"Paul Terry" wrote in message
news
In message , Ian Jelf
writes

I was on a late night Piccadilly Line train which stopped at Turnham Green
the other, er, night.

I've often wondered, what's the story behind that oddity? How did it
come to be a feature of the timetable? (I can think of no parallel
elsewhere on the system, at least not in even remotely recent years.)

I think the practice started in the early 60s, when District services west
of London were being cut back. Offering an interchange at Turnham Green
provided greater flexibility, but the additional stop was too disruptive
to the fast-running section of the Piccadilly line to be offered during
the main part of the Monday-Friday timetable.

As you say it allows connection into the District trains to/from Richmond
when the Ealin services are less frequent.

But IME, the evening service starts much later than it needs to without
disrupting the service. It could easily start an hour earlier and none of
the Picc pax would be disrupted.

tim