Well this is! The Bank branch of the Northern Line is no longer with us in its last known form! The final train left at 00.38 this morning. The next one wont be until sometime in 2022 and then it’ll be a totally different platform (and station altogether.) Over the past 50 years or so a number of the Bank branch platforms have gone from being either an island platform or a narrow pair of platforms to a new layout with lots more space for passengers. Bank is the latest to receive this treatment – but of course its not just that – there’s a whole new station area above ground too with escalators and lifts down to the new platforms!
All that is perhaps for another post. This one is the highlights of that last day, the 14th January 2022, when the Bank branch operated for the last time through one of the busiest and narrowest platforms on the tube network. And so its goodbye to a platform that as existed since City and South London Railway days!
CSLR??? What about those tiles from that railway? I’m sure Chris Nix or the London Transport Museum will get these!
Yes. These are the City & South London railway tiles at Bank station! Not forgetting its also bye bye track too!
The track itself isn’t is CSLR vintage too I must add! The track section will be filled in and the site will become a new modern passenger concourse with access to escalators at either end. There’s some examples of this old tiling that’s still visible on the northbound platform after it was reopened.
Close up of the CSLR tiles, these are likely to be from 1924 when the whole system was reopened with a larger tunnel gauge profile.
Trains won’t be coming through this tunnel or use this platform anymore – both of which were opened in 1924. Also the entire arrangement of staircases and passageways will change for good.
On an earlier visit in the day this was one of the many well wishers having a chat with one of the Northern Line drivers. I liked the guy’s District Line mask! These seem to be the most popular and a number were wearing these on this day including a Mr Smith on the final train of all!
It wasnt just the Northern Line platforms that needed to disappear. All reference to the Bank branch (well between Moorgate and Kennington) needed to be erased too! At Kennington they’d certainly done their job for the station’s many signs had been altered to make reference to the northbound platform one. As for Platform two (the Bank branch) well the references to that no longer existed!
Platform one again referred to here (that’s the Charing Cross branch one.) And the Bank branch (platform two)? Nope! No-one’s getting a train from here that way for five months!
The Northern Line trains wont be coming this way again! Not until May 2022. This is a High Barnet via Bank train coming though the tunnels from the junction at Kennington. In future all trains will turn right and use the Charing Cross branch.
The final trains on the Bank branch
Borough station and this is the penultimate Northern Line train via Bank. Its the 00.21 northbound to Edgware.
The penultimate train southbound to Morden. Construction workers were already on site waiting for the trains to finish so the huge job ahead to remodel the platforms could begin. This one was obviously a enthusiast too as he was taking pics of the last two trains to come this way!
Railway enthusiasts filming (or taking pictures) of the penultimate train through the Bank southbound platform.
While we were waiting for the final train, the 00.38 to Morden, these rail workers came along the southbound platform with boxes of posters – no doubt these posters will be for the purpose of diverting passengers to and from Monument via the DLR platforms.
And this is the final train – the 00.38 to Morden! People waved at the driver!
The same perspective from higher up. Quite a few people lined the platform to take pictures of the 00.38 and then many boarded the train itself. Apart from the waving and some people sort of partying it a bit when they spotted all the cameras about the platform, it was a sort of quiet affair really.
Thats it folks! The last southbound train has gone! That means no more trains this way! In future these will be using a new platform in a newly built tunnel on the other side of the old tunnel.
