Central Line |
| Hob Uid: 1310448 | |
Location :
Essex, Greater London Authority
Epping Forest
Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Newham, Ealing, Tower Hamlets, City and County of the City of London, Camden, City of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hillingdon, Kensington and Chelsea
Theydon Bois, Ongar, Loughton, Chigwell, North Weald Bassett, Bobbingworth, Stanford Rivers, Buckhurst Hill, Epping
Non Civil Parish
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| Grid Ref : TQ1796080950 |
| Summary : The Central London Railway, authorized in 1892 and opened in 1900, linked Shepherd's Bush with the Bank (5.75 miles), traversing London's busy quarters on the west-east axis along the line of Oxford Street. Once it had replaced its original electric locomotives with multiple-unit trains in 1903, it was recognizably the prototype of the modern tube. Originally there was a flat fare of 2d., giving rise to the nickname of 'The Twopenny Tube'; this lasted until 1907. The line was extended by a loop to Wood Lane, close to the White City exhibition site, in 1908, and to Liverpool Street in 1912. Extension to the west was begun over Great Western tracks to Ealing Broadway in 1920. The Central Line (as London Transport named it from 1937) was radically changed under the 1935-40 New Works Programme, in the course of which the third-rail current collection was replaced by the standard Underground fourth-rail system. The line was extended beyond Liverpool Street to Leyton and thence over London and North Eastern Railway tracks to Hainault and Epping in 1947-9, with its rural prolongation to Ongar electrified in 1957 but closed in 1994. At the western end new tracks beside the GWR line took Central trains to West Ruslip in 1948. The Central Line's 74km (46 miles) make it the Underground's longest line serving 49 stations and requiring 72 trains to operate the peak period service. |
More information : The Central Line opened on 30th July 1900 as a cross-London route from Bank to Shepherd's Bush, and was extremely well patronised from the outset.
Contributing to this popularity was the flat fare of two old pence (2d) which encouraged the press to call the line the "Twopenny Tube". The flat fare lasted until the end of June 1907 when a threepenny fare was introduced for longer journeys.
In 1908, the line was extended west to Wood Lane to serve the adjacent White City Exhibition, and four years later was extended at its eastern end from Bank to Liverpool Street.
In 1920, the line was further extended to the west as far as Ealing Broadway. The 1939-1945 war intervened before plans for more ambitious extensions at each end of the line could be implemented, but these plans were revived after the war.
New tracks next to the existing main line railway were brought into use from North Acton to West Ruislip, as were new tunnels from Liverpool Street to Leyton and from Leytonstone to Newbury Park. North of both of these tunnels the Central took over existing suburban lines, to Ongar via Epping, and to Woodford via Hainault.
The Epping to Ongar shuttle service, which was run under contract as a steam-hauled service by British Rail until 1957, was closed in 1994.(5)
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