Waterloo and City line suspended

[whole diary]

[infoman]

Also underground trains will not call at FORTY stations that do not have interchange facilities.

[grahame]

Also underground trains will not call at FORTY stations that do not have interchange facilities.

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) -  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51946409

Coronavirus: 40 London Underground stations to be closed

Up to 40 stations on the London Underground network are to be shut as the city attempts to reduce the effect of the coronavirus outbreak.

Transport for London (TfL^» (Transport for London - about)) announced there would be a partial shutdown of the network from Thursday morning.
Additionally, there will be no night Tube and bus services will also be reduced, TfL said.

Beginning on Friday, the Waterloo and City line will shut completely and from Monday TfL said it would gradually reduce other parts of its network.

These include London Overground, TfL Rail, the DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) and the Tram network in south London.

Underground stations facing closure:
Bakerloo Line: Lambeth North, Regents Park, Warwick Avenue, Kilburn Park, Charing Cross
Central Line: Holland Park, Queensway, Lancaster Gate, Chancery Lane, Redbridge
Circle Line: Bayswater, Great Portland Street, Barbican
District Line: Bow Road, Stepney Green, Mansion House, Temple, St James's Park, Gloucester Road
Jubilee Line: Swiss Cottage, St John's Wood, Bermondsey, Southwark
Northern Line: Tuffnell Park, Chalk Farm, Mornington Crescent, Goodge Street, Borough, Clapham South, Tooting Bec, South Wimbledon, Hampstead
Piccadilly Line: Caledonian Road, Arsenal, Covent Garden, Hyde Park Corner, Bounds Green, Manor House
Victoria Line: Pimlico, Blackhorse Road

TfL said these station "could be closed" from Thursday and advised passengers to check the website for live updates

[CyclingSid]

That will presumably mean faster services?

[grahame]

That will presumably mean faster services?

Or longer sits at other stations?   I do recall that when station skips are in place at other times (rare but not unheard of), trains have to come virtually to a halt anyway - so it may not be as big a deal as you think.

Buses have occasional timetabled points and then run between them scheduled on an assumption of time spent at intermediate (typically request) stops.   I did notice yesterday a bus stood for full 5 minutes at a Melksham timing point, one passenger on board, spewing out fumes from what I'm sure is an engine that doesn't comply with Euro-6. Made worse by being a temporary stop due to roadworks - so it blocks the road for other traffic and it's set beside a high wall which reduces the disipation of fumes.

[Electric train]

That will presumably mean faster services?

Doubt it, underground trains slow and proceed through closed stations at 5 mph, there will also be a reduction in the number of trains so a longer wait.

The National Rail network is likely to be reducing services next week, the supporting of key workers is seen as the priority

[grahame]

Beginning on Friday, the Waterloo and City line will shut completely and from Monday TfL^» (Transport for London - about) said it would gradually reduce other parts of its network.

From London SE1

The direct tube link between Waterloo and Bank could be reinstated in May or June, Transport for London has said.

The Waterloo & City line last carried passengers nearly a year ago on 19 March 2020 when it was suspended as part of a contraction of TfL's operations during the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis.

"The current advice around working from home if you can is still planned to be in place until June, as we understand it," London Underground managing director Andy Lord told TfL's board meeting on Tuesday.

"So we're working on plans to potentially bring the Waterloo & City back into service in May or June, because we're very conscious that we want to be there to support the reopening of the City."

[REVUpminster]

Trains slow at closed stations because of shorter signalling overlaps (safe breaking distances) at station starters.

All those stations are section 12 stations. I expect quiet stations in open sections would be left unmanned staffed (for PC correctness) as they were in my day.

[Ralph Ayres]

They may have been unmanned in your day, but they're unstaffed nowadays! (or possibly not depending how describing station staffing levels is being spun...)

[REVUpminster]

After the 1993 "Company Plan" stations I knew and worked at at the east end of the District Line aka "Bandit Country" I would arrive at a station 0700 and find it unmannedstaffed and have to collect keys from the next station and at 1500 if nobody took me off leave the station unmannedstaffed and take the keys to the next station. Got a bit more complicated if that station was also unmannedstaffed.

Some staff made a fortune by doing a double shift and coming in the next day after 12 hours rest and only worked 4 hours.

[grahame]

From Ian Visits

London Underground’s shuttle service between Waterloo and Bank stations has been closed since the pandemic started, but will reopen from Monday 21st June.

[snip]

The Waterloo & City line will not be fully restored though, operating a rush-hour service every five minutes Monday to Friday from 6am to 10am and then stopping until it reopens between 3:30pm to 7pm.

[grahame]

From My London

'The London Underground's Waterloo and City line should be shut for good'

You didn't miss it during its 15 month closure either, did you? Argues Transport Correspondent Callum Marius

In the four minutes it will take you to read this article, you could travel the whole length of London’s least-used Tube line. You won’t though because it doesn’t go anywhere you need to go.

Looks like poorly argued trolling to me ... on the same basis, you may as well withdraw the TfL^» (Transport for London - about) bus no. 61 as it doesn't go where most readers of MyLondon go, and the idea of withdrawing a service because it's too quick in taking you from A (or W) to B just beggars belief.

There's a difference between not noticing it and not using it during closure too.  Our train service at Melksham was effectively closed from 2006 to 2013, but it sure was missed.  Brought back, passenger numbers rocketed from 3,000 per annum to 75,000 per annum quickly.

There is doubt as to what level commuter traffic will return, but on an underground system that was creaking at the seams before Covid, it seems unlikely that the pendulum will swing all the way to closing a line in Central London, even if Mr Marius doesn't use it personally!

[paul7575]

I guess proposing closure makes a change from people regularly proposing impossible extensions in directions it doesn’t point towards, and additional intermediate stations on tight bends and scary gradients…

Paul