There have been plenty of proposals over the years to split the Bank and Charing Cross branches of the northern line into seperate lines. This would have the advantage of allowing higher frequencies due to less waiting for trains crossing between branches and no need to send trains from Mordern into both branches of the central London section.
The biggest roadblock to these proposals is Camden Town not being big enough to handle the volume of passengers interchanging between these new lines. Camden Town already has overcrowding problems due to its status as a popular destination as well as being an interchange between the northern line branches in a small station destined for much less traffic. Any proposal to split the northern line is usually predicated on a rebuild of Camden town to give it much more interchange capacity, but there is no plans or money to do this any time soon.
What if instead of an expensive and disruptive rebuild, Camden Town was closed on one of the branches, directing all interchange to Euston, which is much more capable of handling it? Charing Cross branch trains, which already stop at Mornington Crescent, could then be sent exclusively up the Edgeware branch, next calling at Chalk Farm. Both these stations are a short walk from Camden Town as well as the destinations it serves such as Camden Market. Skipping this stop would reduce journey times, somewhat making up for the additional journey time required to Euston if you were heading from Highgate to Edgeware for example. This would also alleviate overcrowding at Camden Town as there is now no interchange passengers and many people heading to Camden Town would get off at Chalk Farm or Mornington Crescent instead.
In summary, split the northern line into one line from Battersea Power Station station to Edgeware via Charing Cross, not calling at Camden Town and one line from Morden to High Barnet via Bank which would continue to call at Camden Town. All interchange between these lines would occur at Kennington or Euston.
Do you think this could work?
The biggest roadblock to these proposals is Camden Town not being big enough to handle the volume of passengers interchanging between these new lines. Camden Town already has overcrowding problems due to its status as a popular destination as well as being an interchange between the northern line branches in a small station destined for much less traffic. Any proposal to split the northern line is usually predicated on a rebuild of Camden town to give it much more interchange capacity, but there is no plans or money to do this any time soon.
What if instead of an expensive and disruptive rebuild, Camden Town was closed on one of the branches, directing all interchange to Euston, which is much more capable of handling it? Charing Cross branch trains, which already stop at Mornington Crescent, could then be sent exclusively up the Edgeware branch, next calling at Chalk Farm. Both these stations are a short walk from Camden Town as well as the destinations it serves such as Camden Market. Skipping this stop would reduce journey times, somewhat making up for the additional journey time required to Euston if you were heading from Highgate to Edgeware for example. This would also alleviate overcrowding at Camden Town as there is now no interchange passengers and many people heading to Camden Town would get off at Chalk Farm or Mornington Crescent instead.
In summary, split the northern line into one line from Battersea Power Station station to Edgeware via Charing Cross, not calling at Camden Town and one line from Morden to High Barnet via Bank which would continue to call at Camden Town. All interchange between these lines would occur at Kennington or Euston.
Do you think this could work?
