The “Twopenny Tube.”

There will doubtless be some among the thousands of railway readers of this Magazine who can recall joyous trips performed nearly thirty years ago on that world-famous London line—the “Twopenny Tube.” The Central London Railway, as this system is officially styled, will, before long, probably be extended to stretch westwards to Hayes, in Middlesex, for negotiations to this end are at present in hand between the Underground Group and the Great Western Railway. The extension would afford greatly improved facilities for city folk travelling to and from the residential territory lying west of Ealing Broadway, the present terminus.

In the heart of the Londoner the Central London Railway has always occupied a warm place. First opened in 1900, the line provided, among other features, a uniform fare of twopence over all stages of the six-mile run between the Bank of England Station and Shepherd's Bush. In order to deal with the traffic arising out of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, the Central London westerly terminus was converted into the Wood Lane Loop, and, in 1912, there was brought into use an easterly extension connecting the Bank Station with Liverpool Street. The westerly extension to Ealing Broadway, on the Great Western line, dates from immediately after the Great War.