London’s commuters are certainly used to navigating the winding network the underground system and the strict unspoken rules of the escalators.

Whether you prefer to chill on the right hand side and let the escalator take you down without having to take a step or someone who prefers to dart down the left hand side to catch the earliest tube possible they are a staple part of London travel.

According to the government’s website, around two million commuters use the tube everyday and these escalators carry a lot of pressure to get people where they need to be as quickly as they can.

Some tube stations are known for their beautiful tiles, stunning lampposts on the escalators or their unique and quirky artwork or historical posters, but one tube station holds the accolade of having the Underground’s longest escalator.

Angel station, located on Islington Road, boasts the longest escalator on the London Underground.

With an escalator measure a length of 197cm or 60ft and vertical rise of 27.5m, Angel is one of only fourteen stations to have escalator-only access to the tube platforms.

The escalator is the second-longest in the whole of the UK, beaten only Heathrow Airport’s Terminal five.

According to The Royal Academy of Engineering, who published a report on the mathematics of the London Underground, escalators on the transport network travel at 0.75 metres per second.

This would mean, in theory, that the time taken to travel up Angel’s whopping 60m long escalator would take one minute and 20 seconds.

Angel station was opened in 1901 and has often dealt with overcrowding due to it being a busy station.

In 2007, a man filmed himself attempting to ski down Angel’s escalator down to the platforms, as reported by the BBC.

The Norweigan man hurled himself almost 200ft down the escalators and reached a speed of approximately 30 miles per hour.

© Grant Faint London Underground

His video went viral on YouTube but The London Underground did not find his daredevil action funny.

They condemned his behaviour and said: “This is a dangerous, stupid and irresponsible act that could have resulted in serious injury or death to not only the individual concerned but also other passengers.

“London Underground will press for the police to take the strongest possible action against anyone attempting a similar act on the Tube network.”

Source: Mylondon.news