Why does the Piccadilly line skip stations?

if you've traveled the Western reaches of the district line you have almost certainly noticed that there are a few stations where the Piccadilly line passes through but does not stop if you're heading east and you catch the Piccadilly line at Acton town you zip straight past Chiswick Park if it's the beginning or end of the day you might stop at turnham Green otherwise you'll skip that too you go straight through Stamford Brook and Ravens Court Park and don't stop until Hammersmith after Baron's Court you dive underground and Miss West Kensington out but then the Piccadilly line stops at the same places as the district line until South Kensington after which the two lines diverge so what's with that bit where the Piccadilly doesn't stop well the Piccadilly line actually has a history of this sort of thing when it was first built as the Great Northern Piccadilly and Brompton Railway its planners seemingly put stations any old wear some of these stations were more successful than others management tended to view the less popular stations as obstacles slowing passengers down on their way to more remunerative stations from 1909 less than three years after the line first opens the timetable was altered during the rush hour trains would skip two stations either Caledonian Road and Gillespie Road which is now called Arsenal by the way or York Road and Holloway Road after the first world war trains might also skip Covent Garden Russell Square Brompton Road South Kensington Gloucester Road and York Road there were also theater expresses from Finsbury Park to aldwich or strand as it used to be known trains bore a headboard that indicated that they were non-stop but not which stations they were non-stop at by all accounts it was rather complicated and frustrating for passengers trying to figure out if they could actually get to their destination it's interesting because on the whole the London Underground doesn't go for Express services if a station is skipped it's usually because it's closed for one reason or another in general the problem was a lack of facilities for trains to overtake each other in the 1920s the Piccadilly line was looking to expand North to cockfosters and West to Hounslow and South Harrow this would funnel more traffic onto the central section of the line and planners suggested the closure of no fewer than seven stations these would be Gloucester Road Brompton Road down street Covent Garden York Road Caledonian Road and Gillespie Road they also played with the idea of closing the short Branch to aldwich in the end Brompton Road down street and York Road would get the chop and the oldwich branch would Soldier on until 1994. but back to the 20s on the new Northern extension they considered some trains missing bounds green and arnos Grove on the grounds at those stations were in Fairly undeveloped areas and likely wouldn't have heavy traffic at least to begin with but let's come back to that Western extension the problem was the district Railway the district had a whole mess of lines in the west serving Richmond Ealing Wimbledon Olympia South Harrow and Hounslow everything converged at Earl's Court by the 1920s this was becoming a problem east of Els Court there were only so many slots for trains to use Richmond and dealing Broadway were both busy stations but the district could only provide a limited Service South Harrow and Hounslow which were less popular lines serving less populated suburbs had it even worse they tended to operate shuttle services that didn't go into Central London but the suburbs along the lines to South Harrow and Hounslow were expanding and if the underground couldn't meet the increasing demand the passengers would go elsewhere so underground electric Railways of London the owners of both the Piccadilly and the district lines came up with a radical strategy to deal with the problem put Hounslow and South Harrow on the Piccadilly line the tracks would be quadrupled as far as Northfields and the stations rebuilt as needed this really gave them a Best of Both Worlds situation where Services could be increased on the Richmond and dealing Broadway branches and also to Hounslow and South Harrow and this was when the Piccadilly Service as we understand it today was devised four tracks meant that fast trains could be run the simplest way to do this was to divide the fast and slow trains by line slow trains would be run on the district line at fast trains on the Piccadilly the plan was firmly in place by 1929 and uerl received a government loan to get it done by the end of 1932 it was all in place in 1933 uerl was taken over by London transport who decided to take things further literally by running Piccadilly line trains over the Metropolitan line to Uxbridge so that's how we got here Piccadilly line trains skipping a bunch of stations along the route of the district line someone made a decision back in the 1920s and we have to deal with it nearly a century later on the whole though the system seems to work cross-platform interchange with the Piccadilly line is possible at Acton Town Barons Court Hammersmith and sometimes turn them green and services are frequent so the inconvenience is minimal if you need to change trains well I hope you enjoyed this skip-stopping tale from the tube if you did it would be very nice if you'd leave a like and perhaps subscribe if you'd like to see more I would like to thank my donors on Kofi On patreon and Here on YouTube for your generous support you are the quadrupling to my double track and I'll see you all again very soon for another tale from the tube foreign

Channel: Jago Hazzard

Views: 162,200

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Id: KhV08VwN7pY

Length: 6min 44sec (404 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023