Hundreds of thousands of City workers experienced severe disruption to their daily commutes throughout 2025, as new data reveals that Chancery Lane Underground station was unexpectedly closed for more than sixty mornings during the year. The Central line station, located at the western edge of the Square Mile, was shuttered at short notice on over one in six mornings due to what Transport for London described as critical staffing shortages.
Scale of the Disruption
According to passenger figures from TfL, Chancery Lane station typically handles approximately 25,000 entries and exits each day. This means the total number of journeys disrupted by these repeated closures could easily have exceeded half a million. The station closures, which rank among the worst for any London Underground station, have raised serious questions about TfL's management of resources in an area that is absolutely vital to the capital's professional services economy.
The closure statistics were obtained by City AM through a freedom of information request. The data also shows that another Central Line station, Lancaster Gate, was closed for more than fifty mornings during the same period, again primarily due to staffing constraints.
TfL's Response and Explanation
A spokesperson for Transport for London stated that the organisation is legally required to close a station if it does not have the requisite number of staff available to operate it safely. They further explained that resource shortages sometimes necessitate the redeployment of staff to major interchange stations, which can unfortunately result in smaller stations like Chancery Lane having to close temporarily.
Nick Dent, TfL's director of customer operations, commented: "We are sorry if customers have been affected by short-notice closures at some of our Tube stations. We are aware of the inconvenience that station closures can cause which is why we only close stations as a last resort and always work to minimise the length of time a station is closed for."
He continued: "We do all we can to minimise station closures and we have an established and flexible rostering system to ensure stations are sufficiently staffed throughout the year. We are also introducing a new staffing model that will help reduce station closures by enabling us to deploy staff more flexibly."
Broader Central Line Challenges
The frequent closures at Chancery Lane represent another significant blow for commuters who rely on the Central line, a crucial transport artery serving the Square Mile. This news follows a separate revelation earlier this week that the line's £500 million rolling stock upgrade programme is progressing at a painfully slow pace.
The upgrade project, which was unveiled in 2023, has so far seen only four of the line's 71 trains refitted. Just another four trains are expected to be completed by the end of this year, despite previous promises from TfL commissioners that one upgraded train would enter service every month from the project's launch. At the current completion rate, the entire refit would not be finished until 2043.
Details of the Upgrade Programme
TfL initially proposed extending the life of the current Central line stock, which was introduced in the early 1990s, as a cost-saving measure to avoid the enormous expense of completely replacing the trains—a project that would likely cost over £1 billion. The upgrade plans include:
- New seat moquettes
- New motors for improved reliability
- New in-car information screens for passengers
However, unlike the ongoing Piccadilly line upgrade, the refitted Central line trains will not include air conditioning. The ageing stock has also been plagued with graffiti issues over the past year, which TfL has attributed to cleaning problems at its maintenance depots.
Despite the current delays, TfL has insisted that the rate at which refitted Central line trains re-enter service will be accelerated, and that the £500 million project will be completed by the end of the 2020s.
