Jubilee Line

The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between Stratford in east London and Stanmore in the suburban north-west, via the Docklands, South Bank and West End. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the network, although some sections of track date back to 1932 and some stations to 1879.

The western portion between Baker Street and Stanmore was previously a branch of the Metropolitan line and later the Bakerloo line, while the new build was completed in two major sections: initially in 1979 to Charing Cross, then in 1999 with an extension to Stratford. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects being attempts to future-proof the line. Following the extension to east London, serving areas once poorly connected to the Underground, the line has seen a huge growth in passenger numbers and is the third-busiest on the network (after the Northern and Central lines), with over 213 million passenger journeys in 2011/12.

Between Finchley Road and Wembley Park the Jubilee line shares its route with the Metropolitan line and Chiltern Main Line. Between Canning Town and Stratford it runs parallel to the Stratford International branch of the Docklands Light Railway. The Jubilee line is coloured silver on the Tube map, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, after which the line was named.

1932 to 1939
The Jubilee line's first section opened in 1932, when the Metropolitan Railway built a branch from its main line at Wembley Park to Stanmore. The line, as with many others in the northwest London area, was designed to absorb commuter traffic from the new and rapidly expanding suburbs. The line presented the Metropolitan with a problem. The suburban traffic had been so successful that, by the early 1930s, the lines into Baker Street were becoming overloaded, a problem which was exacerbated by the post-war flight from the City of London to the West End of London.

At first, the Metropolitan had advocated a new deep tube line roughly following the line of the Edgware Road between the tube station and a point near Willesden Green. Indeed, construction advanced as far as the rebuilding of Edgware Road station to accommodate 4 platforms of 8-car length. Things changed, though, with the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) and the subsequent absorption of the Metropolitan line. The solution was now a new branch of the Bakerloo line from Baker Street to serve new stations at St. John's Wood and Swiss Cottage, thereby rendering the existing stations of Lord's, Marlborough Road and Swiss Cottage on the parallel route redundant, and negating the need for the Met's extension from Edgware Road station. It was originally proposed that the Metropolitan line's Swiss Cottage station would remain open during peak hours for interchange with the Bakerloo, and that Lord's station would open for special cricketing events, but both were closed permanently as economy measures during the Second World War. The new line rose between the Metropolitan line tracks at Finchley Road, providing cross-platform interchange with the Metropolitan line. Continuing north to Wembley Park, the new Bakerloo line branch was to provide local service on the Metropolitan line, while Metropolitan line trains ran non-stop between Finchley Road and Wembley Park, cutting seven minutes from journey times. At Wembley Park, the new Bakerloo would turn north to serve Kingsbury, Queensbury, Canons Park and Stanmore, taking over the former Metropolitan branch. The Bakerloo extension, built as above, opened in 1939.

1939 to 1979, the Fleet line
The planning for the Tube network immediately before and after World War II considered several new routes. The main results of this study concerned two major routes: the south-to-northeast "line C", and lines 3 and 4, new cross-town routes, linking the northeast suburbs to Fenchurch Street, Wapping and variously Lewisham and Hayes. Line C opened as the Victoria line, in stages, from 1968 to 1972. Work on the northeast–southwest route continued.

The "Fleet line" was mentioned in a 1965 Times article, discussing options after the Victoria line had been completed — suggesting that the Fleet line could take a route via Baker Street, Bond Street, Trafalgar Square, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Cannon Street, then proceeding into southeast London. The new line was to have been called the Fleet line, after the River Fleet (although it would only have crossed under the Fleet at Ludgate Circus; the central London section mostly follows the Tyburn).

In 1971, construction began on the new Fleet line. Economic pressure and doubt over the final destination of the line had led to a staged approach. Under the first stage, the Baker Street-to-Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line was joined at Baker Street to a new 2.5-mile (4 km) segment into central London, with intermediate stops at Bond Street and Green Park and terminating at a new station at Charing Cross, thereby relieving pressure on the West End section of the Bakerloo line between Baker Street and Charing Cross and also allowing increased frequencies on the section north of Baker Street. The new tube was to offer cross-platform interchange between the Bakerloo and Fleet at Baker Street, as pioneered on the Victoria line. The work was completed in 1979. As part of the works, Trafalgar Square (Bakerloo) and Strand (Northern) stations were combined into a single station complex, Charing Cross. The existing Charing Cross station on the sub-surface District and Circle lines was renamed Embankment.

Rolling stock
Another part of the works included a section of test tunnel, built near New Cross. This part of London has waterlogged soil that is difficult to tunnel in, so a new tunnelling method, called the Bentonite shield, was used experimentally to construct a 150 m section of tunnel, that was on the line of the proposed Phase 2 route, in 1972. The experiment was successful, leading to the introduction of this form of construction elsewhere, but when the planned route was altered, this section was left abandoned as it was effectively useless, and still exists to this day.

In 1975, when plans were under way to introduce the London Transport Silver Jubilee Bus fleet, the then Sales Manager of London Transport Advertising, Geoffrey Holliman, proposed to the Chairman of LTE, Kenneth Robinson, that the Fleet line should be renamed the Jubilee line. However, this idea was initially rejected because of the additional costs involved. Nevertheless, the name was ultimately chosen for the line after Queen Elizabeth II's 1977 Silver Jubilee following a pledge made by the Conservatives in the Greater London Council election of 1977. The original choice of battleship grey for the line's colour was based on the naval meaning of the word fleet; this became a lighter grey, representing the silver colour of the Jubilee itself.

The line was officially opened by the Prince of Wales on 30 April 1979, with passenger services operating from 1 May 1979.

Seventh car upgrade[edit]
The Jubilee line closed for three days from 25 December 2005 in order to add an extra car to each six-car train. The line had to be closed as six- and seven-car trains could not run in service at the same time, because the platform-edge doors at Jubilee Line Extension stations could not cater for both train lengths simultaneously. The signalling system was also modified to work with the longer trains.

Previously, an extra four complete seven-car trains had been added to the fleet, bringing the total to 63. This enabled the period during which a full service could be run to be increased. The full fleet will not be required to be available until full advantage is taken of the new signalling system.

The result of the seventh car upgrade was a 17% increase in capacity, allowing 6,000 more passengers per hour to use the line. Work was completed and the line reopened two days ahead of schedule, on 28 December 2005.

Signalling system[edit]
Since 2011, the Jubilee line has automatic train operation (ATO), using the SelTrac S40 moving block system. This provides capacity for 30 trains per hour.

Migration to the system was problematic. The programme of temporary closures for engineering work was criticised by local politicians as well as by the management of venues such as Wembley Stadium and The O2 because visitors to major concerts and sporting events had to travel by rail replacement bus. The management of the project by Tube Lines was criticised by London TravelWatch for its delayed delivery date, and a report by the London Assembly referred to the weekly line closures as "chaotic".

Thamesmead branch
When North Greenwich Underground station was opened, it was built to enable a branch extension to be built eastwards to Thamesmead. At present there are no plans to construct this branch route.

West Hampstead interchange
Plans were put forward in 1974 and again in 2004 for a West Hampstead interchange, to connect the three West Hampstead stations in one complex, but plans were put on hold in 2007 owing to uncertainty over the North London Line rail franchise. While no connections in the form of railway infrastructure exist, the three stations at West Hampstead form part of an "out of station" interchange in the Oyster system thus continuing similar (but little-publicised) interchange arrangements in existence since before nationalisation.

Services
Jubilee line services are:


 * Peak services at 30 tph in the core section between North Greenwich and Willesden Green:
 * 12 tph Stratford – Stanmore
 * 4 tph Stratford – West Hampstead
 * 4 tph Stratford – Willesden Green
 * 4 tph Stratford – Wembley Park
 * 6 tph North Greenwich – Stanmore
 * Some peak services originate or terminate at West Ham or Neasden


 * Off-Peak services at 24 tph in the core section between Stratford and Willesden Green:
 * 12 tph Stratford – Stanmore
 * 4 tph Stratford – Willesden Green
 * 4 tph Stratford – Wembley Park
 * 4 tph North Greenwich – Stanmore
 * Night Tube:
 * 6 tph Stanmore – Stratford

Stations

 * 1) Baker Street for Bakerloo, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan services
 * 2) Bermondsey
 * 3) Bond Street for Central services
 * 4) Canada Water for Overground services
 * 5) Canary Wharf for DLR services and from Heron Quays
 * 6) Canning Town for DLR services
 * 7) Canons Park
 * 8) Charing Cross for Bakerloo, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink services
 * 9) Dollis Hill
 * 10) Finchley Road for Metropolitan services
 * 11) Green Park for Piccadilly and Victoria services
 * 12) Kilburn
 * 13) Kingsbury
 * 14) London Bridge for Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink services
 * 15) Neasden for Metropolitan services
 * 16) North Greenwich for Air Line services from Greenwich Penisula
 * 17) Queensbury
 * 18) Southwark for Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink services from Waterloo East
 * 19) St John's Wood
 * 20) Stanmore
 * 21) Stratford for Central, DLR, Overground, TfL Rail, C2c, Greater Anglia, Southeastern and Thameslink services
 * 22) Swiss Cottage
 * 23) Waterloo for Bakerloo, Northern, Waterloo & City, GWR, Cross Country, Southern and South Western Railway services
 * 24) Wembley Park for Metropolitan services
 * 25) West Ham for District, Hammersmith & City, DLR and C2c services
 * 26) West Hampstead for Overground and Thameslink services
 * 27) Westminster for Circle and District services
 * 28) Willesden Green for Metropolitan services

Former stations
The Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross are still used during service suspensions. For example, - when the service is suspended between Green Park and Stratford, trains will terminate (and passengers alight) at Green Park before going to Charing Cross and using a scissors crossover to reverse back westbound. The platforms are a popular set for films and television because the platforms are contemporary and the trains used are current ones that appear in normal passenger service.

Depots
The Jubilee line is currently served by Stratford Market Depot  between the Stratford and West Ham stations.

Trains can also be stabled in Neasden Depot – sharing it with the Metropolitan line.