London Tube line closed after derailment

The closure of the busy Central Line, possibly until Tuesday, following yesterday’s derailment is set to create chaos during London’s rush hour.

The Line will be shut while the whole fleet of 85 Central Line trains is removed from use and checked to ensure they are safe to run.

When that process is complete, the three stops between Liverpool Street and Holborn – Chancery Lane, St Paul’s and Bank – will be out of use for several weeks.

Even after the King’s Cross disaster in 1987, which killed 31 people, and the Moorgate crash in 1975, which claimed 43 lives, only sections of Tube lines were shut.

During last year’s strikes by tube workers, small parts of Tube lines were still running minimal services.

The Central Line runs through London’s busy shopping area in Oxford Circus and Bond Street in the West End, and through the City.

The artery, which runs from north-west to north east London via central London and is 46 miles (74km) long, the Underground’s longest line.

It is also one of the Underground’s busiest lines, with an average half a million passengers using it each day. Oxford Circus with an annual passenger count of 34.3 million is the line’s busiest station.

There are 49 stations on the Central Line, and at peak rush hour 72 trains are running at one time, out of a total fleet of 85.

The train which careered into the wall at Chancery Lane on Saturday with 800 passengers on board is still in the tunnel.

Inspectors have to check that the asbestos, which is normally safe and contained in the Tube, is not disrupted.

Then police will go down and collect belongings, still left on the train and the platform where the near-disaster took place, before performing a forensic inquiry.

It is only then that the clear up operation and the investigation into the accident can take place.

London Underground hopes to move the train from the tunnel by tomorrow, using a battery operated train.

A LU spokesman said: “We will be unable to run between Liverpool Street and Holborn for a number of weeks.

“Shuttle services will run from extreme ends of the line to as close as we can.

“People will take alternative tube routes and busses and we expect to see increased customer traffic on other lines,” he said.

He added: “The whole of the Central Line is closed because we have to check the whole fleet for safety reasons. We do not expect to get it running again before Tuesday.”

Around 50 people will take part in the investigation of the train, including British Transport Police investigators, Health and Safety Executive inspectors, London Underground operational staff, personnel from Infraco – the company which maintains the trains – and engineers from London Underground’s central engineering directorate.