Three of London’s busiest Tube lines are running with severe delays this morning, making it one of the toughest commutes of the week as Storm Austen brings 70mph gusts to the capital.
The Metropolitan, Piccadilly and Northern lines were all showing severe delays on TfL’s live status boards as of late morning, while the Central line — which was suffering minor delays earlier — has since returned to good service.
What’s happening on each line
Metropolitan line: Severe delays because of an earlier signal failure at Harrow-on-the-Hill and an earlier faulty train at Euston Square. TfL says tickets are being accepted on London Buses, the Lioness line, London Northwestern Railway, Chiltern Railways and Thameslink via any reasonable route.
Piccadilly line: Severe delays while engineers fix a signal failure at Leicester Square. TfL has told passengers to avoid the Piccadilly line where possible. Tickets are being accepted on London Buses, the Elizabeth line, Great Northern, the Weaver line and South Western Railway.
Northern line: Severe delays after an earlier signal failure at Archway and an earlier customer incident at London Bridge. Tickets are being accepted on London Buses via any reasonable route.
Central line: Minor delays earlier in the morning, but the line is now back to running a good service — one of the first signs of the network recovering.
What we know, and what we don’t
- Confirmed: Severe delays on the Metropolitan, Piccadilly and Northern lines as of 11.30am BST, according to TfL’s live status feed.
- Confirmed: The causes given by TfL are signal failures, a faulty train and a customer incident — not wind damage. The disruption coincides with the storm’s peak hours rather than being caused by them.
- Confirmed: The Central line recovered from minor delays to a good service late morning.
- Not yet clear: When a full normal service will resume on the three affected lines. TfL has not given a time.
Why it’s hitting today of all days
The Tube misery lands squarely on the windiest day of Storm Austen, which is unfolding in our Storm Austen live blog. The Met Office has a yellow wind warning in force from 10am to 9pm today, with gusts of up to 70mph in exposed areas, and Storm Boelo is set to arrive for the weekend.
While TfL has not linked the Tube delays to the weather, the timing means millions are travelling on an already stretched network on a day when road travel is itself badly disrupted. The M25 has been closed clockwise near Clacket Lane services since just before 9am, and the M26 is shut westbound after a crash near Chipstead, with queues stretching back along the M20 to Leybourne.
Where the pain is worst
The worst of it is on three separate pressure points across the network. On the Metropolitan, the signal failure at Harrow-on-the-Hill is biting at the busy interchange where the line splits towards Uxbridge, Amersham and Chesham — while the faulty train at Euston Square has been holding up the shared section through the West End. On the Piccadilly, the Leicester Square fault sits at the heart of the line’s central section, which is why TfL is steering people away from the line altogether. And on the Northern, the Archway signal failure and the London Bridge customer incident mean both the High Barnet and Bank branches are feeling the knock-on.
Three lines on severe delays at once is unusual even for a bad Friday morning. Normally the network can absorb a single signal failure without citywide knock-on effects — but with all three faults landing inside the same morning peak, alternatives are getting squeezed too: buses are filling fast, and National Rail services through the same corridors are carrying the overflow.
Advice if you’re travelling
Check TfL’s live travel updates before you set off — statuses can change quickly as engineers work through the signal faults. Leave extra time, and take advantage of the ticket acceptance arrangements: on the Metropolitan you have the widest set of alternatives, including National Rail services, while Piccadilly passengers can use the Elizabeth line and South Western Railway as back-ups.
With the wind warning running until 9pm, the evening commute could also be difficult. We’ll keep tracking the disruption in our live blog throughout the day.
