Don't forget the operational cost to run a train a couple of stops further is small.
Operationally it might be more convenient to run all trains to the end of the line rather than turn some part-way (for timetabling reasons among others)
That said - the turn facilities at Kennington I would guess are probably some of the best on the network so it seems likely that they would retain the use of these to reduce the build costs in Battersea.
That would also have the advantage of providing empty trains for people from Morden to transfer onto...
Point taken,absolutely. Normally I'd entirely agree that the whole service should run through but not in this case, my reasoning being it would cost an extra two or three trains plus staffing costs compared to terminating half the service at Kennington. If ever the Evening Standard decided to have a go at Boris Johnson in the same way they decided to with Ken Livingstone, then I'm sure they could point to the cost of the extension and report only a handful of people arriving per train at Battersea between the peaks.
At a time when long-planned projects for bus,tube,railway,light railway and tram are put on hold once again through budgetary constraints it is ludicrous that B.oris chooses to get into bed with a rich financier at the nation's expense.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
So you're happy for them not to be able to increase the frequencies?
Actually,yes,and I'll explain why. Any slight theoretical increase in service will soon see the additional trains full (Parkinson's law), will not in any case be noticed by the majority of passengers and, in practice, may not be achievable because of the extra 'dwell' time at Camden Town (particularly) and Kennington, even with platform edge doors. Any underground line's capacity is both down to signalling and dwell-time at pinch points e.g. Victoria and Oxford Circus on Victoria Line and anywhere you care to name at the eastern end of the Jubilee Line.
Splitting the Northern Line into two distinct services is a hoary old chestnut (if you can have such a thing!) and probably quite unacceptable politically, especially with the chattering classes ensconced in Belsize Park and Kentish Town. I can't believe any Mayor would allow it, even if it ever got as far as his desk.
As an example of how many times this subject has cropped up and been rejected over the years, in 1971 I was a Traffic Management trainee with London Transport, working for a few months in the Northern and Victoria Lines control room at Cobourg Street, Euston and was for a time charged with looking at issues surrounding the splitting of the lines. In those pre-computer times amassing data was enormously difficult, not to mention haphazard, but my conclusion was, both from the passenger and operational point of view, the risks far outweighed the benefits. The only change that ever came of it, and this is my sole legacy to LT and TfL, was the indicator at the bottom of the escalators at Camden Town to show which platform to go to for the next train via either Bank or Charing Cross: up to that point, passengers were scurrying from one platform to the other in a guessing game.
