page_title: Aldwych tube station
section_title: Proposals for extension and new connections
hierarchical_section_title: Aldwych tube station / History / Proposals for extension and new connections
caption_attribution_description: English: Aldwych tube station, London. Reduced to just peak-hour openings, taken shortly before its closure on 30 September 1994. This poorly used and badly treated former underground station is now used for filming.
context_page_description: Aldwych is a closed station on the London Underground, located in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus of the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes. The station building is close to the Strand's junction with Surrey Street, near Aldwych. During its lifetime, the branch was the subject of a number of unrealised extension proposals that would have seen the tunnels through the station extended southwards, usually to Waterloo.
  Served mostly by a shuttle train and having low passenger numbers, the station and branch were considered for closure several times. Service was offered only during weekday peak hours from 1962 and discontinued in 1994, when the cost of replacing the lifts was considered too high for the income generated.
  Disused parts of the station and the running tunnels were used during both world wars to shelter artworks from London's public galleries and museums from bombing.
context_section_description: Although the Piccadilly Circus to City of London branch proposal of 1905 was never revisited after its withdrawal, the early plan to extend the branch south to Waterloo was revived a number of times during the station's life. The extension was considered in 1919 and 1948, but no progress towards constructing the link was made.
  In the years after the Second World War, a series of preliminary plans for relieving congestion on the London Underground had considered various east-west routes through the Aldwych area, although other priorities meant that these were never proceeded with. In March 1965, a British Rail and London Transport joint planning committee published "A Railway Plan for London", which proposed a new tube railway, the Fleet line (later renamed the Jubilee line), to join the Bakerloo line at Baker Street then run via Bond Street, Green Park, Charing Cross, Aldwych and into the City of London via Ludgate Circus, Cannon Street and Fenchurch Street before heading into south-east London. An interchange was proposed at Aldwych and a second recommendation of the report was the revival of the link from Aldwych to Waterloo. London Transport had already sought parliamentary approval to construct tunnels from Aldwych to Waterloo in November 1964, and in August 1965, parliamentary powers were granted. Detailed planning took place, although public spending cuts led to postponement of the scheme in 1967 before tenders were invited.
  Planning of the Fleet line continued and parliamentary approval was given in July 1969 for the first phase of the line, from Baker Street to Charing Cross. Tunnelling began on the £35 million route in February 1972 and the Jubilee line opened north from Charing Cross in May 1979. The tunnels of the approved section continued east of Charing Cross under Strand almost as far as Aldwych station, but no work at Aldwych was undertaken and they were used only as sidings. Funding for the second phase of the work was delayed throughout the 1970s whilst the route beyond Charing Cross was reviewed to consider options for serving anticipated development in the London Docklands area. By 1979, the cost was estimated as £325 million, a six-fold increase from the £51 million estimated in 1970. A further review of alternatives for the Jubilee line was carried out in 1980, which led to a change of priorities and the postponement of any further effort on the line. When the extension was eventually constructed in the late 1990s it took a different route, south of the River Thames via Westminster, Waterloo and London Bridge to provide a rapid link to Canary Wharf, leaving the tunnels between Green Park and Aldwych redundant.
  In July 2005, Ove Arup & Partners produced a report, DLR Horizon 2020 Study, for the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) examining "pragmatic development schemes" to expand and improve the DLR network between 2012 and 2020. One of the proposals was an extension of the DLR from Bank to Charing Cross via City Thameslink and Aldwych. The disused Jubilee line tunnels would be enlarged to accommodate the larger DLR trains and Aldwych station would form the basis for a new station on the line, although requiring considerable reconstruction to accommodate escalators. The estimated cost in 2005 was £232 million for the infrastructure works and the scheme was described as "strongly beneficial" as it was expected to attract passengers from the London Underground's existing east-west routes and from local buses and reduce overcrowding at Bank station. The business case assessment was that the proposal offered high value, although similar values were calculated for other extension proposals from Bank. Further detailed studies were proposed.
  In 2015, a scheme was proposed by the design firm Gensler to convert disused London Underground tunnels into subterranean rail trails, enabling the disused branches of the Piccadilly line and Jubilee line to be used as cycle paths. The scheme, which would involve re-opening Aldwych station as an access point for cyclists, has not been officially approved.
caption: The station entrance before closure, with a canopy bearing the name it had from 1915.
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