Circle line

Facts

Opened

6 October 1884

Termini

Hammersmith – Edgware Road (via the loop)

Type

sub-surface

Depots

Hammersmith (stabling), Ealing Common, Upminster, Neasden (heavy maintenance)

Shares track

Almost all of it: with the Hammersmith & City from Hammersmith to Paddington and from Edgware Road round to Aldgate, the Metropolitan from Baker Street to Aldgate, and the District from Paddington to High Street Kensington and from Gloucester Road to Tower Hill. Only High Street Kensington–Gloucester Road and a short stretch at Aldgate are the Circle's alone.

Route 35 stations

Rolling stock

• S7 Stock since 2012

Earlier trains on this line

• Metropolitan Railway A and B Class locomotives 1864–1907
• Metropolitan Railway saloon stock 1905–1937
• Circle Stock 1934–1950
• O and P Stock (later CO/CP) 1937–1981
• C69 and C77 Stock 1970–2014

History 9

1. 10 January 1863The Metropolitan Railway opens from Paddington (Bishop's Road) to Farringdon Street, the first section of today's Circle.
2. 6 October 1884The Inner Circle is completed between Mansion House and Tower Hill, and the circular service begins.
3. 1905Electric trains take over: each company's from 1 July, and a full electric circular service from 24 September.
4. 1949Shown on the Tube map as a line of its own, in yellow.
5. 1970C69 Stock enters service on the Circle and Hammersmith & City.
6. 13 December 2009The circular service ends. Trains now run from Hammersmith via Edgware Road, once round the loop and back to Edgware Road.
7. 2 September 2013The first S7 Stock trains run on the Circle.
8. February 2014The last C Stock trains leave the Circle and Hammersmith & City.
9. 27 March 2022New signalling goes live from Sloane Square to Paddington, completing it on the whole Circle.

Sources 12

How we source figures →

• Circle line facts (archived), Transport for London, c. 2014 (length (27 km), shared track, depot (then))
• The Circle line, London Transport Museum (length, 36 stations, map history, C69 Stock)
• Key Dates in the History of London Transport (Corporate Archives Research Guide 4), Transport for London, 25 March 2023 (opening, completion, electrification, C69 Stock)
• Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides: Circle line, Clive Feather (dated history, tea-cup service, 6 trains an hour, shared track)
• Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides: Hammersmith & City line, Clive Feather (depots today, last C Stock)
• Commissioner's Report, Transport for London, December 2009 (tea-cup service from 13 December 2009)
• Saluting the success of S stock: S7s and S8s, Rail (Richard Clinnick), 4 February 2015 (S7 Stock on the Circle)
• Four Lines Modernisation programme update, TfL Programmes and Investment Committee, 20 July 2022 (signalling complete on the Circle, 27 March 2022)
• Four Lines Modernisation programme update, TfL Programmes and Investment Committee, 19 July 2023 (maintenance at Ealing Common, Upminster and Neasden)
• Mayor's Question 2022/0211: Tube usage (with TfL line boarder data), London Assembly, 18 February 2022 (141.6 million line boarders on the Circle and H&C together in 2019 (TfL data))
• TfL Colour Standard, issue 11, Transport for London, August 2026 (line colour: RGB 255/200/10)
• TfL Unified API: Line Route Sequence, Transport for London (Powered by TfL Open Data) (station order, zones and interchanges)

unverified stations: TfL's older facts page gives 35, counting the two Paddington stations as one, peak service: 6 trains an hour at all times is from Clive's guide (June 2025); TfL's latest figure for the line was not found