Everyone knows the history of the Metropolitan Railway as the world’s first underground line on 10th January 1863 between Bishops Road and Farringdon – but that was not even how the line was going to …
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SSR: Towards the Proposed March 2020 Timetable
At London Reconnections we don’t want to appear to always be bringing bad or disappointing news but events over the past year meant that we rarely have good things to write about. It makes a …
Continue readingATO, a Go-go: Signalling the SSR
On Sunday 17th March 2019 Automatic Train Operation (ATO) was finally, and successfully, introduced on the Sub-Surface Railway (SSR). Next week, or maybe the week after, we’ll put the significance of this in context and …
Continue readingThird Time Lucky: A Look At The New Sub-Surface Signalling Plan
We have reported previously on the ongoing problems with the resignalling contract for the Subsurface Railway (the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines). The contract is an important one, for it underpins much …
Continue readingLondon 2050 (Part 5): Peak Tube
According to the London 2050 report’s forecasts, the demand for the Underground will rise by 60% in the next thirty five years. That’s a challenging target to address with additional capacity, given the pressures the …
Continue readingMixed Signals: A Small SSR Press Release With Big Implications
On 24th March 2015 there was a surprise announcement from the Mayor and TfL about the re-signalling of the Subsurface Railway (SSR). It is largely a re-announcement of what has already been announced numerous times, …
Continue readingThe New Sub-Surface Timetable: As Good As It Gets?
December, amongst many other things, is a time for timetables. This tends not to get much publicity, particularly for the Underground, as normally there is nothing interesting to report. Superficially little has changed, but beneath …
Continue readingThe Sub-surface Railway and the Big Plan
In part 2 of Uncircling the Circle we looked at London Underground’s proposals for getting rid of the Circle Line in the form of a continuous loop and how they came to fruition. In doing …
Continue readingBig Changes Gonna Come (Part 2): A New Approach to Ticket Sales
In Part 1 of “Big Changes” we took a look at London Underground’s proposed plan for running nocturnal Tube services. Here in Part 2 we now turn to the other major change to the Underground …
Continue readingBig Changes Gonna Come (Part 1): The Night Tube
Last Thursday at Piccadilly Circus, in front of a small crowd of journalists and television cameras, Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Mike Brown, MD of London Underground, pulled the covers off of a new …
Continue readingPaddington: Bearer of Many Names
In part 2 of Uncircling the Circle we rather skipped over the issue of changing trains at Paddington. This issue was picked up by some readers who pointed out that, once Paddington (Hammersmith & City) …
Continue readingA Brief Look Inside the S7 Stock
Whilst the eight car S Stock is now a relatively familiar sight on the Metropolitan Line, the S7 variant will not make its public debut until after the Olympics. It will then be rolled out …
Continue readingCircle and District lines 4 Week Closure Begins
The Circle and District lines will be closed between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road from today for four weeks, reopening on Wednesday 24th August. This encompasses one of the oldest sections of the London …
Continue readingA Quick S-Stock Roundup
Regular Metropolitan line customers will have by now likely at least seen (if not travelled on) one of the new S Stock trains. The first of these new trains, classed as S8 (denoting the number …
Continue readingBombardier Selected as Prefered Bidder for Sub-Surface Signalling
TfL have confirmed that the contract to provide new signalling for the Sub-Surface Lines (District, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City) will be awarded to Bombardier after the completion of the statutory standstill period following …
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