The Circle and District lines will be closed between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road from today for four weeks, reopening on Wednesday 24th August.
This encompasses one of the oldest sections of the London Underground, which was first built and operated by the Metropolitan Railway between Praed Street Junction (near Paddington) to Gloucester Road, and opened on 1 October 1868.
The Circle line is well-known for its delays, and 70 per cent of the delays between Notting Hill Gate and Paddington are due to signal and track failures. This is because the poor condition of drainage means that excess water result in track circuits failing, therefore leading to signal failures. The works will include track and drainage renewal so delays will be substantially minimised.
London Underground will take advantage of the closure to prepare for longer 7-car S Stock (as opposed to the current 6-car C69 and C77 Stock) on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines from 2012, and on the Wimbledon to Edgware Road section of the District line from 2013. The new trains, which feature air conditioning, will have space for 143 extra passengers. There will also be a power upgrade to support the new trains coming into service.
The block closure is obviously timed to coincide with a quieter period on the network, when commuting schoolchildren are on holiday with around 25,000 fewer passengers a day using the District and Circle lines between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road. Completing the work using weekend track closures only would mean at least 20 weekend closures spread across six months or more.
Block closures are not new on the Underground. Last year, the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines were closed for three weeks from Saturday 24th July to Sunday 15th August. London Underground got this ‘block closures’ idea from Madrid, which is how that city is undertaking its Metro upgrade.
During the month, the closure will also be extended at weekends to include the whole of the Circle line, and the District line between Earl's Court and Gloucester Road. Part or all the Hammersmith & City line will also need to close at weekends. On two weekends part of the Metropolitan line would also need to close.
These weekend extensions to the closure will also enable additional works to be carried out for the upgrade of the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.
More information on the closure can be found here.
1868, not 1968
ReplyDeleteWell spotted!
ReplyDeleteA pain in the proverbial for anyone in Kensington, but block closures are less painful than the "Death by a Thousand Cuts" strategy of closing every weekend for 2 years, as favoured on the Jubilee line work.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that the oldest signal on the Underground is (about to be was) at Edgware Road (Circle)?
ReplyDelete@ Kit Green:
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly sure, bit I do know that Edgware Road has had the same signals since 1926!
I was in Madrid in August 2006. Block closures were happening on around half-a-dozen lines if I remember, and they were from late May to the end of August (there was a map show it all). Horrible for tourists but no doubt far better for locals, not least because they tend to flee the city from late July until the first week of September (large numbers of shops close too).
ReplyDeleteBlock closures have been routine on the mainline for years - I doubt that LU had to go to Madrid to realise this possibility existed...
ReplyDeleteEdgware Road really should have a bay platform.
ReplyDeleteThe other upgrades really should have used block closures too. There's a weekend closure about once per month scheduled on the Victoria line until next March for the asset replacement - why not just close it for two weeks and get it over with?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said... "Edgware Road really should have a bay platform"
ReplyDeleteThat's the way they use the two in the middle.
Edgware Road platforms 2 and 3 can't be turned into a bay platform as they need to be entered from the east occasionally.
ReplyDeleteWould it be possible to put a bay in on the South side - where there were sidings until very recently?
ReplyDeleteOr divert the loop that way, so that there was an extra centre-rod (or two - vey tight for space though in the latter case)
???
@ Greg Tingey:
ReplyDeleteIt may be possible, but it comes down to cost. There are other more pressing projects which need funding, e.g. Surrey Canal Road station, Croxley Rail Link and making more stations step-free.
Having a bay platform at one side isn't ideal, there will always be delays caused by crossing moves on either arrival or departure.
ReplyDeleteJoining the two island platforms at Edgware Rd gives an advantage to the public, apart fromm anything else it becomes far more obvious how the sevice works (like at Dalston Kingsland on LO) - but it is probably outweighed by the operating flexibility lost.
Normal service resumes Wednesday 24 August, not Tuesday 23.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who uses that section on a regular basis, I certainly don't see passenger numbers dropping off for the summer, indeed the opposite is true as it serves a lot of popular tourist areas, and in the summer is often packed with groups of tourists.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they aren't laying on a replacement bus, or at least an upgraded 27 to cope.
I think you mean the District line is closed between Earl's Court and High Street Kensington on weekends (not Gloucester Road)!
ReplyDeleteThe weekend Olympia to Earl's Court service is using C Stock instead of D for a change.
Edgware Road cabin's frame maybe from 1926, but it's been taken apart and put back together a few times and there was resignalling there within the past 20 years.
There is equipment older still in situ on other lines.
And the new equipment is hardly the dogs wotsits, quite how Mike Brown can spout out that the Jubilee line equipment is 'State of the art' when it's several years late!
Surely the Circle Line closure has been timed precisely so that it coincides with the maximum number of tourists trying to use it. All True Londoners avoid the Circle Line like the plague, not least because it is always packed with clueless, map-toting, door-blocking visitors. I would not be surprised to hear that some hapless bunch of tourists waited out the entire closure period at Gloucester Road peering up at the next train indicator...
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:07
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the tourists use it a lot either. I've lived in London for about 10 years and use the underground every single day - I have used the circle line about twice in that time. 9/10 there is a far more efficient way of getting from A to B. I'd be much happier if they got rid of it an increased the frequency of the other lines.
Edgware Road:
ReplyDeleteAny change to the platform arrangements at Edgware Road is probably pointless on its own.
To have an impact on the quality of service, it's the track layout that would need to be changed - in particular, having the northernmost island for trains toward Baker St on the top and Paddington (H&C) on the bottom, and the southernmost island for trains to/from Paddington (C&D).
This would prevent conflicting movements between trains serving the two branches, but would require extensive tunnel alterations. It would also require a deal of modification the station to improve access between the two islands. Even then, people would still be inconvenienced if travelling from, say, Bayswater to Baker Street, by being guaranteed two flights of stairs.
There is a project at the moment to improve the speed of trains at Edgware Road. It sounds like by removing mechanical interlocking from the frame.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain why it is, that if the track is closed why High St Ken and Edgware Rd trains still go through Earl's Court?
ReplyDeleteThe track between Earl's Court and High Street Kensington will only be closed at weekends.
ReplyDeleteNormal service still resumes Wednesday 24 August, not Tuesday 23.
ReplyDelete