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London Underground

WOW!
Yeah, Bank is not the nicest station to negotiate. But I still say Camden Town is the worst, due to never knowing what bloody platform the next southbound train going the way you want will leave from!
 
Great plans there, thanks for the link - I've been looking for something like that for ages. Just a shame the tunnels are modelled as flat rectangles so you can hardly see them from the side.
 
I did Bank from the Northern line to the Central line a few times back in 2009. Such a long walk and a pain to navigate. I don't want to try that again if I can help it.
 
After a while you get to know what stations to avoid if you can help it. My fave tip is that if you ever need to change between the Jubilee and Met lines, do it at Finchley Road, not Baker Street. Why trek through tunnels and climb stairs when you can just stay on the same platform? ;)
 
I once got very lost in the Bank-Monument complex. I think we were aiming for Bank but ended up coming out at Monument after walking miles in the wrong direction.
 
Bank Station is horrible in Rush Hour, there's even a chance the station can close due to overcrowding. But my least favourite Tube station is Elephant & Castle, It's a horrible navigated station that's in a dire state.
 
Oh, I was on the Northern line platform trying to get from Bank to Moorgate with a friend when we went to London with college in 2009, and it was awfully crowded. We gave up and went on the Circle line instead. :p
 
If you want to ever get from Bank to Canon Street, walk above ground on the street tbh. Five mins, if that, it's just round the corner. Interesting to see how Crossrail will figure within its layout!
It's more crazy that if you interchange from Charing Cross mainline to the Bakerloo line CX platforms, you're walking underground all the way to Trafalgar Square.
Stations like Waterloo/London Bridge/Kings Cross have some mightily long walks to interchange between lines, which is to be expected in some ways, but another one is Green Park, you walk for blimmin miles to interchange there...

Sounds good though, extending the 'Other Northern Line' (or the 'Southern' line maybe :p). Shame QVC's now moved out of Battersea, would have been useful back when I used to have to tube/train to Battersea Park!

It's interesting how it will be the first split of the Northern line since it's formation in the 1920's, splitting back up into it's constituent parts of the City & South London Railway and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (wow they certainly knew their catchy names back then...)

For a long time there's been proposals for adding a Central/Piccadilly line interchange at Park Royal/Hangar lane as the two cross over there.
What they are also planning to do is build a new Watford station and redirect the Metropolitan line:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/2053.aspx
croxley-rail-link.JPG
 
Canary Wharf is without doubt the best station on the tube. If only because it looks great, isn't boiling and doesn't induce severe claustrophobia!
 
I hate the Jubilee extention. It's all ugly, characterless steel with no decoration, and it feels like something that belongs in Europe. It doesn't fit with the rest of the Tube at all.

Besides, I like the claustrophobic feel of the old tube, especially some of the Northern and Bakerloo stations.
 
On the subject of the Central line, I understand that Hillingdon want to extend it from West Ruislip to Uxbridge via Ickenham and Hillingdon, and plan to lobby TfL in order to do so. This won't happen until 2017 at the earliest, when the Met's signalling is upgraded. There's already a link from the Central line to the Met & Picc lines at Ruislip Depot, but it doesn't include West Ruislip station, which is on the northern side of the Met & Picc, whereas the already-present link is on the south side. It'll certainly be interesting to see how this one works out.
 
That makes no sense. To do that, the train would have to stop and West Ruislip, then shunt backwards, sunt round the depot to get to the Met line.
Besides, take it from a local, it's a totally unecessary extention. You can get a U1 bus from West Ruislip to Uxbridge in only five minutes.

What they should do is extend the Central westwards. It was always intended to continue on to Denham, and the tracks do continue past the platform for a short distance. If you ask me, they should follow the Chiltern tracks up to High Wycombe.

Besides, the locals round here are insane NIMBYs. You should see the fuss they are kicking up over HS2 ::)
 
I love the older stations too, but I personally do like Westminster Station of the Jubilee line extension. The rest I can leave tbh (including Canary Wharf):

westminster_underground_station_2.jpg


Interesting about extending the Central Line - I believe originally it was intended to go beyond West Ruislip towards Denham. I doubt it'll happen tbh, given the Uxbridge tram was scrapped once Boris got in as Mayor. Then claimed Labour wasted all this money on it.... (er, only wasted because you scrapped it Tories!) But it would be interesting to figure out what the planned route is supposed to be.
 
I think I may have got slightly confused regarding the Central plans. It may be that they have West Ruislip as one terminus, and Uxbridge the other, with the Uxbridge branch coming off at Ruislip depot. This article, on the other hand, suggests otherwise, and I certainly understand your concerns about it, Diogo.

Oh, and I do quite like Westminster station as well, Hils. There's just something about it, but I don't know what.
 
lol, I was just reading that same article!
I'm not sure how it can continue straight on from West Ruislip to Ickenham as the lines continue under the road and off following the Chiltern line completely the wrong way, unless they'd rebuild the West Ruislip station tube platforms to be on a different alignment?

But diverting off from Ruislip Gardens to Ickenham seems fairly straightforward. I think that actually is the likely plan and what the article means to do this:
Central_line_extension_to_Uxbridge_via_Ickenham.png

The points mentioned in the article being before West Ruislip station itself, which means it can avoid gardens and houses (a la HS2, which Diogo and I appear to be the only locals in favour of it) and trying to continue straight on from West Ruislip would definitely require that. I think I might have heard of a West Ruislip to Uxbridge extention before, but not necessarily including Ickenham and Hillingdon... don't quote me on that though.

Yeah, a certain 'something' to Westminster! I think it's how all the structure is so exposed and open to get from the old sub-surface lines to the new and the sheer size/depth of it that's entirely visible as you go down. :)
 
I knew I'd seen that image somewhere before, Hils - that's exactly what I was thinking! Shame that the stations aren't in Johnston. :p
 
If they take that route, I could see them closing West Ruislip in the long term. Single station stub lines never last long on the Underground!

And on the subject of Westminster, that photo actually makes it look even worse than it is to the eye! Like someone took one of the brutalist monstrosities from the South Bank and burried it underground :/
But hey, each to their own ;)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
If they take that route, I could see them closing West Ruislip in the long term. Single station stub lines never last long on the Underground!
Click to expand...
Seems a bit odd that both Chesham & Mill Hill East have survived for so long, then! They could always extend the Central line up to Gerrards Cross and High Wycombe, but this is unlikely, in my opinion.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
If they take that route, I could see them closing West Ruislip in the long term. Single station stub lines never last long on the Underground!
Click to expand...

I don't think that'll happen if the extension gets built. As Jon mentioned, Stations such as Mill Hill East and Chesham are served on a branch line but still manage to get the passengers required. West Rusilip gets more than both these stations and lets not forget it has a interchange, handy for people who live near stations on the Chiltern Main Line

=)
 
I think West Ruislip would be fine as well and remain as a branch line even if this extention to Uxbridge opened - apart from also being a mainline station, where it is located is the main thing. It's the nearest Central Line station to Ruislip High street and bang in the middle of a mass of homes in that part of Ruislip that aren't anywhere close to Ruislip Gardens and outside of shopping hours presently doesn't have a bus route to take them to that station as an alternative either. I don't think it would ever get to the stage of only managing 6 passengers a day somehow!
 
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