Due to engineering works, there will be several weeks of closures on the Bakerloo line and the London Underground from late July through to late August. There will also be fewer services running on the rest of the Bakerloo line between Elephant & Castle and Queen’s Park during the closure as they won’t be able to use one of their depots, meaning the trains stored there are unavailable.
Section of tube map showing affected areas (c) TfL
Network Rail says that closing sections of these two lines for five consecutive weeks means that maintenance teams can carry out multiple complex projects at once which would otherwise take years of weekend or overnight working.
For instance, the sleeper replacements could have taken between seven and eight years of midweek overnight shifts to get done. For the signal cable replacement, it’s estimated 10 years of work is being condensed into the five-week closure period, saving both time and taxpayers’ money.
The closure will affect the Bakerloo line between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone stations and the London Overground between Euston and Watford Junction stations.
The closures are being phased as follows:
Phase 1 – Sunday 23 July – Sunday 30 July
- Bakerloo line closed between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone
- London Overground closed between Euston and Watford Junction
Phase 2: Monday 31 July – Thursday 10 August
- Bakerloo line closed between Stonebridge Park and Harrow & Wealdstone
- London Overground closed between Willesden Junction and Watford Junction
Phase 3: Friday 11 August – Thursday 17 August
- Bakerloo line closed between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone
- London Overground closed between Euston and Watford Junction
Phase 4: Friday 18 August – Friday 25 August
- Bakerloo line fully open
- London Overground closed between Willesden Junction and Watford Junction
During the closures, Network Rail will be installing 18,000 modern concrete sleepers in place of wooden ones dating back to the 1950s, and replacing 48km of cabling for signals.
They’ll also be upgrading 1km of railway drainage between Harlesden and Stonebridge Park to prevent future flooding.
During the closure, there will be improvements carried out to six stations – Harlesden, Headstone Lane, Kensal Green, North Wembley, South Kenton and Watford High Street.
There will also be some upgrades to the power supply for trains on both the London Underground and the Overground.
Geoff Hobbs, director of public transport service planning for TfL, said: “We’re sorry for the disruption that Network Rail’s essential track renewal work will cause to our customers’ journeys and are working closely with them to minimise the impact. Closures of this type enable work to be carried out which will make customer journeys more reliable in future and are scheduled to take place, where possible, in school holidays when demand on our network is significantly reduced.
TfL has set up a webpage with details here.
Temporary bus routes 718, 719 and 720 will be available during the closure periods and will provide connections to the Bakerloo, Jubilee or Metropolitan lines.
These temporary routes will run between Watford Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone, and between Harrow & Wealdstone and Stonebridge Park / Queen’s Park and will cost the same as a standard bus fare.
Customers for central London should use London Northwestern Railway (West Midlands Trains) services from Watford Junction, Bushey, Harrow & Wealdstone or Wembley Central (weekdays only), which will operate as normal.
Will TFL/NR be doing any improvement works to the closed stations during this time? There must be all sorts of maintenance they could be doing even if it’s just deep cleaning and painting.
Ditto on the trains blocked in at the depot?
“During the closure, there will be improvements carried out to six stations – Harlesden, Headstone Lane, Kensal Green, North Wembley, South Kenton and Watford High Street.”
Re read it and saw that. My excuse is I was on a train at a time and it was bumpy.
What about the trains though?
Are there any plans for step-free access upgrade work during this time? It would be a good opportunity to upgrade stations whilst the line is closed for lengthy engineering work.
No plans – as such things take years to arrange (and secure funding) and as the building works typically take over a year, would not be noticeably affected by these closures.
The compromise height platforms shared by the tubes and the cubes make step-free access from the street a less than useful expense.
Routes numbers 718, 719 and 720 were previously used by London Country (Greenline). But not in that direction (exactly)
https://www.angelfire.com/ult/eplates/717s.html