Category: Circle Line

In a sense, the Circle Line is a kind of “virtual line”, since it doesn't have any stations of its own, merely sharing those of other lines.

Prior to December 2009, the Circle Line was an orbital line; that is, an actual circle of track on which the trains went round and round and round, rather than going to one end and then reversing. On 13 December 2009 a new service pattern was introduced and a "tail" was added to the "loop", turning the line into more of a spiral (or a teacup) than a circle.

Now, trains start at Edgware Road and travel anticlockwise around the old "loop"; when they get back to Edgware Road again, they leave the loop and head off along the "tail" to Hammersmith along the route of (and on the same track as) the Hammersmith & City Line.

Note that the next westbound station after Edgware Road on the Hammersmith & City Line is Paddington, which is also on the Circle's loop; this means that Circle Line trains use more than one set of platforms at Paddington. For westbound trains, this depends on whether their next station is Bayswater (on the loop; trains use the Praed Street platforms at Paddington) or Royal Oak (on the tail; trains use the Bishop's Road platforms at Paddington). All eastbound Circle Line trains from Paddington call at Edgware Road next, but those coming from the loop (i.e. those on the Praed Street platforms) will terminate at Edgware Road, while those coming from the tail (Bishop's Road platforms) will continue around the loop.

See also:

Auto-generated list of all Circle Line stations (view them on a map):

Last edited 2009-12-14 08:27:55 (version 7; diff). List all versions.