London Underground

[Sam]

Calling all tube geeks!

This afternoon, the chancellor announced that the government is giving a £1 billion loan for the go-ahead of the extension of the Northern Line to Battersea Power Station.

This is part of huge changes for the Northern Line. It's being split into two totally separate lines, with interchanges at Camden Town and Kennington. This will help increase the number of trains that can run per hour on both lines.

The new expansion to Battersea will branch off from Kennington, continuing the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line split.

Here's how the extension will look on a tube map:

£1bn UK Guarantee for Northern Line extension
5 December, 2012 | By Tom Fitzpatrick

George Osborne has said the government will contribute £1bn in the form of a UK Guarantee to the Northern Line extension to Battersea that would support development on a similar scale to the Olympic Park.

SP Setia and Sime Derby completed their purchase of the BPS site on 5 September for £400m.

The National Infrastructure Plan 2012 update says: “As one of the first projects to benefit from this scheme, the Government will provide a UK Guarantee to allow the Mayor of London to borrow £1 billion at a new preferential rate to support the Northern Line Extension to Battersea scheme, subject to due diligence and the agreement of a binding Funding and Development Agreement with developers, the Mayor of London and partner authorities during 2013.

“The Northern Line extension to Battersea is key to the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station and the regeneration of an historic part of London. Government intervention has the potential to enable an £8 billion investment at the Battersea Power Station site, supporting the wider redevelopment planned for Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea, which could create up to 16,000 new homes and up to 25,000 new jobs.”

Mr Osborne said the schemes would help to create jobs and aid development.

What do you all make of this proposed extension, which is being funded by the developers of Battersea Power Station and partly by the new US Embassy?

 

[Jonathan]

Well, it's going to give Battersea a link with the Tube network, and the Northern line will be able to run at increased frequencies - as will the new line. I wonder what this new line could be called... In all seriousness, this is good news, although doing the Tube Challenge may take a bit longer.

 

[Ted]

Damn it Sam I was gonna make this topic! Oh well, beaten to it =P

Fantastic news to hear about. Although this extension isn't "Badly" needed, I think TFL are making a great choice to extended it to Battersea. The area where the purposed stations are being regenerated and this tube extension seems to be apart of it. Battersea station is close to the power station and the tube will make great use of whatever is built there. Although I think it should be extended to Clapham Junction, but the reason why TFL isn't doing this is because the present Clapham Junction station wouldn't be able to cope with the number of passengers interchanging unless it's completely rebuilt. Might get extended in the future if Crossrail 2 goes via Clapham Junction.

On topic of the spilt, it also sounds exciting news! Not sure how it would work, Whether it would be Battersea to Edgware and Morden to High Barnet/Mill Hill East or vice versa is unknown, but it would work. However it's not gonna happen unless Camden town is completely rebuilt. It's dangerously overcrowded now and it will be even more if the spilt happens without a rebuild because so many people would be changing between the two lines.

Can't wait for it to open! More tube stations South of the Thames! ;D

 

[Jonathan]

I think that the new line would run from Battersea to Edgware via Charing Cross, and the Northern line would go from Morden to High Barnet & Mill Hill East via Bank. That's just a guess, though.

 

[Ted]

I think that the new line would run from Battersea to Edgware via Charing Cross, and the Northern line would go from Morden to High Barnet & Mill Hill East via Bank. That's just a guess, though.

I was thinking the same, Jon. Looking at this detailed tube map and seeing Camden Town, I think it would make sense for the trains coming from Battersea to use the Edgware Branch and for trains coming from Morden to use the Bank Branch, as the trains won't have to cross over the junctions at Camden Town. But like you, I', just guessing these services =)

Damn, 666 posts =P

 

[Jonathan]

666 posts? BURN HIM!

Nah, only joking. And I've never seen this detailed map before - thanks!

 

[Simon]

What an AMAZING MAP!!

Will enjoy procrastination later when trying to do uni work!!!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mike]

I think that the new line would run from Battersea to Edgware via Charing Cross, and the Northern line would go from Morden to High Barnet & Mill Hill East via Bank. That's just a guess, though.

Not quite! As far as I am aware - partially due to shockingly bad interchange routes at Euston/Camden Town - trains will run to both northern branches of the Northern Line as per now from both southern branches

One thing that will happen, however, is that Mill Hill East will operate as a shuttle service only, except a couple during each peak and during disruption periods - it will lose the regular peak service - much in the same way as Kensington Olympia did (except in that case, it lost the shuttle too!).

Should mean capacity will increase though - and most certainly reliability will do, for example due to the lack of the constant points changes at Kennington!

 

[Jonathan]

I think that the new line would run from Battersea to Edgware via Charing Cross, and the Northern line would go from Morden to High Barnet & Mill Hill East via Bank. That's just a guess, though.

Not quite! As far as I am aware - partially due to shockingly bad interchange routes at Euston/Camden Town - trains will run to both northern branches of the Northern Line as per now from both southern branches

One thing that will happen, however, is that Mill Hill East will operate as a shuttle service only, except a couple during each peak and during disruption periods - it will lose the regular peak service - much in the same way as Kensington Olympia did (except in that case, it lost the shuttle too!).

Should mean capacity will increase though - and most certainly reliability will do, for example due to the lack of the constant points changes at Kennington!

So Mill Hill East to Finchley Central as a shuttle? MHE's the least used station on the Northern line, and if it becomes a shuttle to Finchley Central, then I can see it going the same way as Aldwych did in 1994. And I think I'm right in saying that a lot of Charing Cross trains have been terminating at Kennington and all trains to Morden have been running via Bank - or at least they used to. I'm happy to take your word for it though, Mike.

 

[Ted]

Not quite! As far as I am aware - partially due to shockingly bad interchange routes at Euston/Camden Town - trains will run to both northern branches of the Northern Line as per now from both southern branches

One thing that will happen, however, is that Mill Hill East will operate as a shuttle service only, except a couple during each peak and during disruption periods - it will lose the regular peak service - much in the same way as Kensington Olympia did (except in that case, it lost the shuttle too!).

Should mean capacity will increase though - and most certainly reliability will do, for example due to the lack of the constant points changes at Kennington!

So Mill Hill East to Finchley Central as a shuttle? MHE's the least used station on the Northern line, and if it becomes a shuttle to Finchley Central, then I can see it going the same way as Aldwych did in 1994. And I think I'm right in saying that a lot of Charing Cross trains have been terminating at Kennington and all trains to Morden have been running via Bank - or at least they used to. I'm happy to take your word for it though, Mike.

The trains between Mill Hill East and Finchely Central already operate as a shuttle. But I don't think it will end the same way as Aldwych. The key difference with Aldwych was that it was located in Central London with many other tube stations near by in walking distance (including Holborn where the shuttle ran to). Mill Hill East however is located in a North London Suburb and is a key station for those living there and it gets about 1 Million people every year where as Aldwych only got about 600 people per day. Mill Hill East is convient for those living there, Aldwych really wasn't.

All trains on the Charing Cross branch terminate at Kennington outside of the peaks, and the Bank trains continue to Morden at all times. The reason for this is that I think the use of Junctions for the Kennington loop is easier for the Charing Cross Branch trains to use, and has to use junctions to get onto the Morden branch, where the bank trains don't

Take a look at this map of Kennington Tube Station and you'll see what I mean

Spoiler

=)

 

[Jonathan]

Ah, I'd forgotten that about Aldwych! 1m per year for MHE's still quite a bit of traffic - especially regarding the fact that before Blake Hall on the Central line closed, it had about six passengers per day, and Roding Valley (also on the Central line) currently has 210,000 passengers per year - the least-used tube station on the network. It'll be interesting to see how it all goes, though.

 

[Poisson]

I like the tube. A lot. It helps me through the closed season and the boredum. Now this extension has been approved it is something worth watching

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mike]

And I think I'm right in saying that a lot of Charing Cross trains have been terminating at Kennington and all trains to Morden have been running via Bank - or at least they used to. I'm happy to take your word for it though, Mike.

You misunderstand me - that is indeed still the case! I was talking about the northern branches of the line specifically, not about all of them.

 

[DiogoJ42]

*Drools over those maps and gets ideas for a new layout game...*

 

[Simon]

Unintended consequences: If the Northern Line is split, the whole reason that Mornington Crescent is the winning move will be taken away!

(For those that don't know, MC 'wins' because two people can catch consecutive trains from the same platform at Camden Town, and one will run the dark tunnels to Euston, but on the other, a magical 'extra' station appears)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DiogoJ42]

On no, I never thought of that!

Though The Game has always been quick to adapt to changes to the network. Let's not forget The Orange Pretender's Adendum, which allows play on London Overground when two or more players have passed through Sheppards Bush within five moves and no one is in Nip.

I'd like to think it will just add a new level of challenge to The Game.

 

[Jonathan]

And I think I'm right in saying that a lot of Charing Cross trains have been terminating at Kennington and all trains to Morden have been running via Bank - or at least they used to. I'm happy to take your word for it though, Mike.

You misunderstand me - that is indeed still the case! I was talking about the northern branches of the line specifically, not about all of them.

Sorry about that, Mike. Thanks for clarifying things, though.

 

[Poisson]

MC should still be fine (Even if I cant plaay it)

I am stood on the bus so sorry for mistakes!

 

[Jordan]

Tube geeks, you might like these 3D maps of tube stations - I think they're fantastic.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

Tube geeks, you might like these 3D maps of tube stations - I think they're fantastic.

Bank's map makes it seem even more scary than it is in real life!

I hate Bank