Underground Electric Railways Company
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The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL) was the holding company, for three of the new deep-level "tube" underground railway lines constructed in London in the first decade of the 20th century. It was established in 1902 by American financier Charles Yerkes who had been profitably involved in the development of the public transport system of Chicago.
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[edit] History
The first such deep-level railway, the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) had opened in 1890 and its success had resulted in spate of proposals to Parliament for other deep-level routes under the capital. However, by 1901 few of these railway companies had actually made a start on construction due to financing problems. In 1901 and 1902, Yerkes purchased the struggling Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) - now the District Line - and four of these embryonic companies and proceeded quickly to begin construction work.
The three lines built were:
- Charing Cross, Euston & 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 built deep-level extension of the MDR
The BS&WR and GNP&BR both opened in 1906 and the CCE&HR opened in 1907. Informally, the UER lines became known as the "Yerkes tube".
Although the four railway lines were in common ownership under the UERL and shared directors, technology and, in the case of the three new lines, architectural style; they were not initially one company. Combined branding as the "Underground Group" and shared ticketing arrangements between the lines enabled the UER to develop a dominant position in relationship to London's other underground railways of the time and in 1910 the UERL's lines formally merged as the London Electric Railway Company (LER).
In 1913 the LER was enlarged by the acquisition of the C&SLR and the Central London Railway (CLR), thereby bringing all but three of London's underground lines at that time into common ownership under the Underground Group brand.
In the years after World War I the LER's lines saw greater integration and a series of improvements in rolling stock, station developments and extensions of lines to new areas away from the centre of London (see articles of individual lines for details).
[edit] Road Passenger Services
The Underground Group also gained control over the majority of road passenger services in London. Having secured coordination of fares with the main bus companies in December 1907, LER acquired control of the London General Omnibus Company on January 1, 1912. A year later the London and Suburban Traction Company (LSTC), jointly owned by LER and British Electric Traction took over the London United Tramways and Metropolitan Electric Tramways companies. Six months later LSTC acquired the other privately operated tram company in London, South Metropolitan Electric Tramways.
[edit] Public Control
In 1933 the assets of the Underground Group, along with those of the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) and the Metropolitan Railway (MR) were transferred to the newly-created statutory corporation, the London Passenger Transport Board.
[edit] Equipment and rolling stock
The MDR had begun electrification works in 1900 to replace steam engine operation and the electrical equipment used on the new lines was on the same general principle as that already adopted for the MDR: third and fourth rail. Eventually, the system would become standard for the whole of the London Underground.
Like its chief director, Engineer-in-Chief and General Manager of the company was an American, James Russell Chapman, and much of the equipment used on the lines was imported from the United States. Specially-designed passenger rolling stock was required and because of the original American influence, these have been termed "cars" on the London Underground rather the more usual British term "carriages".
Lifts were supplied by the Otis Elevator Company of New York. The first railway escalator came into use on 4 October 1911 at Earl's Court between the Piccadilly and District Lines. To encourage frightened passengers to use the unseen before escalator, the company hired a well known local homeless street man with a wooden leg to ride up and down it all day!
The lines shared a power station at Lots Road in Chelsea, which later served the London Underground as a whole until the beginning of the 21st century when its increasingly obsolete equipment lead to its closure.
[edit] See also
Leslie Green - Architect of stations on the Underground Electric Railways Company's lines
