Central line trains not stopping at Tottenham Court Road station until December 2015

Transport for London (TfL) is reminding customers that major structural work to modernise and enlarge Tottenham Court Road Underground Station, and to make it fully accessible, means that Central line trains will not be stopping at the station from Saturday 3 January 2015 until December 2015.

The work will improve access to the Central line platforms, with new entrances and lift access both from the ticket hall and to the Northern line. By 2016, the station will be fully accessible and the ticket hall will be five times larger than its current size - currently around 150,000 people use the station daily but this is expected to rise to over 200,000 when TfL-run Crossrail serves the station in 2018. The station will have eight new escalators, five new lifts, new Art on the Underground installations, new CCTV cameras, better lighting and other improvements.

Alternative Tube routes

Whilst Central line trains are not stopping at Tottenham Court Road, customers will be able to change at Oxford Circus or Holborn for alternative Tube routes. Northern line trains will continue to stop at Tottenham Court Road as usual and local buses to the Tottenham Court Road area are available from both Holborn and Oxford Circus.

In January 2015, the first part of the modernisation works at Tottenham Court Road station will be complete. Customers will be able to access the Northern line platforms, via a large part of the new ticket hall, and escalators leading down to a new concourse and cross-passages.

More capacity for a growing city

The refurbishment of Tottenham Court Road Tube station is part of London Underground's (LU) £10 billion programme of modernisation, with major stations, trains, track and signalling being modernised or replaced to provide more capacity for a growing city.

David Waboso CBE, London Underground's Capital Programmes Director, said: 'To complete vital work at the station, Central line trains will not be stopping between 3 January 2015 and early December 2015 and I apologise for the inconvenience this will cause. While we try to carry out as much of our improvement works when the Tube is closed, in this case we need a pre-planned closure of the central line platforms due to the vast scale of the station's transformation.

'Tottenham Court Road station is already a major West End destination and when TfL-run Crossrail arrives the number of customers using the station will increase to around 200,000 a day. We're transforming the station to make it fully accessible for customers, with improvements including new entrances and an enlarged ticket hall.'

Brighter and easier to use

Redevelopment work to increase capacity at key stations and make them step-free, is underway at a number of stations including Victoria and Bond Street, where a new TfL-run Crossrail station will interchange with a hugely enlarged Underground station. More than half of London Underground's 270 stations have now been modernised or refurbished to make them brighter and easier to use, with improvements such as tactile strips and better CCTV and help points, electronic information displays in ticket halls and on platforms, and improved seating and lighting.

For more information and to have a virtual tour of the new enlarged and fully accessible Tottenham Court Road station: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/tottenham-court-road