Portal:London transport/Selected articles/52

The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL) was established in 1902 as the holding company for the three deep-level "tube" underground railway lines opened in London during 1906 and 1907 and the District Railway. The UERL is the main precursor of today's London Underground; its lines form the central sections of today's Bakerloo, District, Piccadilly and Northern lines.

The UERL struggled financially in its first years and narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 1908. A policy of expansion by acquisition was followed before World War I, so that the company came to operate the majority of the underground railway lines in and around London. It also controlled large bus and tram fleets, the profits from which subsidised the financially weaker railways. After the war, railway extensions took the UERL's services out into suburban areas to stimulate additional passenger numbers, so that, by the early 1930s, the company's lines stretched beyond the County of London encouraging the rapid expansion of the city.

In the 1920s, competition from unregulated bus operators reduced the profitability of the road transport operations, leading the UERL's directors to seek government regulation. This led to the establishment of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, which absorbed the UERL and all of the independent and municipally operated railway, bus and tram services in the London area. (Full article...)