District Line distribution

[BanburyBlue]

Hi. I'm going from Liverpool Street to Imperial Wharf. I'm guessing the sensible thing would be to aim for Earl's court, but I was wondering whether the branch loadings are fairly equal. Going westbound from east London or Edgware Road, do you get a fairly even distribution of trains going to Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway, or is one branch skewed to another branch (if that makes sense).

Thanks

 

[Dstock7080]

6thp operate Edgware Road-Wimbedon
3tph operate Tower Hill-Wimbledon
3tph operate Barking-Wimbledon,
combining to 12tph Earl's Court-Wimbledon

(6tph to/from Richmond and Ealing)

 

[BanburyBlue]

6thp operate Edgware Road-Wimbedon
3tph operate Tower Hill-Wimbledon
3tph operate Barking-Wimbledon,
combining to 12tph Earl's Court-Wimbledon

(6tph to/from Richmond and Ealing)

Great - thanks.

 

[rebmcr]

Hi. I'm going from Liverpool Street to Imperial Wharf. I'm guessing the sensible thing would be to aim for Earl's court, but I was wondering whether the branch loadings are fairly equal. Going westbound from east London or Edgware Road, do you get a fairly even distribution of trains going to Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway, or is one branch skewed to another branch (if that makes sense).

Thanks

An option for your journey that always has only one change, despite always getting on the first service to arrive, is Central Line to Shepherd's Bush, then Overground to Imperial Wharf.

 

[BanburyBlue]

An option for your journey that always has only one change, despite always getting on the first service to arrive, is Central Line to Shepherd's Bush, then Overground to Imperial Wharf.

Good point - I never thought of that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Oct 2021 ==

An option for your journey that always has only one change, despite always getting on the first service to arrive, is Central Line to Shepherd's Bush, then Overground to Imperial Wharf.

How far is it from Shepherd's Bush Underground to Shepherd's Bush Overground, and is it well signposted?

 

[rebmcr]

How far is it from Shepherd's Bush Underground to Shepherd's Bush Overground, and is it well signposted?

It's up the escalators, out the front entrance, and you can immediately see the Overground station on the other side of a pedestrian crossing. I would guess less than 50m gateline-to-gateline.

 

[philosopher]

6thp operate Edgware Road-Wimbedon
3tph operate Tower Hill-Wimbledon
3tph operate Barking-Wimbledon,
combining to 12tph Earl's Court-Wimbledon

(6tph to/from Richmond and Ealing)

Have the Edgware Road services always originated from Wimbledon, or was there a time when there were Richmond to Edgware Road or Ealing Broadway to Edgware Road services?

 

[Taunton]

Although there are odd services in those different combinations, generally going in/out of service, the Edgware Road line has always operated to the Wimbledon line as far back as I can recall - which is a good while. Short turns at Putney Bridge used to be common, and going the other way turning round at High Street Ken, in varying combinations. Until the current trains, the Edgware Road line (and the Circle Line itself) always had different stock or shorter formations, as the platforms on the west side of the Circle only held shorter trains, whereas the main District line across London used full length ones.

Anyone going down the Wimbledon branch from the District mainline, I used to go to Southfields a lot, always goes to Earls Court and changes if necessary.

 

[londonboi]

The circle line and the Edgware Road line never used different trains they always used the C stock then S stocks. D stocks were not permitted past High Street Kensington due to platform clearance and length.

 

[MCR247]

I don’t think that’s what was said.

 

[MikeWh]

the Edgware Road line has always operated to the Wimbledon line as far back as I can recall - which is a good while.

Which probably explains it's nickname "Wimbleware".

 

[tom1649]

Occasionally C stock was diverted to Richmond and Ealing Broadway during times of disruption. There may even have been a single booked working to Richmond at some point.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Occasionally C stock was diverted to Richmond and Ealing Broadway during times of disruption. There may even have been a single booked working to Richmond at some point.

I seem to remember that when I was a kid (ie decades ago) not only did the Edgware Rd route pretty much all go down the Wimbledon branch, but the trunk line trains from the east more or less all headed on west to Hammersmith (without a third of them turning south like now) - perhaps that was because they were serving the Hounslow branch in those days, as well as Richmond and Ealing Broadway. I certainly conceptualised it as essentially N-S and E-W, with interchange needed at Earls Court to "turn the corner". But my memory could be playing tricks...

 

[Busaholic]

I seem to remember that when I was a kid (ie decades ago) not only did the Edgware Rd route pretty much all go down the Wimbledon branch, but the trunk line trains from the east more or less all headed on west to Hammersmith (without a third of them turning south like now) - perhaps that was because they were serving the Hounslow branch in those days, as well as Richmond and Ealing Broadway. I certainly conceptualised it as essentially N-S and E-W, with interchange needed at Earls Court to "turn the corner". But my memory could be playing tricks...

At the time when I worked for L.T. in the early 1970s, including a spell working in different Underground control rooms, and at 55 Broadway, I seem to remember Edgware Road trains terminated at Putney Bridge, with maps/diagrams at stations showing that as a localised section. Certainly Wimbledon trains during both peaks and the interpeak came from the 'main line', and I once made the journey from Upminster to Wimbledon on the one train. What happened in the evenings I don't remember. I too would make your caveat, except my memory of trains from St James's Park to Wimbledon all day are copperplated!

 

[AlbertBeale]

At the time when I worked for L.T. in the early 1970s, including a spell working in different Underground control rooms, and at 55 Broadway, I seem to remember Edgware Road trains terminated at Putney Bridge, with maps/diagrams at stations showing that as a localised section. Certainly Wimbledon trains during both peaks and the interpeak came from the 'main line', and I once made the journey from Upminster to Wimbledon on the one train. What happened in the evenings I don't remember. I too would make your caveat, except my memory of trains from St James's Park to Wimbledon all day are copperplated!

I was thinking of the '50s and '60s, when the District still ran, along with the Piccadilly, on the Hounslow branch. Perhaps having significant numbers of the "main line" Districts "turning south" at Earls Court went hand-in-hand with the running down of the District service to Hounslow? (Wasn't the latter cut back to rush hours only for a few years before it was withdrawn completely?) It was in the days when the dinky little South Acton shuttle ran - seeing that was one of the highlights of my childhood trips through Acton Town.

 

[Dstock7080]

At the time when I worked for L.T. in the early 1970s, including a spell working in different Underground control rooms, and at 55 Broadway, I seem to remember Edgware Road trains terminated at Putney Bridge, with maps/diagrams at stations showing that as a localised section.

As part of the “Law Lords cuts” in 1981 the services were reconfigured so that Edgware Road trains were extended to Wimbledon, except a few Putney trains in the peak and the City-Wimbledon trains slightly reduced.

 

[172101]

Until about 1970 Pre C stock the Edgware Road service on Saturdays (only until about 1500) also ran on to Moorgate with some going on to Liverpool Street and a few even to Aldgate.
So you get a Wimbledon train from Moorgate.
As far I know this extension never appeared on the Undergroound maps.
This was when a lot of city workers went in on Saturday mornings. The Met did not run into the city at weekends and the Hammersmith & Circle was rather infrequent, so the District supplemented the service across to Baker Street.
The GN also had trains at around 1200 from both Moorgate and Broad Street on Saturdays.

 

[Busaholic]

Until about 1970 Pre C stock the Edgware Road service on Saturdays (only until about 1500) also ran on to Moorgate with some going on to Liverpool Street and a few even to Aldgate.
So you get a Wimbledon train from Moorgate.
As far I know this extension never appeared on the Undergroound maps.
This was when a lot of city workers went in on Saturday mornings. The Met did not run into the city at weekends and the Hammersmith & Circle was rather infrequent, so the District supplemented the service across to Baker Street.
The GN also had trains at around 1200 from both Moorgate and Broad Street on Saturdays.

It certainly never appeared on Underground maps: apart from any other consideration (and there'd have been a few!) the clarification required wouldn't have been possible to incorporate in the map without totally over-complicating it for no good reason. Just a nice bonus if you happened to come across it!

 

[wimbledonpete]

I remember pre C stock the Wimbledon branch saw City trains all day Monday to Saturday, with Edgware Road to Putney off-peak, extended to Wimbledon in the peaks. Saturdays both City and Edgware Road trains ran through to Wimbledon. And Sundays was just a 20 minute service on the Wimbleware and that was it, nothing through to the City. Stock stabled in platforms 3 & 4 at Wimbledon.

 

[LU_timetabler]

The basic base service on the District at the moment is:-
6tph Wimbledon - Edgware Road
6tph Wimbledon - Tower Hill/Barking/Upminster depending on time of day / day of the week
6tph Richmond - Upminster
6tph Ealing Broadway - Upminster

This is supplemented with 6tph Circle and 6tph Hammersmith (H&C station) - Barking

Thus the southern side of the Circle gets 24tph (a train every 2.5 minutes)