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I live near the end of the Northern line at Morden and am a keen theatre goer. I am no spring chicken and need easy route to London Bridge, Kentish Town, Old Street Kilburn etc etc. How do I get to these venues with no northern line. Have had to stop booking fringe theatres in case I cant get there at weekends. The closure will ruin my social life. I feel even more sorry for comuters obviously.

- Jan Recknell-Turner, Sutton, Surrey, 26/02/2010 16:40
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There seems to be a rush to do this work so everything is ship shape for the 2012 London Olympics. Given the levels of disruption that look likely - why not have a much longer deadline to complete the work on the Northern Line?
Say 2015 or even 2020??

That way disruption to travellers will be less frequent and Londoners will have a far less stressful time.

I couldn't care less if the Northern Line upgrade isn't ready for the Olympics!!!

- Mike Norman, Finchley, London, UK, 03/02/2010 14:30
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This is complete mismanagement. It is unbelievable that an organisation can fail so badly in meeting its obligations in one project - the Jubilee Line and then be allowed to repeat the same mistakes in a second project. All the while billing London taxpayers for the pleasure of making their daily lives unpleasant.

In any other walk of life you would not last long delivering this appalling level of service. Time for the Mayor to earn his keep and show he has the stomach for the fight and the brains to deliver a solution that is meets the needs of his electorate.

Tube Lines knew the scale of the task when they bid for the work and to now say they need to partially suspend the busiest tube line for 2 years is ridiculous.

I love living in London, but things like this make me seriously consider moving away. Transport in this city just seems to get worse and worse.

- Roy, Balham, London, 02/02/2010 17:15
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Disrupting the tube lines intermittently for a two year period is enough to make me move out of London, certainly out of the affected area. I live in East Finchley and its a black hole for bus and overland services at the best of times. Tubes are the ONLY direct method of transport into central London. To close the tube at 10pm would add an hour my working day, not to mention kill my social life completely. Every evening. And every weekend. For two years. Of course I am aware other commuters have endured this on other lines already. No wonder people say we have the worst quality of life in the world.

With no incentive to go out, there could be two wasted days on a weekly travel card. Would I switch to pay-as-you-go, which is is more expensive, or an outrageous two-tier single cash fare system which Boris has decided to raise each head far ahead of inflation rates in each of the years to come? Or I would have to make several bus journeys to even get to a usable train line, increasing the costs dramatically? I expect the powers to be to expect us to absorb that cost, where instead we should be getting substantial refunds for a service which is clearly not fit for purpose.

That we live in a city that dully accepts such dramatic failures to live up to basic standards is disgusting. That our Mayor has either no interest in, or no power to get us a better deal is even worse. I have arthritis, Boris - I can't get on a bike. Your basic duty to us all is public transport. Fix this.

- Ellie, Finchely, 02/02/2010 14:34
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This is simply ridiculous. Few people outside the UK can believe the mess our public transport system is in. It was bad enough dashing for the last tube home a couple of weeks back on a weekday and cutting short an occasional evening out, without having to plan expensive cab journeys- or take replacement buses after 10pm.. The works look as though they are going to take a very long time too, (two years to complete!)

What also needs to be considered is that, especially for female passengers, to be left stranded in town from 10pm on weekdays is actually unsafe and not acceptable in an apparently 'modern' city. Can't this northern line work be done is a more reasonable manner, avoiding more closures?

- Stephanie., London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Tamsin

Balham and Tooting Broadway stations are open until the normal times, it's Clapham North, Tooting Bec and Colliers Wood that closes at 10pm.

- Jenny, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Maimoona,

it might be more convenient for *you* if it closed at 9pm, so it allows *you* to go shopping on the weekends - but does that make it the best thing for everyone?

- Scotty, london, 02/02/2010 13:34
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These upgrades started under Ken Livingstone are causing complete chaos and I hope Boris bans them immediately.

- Sarah, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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I think I would rather they just shut a whole section (say Camden Town to Edgware) completely for 4-6 weeks and just did what they had to do during that time. Then the next 4-6 weeks on Camden Town to High Barnet and so on. I find it is the continual 'is it or isn't it?' working properly scenario that is the real pain for planning anything.

- Ian, North London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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What I don't understand is why they can't just get the engineers to work on one line at a time - surely if they put all their engineers on one line the work would be done in less time and also cause less disruption to the network generally as there would only be one line affected.

- Andy, london, 02/02/2010 13:34
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I think it is a good idea for the Northern Line to close after 9 pm on week days, rather than closing it down completely on week ends. It has been very inconvenient for me to travel on weekends when the tube lines are closed and also it is not good for the economy as people who want to go shopping to the West End on weekends don't bother because the Northern line is closed.

- Maimoona, Whetstone, 02/02/2010 13:34
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@Maimoona: plenty of people finish work after 9pm and need to get home, so the cost to the economy of a lack of transport during weekday evenings is a lot more significant than a bit of inconvenience to your West End weekend shopping habit!

- Anne, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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If it can get the job done cheaper or faster they should be encouraged to close lines at 9pm or even 8pm. The roads are pretty quiet then, so a bus replacement service would be perfectly usable. In fact, much more so than during working hours on a Saturday.

- N Igel, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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What this story seems to have missed is that Balham and Tooting Broadway stations at the moment and for the next few months are closing at 9:50 on Sundays to Thursdays

- Tamsin, London, UK, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Blue Baby - Yes I have travelled late in the central zone, yes I know of the traffic congestion (on Oxford Street for example). However, inside the central zone many stations are on two or more lines, and most of the rest have a station on another line within ten minutes walk. So if a line were closed after 9pm you'd just take another route.

From the Circle line outwards, replacing tube by bus after 9pm would work well. I'd far rather have that, than no service Saturday and Sunday shopping hours (which is what I've been getting on the Jubilee line).

- Nigel, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Having read this article again- the implications are actually worse than I thought at first glance. The weekday early closures are to potentially affect the extremities of the northern line and the central London work may take place at weekends- and all over two years! Effectively these proposals are to make the entire line unusable for a very long period. I think if it is signalling being replaced, there must be an easier way in this day and age!

- Lynne, London., 02/02/2010 13:34
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I find it extraordinary that after all the weekend closures Londonders are suffering through, little improvements are noticable. Brixton station for example has not been looking any different for 2 years apart from the cleaned up outside which is not part of the tube station upgrade. Wall tiles are yet to be put up, ceilings to be closed and the few finishes that have been applied already look cheap, dirty and worn. Apart from a few newer stations which look the part (Westminster, Canary Wharf etc), the lack of visible upgrade is frustrating. We want some results we can be proud of!

- Carsten, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Nigel - have you ever travelled by bus in Central London at night? there are sections which get gridlocked even at midnight, particularly around the west end and up at Angel, which presumably will be affected, especially at weekends.

In response to David Smith - you may be surprised to learn that quite a lot of people actually live IN London. Those of us who live in the Central Zones and pay around £1000 for our travelcards do not receive redress/compensation for the inconvenience of not being able to use the tube due to engineering closures.

- Blue Baby, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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I think the best option is to close the whole thing down and start again. That means a new tunnel new stations and new trains. As a south London resident i am familiar with having no public transport.

- Mr S.Port, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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I agree with the comments regarding Balham etc I do not agree with any private work/outsourceing of the tube that has to be done, this has been already tried on several lines are you blind to this! the work should be kept between midnight and early morning,my lord it's been going on forever get used to it, WHY make some FAT Boss and his share holders get richerer?????????

- Rob Mcdonald, london, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Victoria Line passengers were promised the early evening closures would finish at the end of 2007. Then in December 2007 it was announced they would continue all through 2008. Now the Victoria Line is cursed by regular weekend closures, there is not the slightest sign of any improvements, and closures are not co-ordinated with other routes. On one Sunday the Victoria Line was closed, the Chingford-Liverpool Street line was closed, the Central Line was closed between Leyton and the city, and the Jubilee line was closed.

London is collapsing in every aspect of its transport network - congested streets, roadworks, rubbish cycling facilities, pedestrians regarded as unimportant, unreliable and overcrowded buses, and rip-off fares on the unreliable tube. A total nightmare.

- John, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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Surly that is the right thing to do once the rush hour is over those who have been at work have left the city.If you travel after 9pm the tube are almost empty anyway.Put on extra buses the roads are not crowded then and get these upgrades done ASP.

- David Smith, Croydon, 02/02/2010 13:34
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A few years ago, many of you were moaning about the delapidated state of our Underground system in London, and it WAS in a terrible mess. LU didn't really want to admit how bad it was, and as a result the two consortiums took on much more work, costing much more, and taking longer to fix. Of course, they should have done their homework (without easy pound signs clouding their vision), but that doesn't help the situation NOW.

The Tube needs updating NOW and unfortunately this pain must be suffered at some stage. We just have to put up with it!

- Rod, Epping, UK, 02/02/2010 13:34
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All I will say is that they closed the Victoria line early on weekdays for months ... and though they don't do that ow, it STILL gets closed completely or partially most weekends so I have to wonder, what the hell they were doing all those weekdays. I certainly would not call that upgrade a success.

- John, London, 02/02/2010 13:34
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If they close the Northern Line from 10pm during the weekdays, are they going to run extra buses along the route so that we can all get home? Or perhaps subsidise taxis from the money spent on Oystercards/tickets that we are not using to get home? Not sure that cycling home in the dark over a journey that normally takes an hour would be a pleasant alternative!

Also, I wonder what the pubs, restaurants etc think about the loss of revenue from all their clients having to leave earlier to catch that last train.......

- Tracey, London, UK, 02/02/2010 13:34
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