Tales from the underground

LANDER's Area Manager Elena, is sitting in one of the carriages on the London Underground as it makes its way to Paddington. As she browses the news on her mobile, she sees that the Madrid Metro has just reached its 96th birthday. 96 years old! It can't possibly be true that such a modern transport system has existed for so long, she thinks. The Madrid Metro opened its doors on 31 October 1919, with a route that ran between Cuatro Caminos and Sol, and 56,220 tickets were sold on that day alone.

The underground is one of the city's most frequented places and modes of transport. The technological development of its trains, the infrastructure and other electronic mechanisms can lead us to think that this transport system is not so old. But actually, Elena only had to look around her to see the history that lay within the walls of the London Underground - the oldest underground system in the world.

In 1843, the Englishman Charles Pearson proposed opening underground tunnels which housed railway lines and in 1863, the first underground line with steam locomotives was opened to the public. The London Underground (Metropolitan Railway) was followed by similar systems in New York, Budapest (the first electric underground system in Europe) and Turkey, where a short underground line linked the neighbourhoods of Karaköy and Beyoglu. This mode of transport then continued to spread across Latin America, Oceania, Africa and Asia from the twentieth century onwards.

The underground has been the backdrop for many events which remain etched on the memory of cities, such as the famous “Mind the Gap” announcement in London which was recorded by the actor Oswald Laurence, and the story around her widow. However, it is also a method of transport that has always been shrouded in mystery, giving rise to numerous legends about ghosts, secret platforms, murders, etc. Why does it inspire such a feeling among passengers? Perhaps the darkness of its tunnels or its myriad nooks and crannies conveys a feeling of intrigue or secrecy that gets passengers hooked. When travelling on the underground, the passenger often becomes a spectator and an actor in a film. Goodbye kisses at the foot of the escalator, stories that last a couple of stations, vacant stares, love at first sight which has been rudely interrupted by a connection with another line.

The underground train pulls into Paddington Station. Elena disembarks and thinks to herself how lucky we are at LANDER to be able to work to bring new stories to this and other systems of transport. Long may the story continue.

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