In part 2 of The Past, Present and Future of Metropolitan Line Services we finished with details of frequencies for the Metropolitan Line once the Sub-Surface Lines upgrade was complete. With plans for a overview of the ultimately intended service pattern for all the Sub-Surface Lines in mind, we now look at the Circle Line.

Never Run Your Trains In A Circle!

In the 1960s and 1970s London Transport had a flourishing international consultancy arm which made money by advising other cities on on how to go about setting up and running a metro service with a particular emphasis on advising far eastern countries how to plan their fledging metros. Rumour has it their first bit of advice was always: Never, ever run your trains in a circle!

Given that London Transport knew that running trains in a circle was a seriously bad idea it begs the obvious question of why on earth didn’t it follow its own very sensible advice. With that in mind, in part 1 we look at the 19th and 20th century history of the Circle Line with an emphasis on the nature of its operation.

The Circle Line was created – reluctantly

Mansion House station in 1896 when the Circle Line had already been completed.Note the reference to “Circle Train” and not “Inner Circle”.

In 2013 one hardly needs reminding that the Metropolitan Railway opened as far as Farringdon in 1863. On the south side of today’s Circle Line its bitter rival, the District Railway, had opened as far as the woefully misnamed Mansion House station, where it had a four platform terminus, as early as 1871. The station was located at the junction of Cannon Street and the fairly recently-built Queen Victoria Street. This was not the originally intended location for this station. It should not be hard to guess where that was.

It is difficult to imagine nowadays in the gloom of the current day Mansion House station that for thirteen years this station would have been a busy London terminus complete with short sidings on the western side to assist with locomotive changes. Although it originally had four platforms it only had three tracks into them (rather like current day Uxbridge and Cockfosters) although a fourth track was added later in its life and the platform layout changed.

Meanwhile the Metropolitan Railway too was pushing eastward. Moorgate, long planned, was reached in 1865 just two years after the original opening as far as a temporary station at Farringdon. Like Mansion House station, the multiple platforms suggest that the Metropolitan, having reached the city, was in no hurry to continue eastwards beyond Moorgate. Indeed, land and costs generally would start to get really expensive. It took a further 10 years to continue the short distance to Liverpool Street and a yet another additional year to get to Aldgate, the next station beyond Liverpool Street – again a station built with four platforms and giving the impression that it was intended to be the end of the line.

If it had been up to the two rivals things might have remained this way. A joint service from Mansion House to Aldgate was run and although it was referred to as the “Inner Circle” it was in fact more like a horseshoe. It was called “Inner” because at various times there was also a “Middle” and an “Outer” Circle service. Confusingly, when reading about Circle Line history, “Inner” and “Outer” were many years later used to refer by staff to anti-clockwise and clockwise services on the “Circle Line”. By then the other services no longer existed so there was no confusion amongst themselves as to what service was meant.

The two rival companies could have probably seen that completing the circle was going to be expensive hard work which was probably very convenient for passengers but not something that was going to bring in much additional revenue. The also probably did not want to progress with something that would extend the need for a high-degree of day-to-day co-operation. They may have even appreciated the difficulties that running such a service would cause.

The two companies may not have wanted a Circle Line but parliamentary committees in both 1863 and 1864 came out strongly in favour of the idea. Indeed, the success of getting bills through parliament to further the Metropolitan and District’s aspirations below highly contentious land in central London was probably possible in no small measure to parliament’s dream of seeing the circle completed.

When the two companies seemed unwilling to progress further a third independent company, the Inner Circle Completion Company, attempted to do the job instead. The stick to get the two unruly siblings to co-operate had been provided. The carrot would be an extension east to Whitechapel to link up with the East London Railway which, due to its financial state, was ripe for takeover. In this way the markets of South East London would be opened up.

Whitechapel Station – a major objective that provided interchange with the East London Railway. Again this is an 1896 photo. Note that the station was a Metropolitan District station which, confusingly, was the full title of the District Railway.

In 1879 the Metropolitan and District Railways (City Lines and Extensions) Act was passed authorising the extensions to Whitechapel from Aldgate and Mansion House. Furthermore, the act not only authorised the very short link between District and Metropolitan Lines between Aldgate and modern-day Tower Hill (to complete the circle) – it required a Circle Line service to be provided. Clearly parliament were well used to the antipathy of the two companies involved and were determined that they would be forced to provide a Circle Line service.

Mark Lane was the forerunner to Tower Hill station. The station seemed to be fairly basic.The absence of a railway company name prominently displayed is surprising.

It is not clear how the Circle Line fared in its early days. In later years it caused a lot of problems that no other line experienced. The problems with running trains in a closed loop are many. Operationally the biggest problem has always been that if you are late you can’t make up time by reducing turnaround time at the terminus. In the early days the lack of a terminus meant that you had the added problem of having to change locomotives in something rather equivalent to a modern pitstop and then, in the confined space available, quickly re-water and re-fuel that engine so that it could be ready to take over from another locomotive in just a few minutes.



An early 20th century Underground Map.Note the total absence of any reference to the Circle Line.

Operating Problems: You cannot lose time

On the London Underground you can’t give the Circle Line trains extra time because they share the track with other trains on different lines. Indeed there were just two places where they could wait in a platform to lose time without affecting other trains – Aldgate and Gloucester Road westbound (clockwise). Edgware Road did at least provide some further saving grace as there was also a bit of leeway because the only service affected was the Hammersmith & City which ran at the same frequency and should have been at least four minutes behind the Circle Line train. Older readers may well remember that Circle Line stops at Edgware Road would always seem to involve an interminable delay waiting in a train carriage with all four double doors open in one of the few platforms of the Circle Line that is directly exposed to the cold winter air.

It follows from the inability to have much “slack” that it is important that circle line trains run to time. Unfortunately in London the Circle Line encounters a number of flat junctions and all are intensively used. These are Praed St (near Paddington), Baker Street, Aldgate, Minories (north and south of Aldgate station respectively) and Gloucester Road. Fairly self evidently these junctions are only a problem on the outer rail (clockwise) service. The inner rail (anti-clockwise) service has no conflicting junctions at all during normal working.