern line in the south i.e Tooting, Balham, Clapham North end South, we had approximately four hours a night to work once the engineering train had gone through the station & just over an hour to clean the platforms etc and hand it over to London underground, we also had to do the London underground Fire safety & Track Awareness courses at their training centre at Acton , I think it was Acton it was thirty years ago and my memory isn't what it was . Thanks again, have a wonderful New year. PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYONE ❤❤.
There was also some talk in the 70s of the Victoria line continuing on the surface to Chingford, as I recall. Also continuing south from Brixton towards Croydon, which would have presumably involved surface running. Both non-starters due to overcrowding on the line in Central London, I should imagine.
When you look at the development of the Victoria Line. One can see it as a good example of what happens when you build something on the cheap, in that you limit the current & future potential of the line itself.
Extending to Chingford is an interesting idea and would probably be more frequent and useful than the current service to Liverpool Street. The interesting question then is what happens to the residual section from Walthamstow to Clapton and into Liv St, which would lose much of its point. I think also it's a pity that the Victoria Line didn't take over the intermediate stations on the Lea Valley line which cause a real bottleneck even with just a half-hourly service, but nobody at that stage anticipated the development of Stansted Airport.
Thanks for yet another entertaining video. However I personally would gauge the most undergroundest by depth from street level. I will await you next video in the series! Merry Christmas and I wish you a happy new year.
One final possibility would be the lowest below sea level. I believe it's one of the tunnels under the Thames near Waterloo, but not sure which line. Probably Jubilee, if the length of the escalators at Westminster gives the clue.
In NYC, four of the Subway's services have all of its stations underground. The C, E, R, and the 42nd Street Shuttle. But if we're judging undergroundest by depth, then Hampstead on the Northern Line surely takes the cake at 58.5 meters below ground level. Systems around the world with famously deep stations include the Moscow Metro, Kyiv Metro, St. Petersburg Metro, Pyongyang Metro, and the DC Metro. Because of this, these systems also famously have quite long escalators. Wheaton on the DC Metro has the longest set of single-span escalators in the Western Hemisphere at 230-feet long or 70 m! However, it's not the deepest station in WMATA as that is neighboring Forest Glen at 196 ft/60 m deep. Instead of escalators, Forest Glen uses high-speed elevators. Forest Glen along with Wheaton have separate tunnels and platforms for each direction, instead of the large, vaulted common rooms that the WMATA stations are known for. This design was used to save money due to the depth. The reason Forest Glen and Wheaton are so deep is because building the tunnels through soft rock close to the surface would have been either very costly or impossible, so engineers decided to dig the tunnels through harder, more solid rock deeper in the ground. Though Forest Glen isn't even the deepest station in North America, as that title belongs to Washington Park on the Portland MAX light-rail system at 79 m below ground!
I suffer in spirit only for those riders who have to get down to or return from those depths. I'm surprised that attacks of the bends do not occur, or perhaps they do and we are not told.
All the best subterranean wishes for the New Year. My Nerdometer is looking forward to more of your top quality training material. I am the Main line to you Hazzardous Underground.
Completely o/t but I'd like to take a moment to thank our host for starring in Jay Foreman's Unfished London episode about Harry Beck and the tube map. It's gestures like this one that make YT feel like such a fun place and, dare I say it, a community.
Are you going to do the overgroundest overground line next 😜 thanks for keeping us entertained over the past year so happy new year to you and here’s to a greater 2024
I do love the fact that although these videos are usually about the London Underground, they always end with a view of the Northumbrian coast from the east coast main line, about as far from the idea of crowded London underground stations as you could possibly get.
The original Glasgow Underground used cranes above a pit to lift the carriages from the track into the depot which was above ground at Broomloan Road. It now has ramps and the trains drive in and out.
Well done that man. Totally brilliant! And you've attracted one of the funniest strings of comments I can remember. Laughing all the way to midnight tonight...
I believe the longest system that can operate the same cars on all the lines is the Chicago "L" (short for elevated). All the cars are the same length, with the doors at the same places on every car. This came about because in the beginning, there were four separate companies operating different lines. But then Charles Tyson Yerkes came up with a good idea--to build a loop around the compact central district. All the lines could connect to the loop. People could transfer between lines at loop stations, and because all of the trains would run around the loop and go back out the line they came in on, there would be no need of terminals. Since all the cars would need to run around the loop with its tight curves, they all had to be the same length and width, and so on. Later on, when all the lines were bought up by the Chicago Transit Authority (a government agency that still runs the system), it was easy to reassign stock from one line to another. The loop is still there, and today, the neighborhood itself is referred to as the Loop.
In 2023 (and even before that tbh) you have become my starting-point for research on all things rail. Far more enjoyable than reading a Wiki article. Looking forward to more in 2024, happy new year to you.
Jago is the top tube spotter in knowledge with the possible exception of veteran TFL employees. And he's probably taught them more than a few facts regardless.😊
One cool thing about the London Underground is the sudden gush of wind blowing through as you see the train lights approaching. Pretty cool (if you pardon the expression) phenomenon. 😊
"depending on whether undergroundest is even a word, which I'm pretty sure it isn't." Enter stage left the internet, with all of the power of social media at its fingertips, and the campaign to make it a word and get it included in the OED.
I remember reading a hair brained plan put forth during Boris's tenure to basically build over all the land where the mainline from Victoria to Croydon runs with 12-storey blocks of flats... I think network rail got as far as planning around Victoria. This would put the railway under buildings, but would that be underground? I mean, maybe. Something for future TH-camrs to argue about in the future comments.
Under a building is not below surface level. New Steet in Birmingham is under a building. There are stations in cuttings open to the atmosphere, below surface level. But not below any ground though. No ground on top.
Given, Lizba Station I suggest/believe is not an underground station, being for a monorail and on the 5th floor of a housing block (sorry not sure if that's 5th as in American or English) my vote, such as it is, would be no. I don't think building over is the same as cut and cover.
Victoria Place shops, above Victoria Station, already occupies some of the area over the tracks that was previously within the original canopy of platforms 8 and upwards. Lots of flats have also been built along the west side of the approaches and I noticed more being constructed recently. The slightly notorious, Flaxyard developed, Marco Polo House that was between the rail lines and Battersea Park was also demolished to make way for part of the blocks of flats that are there now, plus all the residential property as part of Battersea power station.
@@stephenlee5929 Building over rail track is using the air space over the ugly tracks. A good thing. Conway Park _underground_ station in Birkenhead was to be 100% underground with a building on top. Then came the Kings X fire at the time, then it was an open cutting. I believe regs were not fixed but they went for the safe bet over anticipating regs changes, making it a cutting. Could have had the building on top with continuous vents to atmosphere all around the top of the station walls at ceiling height.
Well I enjoyed this video, as I do all of Mr. Hazzards efforts. I learn something in each contribution and always look forward to the next one. When I read "undergroundest", (no, auto-correct, not "underground eat"), I expected to hear about the deepest underground line - perhaps that's the subject of another tale of the tube, either existing or future. And, as I've been typing this message, I have been reading it back to myself in Jago's distinctive voice.
The Mumich U-Bahn is nearly all underground. The only line with an overground section is the U6 which emerges to surface level at Studentenstadt, actually runs on a short overground section near Kieferngarten before passing the only depot at Garching Hochbruck. It then dips underground again for the section to Garching and Technical University. Also, the U5 rises to ground level briefly to join the S Bahn station at Neuperlach Sud.
You should try the Dusseldorf U-Barn. You get on a train at an underground station that a minute later is an overground train outside and then another minute later is a tram going down a road.
0:57 there is actually 2 staff “stations” in Northumberland Park Depot. One next to the mainline station and the other is way over on the other side of the depot alongside Meridian Way. I know you’ll read this Jago. This whole video was made on the basis of comments! 😂
What about rumor that they were thinking about opening the Northumberland station on the Victoria line to public, to help with overcrowding during football matches?
Greetings from New South Wales where it is already 2024, and Happy New Year to all!🎇 So, how many other LT lines are stand-alone lines like the Waterloo and City Line?
A Happy New Year to NSW too! The answer is that none of the others are. Each line has at least one connection to another somewhere (though these are often very discreet and hard to spot).
What @depmil1 says is correct, but one should remember that a lot of those discreet connections are not in use for passenger services, only for engineering and/or empty stock movements. In terms of passenger services, the Northern and Central lines are both stand-alone systems with no shared routes (nowadays) with other lines; the Bakerloo has no shared route with other Underground lines but does have a long shared stretch (over 50% of its total length I think) with the Overground Euston-Watford line.
A great deep dive into the underground so that one doesn't get tunnel vision when it comes to probing the depths of covering rail issues. It is important to stay grounded on profound fundamentals. I'm off now for a subterranean salad.
I’ve virtually lived on the Northern line whilst commuting. My partner lives near High Barnet station, my ex-wife near Clapham Common station. I have an affection and affinity for the Northern Line, bless its “Underground-ness…”
I have great respect for the Northern line. There was a very snowy time maybe 10-15 years ago when 'buses were taken off the road and I always caught the first 05:30 southbound from East Finchley. It was always there on time as they had run the cars all night to keep the conductor rails free.
"Undergroundest" is now a word. Fascinating set of statistics, just what I needed to prepare me for the New Year. And on the subject of "New Year", may I wish you a Happy & Safe New Year.
I'm so old now, my brain has long since reached it's full storage capacity. So whenever I learn something new, it has to overwrite some other, older bit of information. So now I know the longest railway tunnel in Britain is 17 miles, 528 yards. Unfortunately I've now forgotten where I live.. ...Thank you, Jago. Happy New Year! 🥳
Mr. Jago diggig deep for his last excursion of the year. Never boring. PS Sorry to hear you missed out agin on the Sir Jago of Escalator in the New Year's Honours.
Hi Jago, i did a quick check on Google maps and i found 9ish miles of tunnel on the northern line not including the east finchley-morden section, which would be a total of 26 miles, not 22 like you said at 3:29. Video is very interesting as always!
split the difference and call it 25ish :) [edit follows] anyway, Jago said 22.3, which is surely _at the very least_ 23ish :) ... and 23ish plus 9ish is 32ish... so it's perhaps more a problem with using "ish" as a standard of measurment ;)
Excellent as always, Jago. If there wasn't a word, "Undergroundest," there is . And if there's any justice in the world, it will be accredited to you. Lol Your very own personal contribution to the evolution of the English language, perhaps? There is a request below in the comments for you to give on-screen metric conversions of the track milage figures given. Could I respectfully request that you DON'T. This is made in the UK, by someone in the UK, about something completely in the UK that still uses imperial for all its day to day distance measurements. We are no longer in Europe officially, which uses the metric system, so my personal preference is that the system is measured in miles and so it should continue to be described that way. There are many 'googleable', (is that a word? Lol) conversion tables if it's SO important to know what 27.65 miles is in Kilometres. Obviously, it's absolutely up to yourself whether you conceed to this request, but could i respectfully suggest that you do not. Thanks awfully, old chap. All the best for 2024 and many thanks for all the excellent BRITISH content this year. Happy New Year to all.
@robertbutlin3708 It may. But I'm on about the country it's in. As a country, on day to day distances on roads, motorways etc, its miles. It would be good to keep.it that way.
@@robertbutlin3708 No I am not, but it is now irrelevant anyway, as I mentioned this PURELY as a response to a request that had been made to Jago to start to put the metric equivalent on screen of each video whenever miles are given. I'd asked him to not do so, as I felt it was an unnecessary extra and from what I gather, that extra faff won't be being done. So that's fine. I now have FAR better things to do on my new years day holiday, than have totally irrelevant and pointless discussions over miles or kilometres on the underground. Thank you.
Jago thanks you for the most Undergroundest Underground video about the Underground's Undergroundness that I have ever seen about the Underground. Happy New Year to you and looking forward to your videos in 2024
I'd like to nominate this video as possibly the most pedantic Jago Hazzard video of 2023, he pulled it out of the hat right at the last moment and it's a corker.
After seeing the title for this video, it made me think of a line from a Peanuts comic… “Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest!”
Here in NYC the E and R trains both run entirely underground, which is a bit odd as both run in the outer boroughs, which usually have at least partial above ground service. The R wins for being the most underground as it runs from Queens, through Manhattan and into Brooklyn, while the E terminates in lower Manhattan. Of course there’s also the 42nd Street shuttle, but that’s only 2 stops like the Waterloo and City. It’s actually one of the oldest parts of the system as the original subway ran from City Hall, up to Grand Central, then across to Times Square before going uptown under Broadway. Extensions of the subway uptown from Grand Central and downtown from Times Square made the system look like a giant H and eventually the - part of the H was severed from the | | parts to make the shuttle.
Thx Jago 👍🏿 I've heard a few times about the Vic Line's proposal to head out to Hitchin. Wonder if it had anything to do with the beef the Midland and Gt. Northern had back in the day which lead to the (now extinct) Hitchin - Bedford - Leicester branch line?
When I started watching Hazzard Productions, I would be in the first 50 watchers. This is the first time in ??? Years that I've been in the first 150. Congratulations Jago, on your well earned success, and a happy new year.
Of course "undergroundest" is a word - it's just that hardly anybody has thought of using it! I mean - it isn't very easy to slot into everyday conversation is it? Your channel is one of the bestest on youtube!
Another excellent video Jago. I suspect undergroundest will be one of next year's inclusions in the Oxford English Dictionary. Looking forward to your 2024 output and hopefully some inclusion of a certain Mr Yerkes. Happy New Year to you Jago.
Surely depth below the surface should count towards "undergroundest", so the integral of distance and depth (or, equivalently, the total volume of earth above the track gauge, as I don't think that wider tunnels should count towards undergroundosity)
My schoolboy reading in the 1950s told me that the deepest spot for a tube tunnel was (memory!) just north or just south of Highgate on the Northern line. There is something about that bit of line...the 1940s style of Gill Sans lettering and restrained decoration at Highgate and the tunnel exit/entrances just south of East Finchley where I can look back at the surface rise to the depot and imagine the North London trains coming down from their former Highgate surface station.
I was going to ask you about the tube trains at Northumberland Park which I often drive past. I figured they were Victoria line trains but wanted t know for sure.
I do work on mainline and often have to walk between Tottenham Hale and Northumberland Park and often get fascinated by the Victoria line depot and how easy it would be to link the depot and mainline to the underground to an extension spur ala Overground to some of the lesser served mainline stations nearby.
I often feel it was a pity that the Victoria Line was not extended northwards to take over the stations between Ponders End and Cheshunt, as that two-track section is a real bottleneck. The stopping trains can only run every half hour and still block the faster services to Stansted and Cambridge. The Victoria Line could run alongside the main line more cheaply than quadrupling the track, as it could dive under or bridge over several localised obstacles. Unfortunately Stansted Airport hadn't been planned in the 1960s, they were still talking about Foulness/Maplin then and for some years afterwards. The other drawback is that the junction is at Seven Sisters rather than Tottenham Hale, so the latter would lose some of its services.
I'm looking forward to Jago's video on the underground station with the most lightbulbs. It will give him something to do next year.
An illuminating video to be sure.
Im sure he'll see that as a challenge.
Only if he's switched on enough to do it.
I used to know a guy who worked in the Control Room at Lots Road. I am sure I remember him telling me something about Lights in stations giving indications of issues with traction current. Specific lights would go out in a certain order or something.
Maybe I imagined it.
I am sure that such a video would be very enlightening
This is the final video of the year! Thank you for all the knowledge and giggles you’ve provided us. Have a great 2024!
@@xr6lad Happy New Year from Seattle, where we're still 19 hours out.
So tell us...What's it like in the future? Does everybody have a flying car, yet?
Or, (being Australia), is it all roving motorcycle gangs battling for fuel in the post-apocalyptic wasteland?
Either way..Cheers, mate! 🍺
@@xr6lad Happy New Year from Canada!
The generally-overlooked Post Office Railway / Mailrail is all underground excepting its tiny office-basement depot. The Metropolitan was a tunnel built to take mainline traines from the suburbs - but then so was The Great Northern & City, which ironically remained isolated and virtually all undergound until the 1970s. By contrast, the early tube lines were built to compete with local bus/tram - so the City & South London, Waterloo & City, Central London, and Baker Street & Waterloo were all entirely underground when new. The somewhat random linking of the early tubes to the suburbs using a mix of old and new surface lines started really early, with the Piccadilly opening with a re-used bit of the District Railway. It's interesting how the Victoria hasn't (yet) had a surface extension tacked on.
I think the first extension of an early tube line (in the strict sense) into the outer suburbs came a bit earlier, in the form of the Bakerloo extension to Watford in 1917, in conjunction with the LNWR. The Hampstead Tube extension to Edgware, on a completely new route, came second in 1924, with the City Tube extension to Morden following soon after in 1926, again on a new route. So the Piccadilly extensions (to Cockfosters on new route, and to Hounslow and Uxbridge on route taken over from the District as you say) were effectively joint fourth, unless I've missed a bit.
The Piccadilly extension to Hammersmith came first - before it even opened! It established the over- and under-ground pattern that followed.
@@risingchads Haha! I wouldn't count as an extension anything that was part of a line as opened, nor for that matter would I count Hammersmith (in zone 2) as an 'outer suburb' any more than Finsbury Park - it's not in the same league as Watford, or even Edgware. But of course it is true that the Piccadilly was very closely connected with the District even at the planning stage, and that did set it up for the later westward expansion.
A great extension to the Victoria would be south from Brixton to Croydon or linking the Victoria to the Central line Hainault loop via a fairly small tunnel extension to Leytonstone which would then lower the complexity of the ‘loop’
@@ahuman9143I think the original plan was for the Victoria line to surface at South Woodford and take over the Hainault loop. There were signs cautioning ATO working all the Way from South Woodford to Hainault although only Woodford to Hainault had actual ATO in operation until 1992 when the new stock was introduced on the Central line.
The Glasgow Subway is famously completely underground, although its maintenance depot has always been above ground. Prior to modernization, trains used to be lifted by crane onto and off the tracks. Modernization brought the installation of points and an access ramp between Govan and Ibrox where trains can exit the tunnel system to terminate for maintenance and repairs, cleaning or storage. Though the system is not the oldest underground railway in Glasgow, as that distinction belongs to a three-mile (or 5 km) section of the Glasgow City and District Railway opened in 1886, now part of the North Clyde Line
On the Pyongyang Metro, all of its stations are underground too! Construction of the metro network started in 1965, and stations were opened between 1969 and 1972 by Kim Il Sung. Most of the 16 public stations were built in the 1970s, except for the two most grandiose stations, Puhŭng and Yŏnggwang, which were constructed in 1987. The Pyongyang Metro is among the deepest metros in the world, with the track at over 110 meters (360 ft) deep underground. Due to the depth of the metro and the lack of outside segments, its stations can double as bomb shelters, with blast doors in place at hallways.
Another entirely underground system is the Buenos Aires metro, though it's not very deep -large portions were built using cut and cover and many stations don't even feature a mezzanine. What's even weirder is that digging in Buenos Aires is very, very expensive, since the city is built on swampy ground with a very high water table.
Then again, building viaducts is also a challenge for the same reason.
TAlking of Glasgow underground, anyone with an interest in undergrounds should watch this. Their motive power was insane. A chain ran around the loop, when I train wanted to move, it grabbed hold of it, when it wanted to stop at a station it let go of the chain.
3:05 The evidence that the Morden statue had been nicked, was nicked. The evidence that the evidence had been nicked was also nicked.
But what about the evidence that the evidence that the evidence had been nicked? 🙃
I've had a look and can't find it where I put it. Checking CCTV but I fear its been nicked.
Funny, now I can't find the CCTV feed...
@@AaronOfMpls
@@AaronOfMpls This all sounds very familiar with regard to WattsApp messages and 'politicians'.
sound like a load of nickers to me.
Dear oh dear! Coat?@@AaronOfMpls
One other distinction of the Victoria Line is that it was the first line where it was assumed that the cities of London and Westminster owned *all* of the land below ground, so the lines go the shortest distance between stations, directly under properties above. The first Underground lines ran under the roads because they were forced to because you had to dig the road up to dig the railway. But when the Tubes were being built this was no longer a consideration. Nevertheless the builders continued to follow the routes of the streets above. Anybody who's travelled to Bank on the Central Line knows about that, with a lot of going around unnecessary and noisy corners.
I seem to recall that at least some of the road-following deep-level tube lines were built thus because land ownership was considered to extend down to the centre of the earth, and rather than wrangle with property owners the underground railway companies followed the streets, because they are public property.
The Jubilee Line section from St.John's Wood to Bond St via Baker St is quite old, opened pre WW2. It is all in Westminster. It is a huge swan neck not following road alignments mainly because the Met line took them.
@@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 "Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell" as William Empson put it
@@johnburns4017 Only the section from Baker Street to Finchley Road pre-dates WWII-being built in 1938 as part of the Bakerloo Line. The section from Baker Street to Bond Street was built in 1979 when the Jubilee Line itself was opened.
@@hughcrosthwait5497 maybe they were talking about estate agents.
You posted this just an hour after 2024 began here in New Zealand, so Happy New Year Jago and thanks for all the brilliant work you do!
We haven't got there yet, don't spoil it! 😂 Good luck to you all down there 🎉
happy new year.
So in the future, does everybody have a flying car, and entire meals come in pill form?
@@TheUluxian Yes, all true
Undergroundest is a word now, even if it wasn't before.
I agree, however what is its definition? There is no mention of "the deepest underground" 😊
@@GordonMartensI don't think that even matters. The word speaks for itself.
By extension, Undergrounder is now also a word.
Perhaps have a word with Susie Dent, an early entrant for next year's OED 'word of the year'. 😊
Mostest people are.
I've just clocked 25 years service on LU & I still find your information good/interesting. Happy new year.
Good for you mate!
No doubt there are all sorts on LU, but 99% of the people I've encountered are thoroughly decent, salt-of-of-the-earth types.
I got a temporary job ( 6 months) on the Underground, 30 years later I was medically retired and if I hadn’t got sick I would still be there now. 👍
Did you get your name in OTM? 😊
You would have been at Ashford house around the same time as me. I escaped but still love to learn about the network. Ex Canary wharf SCRO x
@@LisbonizedI was in the background of a pic once.
For the East Finchley Archer, there's a lot of mystery behind its actual meaning as the sculptor Eric Aumonier never gave an explanation as for why he built an archer there. One could say it doesn't symbolize anything. At a time when the UK was fighting a war but still expanding its capital, you could say it's just a simple way of expressing the strength of its people. And then there's of course the reasoning that it was for the Northern Line tunnel like you mentioned and the arrow is supposed to go to Morden, but the arrow being at Morden doesn't hold water when it opened in 1926, fourteen years before the archer (also it was Domino's Pizza that claimed it was stolen). So if it's because of the Northern Line tunnel, then the arrow itself is the train.
And then there's another interesting explanation that the reason it's an archer is because the station is on the edge of the site of the Royal Forest of Enfield, where the court and commoners used to hunt. This was the Bishop of London's stomping ground, hence nearby Bishops Avenue.
Under the circumstances, I'm inclined to wish you a Happy New Year and to say thank you for bringing so many interesting aspects of transportation in the UK to the surface and light of day!
Thank you Jago, this video made me think out-of-the-trainshed ! In fact, I looked up "underground" in my own language and was quite surprised that "untergruendig" as an adverb exists in German! Thus, the superlative "untergruendigst" is only logical and - IMHO - perfectly feasible, given that both are derived from anglo-saxon roots. Have a healthy and prosperous new year, all!
I recall a clergyman saying he Googled 'Underground' and got more than he bargained for!
Have a very happy New Year, Jago, and here's to more interesting Tales from the Tube in 2024!!
Should be illiuminating, eh watt!
Seven Sisters used to be my station. If I left for work early, I could catch one of the empty, cold trains straight from the Northumberland Park depot. It's the little things!
There was me thinking you were going to do a piece on which tube line crosses under the greatest number of other tube lines.
Another fascinating video as always. I will however pull you up on an error if I may.
You spoke about the Morden to East Finchley tunnel and then you added on the Charing Cross branch and the Battersea Power Station branch. However you neglected to include Camden Town to (just short of) Golders Green on the Edgware branch which is another 4 miles or so. This still keeps the Northern firmly at the top of the tree in terms of miles underground though.
Thanks again Jago. I always look forward to your videos.
Agreed, and there is also the short tunnel at Hendon Central! The Northern Line could also be considered to be the "undergroundest" in a different way - furthest below ground level (under Hampstead Heath). As it's a new word, who's to say we can't define it differently?!
Can’t wait for the sequel: The Overgroundest Overground Line
Many thanks for your wonderful videos , many years ago i worked replastering the platforms on the northern line in the south i.e Tooting, Balham, Clapham North end South, we had approximately four hours a night to work once the engineering train had gone through the station & just over an hour to clean the platforms etc and hand it over to London underground, we also had to do the London underground Fire safety & Track Awareness courses at their training centre at Acton , I think it was Acton it was thirty years ago and my memory isn't what it was .
Thanks again, have a wonderful New year. PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYONE ❤❤.
There was also some talk in the 70s of the Victoria line continuing on the surface to Chingford, as I recall. Also continuing south from Brixton towards Croydon, which would have presumably involved surface running. Both non-starters due to overcrowding on the line in Central London, I should imagine.
When you look at the development of the Victoria Line. One can see it as a good example of what happens when you build something on the cheap, in that you limit the current & future potential of the line itself.
Extending to Chingford is an interesting idea and would probably be more frequent and useful than the current service to Liverpool Street. The interesting question then is what happens to the residual section from Walthamstow to Clapton and into Liv St, which would lose much of its point. I think also it's a pity that the Victoria Line didn't take over the intermediate stations on the Lea Valley line which cause a real bottleneck even with just a half-hourly service, but nobody at that stage anticipated the development of Stansted Airport.
Thanks for yet another entertaining video. However I personally would gauge the most undergroundest by depth from street level. I will await you next video in the series!
Merry Christmas and I wish you a happy new year.
I thought that was what it was going to be about from the title.
Hampstead, so Northern Line again.
One final possibility would be the lowest below sea level. I believe it's one of the tunnels under the Thames near Waterloo, but not sure which line. Probably Jubilee, if the length of the escalators at Westminster gives the clue.
Happy New Year Jago!
I just taught my Spelling Checker that "undergroundest" is a word.
In NYC, four of the Subway's services have all of its stations underground. The C, E, R, and the 42nd Street Shuttle. But if we're judging undergroundest by depth, then Hampstead on the Northern Line surely takes the cake at 58.5 meters below ground level. Systems around the world with famously deep stations include the Moscow Metro, Kyiv Metro, St. Petersburg Metro, Pyongyang Metro, and the DC Metro. Because of this, these systems also famously have quite long escalators. Wheaton on the DC Metro has the longest set of single-span escalators in the Western Hemisphere at 230-feet long or 70 m! However, it's not the deepest station in WMATA as that is neighboring Forest Glen at 196 ft/60 m deep.
Instead of escalators, Forest Glen uses high-speed elevators. Forest Glen along with Wheaton have separate tunnels and platforms for each direction, instead of the large, vaulted common rooms that the WMATA stations are known for. This design was used to save money due to the depth. The reason Forest Glen and Wheaton are so deep is because building the tunnels through soft rock close to the surface would have been either very costly or impossible, so engineers decided to dig the tunnels through harder, more solid rock deeper in the ground. Though Forest Glen isn't even the deepest station in North America, as that title belongs to Washington Park on the Portland MAX light-rail system at 79 m below ground!
I suffer in spirit only for those riders who have to get down to or return from those depths. I'm surprised that attacks of the bends do not occur, or perhaps they do and we are not told.
All the best subterranean wishes for the New Year. My Nerdometer is looking forward to more of your top quality training material. I am the Main line to you Hazzardous Underground.
Completely o/t but I'd like to take a moment to thank our host for starring in Jay Foreman's Unfished London episode about Harry Beck and the tube map. It's gestures like this one that make YT feel like such a fun place and, dare I say it, a community.
Fascinating as always.
Thank you Mr H.
Are you going to do the overgroundest overground line next 😜 thanks for keeping us entertained over the past year so happy new year to you and here’s to a greater 2024
Or the undergroundest Overground (East London Line obviously) or the overgroundest Underground line.
Or the most with high level viaducts I.e. over the overground?
3:13 sounds like something someone would say who has an archer statue hiding in their house.
That the Victoria line is partially above ground at the depot has very real impact : it can be closed due to snow!
I do love the fact that although these videos are usually about the London Underground, they always end with a view of the Northumbrian coast from the east coast main line, about as far from the idea of crowded London underground stations as you could possibly get.
That’s about to change…
@@JagoHazzard😢 - that is probably my favourite bit of railway in the UK!
@@JagoHazzard The Northern Line will finally justify its name, and go to Berwick-On-Tweed?
The original Glasgow Underground used cranes above a pit to lift the carriages from the track into the depot which was above ground at Broomloan Road. It now has ramps and the trains drive in and out.
Well done that man. Totally brilliant! And you've attracted one of the funniest strings of comments I can remember. Laughing all the way to midnight tonight...
I believe the longest system that can operate the same cars on all the lines is the Chicago "L" (short for elevated). All the cars are the same length, with the doors at the same places on every car. This came about because in the beginning, there were four separate companies operating different lines. But then Charles Tyson Yerkes came up with a good idea--to build a loop around the compact central district. All the lines could connect to the loop. People could transfer between lines at loop stations, and because all of the trains would run around the loop and go back out the line they came in on, there would be no need of terminals. Since all the cars would need to run around the loop with its tight curves, they all had to be the same length and width, and so on. Later on, when all the lines were bought up by the Chicago Transit Authority (a government agency that still runs the system), it was easy to reassign stock from one line to another. The loop is still there, and today, the neighborhood itself is referred to as the Loop.
In 2023 (and even before that tbh) you have become my starting-point for research on all things rail. Far more enjoyable than reading a Wiki article. Looking forward to more in 2024, happy new year to you.
Jago is the top tube spotter in knowledge with the possible exception of veteran TFL employees. And he's probably taught them more than a few facts regardless.😊
One cool thing about the London Underground is the sudden gush of wind blowing through as you see the train lights approaching.
Pretty cool (if you pardon the expression) phenomenon. 😊
"depending on whether undergroundest is even a word, which I'm pretty sure it isn't."
Enter stage left the internet, with all of the power of social media at its fingertips, and the campaign to make it a word and get it included in the OED.
I remember reading a hair brained plan put forth during Boris's tenure to basically build over all the land where the mainline from Victoria to Croydon runs with 12-storey blocks of flats... I think network rail got as far as planning around Victoria. This would put the railway under buildings, but would that be underground? I mean, maybe. Something for future TH-camrs to argue about in the future comments.
Under a building is not below surface level. New Steet in Birmingham is under a building.
There are stations in cuttings open to the atmosphere, below surface level. But not below any ground though. No ground on top.
That was a good idea to build over the line. As rail infrastructure us ugly and divisive.
Given, Lizba Station I suggest/believe is not an underground station, being for a monorail and on the 5th floor of a housing block (sorry not sure if that's 5th as in American or English) my vote, such as it is, would be no.
I don't think building over is the same as cut and cover.
Victoria Place shops, above Victoria Station, already occupies some of the area over the tracks that was previously within the original canopy of platforms 8 and upwards. Lots of flats have also been built along the west side of the approaches and I noticed more being constructed recently.
The slightly notorious, Flaxyard developed, Marco Polo House that was between the rail lines and Battersea Park was also demolished to make way for part of the blocks of flats that are there now, plus all the residential property as part of Battersea power station.
@@stephenlee5929
Building over rail track is using the air space over the ugly tracks. A good thing.
Conway Park _underground_ station in Birkenhead was to be 100% underground with a building on top. Then came the Kings X fire at the time, then it was an open cutting. I believe regs were not fixed but they went for the safe bet over anticipating regs changes, making it a cutting. Could have had the building on top with continuous vents to atmosphere all around the top of the station walls at ceiling height.
Enjoying watching sunny summer scenes here whilst a winter storm rages outside my window! ⛈
Well I enjoyed this video, as I do all of Mr. Hazzards efforts. I learn something in each contribution and always look forward to the next one. When I read "undergroundest", (no, auto-correct, not "underground eat"), I expected to hear about the deepest underground line - perhaps that's the subject of another tale of the tube, either existing or future. And, as I've been typing this message, I have been reading it back to myself in Jago's distinctive voice.
The last video from you this year, and as usual, it's great! Have a great new year!
Happy New Year Jago and everyone.
The Mumich U-Bahn is nearly all underground. The only line with an overground section is the U6 which emerges to surface level at Studentenstadt, actually runs on a short overground section near Kieferngarten before passing the only depot at Garching Hochbruck. It then dips underground again for the section to Garching and Technical University. Also, the U5 rises to ground level briefly to join the S Bahn station at Neuperlach Sud.
You should try the Dusseldorf U-Barn. You get on a train at an underground station that a minute later is an overground train outside and then another minute later is a tram going down a road.
Happy New Year from South Dakota
Happy New Year Jago
We were in London, for the first time since Covid, and your videos made the whole visit more interesting to me. Thank you.
Excellent Jago, packed to the brim with chuckles. Thank you, and happy New Year.
Another entertaining video, Jago! More please!! 👏👍
HAPPY NEW YEAR, SIR. JAGO HAZZARD!!!!!
A very thorough investigation, Jago! you certainly got to the bottom of the subject..Please keep them coming in 2024...
Class Jago. Happy new year
0:57 there is actually 2 staff “stations” in Northumberland Park Depot. One next to the mainline station and the other is way over on the other side of the depot alongside Meridian Way. I know you’ll read this Jago. This whole video was made on the basis of comments! 😂
What about rumor that they were thinking about opening the Northumberland station on the Victoria line to public, to help with overcrowding during football matches?
Greetings from New South Wales where it is already 2024, and Happy New Year to all!🎇
So, how many other LT lines are stand-alone lines like the Waterloo and City Line?
A Happy New Year to NSW too! The answer is that none of the others are. Each line has at least one connection to another somewhere (though these are often very discreet and hard to spot).
What @depmil1 says is correct, but one should remember that a lot of those discreet connections are not in use for passenger services, only for engineering and/or empty stock movements. In terms of passenger services, the Northern and Central lines are both stand-alone systems with no shared routes (nowadays) with other lines; the Bakerloo has no shared route with other Underground lines but does have a long shared stretch (over 50% of its total length I think) with the Overground Euston-Watford line.
Great year of videos, Jago. Happy New Year !
Happy New Year The Great And Mighty Jago The GOAT!
I jusr love talking about all the different aspects of the UndergrounD . Happy new year Jago HazzarD
A great deep dive into the underground so that one doesn't get tunnel vision when it comes to probing the depths of covering rail issues. It is important to stay grounded on profound fundamentals. I'm off now for a subterranean salad.
I’ve virtually lived on the Northern line whilst commuting. My partner lives near High Barnet station, my ex-wife near Clapham Common station. I have an affection and affinity for the Northern Line, bless its “Underground-ness…”
I have great respect for the Northern line. There was a very snowy time maybe 10-15 years ago when 'buses were taken off the road and I always caught the first 05:30 southbound from East Finchley. It was always there on time as they had run the cars all night to keep the conductor rails free.
"Undergroundest" is now a word.
Fascinating set of statistics, just what I needed to prepare me for the New Year.
And on the subject of "New Year", may I wish you a Happy & Safe New Year.
I'm so old now, my brain has long since reached it's full storage capacity. So whenever I learn something new, it has to overwrite some other, older bit of information.
So now I know the longest railway tunnel in Britain is 17 miles, 528 yards.
Unfortunately I've now forgotten where I live..
...Thank you, Jago.
Happy New Year! 🥳
If "undergroundest" is not a word it really should be. Thank you for all your informative and highly enjoyable videos - Happy New Year to you!
At Whitechapel, the Overground goes under the Underground (or, if you prefer, the Underground goes over the Overground).
Mr. Jago diggig deep for his last excursion of the year. Never boring.
PS Sorry to hear you missed out agin on the Sir Jago of Escalator in the New Year's Honours.
You are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct! Happy Hogmanay to you and yours :)
Oh, and happy new Year Jago, here's to lots more undergroundness for many years to come 🎉 🥂🤓
A very undergroundish video! Thanks Jago for all of these and happy new year!🎉
A Good New Year, Jago, to you and all your subscribers.
Hi Jago, i did a quick check on Google maps and i found 9ish miles of tunnel on the northern line not including the east finchley-morden section, which would be a total of 26 miles, not 22 like you said at 3:29. Video is very interesting as always!
split the difference and call it 25ish :) [edit follows] anyway, Jago said 22.3, which is surely _at the very least_ 23ish :) ... and 23ish plus 9ish is 32ish...
so it's perhaps more a problem with using "ish" as a standard of measurment ;)
Jago unfortunately forgot the Camden Town - Golders Green section (plus the short tunnel at Hendon Central). A rare error!
you are our our "Undergroundest Underground" reporter
If “You got this” is an expression, albeit a hugely irksome one, then “undergroundest “ can assuredly be a word.
Excellent as always, Jago.
If there wasn't a word, "Undergroundest," there is . And if there's any justice in the world, it will be accredited to you. Lol
Your very own personal contribution to the evolution of the English language, perhaps?
There is a request below in the comments for you to give on-screen metric conversions of the track milage figures given.
Could I respectfully request that you DON'T.
This is made in the UK, by someone in the UK, about something completely in the UK that still uses imperial for all its day to day distance measurements.
We are no longer in Europe officially, which uses the metric system, so my personal preference is that the system is measured in miles and so it should continue to be described that way.
There are many 'googleable', (is that a word? Lol) conversion tables if it's SO important to know what 27.65 miles is in Kilometres.
Obviously, it's absolutely up to yourself whether you conceed to this request, but could i respectfully suggest that you do not.
Thanks awfully, old chap.
All the best for 2024 and many thanks for all the excellent BRITISH content this year.
Happy New Year to all.
The Underground works on (kilo)metres from a zero point at Ongar.
@robertbutlin3708 It may. But I'm on about the country it's in. As a country, on day to day distances on roads, motorways etc, its miles.
It would be good to keep.it that way.
@@dancedecker on the main line yes, miles and chains. Are you suggesting the underground remeasures everything in miles and chains?
@@robertbutlin3708 No I am not, but it is now irrelevant anyway, as I mentioned this PURELY as a response to a request that had been made to Jago to start to put the metric equivalent on screen of each video whenever miles are given.
I'd asked him to not do so, as I felt it was an unnecessary extra and from what I gather, that extra faff won't be being done.
So that's fine.
I now have FAR better things to do on my new years day holiday, than have totally irrelevant and pointless discussions over miles or kilometres on the underground.
Thank you.
Happy New Year Jago! Looking forward to 2024's videos.
Happy New Year everyone. Thks for a great year Jago.
Jago thanks you for the most Undergroundest Underground video about the Underground's Undergroundness that I have ever seen about the Underground. Happy New Year to you and looking forward to your videos in 2024
I'd like to nominate this video as possibly the most pedantic Jago Hazzard video of 2023, he pulled it out of the hat right at the last moment and it's a corker.
After seeing the title for this video, it made me think of a line from a Peanuts comic… “Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest!”
Just love the humour and the rationality!
Here in NYC the E and R trains both run entirely underground, which is a bit odd as both run in the outer boroughs, which usually have at least partial above ground service. The R wins for being the most underground as it runs from Queens, through Manhattan and into Brooklyn, while the E terminates in lower Manhattan. Of course there’s also the 42nd Street shuttle, but that’s only 2 stops like the Waterloo and City. It’s actually one of the oldest parts of the system as the original subway ran from City Hall, up to Grand Central, then across to Times Square before going uptown under Broadway. Extensions of the subway uptown from Grand Central and downtown from Times Square made the system look like a giant H and eventually the - part of the H was severed from the | | parts to make the shuttle.
I love watching your vids. Happy new year bud.
Thx Jago 👍🏿 I've heard a few times about the Vic Line's proposal to head out to Hitchin. Wonder if it had anything to do with the beef the Midland and Gt. Northern had back in the day which lead to the (now extinct) Hitchin - Bedford - Leicester branch line?
Mornington Crescent!
Thank you for your super content. Cheers and here's to next year and more, please.
When I started watching Hazzard Productions, I would be in the first 50 watchers. This is the first time in ??? Years that I've been in the first 150.
Congratulations Jago, on your well earned success, and a happy new year.
Great to hear you talking in miles and yards. English and sensible!
Of course "undergroundest" is a word - it's just that hardly anybody has thought of using it! I mean - it isn't very easy to slot into everyday conversation is it? Your channel is one of the bestest on youtube!
Yes, its a bit like Winningest.
That might have been a poor argument?
I could scarcely agree more! 🤫@@stephenlee5929
Ooh! That's my bench of choice at Pinner - if it's not raining. Just right for the stairs when getting off at Harrow-on-the-Hill. 😃
Another excellent video Jago. I suspect undergroundest will be one of next year's inclusions in the Oxford English Dictionary. Looking forward to your 2024 output and hopefully some inclusion of a certain Mr Yerkes. Happy New Year to you Jago.
Surely depth below the surface should count towards "undergroundest", so the integral of distance and depth (or, equivalently, the total volume of earth above the track gauge, as I don't think that wider tunnels should count towards undergroundosity)
Made me laugh out loud that! 🎉
Oooh "undergroundosity" ! Another new word for 2024! 😂
The 'Undwegroundest' - never heard of that word b4 Jago!!! - Learn something new every day!!! - Happy new Year Jago!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂
And the least underground line is the Cable Car.
Which isn't even a railway.
Yes, 'undergroundest' is indeed a word - now! Why? because you, Mr Hazzard, have coined it!
Thank you, Mr. Hazzard. Happy New Year to you and your clientele. Nothing dodgy about this group...
But wait! Now we need a third video on the deepest line on average…
Surely there needs to now be a counterpoint video: ‘Most overgroundiest Overground line’
My schoolboy reading in the 1950s told me that the deepest spot for a tube tunnel was (memory!) just north or just south of Highgate on the Northern line. There is something about that bit of line...the 1940s style of Gill Sans lettering and restrained decoration at Highgate and the tunnel exit/entrances just south of East Finchley where I can look back at the surface rise to the depot and imagine the North London trains coming down from their former Highgate surface station.
I believe that may have been the site of the never-built Bull and Bush station.
Happiest of New Years, Jago! (and I'm sure that that IS a word.)
This was the undergroundiest of all the undergrounds. Happy New Year.
hi jago. ur videos are way too interesting because they are epic. I hope you have a happy new year :)
I was going to ask you about the tube trains at Northumberland Park which I often drive past. I figured they were Victoria line trains but wanted t know for sure.
I do work on mainline and often have to walk between Tottenham Hale and Northumberland Park and often get fascinated by the Victoria line depot and how easy it would be to link the depot and mainline to the underground to an extension spur ala Overground to some of the lesser served mainline stations nearby.
I often feel it was a pity that the Victoria Line was not extended northwards to take over the stations between Ponders End and Cheshunt, as that two-track section is a real bottleneck. The stopping trains can only run every half hour and still block the faster services to Stansted and Cambridge. The Victoria Line could run alongside the main line more cheaply than quadrupling the track, as it could dive under or bridge over several localised obstacles. Unfortunately Stansted Airport hadn't been planned in the 1960s, they were still talking about Foulness/Maplin then and for some years afterwards. The other drawback is that the junction is at Seven Sisters rather than Tottenham Hale, so the latter would lose some of its services.