UNDERGROUND RAILWAYS

(1) Metro is defined as an underground railway system in which trains run in tubes under the earth. In America it is known as subway, in Britain as tube or underground, in France and Ukraine as metro. Metro has always meant more to the city than a way to get to work and back home. During its long history it has been, by turns, the city’s lunchroom, library, dormitory, shelter, chapel, bazaar, concert hall, hospital and even maternity ward. It is calculated, that the average resident of a big city spends more than a year in the metro over the course of their adult life.

(2) The first underground passenger railway was opened in London in 1863. It was the Metropolitan Railway, only 3.75miles (6km) in length. At first, Londoners feared to get deep under the ground. Besides, this new and strange way of travel caused discomfort for passengers. The tunnels were made as small as possible in order to reduce construction costs. The coaches themselves were small and narrow. No wonder that people called this underground line a ‘sardine-box-railway’. The small windows in the trains were made in the roof so that passengers could see nothing. The oil and gas lamps used gave little light, so passengers had to take candles with them. Steam locomotives filled the tunnels with steam and smoke. It was this discomfort that later on made engineers introduce electric traction. When put into service, electric trains eliminated steam and smoke and ensured much more frequent services for passengers.

(3) Since that time underground railways have spread rapidly all over the world. London Metropolitan was followed by metros in Budapest, Berlin, and Paris, and later on in the rest of Europe, North and South America, Russia, Japan, China, and India. About 120 cities worldwide currently have metro networks, carrying more than 150 million passengers daily. The reason of metro building is the same as 100 years ago – traffic congestion and environmental protection.

According to the statistics, the London Underground (LU) is the oldest and longest (415km) metro system in the world, while the Moscow Metro is the busiest, with 3.2 billion annual passengers (more than twice as many as the New York Metro). The Moscow Metro stations finished¹ in marble and granite are also famous for their unique architecture and artistic mosaic decorations.

(4)Modern underground railways offer more comfort and better service for passengers. Metro operators around the world employ the latest technologies in such spheres as architecture treated as a kind of art, safety systems, automatic driving and ticketing, etc.

The top priority task is the conversion of conventional metro lines to full automation. Automatic operation has a number of essential advantages: it is cheaper and more reliable than manual; it will use less energy; it will need fewer vehicles and operate shorter trains more frequently; and, finally, it promises better service and passenger carrying capacity.

(5)Today’s technology allows high-capacity heavy metros to operate safely and efficiently under automatic control.The Victoria Line system in London, the most fully automatic line now in operation, uses codes in the rails for both safety signalling and automatic driving. Code systems feed information to а central computer, which calculates where the train should be at any given time, аnd instructs the train to slow down, speed up, stop, etc.

(6) The new automated high-speed line Meteor of the Paris Metro system claims to be the forerunner² of the 21^st century metro. It has the platforms equipped with a glass safety door barrier to prevent passengers from falling onto the line. The doors slide open in synchronisation with the train doors. The doors are also equipped with a warning light and sound system for deaf and blind passengers. The control centre has full video monitoring of all station platforms and the inside of trains for added security.

(7)The optimumsolution for a typical large city will inevitably be a multimodal mix³. Therefore, in recent years great attention has been paid to developing the so-called Light Rail. There are now more than 400 light rail systems in about 50 countries, with a further 100 planned.

Light rail is a modern form of public transit, combining the qualities of both tram and metro. Electric trains made up of 2 to 4 cars carry passengers along certain routes in urban areas as well as neighbouring suburbs. The trains run in dedicated lines, either in the medians of city streets or in exclusive right-of-ways⁴. They stop at stations located every half-mile and trigger⁵ traffic lights to turn green on their approach so that the trains only stop at stations.

Light rail acts as an efficient, quiet, smooth, and comfortable alternative to get across town quickly, avoiding congestion. Light rail trains are good neighbours; they are more compatible with pedestrian environments⁶ than roads, emit no pollution and only as much noisy as a private car. Disabled⁷ and old people are able to travel just as easily as everyone else – station platforms are at the same level as the floors of the trains (or there exist special low-floor light rail vehicles).

(8) Today’s demographic, economic and environmental factors mean that it is essential to go on developing urban rail mass transit networks in big cities. The next 100 years could very possibly be more remarkable than the metro’s first century.

¹ finished – оздоблені

² the forerunner – попередник

³ a multimodal mix – єдина інтегрована транспортна мережа

⁴ exclusive right- of-ways – спеціалізовані смуги відводу

⁵ trigger – тут вмикають, переключають

⁶ pedestrian environments – пішохідні переходи

⁷ disabled – інваліди