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UK POOL - NO ACCESSS UK
London - Jan 30, 2013
STORYLINE:
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, took a ride on a London Underground train on Wednesday as part of celebrations marking 150 years of the subway network - better known in London as the Tube.
After braving the rain at Farringdon station to look at the development of the multi-billion pound Crossrail network, they used their electronic Oyster cards to "touch in" and enter the London Underground system.
The royal couple chatted to Tube staff, before boarding a Metropolitan line train, which runs along the route of the first Tube line which opened in January 1863.
The royal couple alighted one stop down the line, however, at Kings Cross St. Pancras - where they visited the iconic spot marking "Platform 9 3/4", from which the Hogwarts Express leaves in the Harry Potter books and movies.
London opened the world's first subway in 1863. It ran four miles (6.4 kilometres) and carried 9.5 (m) million passengers its first year.
The pioneering Metropolitan Line sparked a new wave of underground development which today has grown into a 249-mile (402-kilometre) system carrying 1.2 (b) billion passengers each year.
