# South Harrow tube station

South Harrow is a London Underground station in South Harrow, north-west London. It is on the Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly line between Rayners Lane and Sudbury Hill stations. It is located on Northolt Road (A312). The station is in Travelcard Zone 5. There are several bus stands outside the station as well as overnight train stabling sidings.

## History

South Harrow station was opened on 28 June 1903 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) as the terminus of its new extension from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey.
This new extension was, together with the existing tracks back to Acton Town, the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains. The Deep level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start.
On 1 March 1910, the DR was extended north to meet the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) tracks at Rayners Lane and services commenced over the MR's tracks to Uxbridge. North of the station the line crosses the Roxeth Marsh; the viaduct over it between South Harrow and Rayners Lane was an engineering feat of the time.
On 4 July 1932, the Piccadilly line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District line was replaced by the Piccadilly line. From South Harrow north, an isolated District line service continued to operate to Uxbridge until 22 October 1933 when the Piccadilly line took over the service to Uxbridge.
The original station building is located approximately 170m south of the existing station and can be accessed from South Hill Avenue. It is similar to the building still in use at North Ealing and remains, adjacent to the eastbound platform, in the car park on the north side of the tracks. Today it is used by London Underground as office space for drivers before and after stabling trains in the sidings and driver shift changes. On 5 July 1935, a new station was opened accessed from Northolt Road. The new station building was designed by Charles Holden as a graduated structure stepping up on each side to the platforms of the high level tracks. The brick walls and bands of horizontal glazing are capped with a series of flat concrete slab roofs.

## Stabling Sidings

The 5 west facing dead ended sidings are located to the east of South Harrow and are accessed from both platforms via a pair of crossovers. They are mainly used to stable stock at the close of service as well as engineering trains subject to requirement.
Until the summer of 2015, nine cars of ex-Jubilee Line 1983 Stock were stored there following withdrawal in 1998 in preparation for the Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) and the introduction of the 1996 Stock. The units, which had been out of service for seventeen years, were in a heavily vandalised condition, having spent longer in storage than their fourteen years in operational service on the Jubilee line. All nine carriages were removed for scrapping on the weekend of 27/28 June 2015, which involved being craned onto low loaders during a weekend closure. The stabling capacity was required to facilitate the introduction of the Night Tube on certain parts of the Piccadilly line.
Also stabled in the sidings between 1999 and 2004 was a 1972 (Mark I) tube stock train. This train was unit 3227 and was painted in an experimental livery of blue doors and red cab ends. Like the 1983 tube stocks, it suffered vandalism. This unit was withdrawn from the Northern line after failing at Edgware and it was removed in 2004 and sent to MOD Shoeburyness for storage and scrapping. Another 1972 Mark I unit (3205) in the original condition was stored at the sidings, but this has also been scrapped. A third unit of 1972 stock was stored but that one was immediately stored at the disused Aldwych branch for filming purposes.

## Services

South Harrow station is on the Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly line between Rayners Lane to the west and Sudbury Hill to the east.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is:
* 6tph to Cockfosters (Eastbound)
* 3tph to Rayners Lane (Westbound)
* 3tph to Uxbridge via Rayners Lane (Westbound)
The peak time service in trains per hour (tph) is:
* 12tph to Cockfosters (Eastbound)
* 6tph to Rayners Lane (Westbound)
* 6tph to Uxbridge via Rayners Lane (Westbound)
| Preceding station | London Underground | London Underground | London Underground | Following station |
| Rayners Lanetowards Uxbridge, Rayners Lane or Heathrow Airport (Terminal 4 or Terminal 5) | | Piccadilly lineUxbridge branch | | Sudbury Hilltowards Cockfosters or Arnos Grove |
| Former services |||||
| Preceding station | London Underground | London Underground | London Underground | Following station |
| Terminus | | District line(1903-1910) | | Sudbury Hilltowards Upminster |
| Rayners Lanetowards Uxbridge | | District line(1910-1932) | | Sudbury Hilltowards Upminster |
| Rayners Lanetowards Uxbridge | | District line(1932-1933) | | Terminus |
| Terminus | | Piccadilly line(1932-1933) | | Sudbury Hilltowards Arnos Grove or Oakwood |

## Connections

London Buses routes 114, 140, 258, 395, 398, 487, H9, H10, H12, N140 and SL9 serve the station.