Hammersmith tube station (Piccadilly and District lines)

Hammersmith London Underground

Piccadilly line platforms
Hammersmith
Location of Hammersmith in Greater London
Location Hammersmith
Local authority Hammersmith & Fulham
Managed by London Underground
Number of platforms 4
Accessible Yes [1]
Fare zone 2
OSI Hammersmith (Hammersmith & City and Circle lines) [2]
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011 Increase 28.94 million[3]
2012 Decrease 28.65 million[3]
2013 Increase 29.29 million[3]
2014 Decrease 29.26 million[3]
Key dates
1874 Opened (DR)
1877 DR extended west
1878 Started "Super Outer Circle" (MR)
1880 Ended "Super Outer Circle"
1906 Started (GNP&BR)(Terminus)
1932 Piccadilly line extended west
Other information
Lists of stations
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°29′34″N 0°13′28″W / 51.4927°N 0.2244°W / 51.4927; -0.2244

Hammersmith is a London Underground station in Hammersmith. It is on the District line between Barons Court and Ravenscourt Park, and on the Piccadilly line between Barons Court and Acton Town or Turnham Green at very early morning and late evening hours. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The Hammersmith & City line's and Circle line's station of the same name is a separate station to the north-west. The two stations are separated by Hammersmith Broadway.[4]

The lifts at this station, which were replaced towards the end of 2013, provide step-free access between the platforms and the main entrance on Hammersmith Broadway.[5]

History

The station was opened on 9 September 1874 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) as the western terminus of the railway when it was extended from Earl's Court.[6] In 1877, Hammersmith became a through station when the DR was extended west to meet the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) at Ravenscourt Park and services over the L&SWR tracks started to Richmond.[6]

A westbound Piccadilly line train

On 5 May 1878, the Midland Railway began running a circuitous service known as the Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earl's Court via Cricklewood and South Acton on the Dudding Hill Line.[7] It operated over a now disused connection between the North London Railway and the L&SWR Richmond branch. The service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880.[7]

On 15 December 1906, the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR, now the Piccadilly line) opened with Hammersmith as its western terminus.[8]

The opening of the western extension of the Piccadilly line from 4 July 1932 required the reconstruction of the station at track level to increase the number of platforms to four and much of the station was rebuilt behind the Harry W Ford designed station building on Hammersmith Broadway. Charles Holden designed a secondary entrance for Queen Caroline Street virtually identical to one he designed at the same time for Highgate (now Archway) station, since demolished.

In the early 1990s, the station buildings were demolished along with the neighbouring bus garage and incorporated into a modern shopping centre and Underground and bus interchange. During the redevelopment the designers commissioned to undertake the station's re-design, Minale Tattersfield, salvaged parts of the tiling from the Harry W Ford façade showing the station name and the lines serving it and preserved them. They now form a frame to a decorative mosaic of Hammersmith Bridge in the station's north ticket hall.

2003 derailment

On 17 October 2003 a train derailed in a tunnel just outside the station, when the wheels of the second-to-last carriage left the tracks. There were no injuries, but there was some damage to rails and sleepers. A report from the subsequent investigation, with input from maintenance contractors Metronet, London Underground, rail unions and rail consultants, determined that the direct cause was a broken rail, and suggested that this resulted from outdated specifications for track inspection, resourcing and equipment.

The rail that snapped was on the outside of a curved section of track. It had been turned around by London Underground in 2001, because of corrosion on its inner face, so that what had been its running side was positioned on the outside of the curve. This meant that what had been the running side – the corroded section – was then put under tension.

The combination of corrosion and the forces exerted on it by trains led to the rail snapping. Ultrasonic inspection equipment specified for track inspections was unable to detect outside face cracks of the type thought to have led to the break. Metronet indicated that it would respond to the incident by using different ultrasound detection equipment, increasing the frequency of track inspections, and preferentially replacing rails rather than turning them around.

Connections

London Buses routes 9, 10, 27, 33, 72, 190, 209, 211, 220, 266, 267, 283, 295, 391, 419, 485 and H91 and night routes N9, N11 and N97 serve the station and the bus station.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Step free Tube Guide" (PDF). Transport for London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Out of Station Interchanges" (XLS). Transport for London. May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  4. ↑ As the crow flies, the stations are about 60 metres (197 ft) apart door to door, although the positions of the pedestrian crossings on the Broadway makes it more like 135 metres (443 ft) on foot. See here for a close-up map. The north of the two roundels is the Hammersmith & City line station, the south one is the Piccadilly and District lines station.
  5. ↑ http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/avoiding-stairs-tube-guide.pdf
  6. 1 2 "District Line, Dates". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Archived from the original on 24 September 2008.
  7. 1 2 "Circle Line, History". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Archived from the original on 16 September 2008.
  8. ↑ "Piccadilly Line, Dates". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Archived from the original on 27 August 2008.
  9. ↑ Hammersmith Bus Station Transport for London

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hammersmith tube station (District and Piccadilly Lines).
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
District line
Early morning and late evening service only
Piccadilly line
towards Cockfosters
  Former service  
Ravenscourt Park
towards St Pancras		   Midland Railway
(1878-80)		   West Kensington
towards Earl's Court
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, November 23, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.