Wednesday 9 July 2008

Northern Line upgrade details

District Dave's tube forum has some lecture notes about progress on upgrading the Northern Line, given by the line's General Manager, Jeff "98.5% train reliability" Ellis.

The Northern Line is due to be fitted with a new signalling system called TBTC (transmission-based train control), which is the what provides the automatic operation of the DLR and is currently being fitted to the Jubilee Line (look for the telltale loops of cable between the tracks), which will allow trains to run closer together and therefore more frequently.

The rebuilding of Camden Town is mentioned, apparently in Jubilee Line Extension style, although not until TfL next budget period, which starts in 2013. This will allow the Northern Line split, and a train every 90 seconds (36 trains per hour) could be the result, though they'd need to buy more trains.

Rebuilding Clapham Common and Clapham North to rid them of their narrow island platforms (as was done at Angel and Euston) is also thought necessary in the near future.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

So no mention of Battersea?

jamesup said...

Battersea was mentioned... He said that he heard about it last week for the first time.

Anonymous said...

I always understood that they wanted to extend the Northen Line south from Kennington, but needed to wait for the split at Camden Town before they could do this. Is that true?

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit sad about planned rebuilding of Clapham North and Clapham Common - these are the last old CSLR-style narrow stations remaining.

But of course using them must be hell, so it must be done sooner or later.

Anonymous said...

No they don't need to. Most trains on the Charing X route terminate at Kennington and could be extended south. Of course, because that would increase crowding, you would probably want to make sure you were able to run more trains first.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever stood on either of the Clapham platforms with two trains departing on either sides?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, yes - I did. And that's why I mentioned that "it must be done" anyway ;-)

Anonymous said...

presumably a rebuild of Clapham North opens the possibility of building a proper interchange with the future overground stop at Clapham High St (which ought to be renamed to Clapham North at the same time)

Anonymous said...

Presumably they will do something like Angel, one completely new station tunnel. Of course, they could always rebuild one of the Claphams as a 'heritage station': rather than filling in the unused track, put some inconspicuous railings in, have a display of C&SLR rolling stock (real or reconstructed) and return some of the station decor to its original form. Yes, I know it couldn't be historically accurate, but it might be a nice tribute, and preserve some of the old atmosphere, while making the platform safer.

jamesup said...

I allways thought they could glass over the track, put in better accsess (angel style) but otherwise leave the original tunnel as is with one direction calling at a new platform. It could be really smart, preserve the station in a useable way.

Interchange with Clapham Highstreet is a great idea...

At the same time as Camden gets interchange with Camden High Road perhaps? Could be done in the style of Southwark...

Anonymous said...

The Northern could definitely extend south from Kennington with no problems. It's pretty empty when it gets there, and anybody remaining switches to go towards Stockwell - so the capacity is there even now I think.

All these inner South London tube termini are a disgrace.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Extending the Charing X Branch and Bakerloo Line (possibly the Victoria too) into South London should be a number one priority.

Anonymous said...

Battersea hardly counts at South London really. Bring the tube to Camberwell, Peckham, and further south!

Of course, I know this will never happen except in quasi-extensions like the ELL.

solar penguin said...

Stupid question... Why H&C and Circle? Why not merge Wimbleware and Circle?

That way, we could keep through services between High St Ken and Baker St/Kings X and they wouldn't need extra space for terminating trains at Edgware Rd because the ones currently terminating there will just loop round and then terminate there again.

I'm sure there must be some good technical reason why it can't be done. Something to do with service patterns and frequencies and stuff like that. And that's a shame, because this would be a less inconvenient alteration for the passengers.

Mr Thant said...

solar penguin: Part of the aim of the new service pattern is to double the frequency on the Hammersmith & City Line.