Officially, Transport for London (TfL) says there are 272 tube stations. But here’s the first little trap: that number only counts stations on the Underground network, not the Overground, the DLR, or the TfL Rail services. So if you’re a tourist bragging about visiting “every tube station,” you’re technically cheating yourself out of about 45 more stops.
And wait—does “tube” even mean what you think? Spoiler alert: about half of the network is actually above ground. So you could be riding through a sunny field in Zone 4 and still say you’re on the tube. Irony at its finest.
The Weirdos That Break the Rules
Not all tube stations are created equal. Take Waterloo, for example—it’s the busiest, with nearly 100 million passengers a year. But then you have Roding Valley, a shy little stop on the Central line that sees fewer people in a week than Waterloo sees before breakfast. That’s like comparing a rock concert to a library crawl.
And oh, the naming game! Baker Street is the oldest station (opened in 1863), but it also holds the record for having the most platforms on a single level—ten. Meanwhile, St. John’s Wood is the only station that doesn’t contain any letters from the word “mackerel.” Okay, I made that last one up, but it sounds plausible, right? You almost believed me. (Check it—it’s true about the letters, actually!)
