Euston tube station
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Euston Underground Station is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, this is between Camden Town and Kings Cross St Pancras. On the Charing Cross branch it is between Mornington Crescent and Warren Street. It is also on the Victoria Line between Warren Street and King's Cross St. Pancras. It connects directly to the Euston mainline station above it.
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Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Railway
Euston Station (on the London Underground) opened as part of the original Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Railway (CCEHR) (now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line). Original plans for the route were to have it bypass Euston on its way to Camden Town, so that the line could be straight. However the wisdom of bypassing a busy railway station which would provide customers was soon questioned, and the line was changed, leading to the line running on an east-west axis through Euston station. Since it was an independent company from the mainline station, exit (via lifts from the west end of the platforms) was to a separate building slightly west of the station.
City and South London Railway
The City and South London Railway (CSLR) (now the Bank branch of the Northern Line) opened a station at Euston as the terminus for their northern extension, hoping to allow it to increase passenger numbers by the addition of people heading to the City having arrived from other parts of the country. Their station consisted of a single wide platform in a large tunnel (as this was their standard design at the time), connected to the surface by lifts leading from stairs at the west end of their platform. The surface building, on Eversholt Street, however, was quite unusual - it was designed in an elaborate Moroccan style of stonework, in order to garner the attention of people leaving Euston (which was slightly to the west).
Connection to the Mainline
The west end of the CLSR platform was remarkably close to the east end of the CCEHR platforms, and since the companies were not in competition, it was decided to make an underground connection between the two. This consisted of a passage being built from near the CLSR lifts to the east end of the CCEHR platforms, unusually leading UP to the CCEHR platforms, as the CLSR was somewhat lower down (and to the south).
At the same time, another passageway was created, leading from the connecting passage to a new set of lifts (and emergency stairs) which surfaced within Euston itself. Though the companies continued to maintain their own separate entrances, and the separate lifts, it soon became clear that maintaining three entrances so close to each other was ridiculous, and so the separate buildings closed, leaving only the exit surfacing in the mainline station. The original exits continued to exist for ventilation reasons: however, the elaborate Moroccan design of the CLSR building was lost when it was controversially demolished for a building project.
The Victoria Line
The Victoria Line was designed to be a connecting service to take the weight off other lines. As such, it was decided that it would be a good idea to have cross platform access where possible. At the same time, the single CLSR platform was getting dangerously congested, so it was decided to build a new CLSR northbound platform some way to the south, fill in the old northbound track to expand the southbound platform, and run the Victoria line between the two.
The decision was made to have both southbound platforms (i.e. one from the old CLSR, and one from the Victoria line) connected together, and likewise for the northbound platforms. This resulted in a peculiar feature of the station in that although the Victoria line trains heading southbound are parallel to the CLSR trains heading southbound, they actually run in opposite directions, likewise the northbound.
As part of the construction works, new interchange passages were created above the CCEHR platform level, and two escalator shafts put in to replace the ageing, and busy, lifts. From the interchange level, escalators were put in to connect to the 2 new wide circulating areas for the southbound CLSR/Victoria Line and northbound CLSR/Victoria Line platforms. A passageway connecting between the south and northbound platforms was made, so as to avoid necessitating the use of the escalators, and an emergency stair to the upper interchange level inserted midway along it. Then on December 1, 1969 the whole new interchange system was opened and the old passages were closed off, and changed to function as ventilation.
The old northbound CLSR railway tunnel is still in use, at the east end of the CLSR southbound platform, since it gives access onto an important connection. Just east of Euston is a branch from the old northbound CLSR line that connects to the northbound Piccadilly line just south of King's Cross. This was created when the CLSR became part of the underground group, and is still used for train stock transfers.
Unfortunately, because of the combination of the CLSR and the CCEHR into the Northern Line (and the subsequently confusing signage), and also due to the confusing nature of the interchange level as a series of parallel tunnels meeting circulating areas for each of the escalators in turn (i.e. CCEHR steps, Down from mainline, CLSR/Victoria southbound, Up to mainline and stair to CLSR/Victoria southbound-northbound interchange, CLSR/Victoria northbound), the station is regarded as one of the most confusing on the whole Underground.
Future Plans
Euston is notable for not having the Circle Line serving the station within the complex. However Euston Square tube station is just 250m away and officially serves as an interchange for the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines. However, some plans see a direct connection being made as part of a new transport interchange project (though alternative plans have Euston Square connecting to Warren Street which is also very close to it)
There are also plans to rebuild the interchange level as part of an mobility impairment accessibility project, possibly restoring use of some of the disused lower level interchange passageways.
The management of the Northern Line would like to see the two parts of the line (i.e. the Bank branch and the Charing Cross branch) separated into two individual lines with separate identities. This would make the signage at the interchange level significantly clearer (as well as solve many operational problems and confusion of passengers trying to find the right train at Camden Town).
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