Wednesday 20 March 2013

Celebrate good times, come on!

The London Underground is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a range of events and activities throughout this year.  Today, it was the Queen's chance to celebrate.  The Queen, joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Cambridge, visited Baker Street Underground station.

The royals saw a restored 1892 carriage at Baker Street, which was part of the first stretch of the network which opened in January 1863.  Today was the Queen's sixth visit to the London Underground.  The Queen's first Tube journey was in May 1939 as a 13-year-old princess, accompanied by her sister Princess Margaret and governess, Marion Crawford.

It was on 9 January 1863 that the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station to make the first passenger journey - 3½-miles under the streets of London from Paddington to Farringdon and this making it into the record books.

The original Underground line was built and financed by the Metropolitan Railway.  Travelling on the new railway was a novelty that thousands of Londoners were eager to experience and on the first day of public service – long queues formed at every station. The line was a huge success with 26,000 passengers using the railway each day in the first six months.  Today, long queues are still a feature of the London Underground!

If you fancy celebrating this world famous subterranean railway line, check out the Transport for London website here.

And don't forget to 'mind the gap'!



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