25 facts to mark 150 years of the Tube

  • London
London Underground and the London Transport Museum have organised events to celebrate 150 years of the Tube Credit: Katie Collins/PA Wire

The Tube - the world's first underground railway - is celebrating 150 years since the first journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway.

Here are 25 top Tube facts from Transport for London:

  • Number of miles/km travelled by each Tube train each year: 114,500 miles/184,269km

  • Total number of passengers carried each year: 1,107 million

  • Average train speed: 33km per hour/20.5mph

  • Length of network: 402km/249 miles

  • Proportion of the network that is in tunnels: 45 per cent

  • Longest continuous tunnel: East Finchley to Morden (via Bank) - 27.8km/17.25 miles

  • Total number of escalators: 426

  • Station with most escalators: Waterloo - 23

  • Longest escalator: Angel - 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m/90ft

  • Shortest escalator: Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m

  • Total number of lifts, including four stair lifts: 164

  • Four passenger conveyors - two at Waterloo and two at Bank

  • Deepest lift shaft: Hampstead - 55.2m/181ft

  • Shortest lift shaft: King's Cross - 2.3m/7.5ft

  • Vertical lifting platforms highest rise: Walthamstow 1.98m/6.5ft

  • Vertical lifting platforms shortest: Hainault 0.64m/2.1ft

  • Carriages in London Underground's (LU's) fleet: 4134

  • Total number of stations served: 270

  • Total number of stations managed: 260

  • Total number of staff: 19,000 approx

  • Stations with the most platforms: Baker Street - 10. Moorgate has 10 platforms but only six are used by LU (two are used by First Capital Connect and two were formerly used by Thameslink services)

  • Busiest stations: During the three-hour morning peak, London's busiest Tube station is Waterloo, with 57,000 people entering. The busiest station in terms of passengers each year is also Waterloo with 82 million

  • The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908

  • London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890, when the first deep-level electric railway line was opened

  • The Tube's world-famous logo, 'the roundel' (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar), first appeared in 1908