Central line (Boston Underground)

Central line
	Legend
	to District and
	Piccadilly lines
	Bank
	(Original site)
	Liverpool Street
	(Never completed)
	District line
	to Broadway
	District line
	to Upminster
	former connection to
	District line

Central line
Central line
	File:Central line at watford.png A Central line train at Watford
Stations	11
Color on Tube map	Red
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	Boston Underground
Depot(s)	Acton ; Watford
Rolling stock	1995 tube stock (4 cars per trainset)
Technical
Character	Deep Tube
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Boston rail lines
Boston Underground
	Bakerloo
	style="border: 8px solid #E32017 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Central
	style="border: 8px solid #FFD300 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Circle
	style="border: 8px solid #00782A border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| District
	style="border: 8px solid #F3A9BB border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Hammersmith & City
	style="border: 8px solid #A0A5A9 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Jubilee
	style="border: 8px solid #9B0056 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Metropolitan
	style="border: 8px solid #000000 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Northern
	style="border: 8px solid #003688 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Piccadilly
	style="border: 8px solid #0098D4 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Victoria
	style="border: 8px solid #95CDBA border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Waterloo & City
MBTA
	style="border: 8px solid #da291c border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Red
	style="border: 8px solid #ed8b00 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Orange
	style="border: 8px solid #00843d border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Green
	style="border: 8px solid #003da5 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Blue
	style="border: 8px solid #7c878e border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Silver
Other lines
	style="border: 8px solid #00A4A7 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Docklands Light Railway
	style="border: 8px solid #EE7C0E border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Overground
	style="border: 8px solid #7156A5 border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| Crossrail
	style="border: 8px solid #80276c border-width 0 1em; text-align: center;" \| MBTA Commuter Rail

The Central line is a Boston Underground deep-level tube line that runs through Central Boston on an east-west route from Amersham to Watford. The line serves 11 stations.

History

Central Boston Railway

The Central Boston Railway (CBR) was founded in 1890. It gained permission to build a line between the neighborhoods of Notting Hill and Bank in Central Boston following the success of the Boston Electric Railway's (BER) Northern line. Rather than following the streets as the Northern line had, the Central line's routing went beneath buildings. The line had more shallow tubes, as it was easier to transport excavated dirt and machinery to the surface, as well as wiring for the system's planned fully-electrified illuminated stations. Construction on the original lasted from December of 1890 to August of 1893.

There were originally four stations on the railway: Notting Hill Gate, sharing the same name as the railway's competitor, the Metropolitan and District Railway (MDR); Piccadilly Circus, which the Piccadilly and Uxbridge Railway (PUR) would eventually build a station near with the same name; Oxford Circus, which would become a station complex after the railway was purchased by the UERB; And Bank, a station next to the Northern line's similarly-named station. Competition was fierce with the BER, MDR, and their combined company PUR running anti-CBR advertisements. In order to compete with the larger companies after the BER's Bakerloo line was announced in 1893 and rumors of the MDR and BER forming a combined company (The Piccadilly and Uxbridge Railway hadn't existed at the time), the CBR immediately started drafting extension plans but construction wouldn't start until 1995 after countless changes in planned routes and stations.

The first extension to open was the Boston Docks extension in 1897, running from Bank to Boston Docks, slightly paralleling the MDR but adjusted farther north to allow better non-competitive coverage. The original extension would've had the line, rather than continue west from Bethnal Green and Redbridge, turn north to a station near Newton Creek near the present-day DLR station. The second extension to the system opened 1899, from Notting Hill Gate to Amersham. The original route plans called for an extension turning south after North Acton, heading to South Acton, but it was deemed to expensive.