Piccadilly Line to Ealing Broadway

A thought that’s been discussed before but one worth mentioning again here on the blog is what happens when the S7 stock trains are rolled out onto the District Line.

Let’s look at a couple of things that have been in previous posts here on this blog.  We know that 1973 stock Piccadilly trains can run to Ealing Broadway ok, and we know that S7 District trains are running in and out of Olympia in a regular hourly service.

So what happens when all the D-Stock trains are replaced?  When the current District trains are all replaced by S-Stock (by 2015) it raises up an interesting thought – why not swap round the western end of the District and Piccadilly Lines.

The Piccadilly could then concentrate on going to Heathrow, with a smaller ‘spur’ off to Ealing Broadway.  If there’s any disruption in service, Ealing Broadway could almost be considered an reversing siding for Picc trains to turn and come back again.

The District – using S-Stock – would then go on up to Rayners Lane and Uxbridge meaning that the same style stock would be used on the stretch of the line – rather than mixed height (as we have at the moment), meaning that it would be so much easier to make that stretch of the tube map have step-free from platform to the train, with just one type of train.

But running a District service from Upminster to Uxbridge is a loooong way, which is where Olympia comes into play.   You could have a District Line service that runs from Uxbridge to High Street Kensington, and an Upminster service that runs into Olympia, thus replacing the odd ‘shuttle’ that used to/still does take place between these two stations.

You might therefore see the District Line completely changing its service patterns to look like this:

Uxbridge to High Street Kensington
Wimbledon to Upminster
Wimbledon to Edgware Road
Uxbridge to Mansion House
Richmond to Upminster
Olympia to Plaistow