Qualla: Piccadilly line https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Piccadilly line https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line Piccadilly line: Introduction https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Alan Myers from London Town, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0. On 15 December 1906, a small group of Edwardian engineers, financiers, and London Electric Railway officials watched the first electric train run between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith. The official name was the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway - GNP&BR for short, a clumsy acronym that no Londoner ever wanted to say twice. Within four years the company would be merged into a larger system, and within twenty the line would carry a single name on the tube map: dark blue, officially Pantone 072, the Piccadilly. Today it runs 73.97 kilometres beneath London, branches at Acton Town, reaches Heathrow's Terminal 5, and carries more than 218 million passengers a year - the sixth-busiest line on the Underground. The trains running on it now date from 1973, making them older than many of the passengers they carry.

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Image: Alan Myers from London Town, United Kingdom | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Piccadilly line: Yerkes and the Ox-Blood Stations https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Megalit, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Piccadilly line owes its existence to Charles Tyson Yerkes, an American financier who consolidated London's underground railway companies under the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1901. Yerkes died before his railway opened, but his consortium pushed the pr...

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Image: Megalit | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-yerkes-and-the-ox-blood-stations.mp3 0:06 2 full Piccadilly line: Charles Holden and the 1930s Extensions https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Piccadilly line's character changed in the early 1930s. Extensions to Cockfosters in the north, Hounslow West in the west, and Uxbridge in the far west took the line out into the new suburbs that were growing along with the Underground itself. Charles Holden, working for the ...

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Image: Orderinchaos | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-charles-holden-and-the-1930s-extensions.mp3 0:06 3 full Piccadilly line: War, Shelters, and the Victoria Line https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Sunil060902, CC BY-SA 3.0. During the Second World War many Piccadilly line stations were equipped with shelters and basic amenities for the bombing campaign that hit London hard. Some stations were fitted with blast walls. The disused Down Street station, between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, was cover...

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Image: Sunil060902 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-war-shelters-and-the-victoria-line.mp3 0:06 4 full Piccadilly line: To Heathrow https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Sunil060902, CC BY-SA 3.0. The most consequential extension was south-west. Approval for a Piccadilly line extension to Heathrow Airport was first given in 1967, and the work opened in stages between 1975 and 1977 - reaching Hatton Cross on 19 July 1975 and the central terminal area on 16 December 1977. Th...

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Image: Sunil060902 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-to-heathrow.mp3 0:06 5 full Piccadilly line: Old Trains, New Trains https://qualla.com/piccadilly-line/ Photo credit Hammersfan, CC BY-SA 4.0. The trains running on the Piccadilly line in 2026 are the 1973 Stock, ordered specifically for the Heathrow extension. Seventy-eight of them are needed to operate a 24-trains-per-hour peak service - a train roughly every two and a half minutes. They are some of the oldest passeng...

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Image: Hammersfan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/piccadilly-line-wp/gcpv-piccadilly-line-old-trains-new-trains.mp3 0:06 6 full