Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL, also known as the Underground Group ) was the holding company for three underground railways that were built in London in the first decade of the 20th century. It was founded in 1902 by the American financier Charles Tyson Yerkes , subsequently gained control of most of the British capital's local public transport system and was nationalized in 1933.
history
In 1890, the city's first deep tube "tube" subway, the City and South London Railway (C & SLR), opened. Their success led to numerous requests for concessions for new lines from the British Parliament . At the beginning of the 20th century, however, only the Central London Railway (CLR, today's Central Line ) was in operation, while construction work on the other planned lines had usually not even started due to financial difficulties of the companies involved. In 1901 and 1902 the Yerkes bought the financially troubled Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, today's District Line ) and four other companies and merged them into the UERL. Three lines were built:
- Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE & HR), now part of the Northern Line
- Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), now part of the Bakerloo Line
- Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP & BR), now part of the Piccadilly Line , formed from the:
- Great Northern & Strand Railway (GN&SR)
- Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (B & PCR)
- A planned but not implemented extension of the MDR
The BS&WR and the GNP & BR both opened in 1906, the CCE & HR in 1907. The four railway lines were now jointly owned by the UERL, were managed by the same directors, used the same railway technology and even the station buildings of three lines were in a uniform style been erected. The legally independent companies were marketed together as an underground group and applied a uniform tariff system. The UERL soon assumed a dominant role in local transport in London, and in 1910 the formal merger to form the London Electric Railway Company (LER) took place. In 1913, LER expanded by taking over the C & SLR and the CLR.
The company also soon assumed a dominant position in surface traffic on the road. After an agreement on the coordination of the tariff structure had been reached in December 1907 with the most important bus companies in the city, LER took over the London General Omnibus Company on January 1, 1912 . The following year, the London and Suburban Traction Company (LSTC) - a joint subsidiary of LER and British Electric Traction - took over the tram companies London United Tramways , Metropolitan Electric Tramways and South Metropolitan Electric Tramways .
In 1933, the LER / Underground Group, the Great Northern & City Railway and the Metropolitan Railway were merged into the newly created public authority, the London Passenger Transport Board .
source
- Stephen Halliday: Underground to Everywhere , pp. 63-96. Sutton Publishing, Stroud 2001. ISBN 0-7509-2585-X
