What Signalling Achieves

The great importance of modern signalling equipment is illustrated in the case of the Underground Railways of London. In the rush hours, train succeeds train with an interval between them of only a couple of minutes, and the system rightly claims to be the most important transportation undertaking in the metropolis. During the year 1928, the London “Underground” conveyed 1,803 million passengers, an increase of 134 millions over 1927. This is the heaviest traffic ever handled, and the increased business has largely been secured by a bold policy of constructing extension tracks tapping rapidly growing outer suburbs.

Following the recent complete reconstruction of the Piccadilly Circus depot, the London Underground Railways have lately opened another large new depot, this time at Charing Cross, the official centre of London. Here it will be possible to handle fifty million passengers a year. An imposing concourse and booking-hall, 112 feet long and 83 feet wide, is equipped with twenty automatic ticket-selling machines of the self-printing type, at which passengers are able to attend to themselves.