This will come as a kick in the teeth to those who travel on the the Jubilee and whose weekends have been completely buggered by a seemingly endless succession of line closures over the last umpteen months. Rail replacement buses are no fun at the best of times, but weekend after weekend after weekend after weekend they really begin to grind passengers down. Tube Lines have made some gobsmacking errors too, like having to replace several miles of mislaid cable, and have been rewarded with several additional line closures creeping into January. The good news is that, by missing their end-of-2009 target, Tube Lines will be financially punished. The bad news is that their fine won't be punishing enough (a mere £10m a month), and meanwhile the rail replacement misery goes on and on and on.
To help make sense what this means for customers, I've had a go at collating all the relevant information from TfL's latest list of future line closures. So here's a table showing all the weekend closures on the Jubilee line for the five months from September to January. Each pair of columns represents a weekend, and grey shading means the line's closed. Grim, innit?
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
5
12
19
26
3
10
17
24
31
7
14
21
28
5
12
19
26
2
9
16
23
30
Stanmore
W Hampst'd
Waterloo
N Gr'nwich
Stratford
For example, over the weekend October 3/4 the entire Jubilee line is closed, while over the weekend October 10/11 it's closed between Stanmore and West Hampstead. Saturday closures aren't always the same as Sunday. And there are two days when the closure isn't all day, so they're in slightly lighter grey.
If you live at the Docklands/Greenwich end of the line, then your weekends are about to get a heck of a lot better. After the first week of October the eastern end of the line clears, and then it's plain sailing round to Stratford all the way up to Christmas.
It's the northern end of the line where the relentless closures are hurting the most. In fact I find this list of closures absolutely unbelievable. The Jubilee line will be closed north of Waterloo almost every weekend until December, and closed north of West Hampstead EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND until mid-January. If you live in Stanmore you're going to be bloody sick of rail replacement buses by the time 2010 comes round. If that's not bad enough, there are also 18 days when the parallel stretch of the Metropolitan line will be shut down (between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Aldgate). I've marked these dates in purple, if you squint carefully enough.
It will all be worth it in the end, obviously, except that the end now seems further away than ever. There's absolutely no guarantee that this list won't change, and extend, and that mid-January onwards will be just as hellish as all that's come before. Given how incompetent Tube Lines' delivery has been so far, I fear they'll be frittering away TfL's cash for some time to come. Lovely Jubbly?
TfL snuck out a press release yesterday in which they announced several additional weekend closures on the Jubilee line later this year. They hid the details well by cramming them into a footnote, preferring instead to highlight why this interminable series of shutdowns is necessary. Better signalling, faster journeys, more frequent trains... it sounds like 2010 is going to be Jubilee heaven. But for the remainder of 2009, weekends are going to be Jubilee hell.
The list of closures in TfL's press release is incredibly difficult to follow. Plus they've only mentioned the additional line closures and not the existing ones, so it's nigh impossible to get an overall feel for how much disruption there's going to be, and when, and where. And there's a lot. So I've had a go at collating all the relevantinformation myself.
Here's a table showing every weekend closure on the Jubilee line for the six months from June to November. Each pair of columns represents a weekend, and grey shading means the line's closed. Grim, innit?
June
July
August
Sept
Oct
Nov
6
13
20
27
4
11
18
25
1
8
15
22
29
5
12
19
26
3
10
17
24
31
7
14
21
28
Stanmore
W Hampst'd
Green Park
Waterloo
Stratford
For example, over the weekend June 6/7 the Jubilee line is closed between Green Park and Stratford, while over the weekend November 28/29 it's closed between Stanmore and Waterloo. Saturday closures aren't always the same as Sunday. And there are two days when the closure isn't all day, so they're in slightly lighter grey.
If you live at the Docklands/Greenwich end of the line, then weekends look choked up until the middle of July. But after the summer holidays the disruptions disappear, and then it's plain sailing round to Stratford until the end of the year.
It's the northern end of the line where the relentless closures will hurt most. Most weekends until September, and then every single weekend from the top end downwards. If you live in Stanmore you're going to be bloody sick of rail replacement buses by Christmas. If that's not bad enough, there are also 19 days when the parallel stretch of the Metropolitan line will be shut down (between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Aldgate). I've marked these dates in purple, if you squint carefully enough.
We have contractors Tube Lines to blame for these extra closures, because they're not managing to complete this Jubilee re-signalling work as quickly as they initially promised. It will all be worth it in the end, honest, although these umpteen extra network shutdowns are absolutely nothing for TfL to crow about. All I can recommend is that Londoners make the most of Saturday 29th August, because that's the only weekend-day during the next six months when the entire Jubilee line will be running normally.
And now a message to East Londoners who travel on the District line a lot. Bad luck, it's buggered this weekend. There's no service between Whitechapel and Barking/Upney due to track replacement work, which means the reappearance of the rail replacement buses. They were out in force a few weeks ago, chugging out to Newham and beyond, and they'll be back again in equally scary numbers tomorrow. Slight problem - the District line crosses the Lea Valley at a point where there are no parallel roads, so the buses are taking some major twirly detours to get from one side to the other. "Journey times may be increased by up to 45 minutes." Oh joy.
But it's worse than that. The eastern end of the District line is buggered every single weekend for the next three months. It's our turn to suffer, like Londoners on the Jubilee line have been suffering for the last umpteen months. Not quite so relentless perhaps, but a lot of extra inconvenience attempting to get here, there and back again until at least the middle of autumn.
Here's a fuller list of District line weekend closures, according to the pdf list provided on the TfL website. If a stretch of line is marked in green it's open, if it's red/italic it's closed. And yes, if the District line's closed then the Hammersmith & City is too. There is no escape.
11/12 Jul
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
18/19 Jul
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
25/26 Jul
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
1/2 Aug
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
8/9 Aug
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
15/16 Aug
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
22/23 Aug
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
29/31 Aug
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
5/6 Sep
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
12/13 Sep
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
19/20 Sep
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
26/27 Sep
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
3/4 Oct
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
10/11 Oct
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
17/18 Oct
Tower Hill → W'chapel → Plaistow → Barking → Dag'm East → Upminster
It's the District line between Whitechapel and Barking that's going to suffer the most. My local station at Bow Road will be closed on nine out of the next eleven weekends. There'll be no interchange with the Central line at Mile End on those same nine weekends (and no trains through Mile End at all on Sunday 18th October). Further out there are nine imminent weekends with no District line service through West Ham (three of those with no Jubilee line either). There'll be no trains at Upton Park when West Ham play their first weekend home match of the season against Tottenham on 23rd August. There's no alternative escape route at Barking because the Overground's closed every weekend for the rest of the year. And there are fifteen consecutive weekends where it's impossible to get from Dagenham to Tower Hill on one train. Thank goodness for c2c services which should still speed passengers through with no delays whatsoever... so long as you actually live near one of their stations.
Yes, I know the work's essential and it's got to be carried out some time. And yes, I know those of you living elsewhere don't really care, because you rarely feel the need to nip from Stepney to Becontree or from Plaistow up to town. But for those of us out East it means added hassle and wasted time, wiping the shine off our weekends for weeks to come. You wait until they start on your local tube line for months at a time, see how you like it then. May there be plenty of rail replacement buses to go round.
Oh, and one bit of good news. I've been moaning for ages that TfL don't have a single page on their website listing all of the forthcoming weekend's engineering works and station closures. Turns out that they do, it's just that it's hidden and nothing links to it. So let me link to it for you. It's http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/tube-all-weekend.html. Go on, bookmark it now, you may be glad you did.
14 June update: TfL have now released further details about track closures for the next few months, so I've updated the table above to take these into account. More track closed, not less, obviously.
It's no fun travelling on the tube at weekends, is it? There you are, hoping to travel from A to B, but the line you want is suspended "due to planned engineering works". There's always an alternative route, but it's usually either inconvenient or time-consuming or both, and often involves the four-wheeled misery that is the rail replacement bus. Meanwhile services on the line segments that aren't suspended get less frequent trains, which are often packed to rush hour proportions, and what should be a simple day out can rapidly become a nightmare diversionary trek. Sure we're going to get better underground services as a result (or at least some signalling that works and a few shinier tiles), but this relentless inconvenience somehow feels a high price to pay. Plus it'll never finish, will it, because there'll always be more engineering work that needs doing when all this lot's finished. Sorry London, but our weekends are probably permanently blighted for the foreseeable future.
If you're feeling particularly pessimistic, you'll be delighted to know that TfL publish a regular pdf bulletin detailing all proposed tube line closures for the next six months. It makes for grim reading, especially if (like me) you live in one of the areas most affected by current ongoing engineering upgrades. Things are particularly unpleasant on the District and Jubilee lines, with only one single weekend between now and September when they'll be running a normal service. The Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines are almost as bad, and there's still no end in sight to part and total suspensions on the Victoria line.
I've summarised TfL's lengthy list in this easy-to-swallow table of weekend tube shutdowns. Every coloured blob indicates a weekend shutdown along part (or all) of a particular line. Now you can plan to be elsewhere as required (or maybe stick to the Waterloo and City line, just to be on the safe side).
Things are worse than this, of course. The London Overground is buggered every weekend between now and the end of the year, and there are also numerous DLR suspensions in the offing (although few of these are yet announced). Add in engineering work on various mainline and suburban rail services, and you might as well stay at home.
And in case you're thinking "it's a lot worse now than it used to be", you'd be right. Here's an equivalent table from four years ago...
London's ten busiest National Rail stations (2014/15)(with changes since 2013/14) 1) Waterloo (99m)2) Victoria (85m)3) Liverpool Street (64m)4) London Bridge (50m)5) ↑1 Charing Cross (42.98m)6) ↓1 Euston (42.95m)7) Paddington (36m)8) King's Cross (32m)9) Stratford (31m)10) St Pancras (28m)
It's a lot of no change in the London Rail Top 10. The only slight switch sees Charing Cross overtake Euston, fractionally, mainly thanks to passengers displaced by extensive closures at London Bridge. Although Stratford's position in the London Top 10 hasn't changed, a rise of 4½m passengers has seen the station enter the National Top 10 for the first time, at number 10.
London's ten busiest National Rail stations fifteen years ago (1999/2000) 1) London Bridge (81m)2) Waterloo (66m)3) Victoria (59m)4) King's Cross (46m)5) Liverpool Street (38m)6) Euston (30m)7) Paddington (24m)8) Fenchurch Street (16m)9) Clapham Junction (15½m)10) East Croydon (13m)
London Bridge may have haemorrhaged passengers since the millennium (do we have the Jubilee line to thank?), but entries and exits at every other station in this list have grown enormously over the last 15 years (by approximately 40-50% in most cases). Charing Cross has shot up from 21st fifteen years ago to 5th now, while Stratford used to be 35th back then, one place behind Earlsfield.
London's ten busiest National Rail stations that aren't central London termini (2014/15) 1) Stratford (31m)2) Clapham Junction (26m)3) East Croydon (22m)4) Vauxhall (21m)5) ↑1 Highbury & Islington (20m)6) ↓1 Wimbledon (19½m)7) Putney (11m)8) Richmond (9.8m)9) ↑1 Barking (9.7m)10) ↓1 Surbiton (9.6m)
Not much has changed here either since last year, with a lot of stations in south and west London making a prominent appearance. Highbury and Islington's strong showing is mostly due to the Overground, and not thanks to an onslaught of passengers using the Northern City line.
London's ten busiest National Rail stations that aren't central London termini fifteen years ago (1999/2000) 1) Clapham Junction (16m)2) East Croydon (13m)3) Wimbledon (11m)4) Richmond (7m)5) Putney (6m)6) Surbiton (5.45m)7) Ealing Broadway (5.42m)8) Bromley South (4.8m)9) Romford (4.5m)10) Sutton (4.3m)
Stratford was way outside this list fifteen years ago, with only 2.5m passengers annually, a total that's since increased tenfold. Many of the other stations in the top 10 back then are still there, only with almost twice as many passengers. Is this because of London's increased population, or a shift from road to rail, or improved infrastructure, or the influence of a Mayor on transport policy?
Meanwhile at the bottom of the heap, not much has happened. The bottom six stations are the same bottom six as last year in the same order, in many cases with approximately the same (feeble) number of passengers. Belmont is creeping up, or rather creeping down, and if you've ever been to this almost-Surrey outpost you'll know why. But Emerson Park is heading the right way, with 20% more passengers than last year, and this is with a cut-off date before the Overground took over.
London's ten least busy National Rail stations fifteen years ago (1999/2000) 1) West Ruislip (92)2) Drayton Green (6500)3) Sudbury & Harrow Road (8200)4) South Greenford (10000)5) Sudbury Hill Harrow (15000)6) Angel Road (16000)7) Crews Hill (22000)8) Emerson Park (24000)9) Belmont (26000)10) Woodgrange Park (40000)
Other than the top and bottom of the list (look at West Ruislip!) these lowly stations are almost identical to today. Nobody wanted to go to Sudbury and Greenford then, and nobody does now. Even so, look at how passenger numbers have exploded more than tenfold at these stations since the millennium. That's particularly the case at Woodgrange Park, today part of the Overground with three quarters of a million passengers annually.
The UK's ten busiest National Rail stations that aren't in London (2014/15) 1) Birmingham New Street (35m)2) ↑1 Glasgow Central (29.0m)3) ↓1 Leeds (28.8m)4) Manchester Piccadilly (24.6m)5) Edinburgh (21.1m)6) ↑1 Gatwick Airport (17.5m)7) ↓1 Brighton (17.2m)8) Glasgow Queen Street (17.0m)9) Reading (16.3m)10) Liverpool Central (15.3m)
Since last year, again minimal change. Glasgow and Leeds continue to swap places based on fractions of a million, whereas the real story is Gatwick Airport continuing its relentless rise. Of all these provincial stations only Birmingham makes the National Top 10, all the other places are taken by stations in London.
The UK's ten busiest National Rail stations that aren't in London fifteen years ago (1999/2000) 1) Glasgow Central (23m)2) Manchester Piccadilly (15m)3) Birmingham New Street (13m)4) Edinburgh (11.7m)5) Leeds (11.4m)6) Liverpool Lime Street (11.3m)7) Reading (11.2m)8) Brighton (8.9m)9) Gatwick Airport (8.6m)10) Cardiff Central (6.5m)
Glasgow Central took the crown fifteen years ago, and hasn't dramatically increased its passenger numbers since. But many of the other stations have - Leeds has more than doubled and Birmingham New Street almost trebled. Will the latter's revamp earlier this year boost numbers even more?
These ten stations on the National Rail network have fewer than 100 passengers a year, that's less than two a week! Often the reason for this is an abysmal train service running at awkward times or on infrequent days. Shippea Hill, for example, has one train to Norwich around 7.30am daily (except Sunday), and one train to Cambridge around 7.30pm on Saturdays only, so is effectively useless. The least used station in London is a thousand times more popular.
The UK's ten least busy National Rail stations fifteen years ago (1999/2000) 1) Coombe Junction (32)2) Buckenham (33)3) Gainsborough Central (36)4) Pilning (42)5) Golf Street (56)6) Altnabreac (58)7) Barry Links (60)8) Sugar Loaf (78)9) Thorne South (85)10) Watford West (87)
Much the same suspects, with similarly appalling passenger numbers. The big escapee since the millennium is Thorne South, which now has an hourly service to Doncaster and a six figure annual passenger total. And look, there's poor dead Watford West, at the time limping on with a daily taxi service and officially closed a couple of years later. It's also the only one of these ten stations I've ever been to - I should really do something about that...
» Rail passenger data here(total annual entry and exit frequencies)
How difficult can it be to upgrade the Jubilee line? Very, as it turns out. Contractors Tube Lines had promised to upgrade all the signalling on the Jubilee by the end of the year, enabling all the trains to run quicker. But we now know that they won't hit this New Year target because the work's taken longer than they hoped, and (apparently) because they weren't allowed half as many weekend line closures as they'd have liked.
And now a message to East Londoners who travel on the District line a lot. Bad luck, it's buggered this weekend. There's no service between Whitechapel and Barking/Upney due to track replacement work, which means the reappearance of the rail replacement buses. They were out in force a few weeks ago, chugging out to Newham and beyond, and they'll be back again in equally scary numbers tomorrow. Slight problem - the District line crosses the Lea Valley at a point where there are no parallel roads, so the buses are taking some major twirly detours to get from one side to the other. "Journey times may be increased by up to 45 minutes." Oh joy.
