The London Underground branch that breaks off after just one stop

People have only just realised why a London Underground branch breaks off after one stop. Mill Hill East has been around since the 1860s but just why it veers off the Northern Line as a solo station has long baffled commuters.

Travel boffins have now explained why on Reddit after earlier this week a social media user said it seemed “strange” to them the Northern Line would break off into a different branch for just one stop – and the answer may just surprise you.

Mill Hill East opened in Barnet in 1867 as part of a line from Finsbury Park station to Edgeware station being built by the long-defunct Edgware, Highgate and London Railway company. But, before the station could open, the line was bought by Great Northern Railway (GNR), which had promised to build a double track formation.

The success of GNR’s line between Finchley Central and High Barnet meant funds were diverted away from the Mill Hill East line. Instead, the cash was piled into building a double track on the High Barnet line to cope with increased traffic.

For most of its history, the service between those two stations was operated as a shuttle. Fast forward to 1935 – seven years after the station was named Mill Hill East – and plans were afoot to integrate the station into what was then known as the Northern Heights project.

The London Passenger Transport Board, which was responsible for public transport in the capital in the 1930s and 1940s, had announced plans to link lines from Finsbury Park to Edgware, High Barnet and Alexandra Palace to the Northern Line at East Finchley and to the Northern City Line at Finsbury Park, according to a book by transport expert Tony Beard.

Works kicked off in 1938 and Mill Hill East and the line linked to it was closed a year later for electrification. In 1939, construction slowed to a trickle because of the outbreak of World War Two and never fully recovered.

After the war, maintenance works and the cost of rebuilding London after the damage it had sustained during The Blitz took a heavy toll on finances and the Northern Heights project was eventually scrapped.

Instead, priority was given to western and eastern extensions to the Central Lond to West Ruislip, Ongar and Hainault. Despite being shown as under construction on underground maps as late as 1950, work never started on the unfinished part of the Northern Heights project.

Now, the Zone 4 station is the least used on the Northern line with 1.60 million passengers in 2023, according to Transport for London (TfL). The station was given a refurb in 2007 and remains one of three tube stations not to have ticket barriers.

This explanation didn’t stop people from providing their own on Reddit. One wrote: “Just Northern line doing Northern line things. It’s the one line that looks like it was designed by a ketamine pigeon.”

A second said: “You’ve given me flashbacks to cold, dark evenings in 1988/89 (pre WFH, pre Uber) waiting at Finchley Central for a Mill Hill train.”

In 2020, Mill Hill East was made accessible with a new lift and link bridge which had to be craned into positions. When the lift opened in February 2020, it became the London Underground’s 79th step-free station, according to TfL.

The station was opened on August 22, 1867 and was originally named Mill Hill.