30th April: The Jubilee Line

On this date in 1979 The Jubilee Line on the London Underground was officially opened. Here are 10 Jubilee Line facts to celebrate its 35th anniversary:

1. The original names proposed for this line were the Fleet Line or the River Line. The name Jubilee was first proposed in 1975 to coincide with the Silver Jubilee Bus Fleet. At the time, it was thought that it would be too expensive to change it, but in 1977 the Conservatives, as part of their Greater London Council Election campaign, promised to re-name the new line the Jubilee Line in honour of the Queen's Jubilee. Jubilee fever won out over penny-pinching, so the Jubilee Line it is.
2. The colour of the line was going to be a darker, slate Grey, representing a fleet of battleships, but its association with the Queen's Silver Jubilee resulted in a lighter, silver/grey being adopted. The Jubilee line's official colour is Pantone 430.
3. The Jubilee Line Extension to Stratford which opened in 1999 was only one of a number of proposed extensions. Most of them were never built. If they had been, the Jubilee Line would also serve Aldwych, Ludgate Circus, Cannon Street, Fenchurch Street, Surrey Quays, New Cross Gate, Lewisham, Addiscombe, Hayes, Thamesmead, St Katharine Docks, Wapping, Surrey Docks, Millwall, Custom House, Silvertown and Woolwich Arsenal.
4. The 1999 extension is the only section of London Underground to have platform doors which open when the train has stopped at the platform. Although it is commonly believed the doors are there to stop people from committing suicide, according to Wikipedia the main purpose of them is to regulate air flow.
5. The Jubilee line is the deepest on the entire network at 32m (105ft) below sea level – 68.8m (221ft) below ground level.
6. It is also the only line which connects with all the other London Underground Lines.
7. The closest stations on the Jubilee line are Waterloo and Southwark. The farthest apart are Kingsbury and Wembley Park.
8. The longest ever jury trial in the UK involved the Jubilee Line. Six people were charged with attempting to bribe London Transport over contracts for the extension. The trial collapsed after two years and the defendants were all acquitted.
9. The Jubilee Line extension is responsible for making the Houses of Parliament clock tower (Big Ben) lean slightly due to the construction of the tunnels and Westminster Station.
10. Stations on the Jubilee Line have the following claims to fame: Waterloo is the busiest station on the network during the rush hour with about 50,000 people passing through; Canary Wharf is the busiest tube station outside central London and the busiest to serve just one line. A "YouGov" poll in 2013 named Canary Wharf the "most loved" station; St John's Wood is the only station which does not contain any of the letters of the word "makerel"; London Bridge is the only station on the tube network which actually has "London" in its name.