Northern Line

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Northern

Colour on map

Black

Year opened

1890

Line type

Deep Tube

Rolling stock

1995 Tube Stock

Stations served

Length (km)

Length (miles)

Depots

Golders Green
Morden
East Finchley
Edgware
High Barnet

Journeys made

206,734,000 (per annum)

Rail lines of
Transport for London

London Underground lines
	Bakerloo
	Central
	Circle
	District
	East London
	Hammersmith & City
	Jubilee
	Metropolitan
	Northern
	Piccadilly
	Victoria
	Waterloo & City
Other lines
	Docklands Light Railway
	Tramlink
	Overground (starts November 2007)

London Transport Portal

For other uses, see Northern Line (disambiguation).

The Northern Line is a deep-level tube line of the London Underground, coloured black on the Tube map. With two routes through the central area and two to the north, it is one of the more complicated lines on the system. Despite its name, it is the Underground line that extends farthest south.

1 History
- 1.1 Formation of the Northern Line
  - 1.1.1 Morden extension
- 1.2 The Northern Heights plan
2 Stations
3 Trains
4 Recent developments
5 Future
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Formation of the Northern Line

City & South London Railway train, 1890

The City & South London Railway (C&SLR), London's first deep-level tube railway, was built under the supervision of James Henry Greathead who had been responsible, with Peter W. Barlow, for the Tower Subway. It opened in November 1890 from Stockwell to a now-disused station at King William Street; the latter was inconveniently placed and unable to cope with the traffic, so in 1900 a new route to Moorgate via Bank was opened. By 1907 the C&SLR had been extended to run from Clapham Common to Euston.

Formation of the Northern Line (Northern Heights extensions not shown)

The Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) (known as the "Hampstead Tube") was opened in 1907 and ran from Charing Cross (known for many years as Strand) to Golders Green and Highgate (now known as Archway). It was extended south by one stop to Embankment in 1914.

In 1913 the two lines came into common ownership, and during the 1920s connections were built at Camden Town and Kennington. The tunnels of the CSLR were also expanded to match the standard size and the lines were extended from Golders Green to Edgware in the north (1923 and 1924) and from Clapham Common to Morden in the south (1926). The resulting line became known as the Morden–Edgware Line, although a number of alternative names were also mooted in the fashion of the contraction of Baker Street & Waterloo Railway to "Bakerloo", such as "Edgmorden" and "Medgware". It was eventually named the Northern Line in 1937.

[edit] Morden extension

The Morden extension added seven new stations, all designed by Charles Holden in a modern style that became known as the "Morden Style". With the exception of Morden and Clapham South, where more land was available, the new stations were built on confined corner sites at main road junctions in already developed areas. Holden made good use of this limited space and designed impressive buildings. The street-level structures are of white Portland stone with tall double-height ticket halls, with the famous London Underground roundel made up in coloured glass panels in large glazed screens. The stone columns framing the glass screens are surmounted by a capital formed as a three-dimensional version of the roundel. The large expanse of glass ensures that the ticket halls are bright and, lit from within at night, welcoming. The first and last new stations on the extension, Morden and Clapham South, include a parade of shops and were designed with structures capable of being built above (like many of the earlier central London stations). Clapham South was extended upwards soon after its construction with a block of apartments; Morden was extended upwards in the 1960s with a block of offices. All the stations on the extension (except Morden) are Grade II listed buildings.

After nationalisation in 1933 the Great Northern & City Railway, which ran from Moorgate to Finsbury Park, became part of the Underground as the Northern City Line; it was operated as part of the Northern Line, though it was never connected to it.

[edit] The Northern Heights plan

In June 1935 an ambitious plan of new extensions was announced by LT, including the integration of a complex of existing London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines north of Highgate through the "Northern Heights". These lines, built in the 1860s and 1870s by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (and its successors), ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate, with branches to Alexandra Palace and High Barnet. The line taken over would be extended beyond Edgware to Brockley Hill, Elstree South and Bushey Heath with a new depot at Aldenham. This extension's route comes from that of the unbuilt Watford and Edgware Railway, using rights obtained from the earlier purchase of said company ( who had long-intended an extension of the existing LNER Edgware route towards Watford. ) This also provided the potential for further extension in the future if required; indeed, Bushey's town planners reserved space in Bushey village for a future station and Bushey Heath Station's design was revised several times to ensure this option would remain available in the future.

The project would involve electrification of the surface lines (served by steam trains at the time) and the construction of three new linking sections of track: a connection between the Northern City Line and Finsbury Park station on the surface, an extension of the Highgate branch tube to the LNER line near East Finchley via new deep-level platforms below Highgate station, and a short diversion from just short of the LNER's station at Edgware to the Underground's station of the same name.

Northern Heights plans

Work began in the late 1930s, but was disrupted by the start of the War. Sufficient progress had been made on the Highgate link and the High Barnet branch that they were allowed to continue and opened in 1939 (Archway to East Finchley), 1940 (East Finchley to High Barnet) and 1941 (Highgate station). A single track of the LNER line to Edgware was electrified as far as Mill Hill East in 1941 in order to serve the barracks there, thus forming the Northern Line as it is today. The new depot at Aldenham had already been built and was used to build Halifax bombers. Work on the other elements of the plan was suspended.

After the War, the area beyond Edgware was made part of the Green Belt, and the potential demand for services from Bushey Heath thus vanished. Available funds were directed towards completing the eastern extension of the Central Line instead, and the Northern Heights plan was dropped on 9 February 1954. Aldenham depot was converted into an overhaul facility for buses. The line from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace via the surface platforms at Highgate was closed to passenger traffic in 1954. A local pressure group, the Muswell Hill Metro Group, campaigns to reopen this route as a light rail service. So far there is no sign of movement on this issue; the route, now the Parkland Walk, is highly valued by walkers and cyclists and suggestions in the 1990s that it could, in part, become a road were met with fierce opposition.

The rural railway heritage of the High Barnet branch beyond Highgate can be seen in the design of many of the stations.

[edit] Stations

Geographically accurate path of the Northern Line

[edit] High Barnet branch

[edit] Edgware branch

[edit] Camden Town

Camden Town

Inside a Northern Line car

The junctions connecting the two northern branches of the Northern Line to the two central branches are just south of Camden Town station. The station has a pair of platforms on each of the two northern branches, and southbound trains can depart toward either Charing Cross or Bank from either of the two southbound platforms.

[edit] Charing Cross branch

(Also known as the West End branch.)

Southbound trains on this branch often terminate at Kennington, where they return by means of a loop.

A typical Northern Line platform, at Bank

[edit] Bank branch

(Also known as the City Branch.)

[edit] Morden branch

[edit] Trains

A Northern Line train

All Northern Line trains consist of London Underground 1995 Stock and are in the distinctive Underground livery of red, white and blue. In common with the other deep-level lines, the trains are the smaller of the two sizes used on Underground. The 1995 stock is quite comfortable when compared to the older stock used on other lines. 1995 stock sports automated announcements and quick-close doors.

[edit] Recent developments

In 1975, the Northern City Line, known by that time as the Highbury branch, became part of British Rail; it is now served by First Capital Connect.

In the 1980s and 1990s the line was nicknamed the "Misery Line", though its reputation improved somewhat after the introduction of the 1995 stock.

In 2003, a train derailed at Camden Town. This damaged points and signals and the junctions there were not used while repairs were underway — trains coming from Edgware worked the Bank branch only, and trains from High Barnet and Mill Hill East the Charing Cross branch only. This situation was resolved when the junctions reopened, after much repair work and safety analysis and testing, on 7 March 2004.

A joint report by the Underground and its maintenance contractor Tube Lines concluded that poor track geometry was the main cause, and that, because of the geometry, extra friction arising out of striations (scratches) on a newly installed set of points had allowed the leading wheel of the last carriage to climb the rail and so derail. The track geometry at the derailment site is a very tight bend and tight tunnel bore, which precludes the normal solution for this sort of geometry of canting the track by raising the height of one rail relative to the other.

On 7 July 2005, a defective train on the Northern Line (causing its subsequent Suspension) saved the Northern Line from the London Bombings on that day. Three Trains on the Circle and Piccadilly Lines were not so lucky. The Fourth Bomber instead boarded a bus, which he later blew up.

On 13 October 2005, the entire Northern Line service was suspended due to maintenance problems with the emergency braking system on the trains. [1] A series of rail replacement buses was used to connect outlying stations with other Underground lines. [2]. A reduced service was reintroduced on 17 October 2005, and full service was restored on 18 October.

In October 2006, service to/from Mill Hill East was cut back to a shuttle, except during peak hours, and a few weekend trains.

From June 2006, the service between East Finchley and Camden Town has been suspended for two non-consecutive weeks every month, with service on the Edgware branch suspended for the other two weeks. This is part of Tube Lines revelopment of some Edgware and High Barnet Branch stations, including replacement of track, signals, as well as station maintenance. [3] This includes refurbishment of all High Barnet branch stations running from West Finchley tube station down to Camden Town tube station.

[edit] Future

TfL's London 2025 report [4] confirms their intention to split the Northern Line into two segregated routes. Running trains between all branches, as is currently done, means only 22-25 trains per hour can run on each of the central sections, because merging trains have to wait for each other at the junctions. Segregating the line will allow 30 trains per hour on all parts of the system. However, Camden Town station would need to be rebuilt before this could be implemented, because the current station would not be able to cope with the increased number of passengers changing trains there.

All trains on the Charing Cross branch would terminate at Kennington, and it has long been suggested that the line could be extended from there to points southeast.

The Northern Line is scheduled to switch to automatic train operation in 2011, using the same SelTrac system that will be introduced on the Jubilee Line in 2009, and that is already in use on the Docklands Light Railway.^[1]

[edit] References

^ Tube Lines, Network tests for new signalling systems, Tube Lines, 24-08-2005.

[edit] See also

Leslie Green, architect of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway's early stations
London deep-level shelters, most of which are under Northern Line stations

[edit] External links

Northern Line, London Underground website
Clive's Underground Line Guides
Muswell Hill Metro Group
Northern Line Route for the freeware train simulator BVE

West:	Crossings of the River Thames	East:
Hungerford Bridges	Charing Cross branch, between Embankment and Waterloo	Waterloo Bridge
London Bridge	City branch, between Monument and London Bridge	Tower Subway

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