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What London Underground line do you least like?

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Antman

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The Victoria Line for me, it's efficient and does the job but nothing interesting about it really.
 
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bramling

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Just wanted to see what everyone's opinion is when it come to their least favourite tube line.

Mine has got to be the Central Line. Especially the section I use most between my local station (Bethnal Green) and Oxford Circus. Always packed and very noisy, especially eastbound just before Bethnal Green station coming from Liverpool Street.

It's got to the point where if I have a bit of time instead of walking the few minutes to BG, I walk to Stepney Green or Whitechapel to take a ride on the much nicer S7's into Central London.

Jubilee.

Operationally it's always been seen as a bit of a children's line. At the western end it's the poor relation to the Met, and at the eastern end it's uncomfortably busy most of the time. Aside from all this, it lacks the history of many of the other lines. The most interesting feature of the Jubilee is, for me, the experimental tunnel at New Cross - and even this can't really be considered part of today's Jubilee Line.

Many consider the Vic Line to be boring, but its construction engineering is far from boring, and even today the line manages to impress with its intensive ATO system and 36tph peak service. Rare to meet miserable staff on the Vic Line too - those train staff who stick around on there seem to appreciate that the trade-off for boredom is never being on a train for more than 40 minutes and never being more than half an hour away from home depot.
 

rebmcr

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The Victoria Line is great simply because it's so quick. It's taken until the building of Crossrail for an east-west equivalent to open.

I believe the Jubilee Line Extension also reaches 60mph, they share the "tube top speed" crown.
 

bramling

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I believe the Jubilee Line Extension also reaches 60mph, they share the "tube top speed" crown.

Vic Line doesn't go above 50 mph. Jubilee certainly reaches 60 mph, and not just on the extension but elsewhere too.

Northern is allegedly supposed to be getting 60 mph (actually 100 kph) at some time in the future, probably on just a few sections, although this has run into a few issues.
 

Lrd

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Vic Line doesn't go above 50 mph. Jubilee certainly reaches 60 mph, and not just on the extension but elsewhere too.

Northern is allegedly supposed to be getting 60 mph (actually 100 kph) at some time in the future, probably on just a few sections, although this has run into a few issues.
The Central Line has aspirations of going back to 100 kph, probably after the trains have gone through CLIP (Central Line Improvement Program) and got some new motors. This would be in the open sections only though with max 65 kph for the tunnels.
 

xotGD

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Picadilly Line. It just takes forever to get out of central London heading west. Then you've got the mountains of luggage to contend with on Heathrow services.
 

DynamicSpirit

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Picadilly Line. It just takes forever to get out of central London heading west. Then you've got the mountains of luggage to contend with on Heathrow services.

That's true, it does seem to take an inordinately long time. The bit that always puzzles me is the bit between Hammersmith and Acton Town, which seems to take far longer than it ought to when it's non-stop. Trains to Heathrow often seem to wait for ages outside Acton Town too (Not sure why, as the only possible conflicting move is with a District line train heading in the same direction, and you'd have thought it couldn't take that long for one train to go past). Other than that, I'm not sure whether the slowness is simply to do with how many stops there are?
 

Mojo

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The bit that always puzzles me is the bit between Hammersmith and Acton Town, which seems to take far longer than it ought to when it's non-stop.
Funny you should say that, I always used to think it was a really long way, about ten minutes, until someone pointed out the time in the timetable is only 6 and a half minutes. If heading to Heathrow then there shouldn’t be any conflict with the District as it’s a flying junction and most, but not all Heathrow trains use the fast lines.

I don’t think blocking back into Acton West is as bad as it used to, certainly you used to stop outside on what seemed like every journey, it mainly seemed to be due to crew reliefs especially causing blocking back when the line isn’t running to time. Now it seems like you wait outside every time on the East!
 

TFN

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The bit that always puzzles me is the bit between Hammersmith and Acton Town, which seems to take far longer than it ought to when it's non-stop.

This has gotten to the point where if I'm coming from Central London on the District and I'm going South Ealing, I just change at Acton Town for the Piccadilly instead of Hammersmith. I lose little to no time at all, and 2 out of 3 times there's a Heathrow/Northfields train just waiting for me at across the platform at Acton Town.
 

sk688

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The Bakerloo

Awful frequencies on the northern end of the line , and awful old trains , in shocking conditions
 

moogal

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H&C and Circle are frustrating to use as the relatively low frequencies and common cancellations mean you can often end up with 20+ minute gaps in service.

The Central line is absolute hell in the summer with the heat, and horribly overcrowded the rest of the time.

(I don't give a stuff about "character", I just want to get to where I'm going as quickly and comfortably as possible)
 

rebmcr

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The Central line is absolute hell in the summer with the heat, and horribly overcrowded the rest of the time.

Don't forget the dim lights, dark fittings, and tinted windows making the inside very gloomy.
 

SS4

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Pretty much any deep tube line (I really dislike enclosed spaces and they're always really hot) but especially the central (packed), northern (dingy for reasons I cannot understand) and the Western end of the Piccadilly (for reasons already mentioned)

The central and northern are OK above ground if a tad uncomfortable
 

Ianno87

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Piccadilly line. Slow and packed. All the time.

Close second is the Northern Line Bank branch in the peak. "Awkwardly full" is how I'd describe it. Tolerable and fairly fast off peak these days (thanks to resignalling) which redeems it slightly. Hopefully the new Thameslink timetable will go some way to relieving it in the peak.
 

EssexGonzo

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Without a doubt Central. Because of the crowds and summer heat.

Then any other line without aircon. Because of the summer heat.
 

bicbasher

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Central for reasons stated above, but also not a particular fan of riding the Bakerloo and Piccadilly.
 

paddington

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I dislike the Piccadilly between Acton Town and Rayners Lane, especially (IIRC from reading a working timetable once) the uneven frequencies from Rayners Lane followed by 3 minute toilet break for the driver at South Harrow.

And Bakerloo north of Queens Park.

Central's underground bits are not pleasant, but it seems to me that I get where I'm going reasonably quickly. Same with the Northern. What I hate the most is waiting 10 minutes.
 

Mutant Lemming

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Even the worse of them is still better than the Paris metro - decaying stations, confusing signage, sewerage smells, decrepit rolling stock (lines 4 & 7 in particular), copious amounts of beggars and pickpockets on trains and stations. Reminded of the underground of the 80s before the investment.
 

Busaholic

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Even the worse of them is still better than the Paris metro - decaying stations, confusing signage, sewerage smells, decrepit rolling stock (lines 4 & 7 in particular), copious amounts of beggars and pickpockets on trains and stations. Reminded of the underground of the 80s before the investment.

All no doubt true, but then new lines or extensions are always in the course of being built, the price to the passenger (especially in the central area) is significantly less than in London, the Metro extends to every district and you're never far from a station. Integration with other transport modes is also more than a pious aspiration too, especially with the tram lines.
 

Mikey C

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On deep Tube stock I can only (only just!) stand up in the full-height bit, my head touches the ceiling there but only just. The Vic stock has a slightly wider full-height section than other stock, or at least seems to, or it's less obstructed by other stuff.
The 2009 stock is slightly bigger than the other tube stock, as the Victoria Line tunnel are slightly larger than the older ones, so there is genuinely more headroom in it, which is much appreciated!
 

Mutant Lemming

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The 2009 stock is slightly bigger than the other tube stock, as the Victoria Line tunnel are slightly larger than the older ones, so there is genuinely more headroom in it, which is much appreciated!

Too big for them to be transferred to Acton Works or to other lines by rail as they don't fit in the other tube tunnels.
 

LiftFan

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The Circle line has to be my least favourite. Slow line speeds and boring rolling stock - Reminds me of a rush hour Southern train when it's slowly crawling along in the delays. It also goes nowhere outside Zone 2 so doesn't see much action like the other lines do (bar W&C and Vic lines, but the W&C has more character and the Vic is the most efficient way across London)
 

westv

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I've come to the conclusion that the Metropolitan line is incredibly slow between Baker Street and Moorgate around 8:30-09:00.
 

Far north 37

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I've come to the conclusion that the Metropolitan line is incredibly slow between Baker Street and Moorgate around 8:30-09:00.
That i would imagine is because its the height of rush hour and there will there be a higher frequency of service on the hammersmith and city and circle lines.
 

GodAtum

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I used to hate the old stock Metropolitan line up to Uxbridge ... freezing cold in winter and very bumpy.
 

bramling

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That i would imagine is because its the height of rush hour and there will there be a higher frequency of service on the hammersmith and city and circle lines.

The main issue is that the section of railway between Baker St and Aldgate is simply handling more trains than the infrastructure can reliably handle. It's partly down to the historical design of the infrastructure, but variables like defensive driving and increased passenger numbers being longer dwell times are a factor too.
 

jopsuk

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The flat junctions on the Circle line really do not help it or the lines that share with it.
 

class387

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Even the worse of them is still better than the Paris metro - decaying stations, confusing signage, sewerage smells, decrepit rolling stock (lines 4 & 7 in particular), copious amounts of beggars and pickpockets on trains and stations. Reminded of the underground of the 80s before the investment.
Line 4 actually has fairly new stock from 1990, and Line 7 isn't too bad either. Lines 6 and 11 are the ones to avoid.

I agree about the environment completely. It generally feels disgusting, unorganized and dangerous.
 

D365

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It's partly down to the historical design of the infrastructure, but variables like defensive driving and increased passenger numbers being longer dwell times are a factor too.

Long live ATO :D
 

bramling

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Long live ATO :D

I wouldn’t stake my pension on that. The Northern Line is getting some extremely underwhelming performance from the ATO/resignalling. This is, just about, masked when things are running on book, but when things go wrong it’s quite apparent that the system struggles to match the capability of the old signalling. The only good thing is the whole railway can’t be screwed up by a couple of drivers driving slowly, but instead gets screwed up by a couple of drivers taking forever to close doors at stations!
 
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