History of rapid transit

First tunnels

Before any plans were made for transit systems with underground tunnels and stations, several railway operators had used tunnels for freight and passenger trains, usually to reduce the grade of the railway line. Examples include Trevithick's Tunnel in 1804, built for the Penydarren locomotive,^[1] the 1829 Crown Street Tunnel at Liverpool and the 1.13 mile (1,811 meter)-long 1836 Lime Street Tunnel, also at Liverpool. Part of this tunnel remains in use, making it the world's oldest active tunnel.

The first urban underground railway was the Metropolitan Railway, which began operations on January 10, 1863. It was built largely in shallow cut and cover tunnels. It was worked by steam trains and despite the creation of numerous vents, was unhealthy and uncomfortable for passengers and operating staff. Smoke collected in the tunnels, leading to proposals to build pneumatic or cable-hauled railways to overcome this problem between 1863 and 1890, though none were successful.^[2] Nevertheless, its trains were popular from the start.

The Metropolitan Railway and the competing Metropolitan District Railway developed the inner circle around central London that was completed in 1884. It featured an extensive system of suburban branches to the northwest (extending into the adjoining countryside), the west, the southwest and the east that was mostly completed by 1904. These systems eventually became part of the London Underground.

Electrification

In 1890, the first electrified underground urban railway, City & South London Railway, opened. Since the tunnels were tubular, the term "tube", eventually became synonymous with the London Underground. It was originally planned to be cable-hauled, but the company contracted to supply cable-haulage technology went bankrupt. The railway company's Parliamentary Act specifically prohibited the use of steam power. This led the City and South to consider electric traction.^[3] It operated locomotive-hauled trains with three carriages, initially without windows, because it was thought that passengers would not need to know where they were if they were in tunnels.

The UK's only elevated electric railway opened in 1893 in Liverpool. The Liverpool Overhead Railway was the world's fourth metro system and the world's first fully formed elevated railway to run electric trains from the start. The LOR pioneered Electric Multiple Units of three car trains. Automatic electric light signals were also a first for the railway. The presence of the "El" helped Liverpool earn the nickname "Britain's North American City".^[4] The LOR was demolished in 1957 and Liverpool is served today by a partially underground urban rail network known as Merseyrail.

A major breakthrough in the development of electrically driven rapid transit occurred when the American inventor Frank J. Sprague successfully tested his system of multiple-unit train control (MUTC) on the South Side Elevated Railroad (now part of the Chicago 'L') in 1897. MUTC, which allowed all the motors in an entire train to be controlled from a single point, freed rapid transit systems from dependence on locomotive-hauled coaches.

Europe

The Budapest M1, at the end of the tunnel at Heroes' square, at its inauguration year in 1896

Budapest opened the first electrified underground line on the continent, the M1, in 1896. It ran from Gizella tér (now Vörösmarty tér, the city centre) to City Park and the local zoo, a distance of 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi). It is now part of the Budapest Metro and has largely been restored. The Budapest system was the first underground with overhead cables rather than the more common third rail system. Car #18 is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum.^[5]

The 10.4 kilometres (6.5 mi) Glasgow Subway in Scotland opened the same year and used cable haulage until it was electrified in 1935.

In 1898 the technically outdated two-line Vienna Metropolitan Railway in Vienna was opened, which was operated by steam trains. The system was converted to a modern underground railway in 1978.

Paris Métro under construction around 1900.

Streetcar number 1752 became the first subway car to be driven in regular traffic in the Boston subway system in 1897. This also marks the beginning of subway traffic in the United States.

The first line of the Paris Métro opened in 1900. Its full name was the Chemin de Fer Métropolitain, a direct translation into French of London's Metropolitan Railway. The name was shortened to métro, and many other languages have since borrowed this word.

The Berlin U-Bahn (for underground railway) opened in 1902; because large sections of the line were elevated, it was also called "Hochbahn" (high railway) until the 1920s. Germany's second system, the Hamburg U-Bahn opened in 1904.

The Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway was built as a steam-hauled suburban line in 1869 and acquired an underground section in the capital in 1874. It was electrified in 1904 and became part of the Athens Metro in 2011.

Istanbul's 1875 Tünel is sometimes described as an early subway system but is actually an underground funicular.

North America

Two MBTA Blue Line trains meet at Aquarium station in Boston Massachusetts.

Interior of Buenos Aires vintage Subte Line A cars, in use until 2013.

Boston has the oldest subway tunnel in the United States that is still in use, part of the MBTA's Green Line downtown, dating from 1897.^[6] The original construction was a short four-track tunnel, with only two stations downtown, originally built to take streetcars from outlying areas off the streets in the most congested area. From 1901 to 1908, heavy rail trains temporarily shared the tunnel as part of the original configuration of the Main Line Elevated, the first elevated railway in Boston. Later subway lines built in Boston carry heavy rail trains; the Green Line still operates with light rail equipment.

The New York City Subway, which became one of the world's largest rapid transit systems, opened its first section in 1904, a fully independent four-track line stretching 9 miles (14.5 km) from City Hall to 145th Street. Extensions were soon built, reaching the Bronx and Brooklyn; this became part of the IRT system. Two major subway systems, operated by the BMT and the IND were constructed later, and many pre-existing elevated railway lines were incorporated into the BMT and IRT systems. The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, which opened a subway tunnel in Manhattan in 1908 and connected with New Jersey, remained a separate railroad company, later coming under the control of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). Some New York City Subway lines usd right-of-way first used by railroads in the 1870s, and converted R44 subway cars run on the 1860 Staten Island Railway.

In 1907, the first line in Philadelphia, now part of the Market–Frankford Line, began running on both elevated and underground structures.

South America

The oldest subway in the Southern Hemisphere, "Subterráneos de Buenos Aires" (Subte), opened in 1913 as an underground tramway in Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[7] Line A of the Subte used La Burgeoise wood and metal carriages, which were in continuous operation for 100 years. In 2013 the cars were replaced with new rolling stock.

Africa

Cairo was the first African city with a metro system (opened 1987), which was partly converted from a railway line. It is under development. The second African metro opened in Algiers in November 2011. Tunis has a tram system that is referred to as a metro despite not being rapid transit. Pretoria, Lagos and some other African cities have plans to build rapid transit networks.

Asia

East Asia

A Tokyo subway train emerges from the tunnel as a commuter-rail train boards passengers at Ochanomizu Station.

Asia's first cities to have subway lines were Tokyo in 1927 and Osaka in 1933. Other major Japanese cities with subway systems are Yokohama, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sendai.

The first of many China's metro systems, Beijing subway, began operation in 1969, operating on a trial basis until 1981. Other major cities followed: Tianjin (1984), Shanghai (1993), Guangzhou (1997), Wuhan (2004), Shenzhen (2004). Nearly sixty cities have or are planning rapid transit systems and new Chinese metro systems open every year.

The MTR of Hong Kong

In 1979, Hong Kong's subway line, the MTR, began operations. It operates 10 lines, including four that run underneath Victoria Harbour. By 1982, the British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, known later as KCR East Rail and now MTR's East Rail Line, started to provide metro-like service as electrification was completed. In 2007 the merger of the KCR line into the MTR system was completed.

Since 1974, South Korean cities have developed subway systems. The first lines were converted from existing heavy railway lines. The largest, Seoul, operates twelve lines extending approximately 314 km.^[8] Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Daejeon and Gwangju also have subway systems. Seoul and Incheon are connected by metro.

Pyongyang in North Korea notably has a well adorned and deep metro with non-geographical names of stations (unique in the world) and was built to serve as a bomb shelter in case of a war.

In 1996, Taiwan opened its first metro system in Taipei. A second metro system opened in Kaohsiung in 2008.

Europe

Krasnye Vorota station of Moscow Metro

North America

The Toronto Subway opened in 1954. One experimental trainset used the first aluminum subway cars, which reduced weight and therefore operating costs.^[10] With the next car order in 1963, only aluminum was used. The new cars, at 75 feet/23 m, were at the time the longest in the world. The Montreal Metro, was the second subway system in Canada and was opened in 1966 as part of Expo 67 that would be held in Montreal.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay Area and The capital's Washington Metro in Washington, D.C. opened in 1972 and 1976 respectively, as part of changing attitudes towards transportation in the United States, leading to subway and LRT systems opening in many cities that had done without.

The most recently completed fully underground heavy rail metro line in North America is the LACMTA Red Line in Los Angeles, which goes from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. Construction was started in 1986 and completed in 2000. In autumn 2005, several politicians including Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa indicated a desire to complete the originally conceived subway route along Wilshire Boulevard to West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Phase One to La Cienega Blvd has been approved.^[11]

Oceania

While most Australian capital cities have commuter rail rapid-transit services, Sydney is to be the first Australian city to have a rapid transit metro network. The Sydney Metro is scheduled to open in 2019.

South America