Those perusing The London Paper (we'll not kowtow to their lowercase shenanigans) yesterday will have seen an interesting report on proposed changes to the Circle line, augmented with a picture that indicated the orbital network would be extended westwards via the Hammersmith & City line and connect with the District line in Hammersmith itself.
Anybody familiar with the 'Glam would be most surprised, seeing that linking the existing District platforms with the current Hammersmith & City terminus would involve smashing a train line across the Broadway and through the doors of the loathsome shopping mall: not a bad idea per se, but certainly a radical one.
The map is complete cobblers, and something drawn up by a fanciful London Paper employee. The real story is slightly less exciting: TfL are considering a change to the Circle line which would see trains start at Hammersmith's H&C station and perform one full circuit before terminating at Edgware Road, where they would reverse direction and run back to Hammersmith. A much more effective map was posted by London Connections earlier in the year. While the change would mean curtains for the eponymous pub crawl, the change would help alleviate the bottleneck at Edgware Road, allow more trains to run on the Hammersmith & City line, and increase the frequency and reliability of the Circle.
As London ReConnections reliably reports, a TravelWatch meeting yesterday involved the discussion of the plan. TLP clearly got wind of it and, expending their average 16.4 seconds of thought per article, assumed the Circle line would loop out through Hammersmith and drew up a map to helpfully confuse everybody. Job done.
Image by See Wah via the Londonist Flickrpool
