August closures of District Line during the mid-week

A modified service will also operate Friday 13 August to reallocate rolling stock after the blockade and be ready for CBTC SMA 6/7 testing 14-15 August.

Will trains run empty between Aldgate East and Earls Court as the crossover at Aldgate East was removed ?

The crossover at Embankment was going to be removed under the 4LM project and replaced with a scissor crossover like what was done at Kings Cross. I can’t recall the location of the replacement of Embankment crossover.

So why does it take a 9 day shutdown to replace some track and a set of points ?

Maybe because it's real track and not Hornby or Peco set track. The new pointwork will have been assembled somewhere in the open, then disassembled for transport to the site, but after the old paintwork or track has been removed. It will take several days to build the new kit, ballast it, fit juice rails, rewire juice rails, track circuiting, signalling or whatever fixed signals are being replaced with, then test running.

And remember all this has to be done in the confines of the tunnels.

I know Sullivan Buses are running replacement buses Tower Hill-Berking and Liverpool Street-Barking most weekends throughout June and July.

This is the part that I don't understand either.

I've been involved in Points and Crossing renewal works for several years; I can remember renewing the double junctions at Praed Street and Aldgate East (both done over four-day Easter closures), I was very involved in the provision of the Scissors Crossover at King's Cross, where the track installation work took about three days, and the renewal of the pointwork underneath the Earl's Court Road overbridge where to loose-lay (i.e. assemble from a kit of parts) six sets of points only took four and a half days. If slightly blowing my own trumpet, I would say I'm reasonably well qualified to comment on the time needed.

The signalling reconnections should be no more than a handful of axle counters and tags. There are no changes to the point machine type, so the testing is limited to setting it up again, running the tag trolley along and recommissioning. It's as close to like-for-like as it's possible to get. I really don't understand why nine days has been allocated for work that shouldn't take more than four at most - unless the scope of the track work is much bigger than we have initially been led to believe.

in what is sometimes the hottest time of the summer, just when air-conditioned trains would have been most welcome. Instead many passengers will need to divert to the non-airconditioned Central and Piccadilly lines (unless they want the museums at South Kensington - in which case they will have to walk.)

oh and without Crossrail to soak up the load

part of the route could have been replaced with buses but recent speed limit reductions extending journey times mean that roads like the Embankment are no longer 'fit for purpose' for this task

Would a shuttle service be possible between Edgware Road and High St Kensington via Notting Hill Gate? Or is it that trains will still be able to run through Earls Court (Wimbledon / Richmond / Ealing Broadway / Olympia to Edgware Road)? 

As the closure is Earl's Court-Aldgate East there is no restriction from Earl's Court to Edgware Road.
Most likely a 5-min District service from Edgware Road.


someone at TfL added two "." to the link! content.tfl.gov.uk/planned-track-closures..pdf

A local MP

www.stephenhammond.net/news/district-and-circle-line-track-renewal-work-august-2021

So Northern and Bakerloo Line trains will not be stopping at Embankment,

Yes Charing Cross a short walk from Embankment, as to equipment, etc isn’t it normal to have this delivered by engineering trains. I remember when the covered way in the Gloucester Road to High Street Kensington area was rebuilt, everything came by Engineers train .

My understanding is that it's heavy maintenance of the existing trailing crossover; the proposal for a scissors between Embankment and Westminster was quietly abandoned several years ago.

It's open to interpretation, but is anything above regular maintenance and below full renewal. My expectation is that this is at the higher end of the spectrum being little short of a full renewal.

Yes, and probably a skim dig and replacement of the ballast too.