History
Before the arrival of the Jubilee Line, London's Docklands had suffered from relatively poor public transport. Although the Docklands Light Railway station at Canary Wharf had been operating since 1987, by 1990 it was obvious that the DLR's capacity would soon be reached. The Jubilee Line's routing through Canary Wharf was intended to relieve some of this pressure.
The tube station was intended from the start to be the showpiece of the Jubilee Line Extension, and the contract for its design was awarded in 1990 to the renowned architect Sir Norman Foster. It was constructed, by a Tarmac Construction / Bachy UK Joint Venture, in a drained arm of the former dock, using a simple "cut and cover" method to excavate an enormous pit 24 metres (78 ft) deep and 265 metres (869 ft) long. The size of the interior has led to it being compared to a cathedral, and it has even been used to celebrate a wedding. However, the main reason for the station's enormous dimensions was the great number of passengers predicted; as many as 50,000 daily. These predictions have been outgrown, with as many as 69,759 on weekdays recorded in 2006.
Read more about this topic: Canary Wharf Tube Station
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