For a resident of a metropolis, the metro is the usual way to get to work, to visit, or just for a walk. No one thinks what the history of the subway is, what the word means and how it happened. To learn about this will be very informative and interesting.
But what is it?
The metro is one of the types of urban public transport, the work of which is carried out due to the movement of trains on rails. Rail tracks pass, as a rule, underground. But there are such types of subways in which the movement is combined: part of the way the train follows in the tunnel, and part of the railroad track passes along the ground. Subway traffic is stably frequent so that trains manage to cope with the load in the form of a large number of people. During high passenger traffic hours, the intervals between train movements are reduced to avoid crowds. The speed of trains may vary depending on the country, city and other factors. There are both high-speed trains and regular speeds.
Metro signs
Metro - what is it? The main features that distinguish the subway from other types of public transport, introduced Robert Schwandlem, who created an entire site and wrote several books on the subway.
Signs of the subway:
- metro trains can only be found in cities;
- trains must be equipped with an electric drive;
- used for large flows of passengers;
- the railroad track is strictly separated from other modes of transport and does not intersect with them anywhere;
- the level of the apron and the floor in the car matches (this sign is secondary).
The paradox is that if you follow all these signs, then the London subway in the first years of its existence did not fit the definition of "metro" due to the fact that the trains in it moved on steam traction.
Word semantics
Here are a few meanings of the word metro from different dictionaries.
Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language D.N. Ushakova:
Metro is an underground railway or on racks in large cities.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language S. I. Ozhegova:
Metro is an underground, above-ground or above-ground (on overpasses) urban electric railway.
New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language T. F. Efremova:
Metro is a type of urban passenger transport in the form of a rail city electric railway (usually underground).
As can be seen from the description, the meaning of the word corresponds to the above-described signs of the subway: everywhere it refers to the electric railway.
Origin of the word
The name "metro" (metro, subway) is generally accepted in most countries. The origin of the word is related to the company that built the first railway in London. The company was called the Metropolitan Railway, which means "metropolitan railway."
In 1900, the first metro line was opened in the main city of France. The company that operated the road was called Compagnie du chemin de fer Métropolitain de Paris. Entrances and exits from the stations were denoted by the word Métropolitain, hence the French origin of the word "metro". In Russian, the word "metro" belongs to the middle gender, but even before the 20s of the XX century it was used as a masculine gender.
Subway history
As mentioned earlier, the first railway was built in London: there were too many horse-drawn carts on the streets , and the subway was the solution to this problem. A 6-kilometer rail track was constructed and opened in 1863. Rail companies partially funded it, as they needed constant access to central London.
In 1890, the first electric rail track was opened in the English capital. Underground lines were in great demand among the population, so they needed to be expanded as quickly as possible. So, after 10 years, about 200 kilometers of the railroad were delivered to electric traction.
In Europe, they also engaged in the construction of the subway; by the beginning of the 20th century, many short underground lines were built. The first mixed rail network appeared in Glasgow in 1880, the lines were with cable and locomotive traction.
In 1896, the first metro in Budapest was opened on the European mainland , its length was only 3.7 kilometers. And in 1902, U-Ban was launched in Berlin, the metro was called that.
The first underground in the United States - the Tremont Street subway - was opened in Boston in 1897. Its length was only two kilometers, but it significantly freed the city from trams.The very best subways
The longest metro in the world is considered the American subway in New York. The total length of the rail track is 1,355 kilometers, and the number of subway stations is 468. The New York subway is unusual in that more than a third of the routes go underground, but on the surface, although they do not intersect with the rest of the public transport. More than five million people use the metro daily.
The Tokyo metro is the first in terms of congestion among the subways of the world. It’s quite difficult for an ordinary tourist to understand the metro scheme of Tokyo : there are thirteen lines on which 290 stations are organized. In Tokyo, even officials and people who have more than one car at their disposal use the metro, because this type of public transport is recognized as the fastest and avoids traffic jams.
An interesting fact: in the Tokyo subway there is a female carriage, which is located at the end of the train, and there is almost never a crush.