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Old July 6th 04, 10:08 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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Default Morgan Tube?

'The idea of a tube line from the City to the Hackney area appeared as
long ago as 1901 but, as part of the "Morgan Tube"'
- http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/future.html#newrail

Okay, so what other routes was John Pierpont Morgan proposing? What
would the stations have been? Has anyone got a map of his proposals?

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Old July 7th 04, 09:21 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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Default Morgan Tube?

James A.D. quotes:
# The idea of a tube line from the City to the Hackney area appeared as
# long ago as 1901 but, as part of the "Morgan Tube"

And asks:
Okay, so what other routes was John Pierpont Morgan proposing? What
would the stations have been? Has anyone got a map of his proposals?


Morgan's role here was similar to that of Yerkes: he didn't come to
London with proposals of his own, but backed a selection of other
people's proposals with the intent of merging them.

After the success of the Central London Railway (now the Central Line)
in 1900, the following years saw a large number of proposals, which
were considered jointly by Parliamentary committees. These three
proposals from 1901 were eventually backed by Morgan:

* Piccadilly & City: self-explanatory
* North East London: Cannon Street - Bank - Stoke Newington - Tottenham
* City & North East Suburban: Cornhill - Bishopsgate - Victoria Park -
Hackney Marshes - Walthamstow - Waltham Abbey

(These are route descriptions, not lists of stations.)

The 1901 committee recommended joining the Piccadilly & City end-on
with another proposed line (the Charing Cross, Hammersmith & District),
thus allowing through services from Hammersmith to the City; and they
suggested rerouting the C&NESR via Whitechapel. However, in the end
the committee's report came too late for any bills to pass, so the
committee process had to be repeated the following year.

And it was during that year's delay that Yerkes made his move, acquiring
control not only of the existing Metropolitan District Railway but also
four separate already-authorized but unfinanced tubes: the Brompton &
Piccadilly Circus (already owned by the MDR); the Great Northern & Strand;
the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead; and the Baker Street & Waterloo.

By now another company was also in Morgan's camp, although not controlled
by him: the London United Electric Railway, backed by the London United
Tramways. This was planned to start with a large double-track loop via
Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush (two LUT termini), then via Kensington
High Street to Hyde Park Corner. It was a fairly similar route to the
CCH&DR mentioned above, but the LUER had stronger backing, so they hoped
to be chosen in preference. (The LUER also proposed a separate line
running Marble Arch - Sloane Street - Chelsea Embankment - Battersea
Park - Queen's Road - Lavender Hill - Clapham Junction, but Morgan's
support did not extend to this line.)

So the 1902 committee saw two rival American-backed proposals, both
involving amalgamations of lines to form a generally west-to-northeast
alignment. The Yerkes group wanted to combine the B&PCR and GN&SR
into a Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (as well as
building the CC&EHR and BS&WR and electrifying the MDR); the Morgan
group wanted to combine the LUER, P&CR, NELR, and C&NESR into a through
route running from Hammersmith to the City and continuing to Tottenham
on one branch, Waltham Abbey on the other.

A third rival for part of the route was a proposal by the CLR to join
its two endpoints to form a loop, just as the original Metropolitan
Railway had led to the Inner Circle (now Circle Line). Actually it
would have been a figure-8 shape with a large western loop and a small
eastern one, crossing itself at Bank. The new route would have run
Shepherd's Bush - Hammersmith - Kensington High Street - Knightsbridge
- Piccadilly - Strand - Fleet Street - Ludgate Circus - Queen Victoria
Street - Bank - Liverpool Street - Leadenhall Street - Bank.

The committee approved the Yerkes scheme and rejected the CLR one,
but they also approved most of the Morgan scheme: it would be up to
Parliament to choose one or the other, or perhaps approve both. The
Yerkes group had specific objections to the C&NESR, and it was rejected;
the western loop of the LUER was also withdrawn. So the Morgan tube in
its final proposed form would have run -- and this *is* an actual list
of the stations planned -- as follows.

Hammersmith Broadway - Warwick Road - Earl's Court Road -
High Street, Kensington - Albert Hall - Knightsbridge - Hyde
Park Corner - Albemarle Street - Piccadilly Circus - Charing
Cross - Law Courts - Ludgate Circus - Cannon Street - Monument
- Bishopsgate Street Without - Hackney Road - Kingsland Road -
Stamford Road - Arcola Street - Church Street - Amhurst Park
- Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham - The Avenue, Tottenham -
Lordship Lane - White Hart Lane - Chequers Green - Palmer's
Green - High Street, Southgate - Chase Side, Southgate.

The committee put one special restriction on the Morgan plan. Perhaps
remembering how the Metropolitan Railway had long resisted building the
authorized, but expensive, eastern end of the Inner Circle, they feared
that the company would build the most profitable part of the long route
and not the rest. So they declared that building only part of the line
would not be allowed -- it was approved only if *all* of it was built.

Whereupon the Yerkes group bought control of the LUT and withdrew the
LUER proposal, and the Morgan Tube was dead. The Yerkes plans came
to fruition and are now the Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines, and the
Northern Line's Charing Cross branch.

[Source: "A History of London Transport" by T.C. Barker and Michael
Robbins, volume 2, "The Twentieth Century to 1970"]
--
Mark Brader, Toronto,
Until 3,000 million years ago we can say not a lot happened
although further study would not come amiss. Then signs of life
appeared, including some large reptiles and, very recently, bipeds.
It is too soon to say whether these bipeds will play an important
part in the world's story. -- Colin Morris in "History Today"

My text in this article is in the public domain.
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Old July 8th 04, 03:27 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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Default Morgan Tube?

Thanks, Mark, for the info and for the reference!


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