Passage1

The development of the London underground railway

伦敦地下铁路的发展

In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to resolve these problems, but few succeeded.

在19世纪上半叶，伦敦的人口以一种惊人的速度增长，中心城区变得越来越拥堵。此外，地面铁路网的铺伸导致越来越多的人来到首都。不过，在1846年，皇家委员会的一道状令规定：铁路不应当被允许进入城区——首都的历史和商业中心。其结果就是地上铁路车站围绕着城区形成了环状。环内的区域里有着建造简陋、拥挤不堪的贫民窟，街道上遍布着作为交通工具的马车。穿越城区的体验成了一场噩梦。乘坐由马匹拉动的私人或公共车辆通行8公里有可能要花上一个半小时。数不清的议案被提出来以求解决这个问题，然而成功者寥寥。

Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time. His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work. Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.

查尔斯·皮尔逊是最为大力倡导解决伦敦交通问题的人之一，他是伦敦城里的一位法律官员。他认为建造一条地下铁路具有社会和经济层面的双重好处，这条地下铁路将连接贯通各个地上铁路站，同时还能清理伦敦贫民窟。他的想法是将住在内城贫民窟里的贫困工人们转移到新建的郊区去住，并为他们提供廉价的铁路交通供其通勤上班。Pearson的主意获得了一些商人的支持，他在1851年向议会提交了一项议案。该议案遭到了否决，但其恰巧与另一个团队提出的地下交通连接线议案有内容上的重合，而后者得到了议会的通过。

The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August 1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at Farringdon Street – a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and his partners persisted.

两个团队进行了合并，于1854年8月成立了大都会铁路公司。公司的计划是建造一条地下铁路线，起于帕丁顿的大西部铁路（GWR）车站，直抵位于法灵顿街的城区边沿——两者间的距离大约有5公里。该组织在为这样一项前卫而昂贵的计划筹措资金时遭遇了困难，尤其是因为各大报社所刊印的对此持批评意见的文章。反对者们称，隧道将会由于头顶上方的地面交通压力而坍塌，建筑物将出现晃动，乘客也会由于火车引擎的废气排放而中毒。然而，Pearson及其合伙人们坚持了下来。

The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-year period, £1m was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to minimise the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be completed in 21 months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It was built just below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily held up with timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was added to create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the road above rebuilt.

大西部铁路局意识到这条新线路最终将能让他们得以把火车开进城市中心，于是为该项目投资了将近25万英镑。最终，在五年的时间里，一共筹措到了100万英镑的资金。选定的路线位于已有的公路主干道下方，以尽可能减少破坏建筑的花销。原本的计划是在21个月内完成，但地下铁路线的建成实际用了三年的时间。铁路线就建在街道路面以下，运用了一项称为“明挖覆盖”的技术。先挖出一条宽约10米、深约6米的壕沟，两侧以木梁作为临时支撑。接下来筑起砖墙，最后再加盖砖拱，这样就建成了一条隧道。隧道上方铺盖两米深的土层，然后再重新铺设道路。

The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried between Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the end of the Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made. Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line were being authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east of London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that were fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.

大都会线路于1863年1月10日开通，是世界上第一条地下铁路。在通车的第一天，约4万名乘客被搭载往返于帕丁顿和法灵顿之间，旅程约需18分钟。到大都会线路运行满一年之时，它已完成了950万次运输。就在大都会线路开始运行之吋，第一批线路延伸拓建的计划已获得许可；这些延伸线路建成于接下来的五年之间，分别抵达了伦敦以东的Moorgate和以西的Hammersmith。最初的计划是由蒸汽机车来拖拽车身，锅炉里使用耐火砖来提供蒸汽动力，但是这类引擎始终未曾生产出来。于是，这条线路转而使用了特殊设计的安装了水箱的机车，蒸汽可以在其中进行冷凝。不过，产生的烟雾成了一个问题，即使隧道里加建了通风井也无济于事。

Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the existing underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended to the suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of construction was not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to tunnel deep underground.

尽管有了地下铁路线的延伸铺设，到了19世纪80年代，伦敦街头的交通拥堵却日益严重。部分原因在于现有的地铁线路构成了一个围绕伦敦中心地区的圆环并向郊区地带延伸，但却没有贯穿首都中心。先前那种“明挖覆盖”的建筑方法在首都的这个区域里绝无使用可能。唯一的替代方法就是向地下挖深隧道。

Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that the world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became possible. The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the River Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric engines. The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof because it was thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel walls. The line was not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power supply. Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical achievement, it did not make a profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway, known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’, began operation using new electric locomotives. It was very popular and soon afterwards new railways and extensions were added to the growing tube network. By 1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in place.

虽然修建这类隧道的技术的确存在，但在这样一种局促的空间里是无法使用蒸汽机车的。直到制造出一种可靠的电动马达，并且找到了一种将发动机动力传输给运行中的机车的方法，世界上第一条深层电气化铁路“都市与南伦敦铁路”的建成才成为可能。这条线路开通于1890年，从城区通抵泰晤士河以南的Stockwell。车体由三节车厢组成，由电动引擎驱动。车厢内空间狭窄，只在车顶下方开了很小的窗户，因为乘客被默认为可能并不想向外看到隧道墙体。这条线路也不是没有问题的，其弊端主要在于电力供应不稳定。尽管都市与南伦敦铁路是一项巨大的技术成就，但它却并不盈利。接下来，在1900年，中央伦敦铁路，又称为“Tuppenny Tube”，开始通车运行，使用了新型电气机车。这条线路十分受欢迎，之后不久就有新的铁路和延伸线路加入到这个不断增长的地下铁路网络中来。到1907年时，今日地铁系统的核心结构已经确立。