Bài đọc passage 1
The development of the London underground railway
In the first half of the 1 800s, London's population grew at an astonishing
... [Show More] rate, and the central area
became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the overground railway network resulted in
more and more passengers arriving in the capital. However, in 1 846, a Royal Commission decided that the
railways should not be allowed to enter the City, the capital's historic and business centre. The result was
that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within consisted of poorly
built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn traffic. Crossing the City became a
nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous
schemes were proposed to resolve the problems, but few succeeded.
Amongst 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. 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. 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. Pearson's ideas gained
support amongst some businessmen and in 1 851 he submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but
coincided with a proposal from another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament
passed.
The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August 1 854. 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
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. 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. However, Pearson and his partners persisted. [Show Less]