Going underground

摘要

A ￡5 billion upgrade of London's creaking Tube system is in full swing. So what, long-suffering commuters may well ask, is the money being spent on? It was in 1863 that London welcomed the world's first underground railway. Over the decades, it burrowed further and further through the capital and now carries three million passengers a day on 408km of railway. Such expansion, though, has come with a heavy price: overcrowded trains and platforms, signal failures, frequent delays and breakdowns. But commuters' seemingly wasted time, caused by frequent engineering works on one Tube line or another, will not be in vain, say the people running the system. A plan, launched by Transport for London (TfL) and the Mayor of London, is now in full swing. This is no patch-up job; this is modernisation.