Sometimes pitch black is not what's directly outside a subway car's window. You may notice an empty, dark, dusty platform as your train speeds forward. Or you might see the tunnel's wall switch from cast iron tube to a brick wall. In major subway systems throughout the world, there are abandoned stations that one wouldn't necessarily notice unless one were to be staring outside the subway window. Parisians know that Croix-Rouge or Saint-Martin are not stations in the Métro system. Daily Tube riders can say that the Piccadilly Line does not stop at Brompton Road or Down Street. And New York Subway riders know that the 6 does not stop at East 18th Street and Park Avenue. For many of the world's abandoned stations, low patronage caused their closures. Others were closed because stations were too close to each other. Since speed is extremely important, eliminating redundant stops is the best way to speed up trains. Other stations were closed when the subway system was extending platforms. A few stations were replaced with other stops a few hundred feet down the line, or in a different location altogether when subway lines were rerouted. In London, several closed Underground stations were, however, re-opened as air-raid shelters during World War II, such as Saint Mary's, previously on the District Line. Next time you're on the subway, take a peek out the window. You never know what you may see.
Links:
London's Abandoned Tube Stations
Disused Stations on the London Underground
Abandoned Stations of New York's Subway
Nuit dans le métro (Night in the Metro) - Paris
Photo from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Archives.
