London Transport Trivia questions

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Thanks to all my correspondents who have been kind enough to send corrections and suggestions. If yours has not yet been updated or included here, it just means I am still researching it.

From Jochem Boeke (added 10 September 2003):

Which tube stations have names in which none of the letters have closed areas that can be coloured in (you can colour in, for example, O, the bowl of P, the upper part of A -- but not, for example, E, L, M...)?

There are three: CHIGWELL, WEST FINCHLEY, WHITE CITY.

Note that these are in capital letters. Since these all contain E (which has a bowl in lower case) other than as the first letter of a word, there are no stations whose names have this property when they are written in mixed capitals and lower case.

From Graeme Simpson (added 17 December 2002):

Which station name occurs on both London Underground and the Paris Metro?

Temple.

Or have I missed a bit of this question?

William: Looking at this again, Temple seems to be the correct answer.

From Richard Williams:

Station names that contain all five vowels

"Just flicking through your pages, I think there is a third tube station that contains all five vowels although it might be construed as cheating a little bit. Heathrow Terminal Four, it contains all five vowels, however on the tube map it comes in as Heathrow Terminal 4 which doesn't have all the vowels. I suppose it depends on your point of view!!!!"

From Martin:

Which station on the Victoria Line has no interchange to any other line (LUL or BR)?

Pimlico.

How many Underground stations have only one platform in use for LUL trains?

Five (I think): Heathrow Terminal 4, Chesham, Mill Hill East, New Cross and New Cross Gate.... Sorry, I forgot one: Kensington Olympia.

Q: What is unique about the escalator at Greenford?

A: It is the only one which takes people up to the trains!

From Nick Miners:

Q: How can you pass through 10 successive underground stations, all beginning with the same letter, without getting off the train?

A: Get on the westbound Piccadilly line at Hounslow east, and you go through:
Hounslow East
Hounslow Central
Hounslow West
Hatton Cross
Heathrow Terminal 4
Heathrow Terminals 1,2 & 3
Hatton Cross
Hounslow West
Hounslow Central
Hounslow East

(The wording of the question could be taken to suggest that all the stations are different, in which case it would be a trick question!)

From Robin Paterson:

What place appears most frequently on Underground station names?

Harrow, I think, five times:
South
West
North
Harrow-on-the-hill
Harrow & Wealdstone

NB: It has to be a place, otherwise a word like "Park" or "Cross" might be there more, I haven't counted. Also, Acton has only four on the tube - there are three more on that odd BR north london line, which appears on the tube map for reasons I've never understood.

One more: The Jubilee line, apparently, is the only line which has an interchange with every other line.

The following four new questions were added 20 July 2002 with grateful thanks to my correspondent Noel Leaver.

What place has 4 LU stations that include its name, but no two are adjacent?

Kensington.

Can you name all the three-letter station names on BR?

Ash, Ayr, Ely, IBM, Lee, Lye, Ore, Par, Rye, Wem, Wye. (11)

What is the shortest route (in terms of number of stops) on London Underground such that every letter of the alphabet occurs among the stations visited?

Start plus 11 stops:
Start at Belsize Park, catching a southbound train that does not stop at Mornington Crescent via Chalk Farm (1), Camden Town (2), to Euston (3).
Then Warren Street (4) and Oxford Circus (5). Piccadilly Circus (6). Green Park (7). Victoria (8). St.James Park (9). Victoria (10) and Sloane Square (11). (the last bit can be reversed)

Which station name occurs on both London Underground and the Paris Metro? (but see above - correct answer is Temple)

Noel: Problem here. The answer I had was Arsenal, however on checking I find the one on the Metro closed in 1939! Sorry.

William: that's ok, we could change the question to be, Between which years were there... etc. because Gillespie Road (Picc. Line) was renamed as Arsenal on 31 October 1932 so there were seven years when the original question could have been asked.

Noel:... another answer... (arguably better than Arsenal) is St Paul / St Paul's

Which firm of solicitors has the same name as a member of Sly and the Family Stone?

Lawrence Graham (190 Strand, London W.C.2): Larry Graham was the bass player in Sly and the Family Stone. (I know this isn't transport related, but it did occur to me while I was on the number 15 bus going westwards along the Strand on Wednesday last week.)

How many Underground stations' names incorporate all the vowels a, e, i, o, u?

Two: Mansion House, and South Ealing.
(with thanks to Dylan Tusler for his kind suggestion)

Which nineteenth-century property developer built up the district of Tufnell Park?

Mr Tufnell.

In offices above which LUL station does Tom Cruise hide out, in 'Mission Impossible'?

Liverpool Street (on the south side of Liverpool street)

How many (LUL and BR) stations have "Acton" in the name?

Seven.

How many (LUL and BR) station names contain the name "Finchley"?

Five.

How many (pairs of) stations with the same name, but on separate lines, and in separate buildings with no interchange, are there on the Underground?

Two.

(NB: I put "separate buildings" so as to rule out Paddington and Kings Cross which have no interchange between some or all subsurface lines, and tube lines - but are in the same building)

How many stations (LUL, BR) in London contain references to royalty?

Thirteen.

Actually there are 14 -- I forgot Walthamstow Queen's road on the Gospel Oak to Barking BR Line.

Which former LUL station buildings in London are now in use as restaurants?

Two.

How many Underground stations are there?

272. (This is WRONG!)

Note added 10 Sept 2003. I put 272 as a guess back in 2000, because I couldn't be bothered to look it up. I'm surprised no-one has ever put me right on this. One correct answer is: 303, the number of stations from which you can currently select in the on-line journey planner on the tube.com website. This tally includes the Docklands Light Railway, and includes two of the following (but of no others): Edgware Rd, Euston (City, and Charing Cross branches you see), and Shepherds Bush. If you count Euston as a single station, but King's Cross as two and Paddington as three, your answer will obviously be different. I'll put this list online at some point soon -- you'll probably find a list of stations in text form useful for solving these word puzzles.

Note added 20 Oct 2003. Here, indeed, is the abovementioned List of LUL station names [text file].

Only one London Underground station name has no letters in common with the word "mackerel". Which is it?

The standard answer to this puzzle is "ST JOHN'S WOOD", but this answer relies on your not spelling it out in full "SAINT JOHN'S WOOD".

How many Underground stations contain the word "Court"?

Four.

How many Underground station names contain the word "oak"?

Three.

How many BR station names in Greater London contain the word "oak"?

Three.

How many Underground stations contain a word that refers to a colour?

Nine.

My correspondent Kevin Bence has kindly supplied a somewhat different answer, proving once again that I can't count:

"21 I make it."

* denotes a DLR Station:

(NB: The heralds among us might well dispute Goldhawk Road, on the grounds that 'gold' is a metal, not a colour.)

Cutty Sark's full name is "Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich" (on DLR) so that is another one.

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