Diversions to Baker Street Met - 1970s

Probably not platform reconstruction works, but may have had something to to with the construction of the Jubilee Line. (Step plate junction at Baker St perhaps?)

And IIRC it was only the Stanmore branch that was diverted; the location of the works meant that the Watford-Buffalo service continued to run normally.

Do you have a copy of the TTN for the works? I'd be interested to know if additional QP or Willesden reversers were put on to maintain the core frequency.

It would have been slightly difficult to divert the Watford/Queens Park service into the Met platforms.

You was thinking two steps ahead of me, I hadn't thought about that

Was the ease of the diversion of the Stanmore branch the reason for the split being that way? it seems odd that the N-S Bakerloo got the branch that was more E-W, whereas the Fleet line, which was to be roughly E-W got the N-S branch. Also seems odd that Marylebone and Paddington weren't linked to the City via the Fleet, giving another route, other than the Circle, for them to reach it, then again, Marylebone wasn't important, and Paddington was doing OK with just the circle/met linking it to the city (though the Bakerloo was a bit crowded!) back in the early 70s.

Ease of engineering may have come into it, as the original route of the Bakerloo was towards Paddington. There was probably also "mind set": LT engineers had recognised that connecting the Stanmore branch to the Bakerloo had been a mistake, giving a junction too close to town, and were seeking to undo the error.

Theres a book by one of the people from Subterrania Britanica with a few diagrams concerning new tube lines from 20s-50s. The Bakerloo and Jubilee were to have a junction á-la Camden Town to give both routes 2 southbound destinations.

And now the offices are transferring back, both to the City and to the East End (including Canary Wharf), which resulted in and was assisted by the creation of the JLE, which was connected to the Jubilee Line, which was connected to the Stanmore branch during a series of diversions in the 1970s!

Full circle

Sorry, but it was not. Before the LTPB, the Met and Bakerloo were under different management, and there was no thought of joint running.

Maybe you are thinking of the Met's plans to tunnel from Finchley Road to Edgware Road.

It was, of course, well-known that the Met had operational problems between Finchley Road and Baker Street. Once it became clear that the Met would be (in effect) taken over by the Underground Group, it may well be that minds in the Group considered that the problem could be tackled by extending the Bakerloo to Finchley Road.

But I have never seen any documentation of a formal plan before the formation of the LTPB.

Finance was indeed probably the problem: it would have been expensive to built full-size tunnels from Finchley Road to Edgware Road.

Plus it has never been clear to me how such a duplication would have eased the Met's problems, given that the tracks from Baker St to Moorgate were all heavily used during the peaks.

From what I have read (which is many books), it seems unlikely that the Met would have willingly given up any of its traffic to the Underground Group.

On the other hand, Ashfield, Pick & co were never short of ideas on how to expand their empire.

And, of course, the formation of LTPB was itself seen by many people as just a way for the Underground Group to take over the Met, LCC tramways, and private bus operators.

In the book 'Londons Secret Tubes' (I think its called that) it mentions something about the Bakerloo relieving the Met, and gives a date of 1924.