{"id":700024,"date":"2026-01-16T14:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/700024\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:07:10","slug":"inside-radical-plans-to-split-a-major-london-tube-line-in-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/700024\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Radical Plans To Split a Major London Tube Line in Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could\u00a0the\u00a0Northern line be split into two separate tube lines? Under proposals from TfL, it just might be.\u00a0Transport for London has long-term\u00a0goals to break up the line, saying that the split could increase the line\u2019s capacity by\u00a020,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the moment, the Northern line has two central branches: trains run either via Bank or\u00a0Charing Cross, before rejoining at Camden Town in the north and Oval in the south.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019re probably wondering: who gets\u00a0Kennington\u00a0in the divorce? Well, if\u00a0the line was split, the\u00a0alteration would see all trains from Morden run via Bank, and all services starting at Kennington (or Battersea) travel via Charing Cross.\u00a0The High Barnet and Edgware branches would each continue to be served by both Bank and Charing Cross trains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans to split the Underground line\u00a0dated back to before 2018, which was first revealed in 2024 by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. In January 2026 the Express<\/a> reported that TfL still\u00a0wants to break the line into two separate services, however it doesn\u2019t currently have the dosh to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Northern
\nPhotograph: Shutterstock <\/p>\n

The 2024\u00a0FoI response read: \u2018It was our intention to separate the Northern line, for which various options have been considered. These options vary between full separation and partial separation with timetable separations. Separation of the line would enable a more frequent service but requires more trains and as such, additional trains were being procured as part of the Jubilee and Northern line Additional Trains project.<\/p>\n

\u2018This project was cancelled in 2018 due to funding constraints, alongside the deferral of the Camden Town station capacity upgrade (as announced in our 2018 Business Plan). The latter project is needed to support the separation of the Northern line due to increased interchange at this station.\u2019<\/p>\n

So when could this actually happen? For now, splitting up Morden and Battersea remains a pipe dream for TfL. The transport bosses said that it was still an \u2018aspiration\u2019, but that it may not happen until the\u00a02040s when the Northern line\u2019s fleet would need to be replaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All the major upgrades and new services coming to London\u2019s transport network in 2026<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new night bus between central and west London\u00a0will launch this weekend<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0<\/strong>follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up for our\u00a0<\/strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could\u00a0the\u00a0Northern line be split into two separate tube lines? Under proposals from TfL, it just might be.\u00a0Transport for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,11648,393,19292,4884,257,11649,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-700024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-travel","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-global-kickers-train-travel","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-news-transport-travel","15":"tag-travel","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115905170338892807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}