Circle line

Is the Circle line running today?

This page covers the Circle line in depth — route, stations, history, step-free access and quirks. For the live answer right now, including the current TfL status (Good Service, Minor Delays, Severe Delays, Part Closure or Suspended) and any reported disruption, see the live network status board on the homepage. It's refreshed every 60 seconds from TfL Open Data.

The Circle line is the most distinctive of the sub-surface Underground lines, and the only one to have fundamentally changed shape in living memory. Until December 2009 it ran as an actual closed circle around central London. It now runs as a tear-drop spiral — from Hammersmith, around the central ring, and terminating at Edgware Road — and shares almost all of its track with the District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines.

Where it runs

A Circle line train begins at Hammersmith and runs east through Paddington, Baker Street, King's Cross St Pancras, Liverpool Street, Tower Hill, Westminster, Victoria, South Kensington, High Street Kensington and back round to Edgware Road, where it terminates. The whole journey takes roughly an hour.

The line connects every London mainline terminus except Waterloo and Marylebone — Paddington, Euston (via King's Cross), King's Cross, St Pancras, Liverpool Street, Cannon Street, Blackfriars and Victoria.

From circle to spiral — the 2009 change

For almost sixty years the Circle line ran as an actual loop, running clockwise and anticlockwise around central London with no terminus. The problem was that a single delay anywhere on the loop would cascade around the entire ring with no way to interrupt the propagation — there was no terminus where trains could be regulated back to schedule.

In December 2009, TfL broke the circle: trains now begin at Hammersmith, run the full loop, and terminate at Edgware Road, where they wait briefly and become Hammersmith-bound services. This added a controlled "break point" and significantly improved reliability, though it means a journey from (say) Paddington to Liverpool Street is now sometimes faster eastbound than westbound, depending on service patterns.

Shared infrastructure

Almost every metre of Circle line track is also used by another line — the District on the southern half, the Metropolitan on the north-eastern arc, and the Hammersmith & City on the northern and eastern sections. This is why disruption on one of those lines almost always affects the Circle — they share platforms, signals and (often) trains.

A bit of history

The first stretch of what became the Circle opened in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon — the world's first underground passenger railway. By the 1880s a continuous "Inner Circle" service had been completed, running clockwise and anticlockwise around the central area. It was operated jointly by the Metropolitan and District railways for decades, and only got its own identity on the Tube map — and its yellow colour — in 1949.

Notable stations

• Baker Street — the oldest surviving station on the line, opened 1863. Beautifully restored Victorian platforms remain visible.
• King's Cross St Pancras — the network's busiest interchange, connecting six Underground lines and two major mainline termini.
• Westminster — interchange with the Jubilee and District lines, dramatic modern architecture by Michael Hopkins.
• Victoria — interchange with the Victoria line and Victoria mainline station.
• Tower Hill — exit for the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Step-free access

Circle line step-free stations include Paddington, King's Cross St Pancras, Westminster, Liverpool Street, Tower Hill, Victoria, High Street Kensington, Hammersmith, Farringdon and several others. The sub-surface profile makes step-free access easier to retrofit than on the deep tube lines.

Hours

The Circle runs from around 05:30 on weekdays until shortly after midnight. It does not run on the Night Tube — overnight, the parallel District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan services don't run either; long-distance equivalents are provided by night bus routes.

Common quirks

• Don't assume it's the shortest route. Because the line shares track with several others, going via the Circle isn't always faster than changing to another Underground line.
• Edgware Road is two stations. The Circle, District and Hammersmith & City use one Edgware Road; the Bakerloo uses a different one across the road. They're a 2–3 minute walk apart.

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