Depth london tube

The graphic shows typical depths below surface level or high-tide level for the Thames foot tunnels. Where depth is variable, we've shown the average as a horizontal stretch of tunnel, plunging down to the deepest point. For example, the tube varies greatly in depth, but is typically 24m. The deepest point is below Hampstead Heath at Bull and Bush where a station was part-built, but never completed , which reaches 67m.

The deepest space in London is the recently completed Lee Tunnel, a relief sewer that slopes down to 80m beneath Beckton. Naturally, our graphic is only scratching the surface, so to speak.

But onto more important things. If you take the average depth below sea level of all the platforms in each tube station — an important clarification — London Bridge comes out on top bottom. Its platforms are, on average, 22 metres below sea level. This brings us to the deepest single platform. The eastbound and westbound platforms of the Jubilee line at London Bridge make a good showing, with both coming in at While the westbound Jubilee Line platform at Westminster is very deep — at If you want to nerd out at the whole data set, you can access it here.

But again, with conjecture being the order of the day — who really cares how far below the sea the tube is? What we really want to know is how far below ground level the tube is — a question that renders a completely different result.

Finally, in the oldest and mostly above-ground section past Baker Street to Stanmore, Wembley Park and Kingsbury offer full level boarding while Stanmore and Kilburn require ramps. Sign at Stratford indicating platform hump location at Green Park Since part of this section used to be run by the Metropolitan line, platform heights are particularly messy and variable.

While the platforms were already relatively level at Wembley Park and Kingsbury, at Kilburn the platforms are signficantly higher than the train floor, which leads us to a major issue that will keep haunting TfL. What do you do if platforms are too high? Nevertheless, TfL has thus far opted to leave Kilburn as ramp-only, though this will be harder to ignore as more and more stations with this problem become step-free.

Finally, Stanmore has one new platform with level boarding and two without, and there really isnt a clear explanation why platform humps are not used. The Northern line, similar to the Victoria line, has a consistently high degree of level boarding at its step-free stations.

Almost exclusively using platform humps, every single step-free station and interchange-only station has level boarding, except Golders Green. Somewhat miraculously, Golders Green is so far the only step-free station on the line that has curved platforms.

Unlike the sub-surface lines, where there are some stations with level floors but with variable gaps due to curved platforms, TfL is explicitly not adding platform humps at Golders Green because they cannot guarantee completely unassisted boarding, at least without some sort of retractable gap filler. This is another major issue that limits the provision of level boarding, as TfL cannot justify raising platforms if the gap will be too large, and it has not begun actively trialing any sort of gap filler on the network.

Overall, I do expect for the currently planned future step-free stations, such as Moorgate, Bank, and Colindale, to feature level boarding, given the straight platforms at these stations. The Piccadilly line is where things begin to get more complicated, given that high platforms, curved platforms, as well as track-sharing with sub-surface lines are prominent at the step-free stations on the western branches of the line. Interestingly, despite being now 45 years old, the stock does comply with some accessibility regulations as it was heavily refurbished in East of Hammersmith and west of Hounslow East, every step-free station so far has level boarding, primarily via platform humps.

On the rest of the line, where sub-surface trains still run or used to run, there are 7 step-free stations that require ramps. Sudbury Town is particularly strange, as the platforms start out a few inches above the train floor at one end and gradually decrease such that at the northermost train door on both platforms, there is actually level boarding.

However, since platform humps on this line are located further down the train, there is no level boarding for wheelchair users. High platform on southern end and level platform at northern end at Sudbury Town Finally, similar to Golders Green, Hounslow East has slightly curved platforms which likely impede the installation of platform humps.

This scheme, as outlined in this post, heavily favours above-ground stations in the Piccadilly and Central lines, many of which have high platforms.

As these stations become step-free, such as Osterley, Park Royal, and even below-ground Knightsbridge, people may start to wonder why a station with one type of rolling stock that just underwent significant work to become step-free is still not independently accessible.

Hopefully this added pressure will lead TfL to make the necessary track and platform adjustments to allow level boarding. This means that once the works at Waterloo and Bank are finished, the small line will offer full step-free access. Visit Daniel's website to find out more, and see the full set of diagrams here.

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Click for a larger version When you hopped on the tube on the way to work this morning, how deep below the ground did you go? Report a problem with this article.