However, Pearson and his partners persisted. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. The organisation had difficulty in raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the critical articles printed by the press. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at Farringdon Street – a distance of almost 5 km. The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August 1854. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.

Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he submitted a plan to Parliament. His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work. He saw both social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time. Numerous schemes were proposed to resolve these problems, but few succeeded.Īmongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. It could take an hour and a half to travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus.

The area within consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn traffic. The result was that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre.

In addition, the expansion of the overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the capital. In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the central area became increasingly congested. The development of the London underground railway You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

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