Commuters heading home this evening are facing disruption on three Tube and Overground lines, with the District Line suspended on part of its western section, severe delays on the Mildmay Line and minor delays on the Central Line.
The District Line is suspended between Turnham Green and Ealing Broadway while a tree is removed from the track at Ealing Common. There are minor delays on the rest of the line. The suspended stretch covers the western end of the District Line through Chiswick and Ealing, where the line splits towards Ealing Broadway and Richmond, so passengers travelling to and from west London are the worst affected.
The Central Line has minor delays because of train cancellations, while the Mildmay Line has severe delays after an earlier faulty train at Willesden Junction. London Underground is accepting valid tickets via any reasonable route for Mildmay Line passengers.
Ticket acceptance is the usual fallback when a line is disrupted: instead of being limited to the route on their ticket, passengers can use reasonable alternative routes at no extra cost. London Underground, London Buses and the Elizabeth Line are all accepting tickets by alternative routes this evening, and replacement bus services are running where trains are not.
For passengers heading west, the Metropolitan Line is running between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge, and the Elizabeth Line is running between Central London and Heathrow. Services continue to operate between Acton Town and Heathrow.
Two other closures already in place this week are not new this evening but are still affecting journeys. The Piccadilly Line has no service between Cockfosters and Uxbridge because of ongoing engineering work, part of a planned Halloween closure, and the Suffragette Line has no service between South Tottenham and Barking Riverside following an operational incident earlier in the week. Details of both are in our earlier reports: Piccadilly line to shut for five days over Halloween weekend and Barking derailment keeps c2c trains disrupted all week.
Passengers caught by the District Line suspension have a few practical options. Ealing Broadway, at the western end of the suspended stretch, is also served by the Central Line and the Elizabeth Line, so many journeys can be rerouted through there. Acton Town, where District Line services are still running, is an interchange with the Piccadilly Line towards Heathrow, and the Elizabeth Line offers a separate route between Central London and Heathrow for airport passengers.
Because the suspension, the faulty train and the cancellations are all live incidents, the picture can change quickly during the evening. The safest check before setting out is the live TfL status page, which shows each line’s current position, and station announcements for the latest platform information. Anyone already travelling should allow extra time and follow staff directions at interchanges, where crowds can build during the rush hour.
Transport for London has confirmed good service on all other lines. Passengers are advised to check before they travel, as no restoration time has been given for the tree removal at Ealing Common or the faulty train at Willesden Junction.
Image: a District Line train at Gunnersbury station (library photo, Wikimedia Commons).
