What Tube line do you wish existed

New south of the river answers

I never go further South than the tube extends really. A Piccadilly Line extension providing for Stamford Hill/Stokey/Hackney Central would be useful.

i assume this is a london-centric thread and any rants i could contribute about the glasgow underground would be wasted ;)

seriously, though: you can't complain about the shitness of any transport system anywhere in the world until you've travelled on that joke of a fucking thing.

The Sarf London line that connects Streatham with, like, the WORLD.

No, actually serious answer - there needs to be something akin to Silverlink for the South - so you can go straight across the bottom of South London - New Cross down through Peckham, the Dulwiches, through Streatham and Upper Tooting and the Claphams and out to Putney - all on one line without 1) go all the way in to London Bridge or the Elephant and change and 2) having to change a million times at Clapham Junction.

I mean, yeah, the actual train tracks exist but it's really annoying having to transfer 2 or 3 times to get across.

Harringey to the pits of hell

Also, again, not a tube per se, but I wish that Sarf London trains to LONDON BRIDGE could go North of the river, straight up to Liverpool Street and Hackney and out - it is SO ANNOYING to have to get a bus or a tube, like half a mile, to get back on a different train to get out to East London.

Un RER no less.

The orange line will make things a lot easier for me when it's up and running, but one I could really use would run:

North Greenwich - Greenwich - Blackheath - Lewisham - Catford - Forest Hill - Dulwich - Herne Hill - Brixton - Clapham Common - Battersea then connecting with the District & Circle at Sloane Square or Fulham Broadway or something. Maybe let it stop at Charlton for the Valley as well.

haha i thought the glasgow underground thingie is awesome! but then i suppose it's different if you have to actually use it daily. (also it finishes at like 6pm or something?)

i just wish there was a bus route which went directly between dalston and bethnal green. two-bus journeys, or one-bus-plus-walk, at 10am on a sunday when you haven't slept and it's pissing down = not fun.

Also an East London Line branch that splits off at Shoreditch High Street via Dalston Kingston, Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill and up somewhere near White Hart Lane. That would be nice.

(xpost haha you could get the fuck out of Bethnal Green on Sunday morning either? Grim wasn't it?)

but yeah london clearly missing a south east to south west link.

proper london-wise - maybe one that goes from alexandra palace to crouch end to stokey, newington green then de beauvoir town connecting to angel (plus another branch that goes to highgate village from crouchy)

it'll can be called like "ponce line" or something.

xxpost

While it *would* be handy if a tube line went through Dulwich, the rent on my new house wouldn't be anything like as cheap. I think I'd just be happy if I could use PAYG Oyster on the overland.

Ponce Line is another very good idea.

Tube line probably overkill but I wish there were more buses that went from N London to NE London, so I didn't have to go into Angel/Kings X and then all the way back out again.

I'd take any concession to SE London tbh

what's the definition of N London, colonel poo?

Tube line probably overkill but I wish there were more buses that went from N London to NE London

I know. I'm in Tufnell Park, and when I was seeing a girl in Stamford Hill it would take me about an hour to get to her house partially because because I had to walk for fifteen minutes to get to a bus that was going anywhere near. It's really not that far! To be fair Seven Sisters Road traffic never helped things.

I was specifically thinking of Tufnell Park actually. But anywhere west of Tottenham I guess

The Wilshire Line. But Beverly Hills will never let it happen.

The radial aspect of London's transport structure really bothers me. It's all about getting IN and OUT from the centre to suburbs - I mean, why on earth would anyone want to go from one former suburb to another?

What there really needs to be is, like, the Circle Line, but further out - i.e. this tube line should be to the Circle Line what the M25 is to the North/South Circular.

Ah, the mythcial South Circular.

or mythical.

What do you mean mythical? I live half a mile from it. It's real enough.

This is interesting:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/b/b7/20070106014211!London_Underground_full_map.png

OK, it's a bunch of random roads that were cobbled together in a vaguely semi-circular form, but it certainly exists as an entity.

tufnell park bit of a tuffie i guess.

in holloway you can just get a 253, 259 or 29 etc to go east. 41 from archway!

Essentially I want a Tube system so complex that buses are rendered obsolete.

south circular road doesn't seem to serve any purpose - you can take any other cobbled together route around the south and get somewhere in the same time!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you can pry my Sarf London busses from my COLD DEAD FINGERS.

One way I can get back is via the 41 from Archway but have been stuck waiting at Tottenham Hale for half an hour, I tend to go into Angel instead cos the nightbus is every 10 mins-ish from there

xxxpost

I tend to rely on the N253 if I'm east, but it's a bit of a schlep at either end, plus not the most reliable night bus.

it certainly exists as an entity

well at the risk of getting all philosophical, what do you mean by that? the north circular is a road. the south circular, is as you say cobbled together from existing roads and arguably only exists as a concept. unlike the north circular it doesn't make driving along its route any easier.

or what ken said.

white hart lane- seville, catering for return journeys.

I dunno - I don't really drive, but I've never had a bad experience on the South Circular. Granted, I'm only ever on it late at night coming home from gigs.

It might not be as purpose built or useful as the North Circular, but that certainly doesn't make it mythical or non-existent.

i think the analogy with trains is that in a sense, the bigger circle line already exists, if you label all the trains in the south that forms a vague circle that involves changing trains 3 times and call it a line (which is actually probably what they'd do)

No, the difference would be - I want to take all the trains without having to change! And also, when dealing with deepest SE London, not have to go IN to London Bridge to get back down to SW London.

(and basically what is currently the london overground 'line')

xpost

I'm with Colonel Poo on this one. I want them to re-route the Victoria line so that one of the two Walthamstow stations is nearer my flat, add in Manor House, then after Finsbury Park it should leap across to the Northern Line at Tufnell Park and call in on Kentish Town and Camden Town.

Out of interest, Kate, what do you consider "deepest" SE London?

The bit that I can't get to without having to go all the way into London Bridge and then out the other side.

Which is totally arbitrary, yes, but it annoys me that I can get to, say, Peckham or Dulwich on one train, but I can't get to, say, New Cross or Greenwich without tramping in and out of Central London.

i wonder if the lack of interchange between central and piccadilly line in the west is anoying for anyone - they cris cross each other but the two lines don't meet in an actual station until holborn

deepest SE london starts at borough or thereabouts

I agree entirely, as long as the Walthamstow station that moves is Blackhorse Road - you can leave Walthamstow Central where it is thanks :)

xxxpost

Lex, go and put lettuce on yr pizza or something. :-P

also i'm with k8 on buses >>>>> tubes. when i moved to dalston and HAD to get buses everywhere it was, like, totes revelatory. still try to avoid tubes at all times unless i'm going somewhere really far away or am very late.

All I'm saying is that it ain't New Cross, Peckham etc that need a tube line so much as one down thru Lewisham into Catford, Bromley etc that goes round the south and winds up in Kensington or somesuch.

looking at the map south london probably have more trains going across (without crossing central) than anywhere else in london actually

What do you mean mythical? I live half a mile from it. It's real enough.

― COOL in ze POOL, HOTT in ze DANCING SPOT (Masonic Boom), Monday, 6 October 2008 16:07

so real i live ON IT! (well, next to it)

I'd like a tube that goes from Tulse Hill to Elephant & Castle, Blackfriars, Farringdon, Kentish Town... oh no wait, that's the Thameslink, my new favourite train :-)

er, the south circular, that is.

Wait, Chuck! You live in Herne Hill now! Come to the Half Moon on Thursday! It's yr local, you can't not come!

that's the Thameslink, my new favourite train :-)

Good route. When it's fucking running.

haha wow you live off thurlow park road then?

(or on it, even?)

I live on it! I can see the signs on Tulse Hill station platform from my kitchen window, even though the Post Office tells me i live in West Dulwich according to my postcode, and apparently Tule Hill station itself is technically in West Norwood. South London is hella confusing...

Turnpike Lane - Upper Edmonton - Southbury Road - Waltham Cross

NB. I was extremely concerned, on moving from Bow E3 to the wilds of SE21 in June, that it'd be significantly harder to reach my other 'alf in Archway. Turns out the Thameslink takes me to Kentish Town in 33 minutes so I'm at her door in 40. In Your Face, tube!

is thameslink covered by travelcard?

(or *gasp* oyster prepay)

my friend used to live on that road btw.. near where the road forks

Travelcard, yes - Oyster prepay only on certain sections, but mostly not.

prepay as in pay as you go? not sure. i've just got an annual 1-3 oyster which seems to do the trick.

I love it when ILX's London people talk about London stuff. It's one of my greatest ILX pleasures.

worst thing about never using the tube is missing a lot of the design, especially underground station platform tile patterns

i love the tube aesthetic, or what i perceive to be the tube aesthetic; it's one of the great pleasures of my infrequent visits to london.

i imagine the novelty would wear off pretty fucking quickly if i was exposed to it every morning and evening at rush hour, mind.

Travelcards that happen to be on Oyster = valid across town, and work at London overground stations.

Oyster pre-pay = not valid on all (any?) overground train services.

valid on london overgrounds now i think

and valid on some other (seemingly random) train journeys

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/5823.aspx

Oyster single fares are generally not available on National Rail services in London. The only routes where pay as you go is valid are:

* Amersham - Marylebone
* Finsbury Park - King's Cross/Moorgate
* Greenford/West Drayton - London Paddington
* Stratford - Liverpool Street
* Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters - Stratford
* Upminster/Rainham (Essex) - Fenchurch Street/Liverpool Street via Barking (but not at Forest Gate/Maryland)
* Walthamstow Central/Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters - Liverpool Street
* Watford Junction - Euston (London Midland)
* Watford Junction - Clapham Junction (Southern)
* West Hampstead (Thameslink) - Moorgate/Elephant & Castle/London Bridge
* West Ruislip- Marylebone /Paddington

none of which do me any faakin' good whatsoever.

oyster pre-pay on the north london line = WIN.

used to be free :(

Denmark Hill station is pretty much a south London lifesaver. Trains to Victoria (some non-stop!), Elephant/Blackfriars, or London Bridge. Plus it's really, really nice.

But um, I agree with whoever suggested North Greenwich to Clapham. Or... some kind of super-line with starting points around Bromley and one of the stations along the non-Isle of Dogs DLR line (ie old royal docks area), transfer points at Clapham and somewhere else, and ending points at Victoria and Wimbledon. Or something.

oyster pre-pay on the north london line = WIN.

― lex pretend, Monday, October 6, 2008 9:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

used to be free :(

― ILX Systern (ken c), Monday, October 6, 2008 10:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Haha, my thoughts exactly. I got it to work for two years and paid about three times.

It's interesting, really, as to the possible reasons *why* there were never Circle Lines south of the river. There were once Inner, Middle and Outer Circle lines (the Inner is the modern Circle; the others were horseshoe-shapes that started at Mansion House, ran west, and went onto various other lines; I *think* the Middle went via the Hammersmith & City and the Outer via the North London Line, but I'm doing this from memory) but none of these Circles crossed the river at all. South of the River was, firstly, not built-up enough during the Great Railway Development phase; and, secondly, heavily served by the main line radially-based companies, who objected vociferously in Parliament to any incursions.

south london is so lame

I'm in Tufnell Park, and when I was seeing a girl in Stamford Hill it would take me about an hour to get to her house

393 any use?

best bus ever

Yes, but becoming increasingly erratic under Boris's stewardhsip.

maybe he hates stoke newington (N106 is now no more)

Didn't realise that London was the only city in the world that could use railway infrastructure.

NYC too, the rest of the world can go swivel

What nyc subway line do you wish existed

Didn't realise any other city in the world called their railway infrastructure the Tube.

Oxford is the only city in the world which calls its bus the Tube.

Yes, but only the bus to London!

The Metropolitan Line ruined the "Zone 7" joke about the Tube to Oxford, though, by changing Zones A, B, C and.... was there a D? I think there was.

Still is a D. Chesham and Amersham.

nah chesham and amersham are now zone 9

Huh, did that happen quite recently?

about a year ago.

so oxford tube can be zone 10 then. joke resumed! still hilarious.

Nah. Zone 7 is funny. Zone 10 just isn't, for some reason.

393 is indeed brilliant. Especially the Holloway to Chalk Farm bit.

I am currently being Ms. Sarf London Bus Information service trying to get people to come to Herne Hill for the aaahhhrty paaaahrty thing. What, have none of you people ever heard of tfl.gov.uk and their Spider Maps facility? Sheesh!

Regents Park
Adelaide Road
Hampstead Heath
Tufnell Park
Nags Head
Blackstock Road
Church Street & Albion Road
Kingsland Road
Hackney Road
Globe Road
Stepney Green
Limehouse

if only they had built this new Wood Lane station 10 years ago (ditto the Shepherds Bush Overground stop)

Neither of them are new stations. The Overground station was originally called Uxbridge Road; it closed in 1940. The new Wood Lane is very close to the site of White City (Hammersmith & City), which was closed to regular traffic in 1914 but opened when events were being held at White City until 1959.

xp I would use that imaginary Church Street to Regents Park via Tufnell Park and Hampstead Heath line about 500 times a day.

(Not because I would particularly need to- I'd just start tap dancing along the carriages for pennies.)