'
London's transport' forms the hub of the road, rail and air networks in the
United Kingdom. It has its own dense and extensive internal private and public transport networks, as well as providing a focal point for the national road and railway networks. London also has a number of airports including the UK's busiest,
Heathrow, and a
sea port.
London's internal transport is one of the
Mayor of London's four policy areas, administered by its executive agency
Transport for London (TfL). TfL controls the majority of
public transport in the area, including the
Underground,
local buses,
trams and the
Docklands Light Railway, but it currently has virtually no control over
National Rail services within Greater London, which are administered by the national
Department for Transport (DfT). TfL also controls most major roads in the area, but not minor roads (''see
below'').
Metro and light rail
TfL operates two railway systems which are not part of the national railway network. The larger is the
London Underground and the smaller is the automated
Docklands Light Railway operating in central,
east and south-east London. TfL also has the
Tramlink system, centred on
Croydon with lines to Wimbledon, New Addington and Beckenham. Like the road network, a flaw in London's under- and over-ground railways is that they radiate out to the suburbs from the centre. Whilst obviously necessary given the huge volume of commuters, it means that travelling between parts of London which are not on the same commuter-route can be slow. This problem would be reduced by the introduction of Tramlink (see below) and other proposed railway projects.
London Underground
Main articles: London Underground
Colloquially known as the Tube, London Underground is the oldest
metro system in the world, having begun operations in 1863. More than 3 million passengers travel on the Underground every day, amounting to over 1 billion passenger journeys per year for the first time in 2006.
[1] The Underground has 12 lines, most of which connect the suburbs to
Central London and provide a distribution role around the city centre, particularly from major railway terminals.
The Underground serves London
north of the river much more extensively than
the south. This is the result of a combination of unfavourable
geology, historical competition from surface railways and the historical geography of London which was focused to the north of the Thames. South London is served primarily by surface railways (although it should be noted that the majority of London Underground's route length is actually on the surface rather than in tunnel).
Docklands Light Railway
Main articles: Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated
light rail system serving the
Docklands area of
East London. It complements the Underground, largely sharing its fares system and having a number of interchanges with it. It is focused on the
Canary Wharf business district, although this was not its initial objective upon its opening in 1987.
Partly thanks to the success of Canary Wharf, the system has expanded several times and now has five main branches connecting the
Isle of Dogs and
Royal Docks to each other and to the
City of London,
Stratford and
Lewisham south of the river. It also serves
London City Airport. A number of further extensions are in the works, including another cross-river link, to
Woolwich, and one north to Stratford International, where it will interchange with High Speed 1, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Trams
Main articles: Tramlink
The
tram system in London was the oldest in the world dating back to early Victorian time and still remains the largest tram network at its peak. However, the highly extensive tram lines disappeared from the streets of London by the mid-20th century, but a new tram system was opened in 2000 to serve the large employment centre of
Croydon on the southern edge of London. Named Tramlink, it connects Croydon and its surface railway stations to surrounding suburbs and to the town centre of
Wimbledon to the north-west. An extension to
Crystal Palace is being planned. Two other tram schemes in London are being planned: the
West London Tram along the busy
Uxbridge Road bus corridor in
West London (although construction is looking unlikely due to much local protest), and the
Cross River Tram through
central London between
Camden in the north and
Brixton and
Peckham in the south.
Kingsway subway
The
London Passenger Transport Board was formed in 1933, taking over the London County Council trams. It was decided soon after to replace all
trams in London by "more modern vehicles." The abandonment programme began in 1935 with trams in South-West, West, North-West, North and East London mostly being replaced by
trolleybuses. The replacement programme proceeded swiftly until 1940 when the last "pre-war" conversion occurred, leaving only the "South London" trams and the "Kingsway Routes" 31, 33 and 35, the only tram routes left operating into North London to survive the war.
Prototype "Kingsway Trolleybus" no. 1379, with exits on both sides of the vehicle, was constructed for feasibility tests through the Subway, but these were unsuccessful as trolleybuses would have had to run on battery power through the subway, headroom restrictions making it impossible to use overhead current collection. In 1946 it was decided to replace all London's remaining trams "as soon as possible", this time by diesel buses. The first Kingsway subway route to be withdrawn was Route 31 on
1 October 1950 with the remaining two routes, 33 and 35, being withdrawn after service on Saturday
5 April 1952, the last public services being 'specials' shortly after midnight on the Sunday. During the early hours of the next morning the remaining vehicles still north of the subway were run through to the depots south of the Thames. The
Kingsway tramway subway is the only remaining evidence of the old tram system, an underground route along
Kingsway.
Heavy rail
London is the focal point of the British railway network, with 14 termini stations providing a combination of commuter, intercity, airport and international services. Most areas of the city not served by the Underground or DLR are served by commuter
heavy rail services into one of these termini.
The termini are
Blackfriars,
Cannon Street,
Charing Cross,
Euston,
Fenchurch Street,
King's Cross,
Liverpool Street,
London Bridge,
Moorgate,
Marylebone,
Paddington,
St. Pancras,
Victoria and
Waterloo.
Commuter rail
London is the centre of an extensive radial commuter railway network serving the surrounding
metropolitan area. Each terminus is associated with commuter services from a particular segment of this area. The majority of commuters to central London (about 80% of 1.1 million) arrive by either the
Underground (400,000 daily) or by surface railway into these termini (860,000 daily).
[2]
Although the majority of services serve the termini, there are a few notable exceptions.
London Bridge has several through lines to the more central termini at
Cannon Street and
Charing Cross, and trains to the latter also call at
Waterloo East, linked to
Waterloo by a footbridge. London Bridge's through platforms are also used by the
Thameslink services of
First Capital Connect, which cross the city centre, calling at
Blackfriars (another terminus with through platforms),
City Thameslink,
Farringdon and
King's Cross Thameslink. These services run between the northern and southern suburbs, and between the more distant towns of
Brighton on the south coast and
Bedford in the north.
In addition to its radial lines, there are also several orbital lines connecting parts of the inner city to each other. The
West London Line crosses inner
West London and allows services to run from the northwest suburbs to
Croydon, Brighton and
Gatwick Airport. The
North London Line arcs across
North London from
Richmond in the west to
Stratford in the east, and the
Gospel Oak to Barking line links inner North London to the northeastern suburbs. Work is also underway for extensions of the Underground's
East London Line, converting it into a heavy rail commuter line linking inner north-east London to south London and eventually creating a full circle through the inner suburbs. From November 2007, TfL will take over control of these orbital routes from the
DfT and the inner-suburban
Watford DC Line services from
Euston, and rebrand them as the
London Overground.
Constantly increasing pressure on the commuter rail systems and on the Underground to disperse passengers from the busy terminals has led to the multi-billion pound
Crossrail scheme. Superficially similar to the
RER lines of
Paris, Crossrail would link services into
Paddington in the west with
Docklands and services out of
Liverpool Street in the east, by constructing twin 16-km tunnels underneath the city centre. New stations would be provided at key city centre locations, linking to the Underground.
The growing overcrowding on commuter rail services has led to new ticket restrictions on leisure travellers using cheaper tickets. Although morning peak restrictions for these travellers have been commonplace for many years, evening peak restrictions are also now coming into place. For example,
First Capital Connect no longer allows cheaper tickets to be used on services departing London for destinations to the north outside London in the evening peak (4.30pm - 7.30pm), and holders of cheaper tickets are barred from some express
First Great Western services from Paddington in the evening.
Intercity rail
Long-distance
intercity services do not depart from all termini, but each terminus provides trains to a particular part of the country. The major intercity termini are
Paddington (for the west of
England and
South Wales),
Waterloo (for the South East/South West of
England and;
Southampton,
Portsmouth,
Bournemouth and
Weymouth),
Victoria (for South Coast and
Brighton),
Euston (for the
West Midlands,
North Wales, the north west of England and
Glasgow),
St. Pancras (for the
East Midlands),
King's Cross (for the north east of England and
Edinburgh) and
Liverpool Street (for
East Anglia). Some intercity services carry significant volumes of commuters between their stops nearest to London and the termini. For example, long-distance commuting has been evident from
Swindon to Paddington since the introduction of
High Speed Trains.
[3]
Airport services
Heathrow,
Gatwick and
Stansted airports are served by dedicated train services, and the latter two are also served by standard commuter services. The
Heathrow Express service from Paddington is provided by the airport operator,
BAA plc, whilst the
Gatwick Express from Victoria and
Stansted Express from Liverpool Street are provided by
train operating companies.
International services
International services are provided by
Eurostar from
Waterloo International to
Paris and
Brussels via the
Channel Tunnel. Eurostar services share tracks with commuter railways until they reach the
High Speed 1 line outside London. This is currently being extended in tunnel to
St. Pancras, with an intermediate stop in
Stratford in
East London. This final link will see all Eurostar services move to St Pancras and a reduction in journey times of some 20 minutes, putting Paris 2 hours 15 minutes from London.
[4] Some high-speed commuter services to
Kent will also be operated over the new line, which is one of Britain's biggest engineering projects.
Buses
Main articles: Buses in London
London's bus network is extensive, with over 6,800 scheduled services every weekday carrying about six million passengers on over 700 different routes.
[5] Catering mainly for local journeys, it carries more passengers than the Underground. In addition to this extensive daytime system, a 100-route night bus service is also operated, providing a 24-hour service.
TfL manages the bus system by tendering out routes to private companies. This means that TfL set the routes, frequencies, fares and even the type of vehicle used, and companies bid to run these services for a fixed price for several years, with incentives and penalties in place to encourage good performance against certain criteria.
Many services are operated with the iconic red
double decker buses, virtually all using modern low-floor accessible vehicles rather than the traditional open-platform
Routemasters, now limited to two city centre "heritage routes" after a phase out in 2006.
The bus system has been the subject of much investment since TfL's inception in 2000, with consequent improvements in the number of routes (particularly night services), their frequency, reliability and the standard of the vehicles used.
Roads
London has a hierarchy of roads ranging from major radial and orbital trunk roads down to minor "side streets". At the top level are
motorways and
grade-separated dual carriageways, supplemented by non-grade-separated urban dual carriageways, major single carriageway roads, local distributor roads and small local streets.
Most of the streets of central London were laid out before cars were invented and London's road network is often congested. Attempts to tackle this go back at least to the 1740s, when the
New Road was built through the fields north of the city; it is now just another congested central London thoroughfare. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new wide roads such as
Victoria Embankment,
Shaftesbury Avenue and
Kingsway were created. In the 1920s and 1930s a series of new radial roads, such as the
Western Avenue and
Eastern Avenue, were constructed in the new suburban outskirts of London but little was done in the congested central area.
A 1937 report, ''The Highway Development Survey'', by
Sir Edwin Lutyens and
Sir Charles Bressey for the
Ministry of Transport and the 1943 ''
County of London Plan'' and 1944 ''Greater London Plan'' by
Sir Patrick Abercrombie all recommended the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of existing routes and junctions but little was done to implement the recommendations. In the 1960s the
Greater London Council prepared a drastic plan for a network of
London Ringways including the construction of the
London Motorway Box which would have involved massive demolition and huge cost to bring motorways into the heart of the city. Resistance from Central Government over the costs and campaigns of objection from local residents caused the cancellation of most of the plans in 1973. By the end of the 20th century policy swung towards a preference for public transport improvements, although the 118 mile (190 km)
M25 orbital
motorway was constructed between 1973 and 1986 to provide a route for traffic to bypass the London urban area.
Major routes
Due to the opposition to the Ringway plan and earlier proposals there are few grade-separated routes penetrating to the city centre. Only the western
A40 and
A4 and the eastern
A12 and
A13 are grade separated for most of the way into
central London.
There is a technical distinction between the
motorways, operated by the
Highways Agency, and other major routes, operated by TfL as the ''Transport for London Route Network (TLRN)''. Many of London's major radial routes continue far beyond the city as part of the national motorway and trunk road network.
From the north, clockwise (and noting a key commuter location served by each rather than the final destination), the major radial routes are the
A10 (north to
Hertford), the
M11 (north to
Cambridge), the
A12 (northeast to
Chelmsford), the
A127 (east to
Southend), the
A13 (also east to
Southend), the
A2/
M2 (east to
Chatham), the
A20/
M20 (southeast to
Maidstone), the
A23/
M23 (south to
Gatwick Airport and
Brighton), the
A3 (southwest to
Guildford),
A316/
M3 (southwest to
Basingstoke), the
A4/
M4 (west to
Heathrow Airport and
Reading), the
A40/
M40 (west to
Oxford), the
M1 (northwest to
Luton) and the
A1 (north to
Stevenage).
There are also three
ring roads linking these routes orbitally. The innermost, the Inner Ring Road, circumnavigates the
congestion charging zone in the city centre. The generally grade-separated
North Circular (the
A406 from
Gunnersbury to
West Ham) and the non-separated
South Circular (the
A205) form a suburban ring of roughly 10km radius. Finally, the
M25 encircles most of the urban area with roughly a 25km radius. The western section of the M25 past
Heathrow Airport is one of Europe's busiest, carrying around 200,000 vehicles per day.
None of these roads have
tolls, although the
Dartford Crossing, which links the two ends of the M25 to the east of London, is tolled.
Distributor and minor routes
The major roads mentioned above are supplemented by a host of standard single-carriageway main roads, operated as part of the afore-mentioned TLRN. These roads generally link suburbs with each other, or deliver traffic from the ends of the major routes into the city centre.
The TLRN is supplemented by local distributor roads operated by the local authorities, the London boroughs. These non-strategic roads only carry local traffic.
Congestion charge
In February 2003, TfL introduced a radical scheme to charge motorists £5 per day for driving vehicles within a designated area of central London during peak hours, the
congestion charge.
[6] The politicians behind the scheme claim that it has significantly reduced traffic congestion and hence improved reliability of bus and taxi services,
[7] but this is strongly contested by the scheme's critics. The charge was increased to £8 per day on
4 July 2005.
[8] In 2007 the zone was extended into
West London,
[9]
Taxis
Black cabs and hire cars
The famous London
black cab remains a common sight. Nearly all London taxis are overseen by TfL's
Public Carriage Office (PCO), including both black cabs and
minicabs, and the PCO sets taxi fares along with minimum vehicle
emissions standards.
Horse drawn vehicles
More than 70 years after horse drawn carriages were restricted from the West End, Westminster City Council has announced that it will consider supporting applications to reintroduce them for sightseeing tours across the city
[10]. The first horse-drawn vehicles in London were licenced in 1662, as
Hackney carriages.
Bicycle taxis and pedicabs
Pedicabs are a fairly recent addition, being used almost solely for the tourist trade. Unlike the more stately and historically significant black cab, no knowledge is required to operate a pedicab or bicycle rickshaw. This leads to more amusing banter and less knowledge of the streets. As a pleasant way to see the city highlights in the summer there is little to beat their open topped ambiance. As a practical mode of transport there is little to recommend them.
History
Taxi regulations are different in London than in other parts of the country. This caused Cambridge Trishaws Ltd (founded by Simon Lane and Rufus Evison) to move from Cambridge to London in 1998 as the first such company to work within the city. There are now 5-10 such companies providing competing services. The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) went to the High Court to try to force them to become licensed, but lost their case in 2004
[11].This led to the PCO overseeing nearly all, but not all, cabs in London. Some view this as a loophole in the law and others see as an opportunity for London to lead the way in eco-friendly transportation.
There has been a move (led by Chris Smallwood, chairman of the London Pedicab Operators Association) to bring in more relevant legislation. Smallwood helped to draft an amendment to a bill to be put before the House of Lords that would introduce these "lighter" pedicab regulations. This was followed in 2005 by Transport Committee scrutiny to determine the future of the then nascent industry. This led in turn, to a 2006 TfL consultation "for the introduction of a licensing regime that is appropriate for pedicabs and their riders".
[10]
Airports
London is the best served city by
airports in the world with almost 150 million passengers using its
six airports in 2005. In order of size, these airports are
Heathrow,
Gatwick,
Stansted,
Luton and
London City; the smallest,
Biggin Hill, does not have scheduled flights.
Heathrow and Gatwick serve long-haul, European and domestic flights; Stansted and Luton cater primarily for low-cost European and domestic services, whilst London City caters for business passengers to short-haul and domestic destinations.
The closest airport to the city centre is London City, approximately 10 km east of the
City of London financial district in the
Docklands area. A branch of the
Docklands Light Railway links the airport to the City in under 25 minutes.
[13]
Two other airports are at the edge of the city but within the
Greater London boundary: Biggin Hill, around 23 km southeast of the centre, and London's principal airport, Heathrow, 20-25 km from
central London.
Heathrow handles nearly 70 million passengers per annum, making it Europe's busiest airport. On the western edge of the city in the
London Borough of Hillingdon, it has two runways and four passenger terminals, with a £4bn fifth terminal opening in 2008. It is connected to central London by the dedicated
Heathrow Express rail service, the
Heathrow Connect local rail service and
London Underground's
Piccadilly line, and is connected to the
M4 and
M25 motorways.
Gatwick is just under 40 km south of central London in
Sussex, some distance outside London's boundary. With a single runway and two terminals, it handles approximately 30 million passengers per year from domestic, short-haul and long-haul flights, and is linked to London by the
Gatwick Express,
Thameslink and
Southern rail services, and by the
M23.
Stansted is London's most distant airport, approximately 50 km north of the centre, in
Essex. With a single runway and terminal, it handles approximately 20 million passengers annually, mostly from low-cost short-haul and domestic leisure flights. It is connected to London by the
Stansted Express rail service and the
M11 motorway.
Luton Airport is about 45 km northwest of London, connected to it by the
M1 and
First Capital Connect trains from nearby
Luton Airport Parkway station. It has a single terminal and fairly short runway, and like Stansted it caters mainly for low-cost short-haul leisure flights.
RAF Northolt in
west London is used by private jets, and
London Heliport in
Battersea is used by private helicopters. There are is also
Croydon Airport,
Biggin Hill and
Farnborough Airfield.
Airfields at Southend and Lydd have been rebranded
London Southend and
London Ashford, but currently have little traffic.
Kent International was briefly called London Manston.
Water transport
The
River Thames is navigable to ocean-going vessels as far as
London Bridge, and to substantial craft well upstream of Greater London. Historically, the river was one of London's main transport arteries. This is no longer the case, but there are still small-scale passenger services and a large number of leisure cruises operating on the river. Additionally some bulk cargoes are carried on the river, and the Mayor of London wishes to increase this use.
London also has several
canals, including the
Regent's Canal, which links the Thames to the
Grand Union Canal and thus to the waterway network across much of England. These canals are no longer used to transport goods, but they are popular with leisure cruisers.
London's port used to be the country's busiest when it was located in
East London's
Docklands, but
containerisation led to its decline and abandonment of Docklands in favour of a purpose-built port at
Tilbury in
Essex, around ten kilometres outside the
Greater London boundary. Tilbury is operated by the
Port of London Authority, which is responsible for most port activities in the
Thames estuary, and is the third-busiest of Britain's ports.
See also
★
List of bus routes in London
★
History of transport in London (1933-2003)
★
Transport for London
External links
★
Transport for London, executive agency in charge of most transport operations
★
Department for Transport, central government department overseeing the national railway network
★
Transport enthusiast's site with details of current projects
★
London Cycle Network
★
Obtaining parking permits in London
Notes and references
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/4770.aspx
2. The Mayor's Transport Strategy - Figure 2.20 and Paragraph 2.76.
3. Nash, 1991, "The case from high speed rail"; ''Investigaciones económicas (segunda época), 15 (2), pp337-354
4. Eurostar welcomes development of landmark hotel at St. Pancras station, www.eurostar.com. Accessed 16 June 2006.
5. London Buses, Transport for London. Accessed 10 May 2007.
6. Smooth start for congestion charge
7. Impacts monitoring - Fourth Annual Report Overview
8. Congestion charge increases to £8
9. Capital's congestion charge area extended Peter Woodman
10.
11. Taxi driver: London
12.
13. London City Airport train timetable, www.tfl.gov.uk. Accessed 16 June 2005.
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