AMAZING FACTS

20 FACTS ABOUT LONDON'S UNDERGROUND

There is only one tube station name which does not have any letters of the word "mackerel" in it - St John's Wood.

There are only two tube stations which have all five vowels in them - Mansion House and South Ealing.

Considering there are 287 tube stations, things 1 and 2 are quite surprising.

Chancery Lane has the shortest escalator on the system - 50 steps.

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 shortest distance between tube stations is Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line - 0.16 miles.

The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. It is quicker to walk this distance than travel on the tube.

The only tube station which shares the name of a well known pop group is All Saints (yeah I know it's on the Docklands Light Railway - but it's still on the tube map).

The phrase "Mind the Gap" originated on the Northern line.

The Jubilee line was originally going to be called the Fleet line.

Northfields station on the Piccadilly line was the first to use kestrels and hawks to kill pigeons and stop them setting up homes in stations.

The Central line covers the longest route - from West Ruislip to Epping you will travel 34 miles without changing.

The Waterloo and City line covers the shortest route - 2 kilometres, but considering it only covers two stations - Waterloo and Bank, it doesn't take Stephen Hawkins to work that one out.

The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line. It opened on the 10th January 1863.

Tube carriages originally had no windows and buttoned upholstery and were nicknamed "padded cells". No change there then.

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.

Julian Lloyd Webber was London Underground's first official busker - I didn't know he needed the money that badly.

More of the London Underground is open than in a tunnel. Tell yourself this fact if you suffer from claustrophobia.

Bank has more escalators than any other station on the tube - 15 plus two moving walkways - count em!

Out of the 287 stations, only 29 are south of the river Thames.

One of the female automated voice announcers is called Sonia - because her voice "gets on yer nerves".

Fish and Parcels is the slang name for the District Line. It should be Pony and Trap.

Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916.

The peak hour for tube suicides is 11am.

The Jubilee Line Extension was the most expensive railway line ever built. It cost USD 330 million per kilometre. Shame they didn't make the platforms and the trains bigger though.