No split for Bank and Charing Cross lines for Barnet and Edgware residents

Matthew Harris, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Hendon parliamentary seat, had written to Mayor of London Boris Johnson for clarification of plans announced earlier this week.

In the draft transport strategy the “recasting service patterns” on the Northern line is mentioned, as apart of a strategy to gain more capacity.

Mr Harris said he feared this would lead to disruption for regular commuters who would have to change trains in order to make their regular journeys.

However, TfL said the plans would only come in after line upgrades due to be completed in 2012 to cope with a 20 per cent increase in demand.

A spokesman added: ““As part of the Mayor’s draft transport strategy London Underground is proposing simplifying service patterns on this line.

“Customers would benefit from more trains per hour and trains on the Edgware and High Barnet branches would continue to serve both the Charing Cross and Bank branches as they currently do.

“This simplification of the service pattern would mean that we would be able to run 28 trains per hour in the peak direction – compared with a peak service of 20 now and 24 post-upgrade on the Edgware and High Barnet branches. Services on the Bank and Charing Cross branches would also be boosted”