Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 7, 2016

The Central line is a London Underground ("tube") line that runs through central London, from Ealing and Ruislip in the west to Epping, Essex in the north-east. Coloured red on the tube map, the line serves 49 stations, 20 of which are below ground, in 46 mi. It is the longest tube line. It is also one of only two lines on the London Underground network to cross the Greater London boundary, the other being the Metropolitan. One of London's deep-level tube railways, the trains are smaller than those on British main lines. The line was opened as the Central London Railway in 1900, crossing central London on an east-west axis, as the third deep-level tube line to be built after electric trains made them possible. It was later extended to the western suburb of Ealing. After the Second World War, the line was expanded considerably, taking over steam-hauled outer suburban routes to the east. Many of its stations are of historic interest, from turn-of-the-century Central London Railway buildings in west London to post-war modernist designs on the West Ruislip and Hainault branches, as well as Victorian ECR and GER buildings east of Stratford, from when the line to Epping was a rural branch line. In terms of total passengers, the Central line is the busiest line on the London Underground. The Central line is the busiest and most intensively used railway line in the United Kingdom.