The London Underground map is a thing of beauty, but it’s not without its quirks – and one station in particular seems to have been left out in the cold by Transport for London
Ever found yourself contemplating the vast Tube network while whizzing through the tunnels, observing the numerous connections at various stations?
Sharp-eyed passengers may notice a peculiarity on their trusty Tube map – some interchanges are marked by a white circle encircled with black. This is Transport for London’s method of indicating an ‘interchange station’.
Yet intriguingly, Gloucester Road, which serves as a junction for the District and Circle lines with the Piccadilly line, doesn’t have this distinction. There’s neither a white-with-black-circle symbol nor an additional station listing on either the strip maps inside trains or the full Underground map.
The distinctive green and yellow of the District and Circle lines never seem to acknowledge their dark blue Piccadilly counterpart – it’s like missed connections in transit form.
Despite recent updates to TfL’s Tube maps now recognising Turnham Green and Barons Court as interchange points, the mystery of Gloucester Road’s omission continues.
A look back at historical maps reveals that these two stations too once lacked the interchange indicator. The question remains: why have they been given the status update, but not Gloucester Road?
One theory suggests that this decision is due to the inefficient interchange between lines at Gloucester Road.
If you’ve ever disembarked at the station via the Piccadilly line, you’ll be familiar with the unique journey to reach street level. You’re required to walk to the end of the platform, climb a lengthy flight of stairs, navigate through some corridors, and then find yourself at the entrance of two large lifts (and a long set of stairs that few use).
Often, you have to wait for the lift to arrive with a new group of passengers being lowered down to the much deeper Piccadilly line from above, which congests the station and can be quite frustrating if you’re in a rush. To ease pressure on this inefficient system, the other surrounding interchanges at South Kensington and Earls Court are promoted by the TfL maps instead.
However, it seems a bit unjust on Gloucester Road when the map does include what TfL refers to as Out-of-Station Interchanges, or OSIs. These are stations where TfL allows customers to switch between stations or parts of the same station without being charged for two separate journeys, even if they do pass through barriers out of the last station and into the next.
For instance, Hammersmith is home to two distinct stations – one catering to the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, and another for the District and Piccadilly lines. Even though they’re situated on different sides of the road, moving between them won’t cost you a single penny, provided you stick to the time limit.
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