Northern City Line

Northern City Line
Overview
Type	Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Finsbury Park Moorgate
Stations	6
Operation
Opened	1904
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	First Capital Connect
Depot(s)	Hornsey
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 313
Technical
No. of tracks	Two
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W6
Electrification	25 kV 50hz AC OHLE (Drayton Park and north) 750 V DC third rail (Drayton Park and south)

Northern City Line

Legend LNER Alexandra Palace branch (Conversion started but abandoned) Alexandra Palace Muswell Hill Cranley Gardens Highgate Depot Highgate Northern Line Crouch End Stroud Green East Coast Main Line Finsbury Park Drayton Park to King's Cross North London Line Highbury & Islington Victoria Line Essex Road Old Street Thameslink (closed March 2009) Moorgate Lothbury (Extension authorised but construction abandoned)

The Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, part of the Great Northern Route services. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line. It is underground from Moorgate to Drayton Park, and runs in a cutting from there until meeting the East Coast Main Line south of Finsbury Park.

The line was formerly part of London Underground, and during its history has been part of both the Metropolitan and Northern lines (at one time referred to as the "Highbury Branch" of the Northern line), although it is connected to neither. It is now part of the National Rail network and is owned by Network Rail. It is served by London commuter trains run by First Capital Connect on the lines London Moorgate - Welwyn Garden City and London Moorgate - Hertford North - (Letchworth Garden City).

History

The Great Northern & City Railway was planned to allow trains to run from the Great Northern Railway line at Finsbury Park to the City of London at Moorgate. The tunnels were built large enough to take a main-line train, with an internal diameter of 16 feet (4.9 m), compared with those of the Central London Railway with a diameter less than 12 feet (3.7 m). However, the Great Northern eventually opposed the scheme, and the line opened in 1904 with the northern terminus in tunnels underneath Finsbury Park GNR station. It was originally electrified with an unusual fourth-rail system with a conductor rail outside both running rails.

The GN&CR was bought in 1913 by the Metropolitan Railway, which operated what are today the Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines and the former East London line. They had plans to link it to the Circle line and to the Waterloo & City line, but these were never fulfilled.

The GN&CR generating station closed when the Metropolitan Railway took over, and became the studio of Gainsborough Pictures. After lying derelict for many years, it was a temporary venue for the Almeida Theatre, and has since been redeveloped as apartments.

After the Metropolitan amalgamated with the other Underground railways as part of the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, the line was renamed the Northern City Line and became part of the Edgware-Morden Line (which became the Northern line in 1937). As part of London Underground's "New Works" programme, plans were made to connect the Northern City Line to the surface at Finsbury Park, and then join suburban branches to Alexandra Palace, High Barnet and Edgware. The Highgate branch of the Edgware-Morden Line would be connected to this network north of Highgate. By the time the Second World War started, the Highgate link and electrification of the Barnet branch were well under way, but work on the Northern City link was postponed.

After the war there were proposals to extend the Northern City Line north and south. The London Plan Working Party Report of 1949 proposed several new lines and suburban electrification schemes for London, lettered from A to M. The lower-priority routes J and K would have seen the Northern City extended to Woolwich (Route J) and Crystal Palace (Route K), retaining the "Northern Heights" extensions to Edgware and Alexandra Palace. The lines would have run in small-diameter tube tunnels south from Moorgate to Bank and London Bridge. The "K" branch would have run under Peckham to Peckham Rye, joining the old Crystal Palace (High Level) branch (which was still open in 1949) near Lordship Lane. Nothing came of these proposals, and the Edgware, Alexandra Palace and Crystal Palace (High Level) branches were all closed to passengers in 1954. As a result the Northern City Line remained isolated from the rest of the network.

Services were cut back from Finsbury Park to Drayton Park in 1964 to make room for the Victoria line to use the low-level platforms at Finsbury Park. The former Piccadilly line platforms became the northbound Piccadilly/Victoria line platforms, and the former Northern City Line platforms the southbound Piccadilly and Victoria line ones. At the same time a change was made at Highbury and Islington, with the northbound Northern City line diverted to a new platform alongside the Northbound Victoria line, and the southbound Victoria using the former northbound Northern City platform, also providing cross platform interchange.

In 1970 the line was renamed Northern line (Highbury Branch) and the following year an agreement was made to transfer it to British Rail and connect it (as was intended by its original promoters) to the main line via surface platforms at Finsbury Park. By running commuter trains to Moorgate instead of King's Cross, congestion at King's Cross was relieved.

The last London Underground services ran in October 1975 and British Rail services commenced in August 1976, replacing services to Broad Street via the city branch of the North London Line. These BR services used the name "Great Northern Electrics". The track is now owned by Network Rail. Services are provided by First Capital Connect to Welwyn Garden City, and Hertford Loop Line services to Hertford North (some extending to Stevenage or Letchworth). The name "Northern City Line" has been revived to refer to the underground part of the route.

The Moorgate tube crash, the most serious accident on the London Underground, occurred at Moorgate on 28 February 1975, when a Highbury Branch train ran through the terminus at speed and crashed into the dead end of the tunnel beyond. The cause of the accident, which killed 43 people, was never determined.

Current rolling stock

The line is electrified with 25 kV AC overhead line as far as Drayton Park and 750 V DC third rail from there to Moorgate. Services are operated by Class 313 electric multiple units (EMUs), the only units certified for use on the line. In keeping with regulations for trains operating in single-bore tunnels, they have emergency doors at the end of each unit, and when operating on 750 V DC the two motor coaches are electrically separate as far as the traction supply goes. Unlike other contemporary units, there are no DC traction supply jumper cables between carriages. All Class 313 units operating over the NCL have their Driving Motor B vehicle at the London end, and whilst on DC are electronically limited to 30 mph, which is the maximum line speed. All stations are long enough to accept two three-car EMUs.

Green Party proposal

The Green Party has proposed that the Northern City Line be connected to the Waterloo & City line to create a new cross-London route.^{[citation needed]} The core section of the route would be from Finsbury Park to Clapham Junction via Moorgate, Bank and Waterloo, with a new connection at Blackfriars. Through services could then run from Welwyn Garden City and Hertford North to destinations like Hounslow, Richmond, Shepperton, Kingston and Weybridge, thus enabling much better use of the capacity offered by this part of the network, particularly outside city commuting hours. However, the Waterloo & City was designed and built as a deep tube line; were this to be connected to the Northern City line it would mean either a reversion to using deep tube stock (as when the NCL was part of the Northern line), or converting the Waterloo & City for main-line-sized rolling stock. The latter would be made more difficult because of the tight curves, which would not suit conventional carriages. It would therefore probably mean boring completely new tunnels for much of the length. The City & South London Line (which became the Bank branch of the Northern Line) was enlarged during the 1920s, however.

Passenger volume

These are the number of passengers on the line from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2010.

Station usage
Station Name	2002-2003	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011
Finsbury Park	3,006,865	5,021,634	5,041,828	5,875,109	5,545,881	5,492,164	6,566,019	7,337,297
Drayton Park	164,459	129,849	118,426	288,324	279,243	261,164	338,246	478,144
Highbury and Islington	No data	No data	No data	4,809,098	4,751,391	4,173,338	5,668,133	7,625,235
Essex Road	356,425	118,145	115,680	274,645	384,504	336,338	401,718	474,340
Old Street	No data	No data	No data	733,612	813,166	827,762	1,326,797	1,434,785
London Moorgate	832	7,135,238	7,263,068	9,235,925	10,108,616	9,373,435	6,736,698	7,187,012

The annual passenger usage is based on sales of tickets in stated financial years from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. The statistics are for passengers arriving and departing from each station and cover twelve month periods that start in April. Please note that methodology may vary year on year.

See also

• Northern Heights plan

References

Bibliography

• Bruce, J. Graeme. The Big Tube: A short illustrated history of London's Great Northern & City Railway. London: London Transport, 1976. ISBN 0-85329-071-7.

External links

• Underground Line Guide – Northern Line – comprehensive history of the Northern Line and its branches