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Piccadilly Line

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Piccadilly Line
Colour on map Dark Blue
Year opened 1906
Line type Deep Tube
Rolling stock 1973 Tube Stock
Stations served 52
Length (km) 71
Length (miles) 44.3
Depots Cockfosters
Northfields
Journeys made 176,177,000 (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

The Piccadilly Line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is a deep-level line running from the north-east to the west of London, with significant surface running sections in its outer parts.

Contents

History

The beginnings

The Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) (its original title) was one of several controlled by the Underground Electric Railways Co of London Ltd, whose chief director was Charles Tyson Yerkes, although he died before any of his schemes could come to fruition. In 1902 there were 26 Bills before Parliament to construct tube railways in London, and it required a Parliamentary Committee to decide on the most worthy of them as far as the Piccadilly Line was concerned.

The scheme eventually agreed involved the amalgamation of two of the planned tube railways, the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR) and the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR), and the taking over of a District Railway scheme for a deep-level tube line between South Kensington and Earl's Court (approved in 1897 but not built). When the GNP&BR was formally opened on 15 December 1906, the line ran from the Great Northern & City Line terminus at Finsbury Park to Hammersmith.

On 30 November 1907 the short branch from Holborn to the Strand (later renamed Aldwych) opened. This had been the last section of the GN&SR before the amalgamation with the B&PR was made; in 1905 (and again in 1965) plans were made to extend it the short distance south under the River Thames to Waterloo, but this was never to come about. Although built with twin tunnels, single-line shuttle working became the norm from 1918, with the eastern tunnel closed to traffic.

Later changes

On 1 July 1910 the GNP&BR became part of the London Electric Railway. The Act approving the change also applied to the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway.

On 10 December 1928 a new Piccadilly Circus tube station, which included a sub-surface booking hall and 11 escalators, was opened. This was the start of a considerable development over the whole of the Railway, which included a comprehensive programme of station enlargement on the same basis as at Piccadilly Circus.

Cockfosters extension

From the 1920s onwards there had been severe congestion at the line's northern terminus, Finsbury Park, where travellers had to change on to trams and buses for destinations in North and North East London. There had been deputations made to Parliament, asking for an early extension of the line either towards Tottenham and Edmonton or towards Wood Green and Palmers Green. The early 1930s was a time of recession, and in order to relieve unemployment Government capital was made available. The chief features of the scheme were an extension northwards from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann's Rd in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick who felt that the bus & tram service at this point was adequate. There was also some opposition from the London and North Eastern Railway to the line. The extension is in tube from Finsbury Park to a point a little south of Arnos Grove. The total length of the extension is 7.7 miles (12km): it cost £4 million to build and was opened in sections as follows:

Westward extensions

These extensions are notable for the Art Deco architecture of many of their stations, often designed by Charles Holden.

Victoria Line

During the planning stages of the Victoria Line, a proposal was put forward to transfer Manor House station to the Victoria Line. Also to build new "direct" tunnels from Finsbury Park to Turnpike Lane station, thereby cutting the journey time in and out of Central London. This idea was eventually shelved due to the inconvienence to passengers that would have been caused during re-building, as well as the costs of the new tunnels. Even so, the Piccadilly Line was still affected at Finsbury Park by the construction of the Victoria Line. The westbound service was re-directed through new tunnels, to give cross-platform interchange with the Victoria Line on the platforms previously used by the Northern City Line. This work was completed in 1965, the diversion came into use on 3 October 1965, three years before the opening of the first stage of the Victoria Line.

Heathrow extension

In 1975 a new tunnel section was opened to Hatton Cross from Hounslow West. Hounslow West became a tunnel section station. In 1977, the branch to was extended to Heathrow Central. This station was renamed Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 in 1984, with the opening of an extension loop via Heathrow Terminal 4. On 7 January 2005 the loop via Heathrow Terminal 4) closed temporarily, in preparation for works to extend the Piccadilly Line to the future Heathrow Terminal 5 station.

Currently the loop to Terminal 4 is inactive, with all underground trains terminating at the station for Terminals 1, 2 and 3. This is to allow the connection of a spur line to Terminal 5; this extension is currently dubbed "PiccEx", an abbreviation of "Piccadilly Line Extension". The original T4/T123 stations loop is expected to re-open in September 2006.

2005 terrorist attack

On July 7 2005, a Piccadilly Line train was attacked by a suicide bomber. The blast occurred at 08:50 BST while the train was travelling between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square. It was part of a co-ordinated attack on London's transport network, and was synchronised with three other attacks — two on the Circle Line and one on a bus at Tavistock Square. A relatively small high-explosive device, concealed in a rucksack, was used; the bomber died in the explosion.

The Piccadilly Line bomb resulted in the largest number of fatalities, with 21 people reported killed. Evacuation proved to be more difficult as it is a deep level line, difficult for the emergency services to reach. The entire line remained closed for the rest of the day. Parts of the line re-opened on July 8, with no service between Hyde Park Corner and Arnos Grove, and full service was restored on August 4, exactly four weeks after the bomb.

Further information: 7 July 2005 London bombings

Infrastructure

Rolling stock

A Piccadilly Line train of 1973 stock approaching the southbound platform of Rayners Lane station
Enlarge
A Piccadilly Line train of 1973 stock approaching the southbound platform of Rayners Lane station

Like virtually all Underground lines, the Piccadilly Line is operated by a single type of rolling stock, in this case the 1973 tube stock, in the standard London Underground livery of blue, white and red. Seventy-six trains out of a fleet of 88 are needed to run the line's peak service, and one unit was severely damaged by the terrorist attack of 7 July 2005. While the stock was recently refurbished, it is due for replacement within the next decade.

The line was previously worked by 1959 stock, 1956 stock, 1938 stock, standard tube stock and 1906 gate stock.

Signalling

The line is controlled from the control centre at Earl's Court, which it shares with the District Line. It is in need of resignalling, and this work is planned to be carried out by 2014.

Service pattern

The current service pattern is:

12tph Cockfosters - Heathrow Airport
3tph Cockfosters - Uxbridge
3tph Cockfosters - Rayners Lane
6tph Arnos Grove - Northfields
(tph = trains per hour, e.g. 3tph is a train every 20 minutes)

Half of the Uxbridge trains turn back at Rayners Lane - a 10-minute service runs between Acton and Rayners Lane, with a 20-minute service to Uxbridge (this section is supplemented by the Metropolitan line).

Other services operate at times, especially at the start and towards the end of the traffic day.

Map

Stations

(In order from east to west.)

Cockfosters branch

Tunnel section commences

Original Section

Tunnel section ends

Extension to Hounslow and Uxbridge

The line splits here into two branches — the Heathrow branch and the Uxbridge branch.

Heathrow branch

(Continuing from Acton Town.)
opened as Hounslow 1 May 1883 by the District, renamed Hounslow Town 1884, renamed Houslow East 1 December 1925
  • Hounslow Central, opened as Heston-Hounslow 1 April 1886 by the District, renamed 1 December 1925
    • Tunnel section recommences , opened as Hounslow Barracks 21 July 1884 by the District, renamed 1 December 1925

    Just beyound Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3 tube station, the line will go into a new section to serve Heathrow Terminal 5 tube station, which is currently under construcion. It is speculated that there will be an alternating train frequency between Terminal 4 and Terminal 5.

    Uxbridge branch

    (continued from Acton Town)

    See also

    Leslie Green - architect of the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway's early stations

    The Feeling - The final track on their 2006 album Twelve Stops and Home is called "Blue Piccadilly"

    Closed stations

    Aldwych opened on the 30 November 1904 as Strand. It was at the end of a branch line from the main line at Holborn. From 1917 onwards it was served only by a shuttle from Holborn. In 1917 it was renamed Aldwych. It was temporarily closed in 1940 during World War II to be used as an air-raid shelter. It re-opened in 1946. It closed on 30 November 1994: the level of use was too low to justify the costs of replacing lift machinery.

    Brompton Road opened 15 December 1906, closed 30 July 1934, between Knightsbridge and South Kensington.

    Down Street opened 15 December 1906, closed 21 May 1932, between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner.

    Park Royal & Twyford Abbey opened 23 June 1903, closed 5 July 1931. Although on the route of the current Piccadilly Line a short distance north of the present Park Royal station, it was never served by Piccadilly Line trains. It was opened by the District Line, the original operator of the line between Ealing Common and South Harrow, and was closed and replaced by the present Park Royal station before the Piccadilly Line started running trains to South Harrow in 1932.

    York Road opened 15 December 1906, closed 19 September 1932, between King's Cross St Pancras and Caledonian Road. It has been suggested [link] that this station may be reopened to serve new developments on the nearby King's Cross railway lands, although the number of passengers expected to use the station may not be high enough to justify the cost of refitting it to modern standards.

    External links

     

    From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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