Dear Transport for London, Could you provide some information on how the platform length of a Underground station is determined in planning or design phase? Maybe for the old lines, it was determined by an engineer's hunch. But what about the most recently built lines? Was there any work like demand forecasting? As far as I know, MTR in Hong Kong was designed like this. First there will be demand forecasting of the a new line. According to demand forecasting, they chose the corresponding train length and headway using some parameter like how many passenger per square meter in vehicle. Then the platform would be automatically determined to cater the train serve it. Is there anything similar for LU? Or are there any related design standard or criteria?

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TfL Ref: 2452-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on14 December 2018 asking for information about our London Underground platform length.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.  I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require.

The platform length is determined by the length of the train. In most cases new LU stations are on existing lines where extending platforms at existing stations would be uneconomic so existing platforms determine the extent of new ones. 

Our station planning guidance states as follows:

3.10 Platforms

3.10.1 Platform length

3.10.1.1 Platforms lengths at stations that are exclusively used by LU trains shall be at least 3m longer than the longest current or proposed train stock type booked to stop at that platform.

3.10.1.2 Platform lengths at stations where TOC trains share the same platforms as LU trains shall be at least 5m longer than the longest train booked to stop at that platform.

3.10.1.3 Stations with terminus (dead-end) platforms shall be at least 7m longer than the longest train booked to stop at that platform.

In the rare cases of completely new lines there will be demand modelling. This is covered in published works on for example the Victoria line and Jubilee line Extension.

If this is not the information you are looking for,  please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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