Edgware tube station

New Works Programme

In 1935 London Underground announced its New Works Programme. This had major implications for Edgware Underground station and the Morden-Edgware Line (as the Northern line was then known):

• A group of LNER lines in north London (the Northern Heights lines) including the branch from Finchley to Edgware would be taken over by London Underground and amalgamated with the Morden-Edgware Line.
• The existing Underground line would be extended north-west from Edgware by 5 kilometres to a new terminus at Bushey Heath and a depot at Aldenham. The extension to Bushey Heath involved three new stations (from south-east to north-west):
  • Brockley Hill
  • Elstree South
  • Bushey Heath

Much of the land for the railway's alignment had originally been bought by the W&ER in the 19th century, but it had not been able to raise the capital to fund the construction and its power's had expired in 1911. The Underground Group had bought the W&ER in 1922. The Underground's scheme modified the W&ER's plan to connect to the LNER branch by starting the extension from the Morden-Edgware Line station instead. The scheme involved the closure of the LNER station 200 metres south of the Underground station and retained the W&ER's connection to the LNER's single track line from where it passed over the Underground's tracks just to the east of the station and into new platforms to be built in the Underground station.

The new link at Edgware and others between LNER and Underground tracks near East Finchley station and at Finsbury Park would have made it theoretically possible to travel south from Edgware to central London via three routes:

• the existing Underground line to Golders Green, Camden Town and beyond
• the former LNER line to Finchley Central and Highgate, then the other branch of the Morden-Edgware Line to Camden Town and beyond
• the former LNER line to Finchley Central, Highgate and Finsbury Park then the Northern City Line to Moorgate

Postponement and cancellation

Works to upgrade the existing LNER lines and construction on the new line to Bushey Heath began in the late 1930s but were halted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Additional platforms were started at Edgware and the LNER station and branch line was closed to passenger traffic in 1939 in preparation for the improvements. On the new extension, some earthworks and tunnelling had been undertaken and some structures had been constructed but no further work was done during the war.

The Metropolitan Green Belt was introduced to limit the outward expansion of London into the surrounding countryside. The area through which the new Bushey Heath extension was routed was designated as green belt meaning that the planned residential developments were prevented and the need for the stations serving them was removed.

Edgware LNER station was never reopened for passengers although freight traffic used the line until the 1960s. The improvements on the branch to Finchley were completed only between Mill Hill East and Finchley Central and only that short section was incorporated into the Northern line (as it had been renamed in the late 1930s). The completion of the plans were formally cancelled in 1950.

Accident

On 27 July 1946, an accident occurred at Edgware when the driver (James Lofting) of a northbound train suffered a heart attack while entering the station. The train did not stop within the area of the platform, and struck the buffers at approximately 5 mph. No passengers were seriously injured, but Lofting died as a result of his heart failure before he could be removed from the wreckage. It appeared from the condition of the controls that Lofting had disabled the deadman's handle while the train was still moving.^[7] The circumstances of this accident were similar to those of the Moorgate tube crash of 1975.

Modernisation

During 2008–09, Tube Lines carried out work to modernise the station, including the fitting of lifts to enable step-free platform access, improved CCTV coverage and more help points.^[8]