Hammersmith tube station
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Hammersmith tube station is a London Underground station in Hammersmith. It is the western terminus of the Hammersmith & City Line, next to Goldhawk Road, and is on the District Line line between Barons Court and Ravenscourt Park, and on the Piccadilly Line between Barons Court and Turnham Green. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2.
The station was redeveloped in the early 1990s to include a large modern bus terminal and a shopping centre. During the restoration sections of the original booking hall were excavated. The tiling, which included a decorative mosaic of Hammersmith Bridge, was restored, and can now be seen in the station's North ticket hall.
There used to be a link from the Hammersmith & City Line to the District Line near the current Hammersmith station. There was another station, Hammersmith Grove Road, on the connection.
The 2003 Derailment
The Tunnel just outside the station was the location of a train derailment on the Picadilly Line on 17th October 2003 when the wheels of the 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unions and rail consultants, determined that the direct cause was a broken rail, and suggested that this resulted from outdated specifications for track inspection, resourcing and equipment.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 now 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.
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