Tube misery on the way as Northern Line closures announced

Travel woes for users of Highgate's local Northern Line services are set to increase over the next two years as Tube Lines announced 82 weekend closures over the next 20 months. The request to City Hall from the engineering firm in charge of upgrading the Northern, Jubilee and Picadilly Lines will almost double the number of weekend closures initially planned on the system.

Archway station is already currently closed at weekends for station refurbishment, and closes at 10pm from Sundays to Thursdays. Services from King's Cross, Old Street, Angel, Tufnell Park and

Archway stations will now be closing at 11.30pm on weeknights, an hour earlier than usual, to allow for a major signal

upgrade programme over the next 18 months. The latest announcements from Tube Lines will be sure to add to the misery of travellers on London's busiest Underground line.

A spokesperson for Trasport for London described TfL as "furious" over the plans and explained, "We can ask them to avoid

certain times but we can't deny them overall access." Mayor Boris Johnson also called the plans "intolerable" and added, "I cannot possibly ask Londoners to put up with this pain

unless Tube Lines can convince that every single closure is unavoidable and

their overall plan will work."

Tube Lines won their contract to upgrade almost a third of the Underground network under the controversial PPP (public-private partnership) system and against the wishes of previous Mayor Ken Livingstone. TfL said yesterday, ""We are bound by those PPP contracts but we have reservations about whether Tube

Lines can catch up."

Tube Lines' record to date has been far from impeccable,with the Jubilee Line upgrade running over budget and late by almost a year. The firm explained yesterday that the proposed weekend closures were necessary because testing could not be carried out overnight. "We

can't upgrade the Northern line without closures," said cheif executive Dean Finch.

Passengers travelling from Archway station are advised to check last train times carefully before travelling. Tickets will be accepted on local bus routes 43, 134, 263, 390 and N20  top and from Tufnell

Park and Highgate. Station upgrade work is expected to continue until the end of May.