By its very name, one could be forgiven for assuming all 272 stations on the Tube map lie underneath the ground. And yet, as frequenters of the service will tell you: not all Underground stops quite live up to that name.
From the Central line meandering towards Epping Forest to the District line ambling over the leafy Ravenscourt Park, large chunks of Tube journies take place outside the tunnels beneath the city. So, now that we’ve established that we’re technically being lied to, we simply must know which lines actually live up to the name and are the most Underground of them all. Only one way to find out… FIGHT.
Or, you know, submit a Freedom Of Information Request to TfL and have them reveal the data, which some legend has actually done, eliminating the need for a robot wars-style battle between the Tubes (booo!). It’s also led to a brilliant phrase coined by the tweeter (@diamondgeezer), referring to these findings as the “undergroundiest Underground line” on the Tube Map. TfL presented the results as a percentage of time each Tube line spends underground, and the full study is now available for all to view.
The “Undergroundiest” Underground lines in London
We now know which London Underground lines spend the most time in the darkness, and taking the crown is a joint victory for the speedy, reliable Victoria line – taking us from Walthamstow to Brixton with its lights permanently switched on – and the Waterloo & City line, which admittedly is less impressive given the fact only stops at Bank and Waterloo.
Who’s the biggest faker, I hear you ask? That would be the Metropolitan line, with the purple one spending a mere 5% of its time in the tunnels. Look, I’ll be the first to lament the lack of natural light in winter, so all I can say here is: hard relate.
The Northern line and Circle line picked up a largely dark result with 70% of their time spent rattling around the tunnels, and the District and Central lines found them towards the deceiving end of the scale with results of 29% and 35%, respectively.
It should also be noted that this collection of data has not included the Elizabeth line, though our own detective skills have led us to suss out that it would be closer to its purple companion than the blue of the Victoria line.
Read the full response to the Freedom of Information request here.
List of the most Underground Tube lines
- Victoria line – 100%
- Waterloo & City line – 100%
- Northern line – 70%
- Circle line – 70%
- Hammersmith & City – 64%
- Jubilee line – 52%
- Bakerloo line – 49%
- Picadilly line – 46%
- Central line – 35%
- District line – 29%
- Metropolitan line – 5%