District line
60 stations, more than any other tube line: Upminster to Richmond, Ealing Broadway, Wimbledon, Edgware Road and Kensington (Olympia).
About the District line
With 60 stations, the District line serves more stops than any other Underground line, over a route of 40 miles (64 km). It is green on the tube map. From Upminster in the east it runs through Barking, the East End and the City, then along the Victoria Embankment to Westminster and through Victoria and South Kensington to Earl’s Court, where it divides.
West of Earl’s Court one branch heads to Wimbledon, a short branch runs to Kensington (Olympia), and another goes north to Edgware Road via High Street Kensington and Paddington. The main line carries on to Turnham Green, beyond which it splits again for Richmond and Ealing Broadway. It is the only Underground line that crosses the Thames on bridges, on both the Wimbledon and Richmond branches.
Much of the route is shared: with the Hammersmith & City line between Aldgate East and Barking, with the Circle between Tower Hill and Gloucester Road and on the Edgware Road branch, and with the Piccadilly at several stations between South Kensington and Ealing Common. The District is the busiest of the sub-surface lines and the fifth busiest overall, with over 250 million journeys recorded in 2019. Victoria was its busiest station in 2024, at 62.69 million entries and exits.
District line stations
60 stations, 36 of them with a change to another tube line (marked with a navy ring and the colours of the other lines).
Ealing Broadway to Upminster
Main route, 43 stations
Branch from Wimbledon
Rejoins at Earl's Court
Branch to Edgware Road (Circle line)
Leaves the main route after Earl's Court
History
The Metropolitan District Railway was formed to build part of an underground “inner circle” linking London’s termini. Its first section opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster, worked at first by the Metropolitan Railway with steam locomotives and wooden carriages. By 1871, when the District began running its own trains, it had reached West Brompton and a terminus at Mansion House. From 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885 it even ran trains from Mansion House to Windsor, a service dropped as uneconomic.
Branches spread west to Hammersmith, Richmond over L&SWR tracks, Ealing Broadway, Hounslow and Wimbledon, and the completion of the Circle in October 1884 took the District to Whitechapel. Electrification was financed by the American Charles Yerkes: the first electric trains ran from Ealing to South Harrow in 1903, electric multiple units took over other services in 1905, and East Ham became the eastern terminus. Between 1910 and 1939 eastbound trains ran as far as Southend-on-Sea and Shoeburyness.
From 1932 the Piccadilly line took over the South Harrow route, and in 1933 it ran through to Uxbridge. The District became part of the London Passenger Transport Board on 1 July 1933. After wartime bomb damage left Olympia without trains, Kensington Addison Road was renamed Kensington (Olympia) and given a District shuttle from Earl’s Court; the line has served it since 1946. The South Acton shuttle ended on 28 February 1959 and the last peak-hour through trains to Hounslow ran on 9 October 1964.
A rebuilt Tower Hill, on a new site with three platforms, opened in 1967. D Stock trains arrived between 1979 and 1983, and driver-only operation, proposed in 1972, was introduced on the District in 1985. Seven-car S Stock began replacing older trains in 2013, completing the changeover in April 2017, and traction voltage was raised from 630 V to 750 V in 2017.
Trains and service
TfL lists seven route patterns. Trains from Upminster run to Ealing Broadway, Richmond or Wimbledon, and the Edgware Road branch is served from Ealing Broadway, Richmond, Wimbledon and Kensington (Olympia). The Olympia branch has only a limited service; as of 2026 it is served at weekends and on weekdays during major events. From Upminster the first weekday train leaves at 04:58 and the last at 23:44, with 18 trains in the busiest hour; Saturday times are identical, with 14 in the busiest hour, and on Sundays trains run from 05:39 to 23:08. From Ealing Broadway the weekday and Saturday service runs from 04:51 to 00:21, and the Sunday service from 06:18 to 23:54, with 7 trains in the busiest hour each day.
The District has no Night Tube. Its many interchanges include Victoria and Westminster in the centre, the Jubilee line and DLR at West Ham, and the Piccadilly line at Earl’s Court and Acton Town. Our tube times page has times for other stations.
The trains
Services are run by seven-car S Stock, part of Bombardier’s Movia family, which began entering service on the District in 2013 between Olympia and West Ham and had fully replaced the D Stock by April 2017. Because the District is a sub-surface line, with tunnels just below the surface, the trains are a similar size to main-line stock and can be air-conditioned – the shallow tunnels can disperse the hot air. Each train carries 865 passengers, compared with 827 on a six-car D Stock train, has a top speed of 62 mph (100 km/h) and returns around 20 per cent of its energy to the network through regenerative braking. The fleet is maintained at Ealing Common depot, built when the District was electrified in the early 1900s, and Upminster depot, built in 1956–1958.
Frequently asked questions
The District line serves 60 stations, more than any other Underground line, over 40 miles (64 km). That total includes five western termini – Richmond, Ealing Broadway, Wimbledon, Edgware Road and Kensington (Olympia) – plus Upminster in the east, and stations shared with the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Piccadilly lines.
It is the only Underground line to cross the Thames on a bridge, and it does so twice: on the Wimbledon branch over Fulham Railway Bridge between Putney Bridge and East Putney, and on the Richmond branch over Kew Railway Bridge, shared with Mildmay line trains as far as Gunnersbury junction.
The branch has a limited service. As of 2026, trains serve Kensington (Olympia) only at weekends and on weekdays during major events, running to and from Edgware Road. On other days, use the Overground or National Rail, which also call there.
No, the District line has no Night Tube service. The latest weekday departures from the termini are 00:21 from Ealing Broadway and 23:44 from Upminster. The Night Tube page explains which lines run through Friday and Saturday nights.
Yes. District trains served the South Harrow route until 1932, Rayners Lane to Uxbridge until 1933, and the Hounslow branch until peak-hour through trains ended on 9 October 1964. All of these stations are now on the Piccadilly line.