- Travelling on the tube for 40 minutes is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes - so save yourself a packet, all you smokers and get on the tube more often.
The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line. It opened on the 10th January 1863. - Men have to sit with their legs apart when travelling on the tube. This is due to special magnetic fibres on the upholstery of the seats which interacts with testosterone to provide an antimagnetic outward force.
- More of the London Underground is open than in a tunnel. Tell yourself this fact if you suffer from claustrophobia.
- Out of the 287 stations, only 29 are south of the river Thames.
- The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am.
- All 409 escalators do the equivalent of two round the world trips every week.
- Angel has Western Europe's longest escalator - 318 steps.
- Mosquitoes that live in the underground have evolved into a completely different species, one that appears separated from the above ground mozzie by over a thousand years.
- The air in the underground is on average 10°C hotter than the air on the surface.
- 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.
- The best places to spot mice running around the tracks of the underground are Waterloo station (northbound on the Bakerloo line) and any platform at Oxford Circus.
- 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.
- Aldwych station (now closed) is featured on level 12 in the Tomb Raider game with Lara Croft killing rats.
- The Cadbury's Whole Nut chocolate bar is the biggest seller in the chocolate machines at tube stations.
Find more in 50 things you never knew about the London Underground
No comments:
Post a Comment