A similar critiscm can be made of the North London Line, that other
jewel in TFL's crown....We start at Richmond, where things initially
look promising with full connections with the District Line (and South
West Trains). No problems either at Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury (both
now transferred to LU from 11/11). After this however the line passes
under the Piccadilly Line and District Line Ealing branch, but of
course there are no platforms. South Acton would have seen an
inconvenient interchange possible with the District Line had the Acton
Town - South Action shuttle not come off in 1959.
Acton Central has no adjacent Underground station, but then when the
line passes over the Central Line and Chiltern Railways Ruislip
branch, it is only a few hundred yards from North Acton station, yet
again no interchange is possible, despite long-standing plans for such
a facility here.
Willesden Junction does at least link with the Bakerloo and LO DC
Lines, but its usefulness is much reduced by the loss of the 'main
line' platforms, nor helped by the station's chaotic layout. Kensal
Rise isn't near to Kensal Green; Brondesbury Park sits mid-way between
Queen's Park and Kilburn, Brondesbury is little better, whilst at West
Hampstead the line manages to miss two other stations of the same
name! Finchley Road & Frognal is not, of course, linked to Finchley
Road, and when passing over the Northern Line Edgware branch, no
station has been since provided by either operator, instead Hampstead
Heath lies about 20 minutes walk from both Hampstead and Belsize Park
(to be fair the Underground lines came later and failed to site their
new stations accordingly where possible).
Gospel Oak at least serves LO's own GobLin service, albeit through an
awkward subway WB, but as usual, the NLL has its own Kentish Town West
which is nowhere near the Northern Line's Kentish Town. At Camden Town
they had to change the station name to Camden Road to avoid confusion,
it being so far away from its much busier LT namesake. Caledonian Road
Piccadilly Line station stands quite properly in the thoroughfare
which name in bears, but guess what? The NLL equivalent of Caledonian
Road & Barnsbury sits in a side street (and would be better named
"Caledonian Road for Pentonville Prison" given that its stands in the
shadow of that establishment).
At last Highbury & Islington provides a proper connection with the
First Capital Connect and LU systems, though it took a 1960s rebuild
for the Victoria Line to achieve this and move the LT station across
the road to the NLR site. Dalston Kingsland is another isolated spot,
whilst BR's cheap 1980s extension "East of Dalston" didn't even
combine Hackney Downs with the revived Hackney Central station.
Further isolated stations are at Homerton and Hackney Wick before
finally, a triumphal return to a fully-integrated site is made at
Stratford.