In message
ups.com
amogles wrote:

On 6 Jun., 16:58, john wright wrote:


"When there was only one line for the whole of London" What can that
refer to? Neither telephones nor rail lines makes much sense in this
context.

When the various "lines" that now form the London Underground were
built, they were separate railways and were referred to by their
names, ie C&SLR etc. I assume that the practice of calling them lines
must have come in when they were all part of London Underground. Does
anybody know when the term "line" first came into use in this context

There was a very interesting early history book about the London
Underground called "Rails through the clay" by Croombe and Jackson,
which recounted how an American tycoon called Yerkes, who was a bit of
a wide boy, but he also funded the biggest astronomical telescope of
his day and had it called after himself, built the nucleus of the
London Underground. It was originally going to be cable-hauled, hence
the low profile. They were all nominally separate "lines" (an American
term) though in fact all owned by Yerkes, and he also introduced the
terms "northbound" and "southbound" to indicate direction of travel,
which also have more an American sound than British.

Michael Bell

--