District and Circle Line Closures for Nine Days in August |
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Track replacement work taking place on parts of both lines District line train
Transport for London (TfL) has announced that it intends to close parts of both the District and Circle lines for nine days this August. The closures are required for what is being described as complex track replacement work and will take place from Wednesday 4 – Thursday 12 August. Between these dates the District Line will be closed from Earl’s Court to Aldgate East and there will be no service between Edgware Road and Aldgate via Victoria on the Circle line. On the weekend of 7 and 8 August, the planned closure on the District line will also be extended from Earl’s Court to Hammersmith, Kensington Olympia, Wimbledon and Edgware Road. Over the nine-day closure, TfL will work between Embankment and Earl’s Court. This includes completely removing the outdated long timber track at Embankment station and replacing it with concrete slab track, which involves pumping over 100 tonnes of concrete from the road level. This, says TfL, will provide better journeys with greater reliability. Further work, including replacing and packing ballast underneath the track, will help facilitate faster train speeds and reduced journey times. Stations that have no service during this period all have alternative nearby stations within a 15-minute walk. Wherever possible, customers are asked by TfL to walk or cycle all or part of their journeys. In addition, there are a wide range of bus services available, and TfL will deploy additional staff across the transport network to try to ensure that any disruption for passenger is minimised. Esther Sharples, Director of Asset Performance and Capital Delivery at TfL, said, “We apologise for the disruption that this vital engineering work will cause and ask our customers on the Circle and District lines to check before they travel. Closing a section of the Circle and District line is not a decision we have taken lightly, but this is safety-critical work that needs to happen and by carrying it out in one closure we can reduce overall disruption. During this closure, we will be carrying out other maintenance and improvement work at stations to minimise future disruption.”
June 11, 2021 |