Westbound/Eastbound

In the past I've seen the DMIs say trains towards Baker Street, which sounds better!

I remember a thread on here, possibly a couple of years ago, discussing this very thing. There the example was Tower hill to Paddington, where it is/was* quicker to get an eastbound train despite Paddington being well to the west of Tower Hill.

*Before the T-cup, I don't know whether it is now quicker to go via Victoria or via Edgware Road.

Looks like this thread could be heading towards the Railway Idea's, Proposals & suggestions board - but before it does...

All I would add is that generally speaking the line between Edgware Road & Liverpool Street is generally East/West, so that's why it is named thus.

The section Tower Hill to Gloucester Road is also East/West - so the same principle applies.

Perhaps the only really odd bit on the Circle route is High Street Ken to Paddington, where the District line directions are used - Westbound towards Wimbledon and Eastbound High St Ken towards Paddington.

It does lead to some odd/confusing situations, like Westbound at High St Ken when you are heading to Westminster, for example. But on the whole it works.

In fact all lines, Circle aside, are generally described according to their overall end to end status rather than locally station by station. There are of course exceptions, as there are to any rule, like the Jubilee Is half East/west and half North/South - and part of the Picc is West/North. Even the District had an anomaly on the Wimbledon branch (North/South) until it was brought into line with the rest of the line, now being East/West. The Met, of course, becomes North/South from Baker Street.

The Berlin 'Ring' did indeed come in from the suburbs, did a circuit and then headed off to another destination, using lines S45 (Schonefeld Airport), S46 (Konigs Wusterhausen) and S47 (Spindlersfeld) for the suburbs. That applied from 16.06.2002 when the Ring was finally completed. This was necessary because the round trip time was 63 minutes.

However, from 28.05.2006 the Ring became a self-contained Circle Line in its own right (S41 and S42). The round trip time was reduced to 60 minutes (because all trains were class 481) and the basic service is every 10 mins (6 trains per circle), increased in the peaks to 5 mins (12 trains per circle). Parts of the Ring are supplemented by other services, but the sections between Westend and Gesundbrunnen via Wedding, Neukolln and Treptower Park, and Schonhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen are solely a Ring service.

The advantage of the Berlin Ring is that there are no conflcting junctions (i.e. the likes of Praed Street, Baker Street, Aldgate etc., etc.) with trains having others crossing in front of them heading in another direction. There are thus flyunder/flyover arrangements at Gesundbrunnen, Schonhauser Allee, Ostkreuz, Treptower Park and Neukolln.