Thursday 14 February 2008

The Northern Line split

A TfL spokesman responds to the Hendon Times over claims by a Barnet council leader that the Northern Line will be split in future:

"At the moment, Camden Tube Station cannot cope with being a major interchange as it would need major remodelling. Regarding segregation, there are therefore absolutely no plans. No decision has been made and there is no funding in the current investment programme."
That's not a denial, is it? The current investment programme only covers spending until 2010, and they're on their way to getting planning permission for the remodelling of Camden Town.

The evidence isn't just circumstantial - the split of the Northern Line is explicitly included in TfL's transport vision for 2025:
A segregation of services would deliver simpler service patterns on the line. This will allow more trains to be run through both the West End and City branches – enabling 30tph services on the central London branches. This will provide roughly 25 per cent extra capacity and crowding relief on these busy sections.
Even now, the line is effectively split at Kennington and Mill Hill East, and only a couple of weeks ago they instituted a split at Camden Town (see picture) in the morning peak, though northbound only to get some of the benefits of segregation without sending too many commuters through the station's passageways.

Not that I'm trying to support the councillor's campaign. A split is the number one solution to the overcrowding and unreliability he complains about. Just as soon as the signalling is upgraded ca. 2011 and Camden Town is fixed sometime after that, a split is inevitable.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh? There always has been a split northbound at Camden town as the junction is south of the station.
Got a diagram of the junction somewhere...

Mr Thant said...

Check the photo. During the morning peak, all northbound trains from each central branch go to the same northern branch now.

In operational terms, it means all northbound trains have a straight run into the platforms at Camden rather than having to sometimes wait for a train arriving from the other central branch.

Anonymous said...

What colours and name will the lines have post-split? How exciting...!

Anonymous said...

its lime green via the city

Mr Brightside said...

Yeah, you would have two lines post the split. One could have a new name and a funky new colour - I vote for a nice bright purple. Perhaps a competition for people who use the line regularly to choose the new name :)

Anonymous said...

Bank ->Kennington ->Morden gets to be called the Southern Line, as it's the furthest south the network goes.

Anonymous said...

Rather boringly I have always imagined one would become a white line and called Southern and the black one would remain Northern. A nice bit of opposite.

Anonymous said...

Great News! Hope they extend one branch down to Herne Hill or somesuch.

Anonymous said...

i envision a black northern line and a purple charing cross line...

Anonymous said...

How about High Barnet/Bank/Morden staying as the Northern line and Edgware/Charing Cross/Kennington becoming the West End line? I think that would be a nice name.

Anonymous said...

To the poster (posts as NSFR I think) that wants a white line - you have a fantastic sense of humour.