London’s evening rush hour is running into trouble on the rails, with severe delays on the Northern line, widespread minor delays across three more Tube lines and several Overground and Tramlink services suspended.
It is a mixed picture from the one commuters faced this morning. The morning peak saw severe delays on the Metropolitan, Northern and Piccadilly lines — but by the evening the Metropolitan had recovered to a good service and the Piccadilly had eased back to minor delays.
Northern line still severe
The worst of the evening problems is on the Northern line. TfL is reporting severe delays between Camden Town and High Barnet, where an obstruction on the track at East Finchley is stopping trains from running through. The rest of the line is also running with minor delays, which TfL attributes to an earlier signal failure at Archway.
On the Piccadilly line, engineers are working to fix a signal failure at Leicester Square, leaving the line with minor delays across the whole service. The Victoria line is running with minor delays caused by train cancellations, and the Central line has minor delays for the same reason.
Overground suspensions
Two Overground lines are suspended on sections. The Windrush line has no service between West Croydon and Sydenham because of a track circuit failure at Norwood Junction — a problem with the signalling equipment that tells control rooms where trains are.
The Suffragette line is not running between South Tottenham and Barking Riverside after a freight train derailed near Barking. Our coverage of the crash disruption carries the latest on the derailment, which is expected to disrupt services until the end of the day.
Trams and buses
The London Tramlink has had no service between Arena and Elmers End all day after a track fault at Lebanon Road. Elsewhere on the national rail network, the day has been one of scattered problems: a points failure at West Drayton caused cancellations and delays on Paddington–Reading services.
TfL’s guidance to anyone caught up in the problems is the usual drill: check before you travel, allow extra time and use alternative routes where they are offered. Ticket acceptance on parallel services is normally in place where lines are suspended.
What happens next
When a track obstruction is reported, the affected section cannot reopen until engineers have inspected the line and confirmed it is clear — which is why severe delays can persist for some time even after the cause is identified. TfL is expected to update its line status page throughout the evening, so anyone heading out late should check the current position rather than assume the peak-time problems have cleared.
Evening travellers should also note that late-running services can knock on into the night. A line running with severe delays at 6pm rarely settles by 7pm, and replacement and revised services can mean unexpected terminations. If the journey matters, leave early — or consider whether it can wait for the weekend.
A day of transport trouble
It has been a bruising Friday for London’s network. Storm Austen has made its presence felt all day — our live blog has tracked the gusts and flooding — but the evening’s tube and rail delays are attributed by TfL to signal faults, track obstructions and train cancellations rather than the weather itself. The two have arrived together, which is why many journeys that looked fine this morning have gone wrong by the evening.
With a freight derailment, a fallen tree and three separate signal problems on the books, the night’s maintenance crews will have their work cut out getting everything back to normal for the weekend.
