Sometimes weekend engineering works get their teeth into one part of town and refuse to let go. These are the planned closures on the District, Hammersmith & City and East London lines until the end of August.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
4, 5 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
11, 12 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
18, 19 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
25, 26 July
Tower Hill to Dagenham East
entire line
entire line
1, 2 Aug
Earl's Court to West Ham
entire line
entire line
8, 9 Aug
South Kensington to East Ham
Baker Street to Barking
entire line
15, 16 Aug
Tower Hill to Dagenham East
entire line
entire line
22, 23 Aug
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
29, 30, 31 Aug
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
To confirm, that's no tube service between Tower Hill/Liverpool Street and West Ham for nine consecutive weekends, and also no Overground service on any part on the East London Line.
Thankfully the rail replacement buses get a rest during September, but then in October they start up again.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
10, 11 Oct
Earl's Court to Upminster
entire line
entire line
17, 18 Oct
South Kensington to East Ham
Baker Street to Barking
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
24, 25 Oct
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
A fortnight's breathing space follows, followed by three more closures to round off the year.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
14, 15 Nov
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
21, 22 Nov
Tower Hill to Upminster
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
28, 29 Nov
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
That's fifteen weekends between now and the end of November with no service at either of my two nearest tube stations, and ten weekends with no Overground service whatsoever between Highbury & Islington and Clapham/Croydon/Crystal Palace. That's an astonishing run of serious closures. It's clearly ideal to be doing this at a time when fewer people are travelling, but less good to be turfing people off socially distanced trains onto double decker buses.
The majority of these weekend closures are needed because Crossrail isn't finished yet. Specifically Whitechapel station still isn't ready, so closing the railway lines over the top allows them to get on with finishing works underneath. It remains a scandalous embarrassment that two years ago we were still being told Crossrail would open in December 2018, and yet here they are still doing necessary engineering works until November 2020.
Other closures are likely related to the Four Lines Modernisation programme, a long term project to significantly upgrade signalling on the sub-surface lines that's also running disastrously behind schedule. Section SM3 (Euston Square to Stepney Green) was originally due to be commissioned in February 2020, then got kicked into July, but further software issues (and coronavirus) have stalled it again so the proposed launch date is now Easter 2021. A deadline for section SMA6, beyond Stepney Green, isn't even on the horizon.
These seemingly endless closures for Crossrail works and signalling upgrades will all be worth it on some far-flung distant day when a step change to London's transport network has been delivered. But brace yourself, East London, because there are so many more weekend engineering works still to come.
