How Much of the Tube is Actually Underground? 

Deepthought still thinks the answer is 42.

Thank you for this comment. I was hoping someone could answer this question. For this question, I don’t care as much about stations underground as I do track underground. Thanks for your expertise!

Bearing in mind the new extensions and whatnot of the tube I feel like that would be I little bit more

Tunnel Engineers are quite scarce aren’t they? I work in tunnelling and do a lot of work for Thames Water, they had a tunnel engineer who was sick and they were searching months for s replacement

That sounds like a great looking place! I'll go and see if I can find some photos of it.

I never been to Toronto, BUT (and a big one too!), I have seen pictures and videos involving TTC's Old Mill station, it looks like a floating museum/art gallery, and I love it; as for the rest of the line (Bloor-Danforth/#2), it is in-and-out of the tunnel at various stations west of Dundas West station, yet a mistake is always made going eastward where on a street/road map the line is 'printed as' coming out of the tunnel after Sherbourne station [staying out] through Castle Frank station just to cross the bridge over the Don Valley area returning into the tunnel for Broadview through Main Street stations (the videos I've seen says otherwise: Castle Frank station is indeed underground); there is the Greenwood trainyard offroute, and the remaining outdoors from Victoria Park to Warden (original terminal until the 1980s extension to current underground Kennedy station). . .future plans call for routes #2 and #3 [Scarborough RT] to be put together as one route (#2's station is underground and #3's station is elevated until take-off time) while transfer privileges would be available further on for still under construction route #5 [Eglinton Crosstown]; I have a track map of the TTC and discovered a track connection between the infamous u-shaped #1 [Yonge/University/Spadina] and #4 [Sheppard]: I always imagined trains could 'alternate' between the two routes for the time being until future changes, while all along, the #1 could have been cut in half each way with Union RR station in it's middle as a terminal (saw a map of such a service that could have been)-fortunately I saw the original map of routes operated 'before' the Spadina extension came years later, yet the recently opened extension to Vaughn Metropolitan Center is completely underground which saddened me just slightly, but was enjoyable to watch, even with the layout of the infrastructure in another video that sowed the seed; surprised the Union-Pearson commuter rail wasn't operated by TTC, the rail line uses the same type of railcar as California's SMART commuter rail route (these acronyms o-mi-gosh) . . .SMART compensates for BART decades later thanks to the usual mathematics of politricks+ignorance+nimbyism=racism that stymies the living transit hell out of any transit expansion plans for the future because of the general unattractiveness that shame opportunities everywhere: "sh/st'eople [depreciation]", meanwhile transit fans continue to fantasize the latest umpteenth 'what if's' of how a transit system would/should/could look like.

Eglinton West is also another incredible example, as it is located in the centre along Allen Road and located below a road and a hill. The southern end of the station is clearly in tunnels, but once you get to the northern end, it gets very apparent that the station is not completely underground.

Old Mill Station was indeed my station when I lived in Toronto. There are some stations in TTC where a portion is below ground and the other is above ground but enclosed. I am thinking of High Park and Keele.

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I think the criteria for the Fire Brigade would have to be how to get fire hoses in. If you can get to track-side, even if it is in a cutting, instead of having to come down stairs then that station would be overground. So I think any station where you can see daylight from the platform would fit that. I would love to see the LFB version of the map, which would have all their access points to stations.

Fortunately the London Fire Brigade have issued an urgent statement to clarify that they don't intend to use Geoff Marshall's video for emergency planning purposes ;)

From the Fire Precautions Regulations, regarding the definition of sub-surface stations: "A railway platform is an underground platform if the level of the roof or ceiling immediately above the platform and the permanent way to which it is adjacent is below the level of the surface of the ground adjacent to any exit from the railway station providing a means of escape from the station in case of fire." So it's not about vehicular access, but about passenger egress. If you can get out without walking UP, you're not underground...

@@QemeH Which would be why the Fire Brigade map will include any station with any underground platforms (like the Piccadilly line at Earls Court), where Geoff is excluding the station because of the District Line platforms.

yeah, because by his definition of "if the weather can touch it" means none of them are underground, they all have entrances above ground level - otherwise they would be pretty useless stations :P

Yes, I would be inclined to count the stations with just a handful of overground platforms to be, say, 25% overground or 50% or whatever the fraction of platforms, perhaps even incorporating a further fraction of those platforms that the weather still can't get to (the other side of the opening, basically, if the outside is immediately through one end of the tunnel). That way an entirely underground station is still 1 and an entirely overground station (like Leytonstone) is still 0. Of course, this method would give an answer that lies within the range Geoff said at the end.

GEOFF MARSHALL VIDEOS HOW MUCH OF THE TUBE IS ACTUALLY UNDRRGROUND

But there could also be one for total miles or kilometres of tunnel. Anyway,I like the idea of those maps by both TfL and Geoff that indicate where the tunnel parts are by the grey shading.

Stations? Platform? The Underground is more than just the stations. I've expected an answer with the unit miles/kilometres. And then you can still argue about built-over and service tracks that are not used with passengers and all that …

Well it literally was how they were built in the early days! Deep a deep ditch, put the railway in, put the roof over it.

@@Ealsante so was the first parts of the Metro in Stockholm built as well. That was however in the 1950s on the Green line, while the other stations is mainly outdoors. The underground stations on the Red line is located about 15 - 20 m below the surface, and the first deep level (20 - 30 m) stations is mainly located on the Blue line. There are as well 2 special cases; Liljeholmen opened in 1964 as a surface station, but in the early 2000s, a brand new shopping centre was built on top of the station, meaning that if you want to go from platform to street level, you need to go up 1 floor. However, there is windows on one of the walls, so you can look out. This means that you are suddenly on street level. The other special case is Skärholmen, which is sort of built inside a building, so the station is located in the basement.

I had an experience like this in reverse, I’d always been used to the tube being completely underground, but then I took a train that went outside and my mind was blown. It was such a fascinating experience to see something like that, I really had no idea they ever left the tunnels, and it made the tube so much more interesting to me. I also had a funny experience where our conventional train pulled up into a station, and a tube train came out of a tunnel into another platform further down the station, and it was such a bizarre thing to see.

Reminds me in HK where quite a no. of stations' are located within shopping malls on 1 of their upper floors, so they feel more enclosed & like underground stations although they're elevated

Intrigued by your name (not very usual on a train channel) I clicked and found your own. I'll be back!

Where?

Maybe the Wombling Network. Underground Overground. 🙂

@@ianwood2031 That is , interestingly, Whitechapel. Where the Overground is Underground and the Underground is Overground. Wimbledon incidentally is Open to the Air, as is Wimbledon Park , Southfields Too, but the track then goes in a Tunnel to East Putney which is also within walking distance of Wimbledon Common.

wood wombeling free.

Before the Piccadilly line was extended to Heathrow, Hounslow West was an open air station, it was also the terminus of the line. I remember watching aircraft going into the airport while waiting on the platform.

But the depot for it is open to air and you can see daylight from Waterloo Platforms

I love the Waterloo and city line! I use it every day, or used to *sad face*

Lucas Barton _Every_ day? But it doesn’t run on Sundays.

Sort of, the whole depot is unique in being below street level though. There is a shaft in the depot for ventilation and lowering/raising trains (used to have an elevator on a siding but there was a major accident with that). The line is considered a deep level line as it is more than 20m underground and was not constructed using cut and cover.

BenCol oh yeah, sorry I meant weekday

We have that in London too, at Whitechapel the Underground platforms are on the surface and the Overground platforms are in a tunnel underneath.

Or how about "How much of the Underground is actually Tube?"

might there be sections of line between stations that are above ground or in a cutting? Not stations I know.

@@darylcheshire1618 Would Finchley Road-Baker Street Metropolitan line be an example of what you are looking for?

Secrets of West Midlands metro

Halfway down the fifteen storey steps at hampstead😂😂😂

Maybe ontop of Chiswick park?

Brixton

here are all the areas of the tube that share tracks, I don't have it in me to work out the percentage but basically all of the circle line is shared with either Hammersmith and City or Metropolitan lines Hammersmith (Met) - Near Aldgate [Circle Line / Hammersmith & City Line]. Just east of Baker Street - Near Aldgate [[Hammersmith & City / Metropolitan Line] Just east of Baker Street - Aldgate [[Circle Line / Metropolitan Line] Southern side Circle Line [Circle Line / District Line (main section)]. Western side Circle Line [Circle Line / District Line (Edgware Road - Wimbledon service)]. Harrow-On-The-Hill - Moor Park - Amersham [Chiltern Railways / Metropolitan Line]. Acton Town - Ealing Common [District Line / Piccadilly Line]. Rayners Lane - Uxbridge [Metropolitan Line / Piccadilly Line]. Queens Park - Harrow & Wealdstone [Bakerloo Line / Euston-Watford London Overground]. Aldgate East - Barking [District Line / Hammersmith & City Line]. Richmond - Gunnersbury [District Line / North London Line London Overground].

Fellow Warringtonian!

I’ve recently just finished working for network rail in Warrington at the slutchers lane depot

Yeah Old Mill is the classic example. From street level you go downstairs, and then the platform is on a bridge over the Humber River! Keele is odd too, I doubt most people would know that it's actually elevated, since the station is so dark.

were not in the military u kno but oki

"But that is fine."

Bravo! Someone who actually knows the difference between may and might. Although I think Geoff really meant to say "agree" rather than "disagree".

Eat Chutney

Nah, Mile End is fully underground.

Most outer stations are on the surface.

I was thinking the same and calculated the figures. The percentages are actually 61.5% and 38.5%.

THAT WE ME

We also get this (see Edgware Road, Hammersmith), and had it more in the past when different companies had stations next door to each other, which have since been connected - see Notting Hill Gate, Highbury & Islington. Kings Cross - St Pancras is two main line stations served by the same Tube station. Paddington is the other way round.