People indigenous to the area hold the Northern Heights line dear to their hearts. There will still be those who remember the line either in passenger service, seeing the later occasional stock transfers, or just the line still with its rails, yet even without those memories the subject of the line will cause strong debate.

Perhaps it is the seeming waste of it; the line was so near to being converted to a tube line (thus securing its future). Perhaps it is its scenic nature or that it would be a useful line to have now; it still could easily be reopened as a railway. Regardless of that, some notable locals have fought hard over the years to prevent the line being transformed into a road or being sold off for housing. As a consequence, it now lies relatively intact as the Parkland Walk, which can provide a pleasant and leafy oasis of tranquility amongst the congestion of North London (though see later comments about vandalism, graffiti, the rain and mud etc).

Certainly for this author as a child, the line provided mysterious territory to explore and a multiplicity of questions to (non-local) parents. Why was there a railway with no trains? Why stations with no passengers? Where did it lead to? Will there be services again? And so on.
Then the day when, after not having visited for a while, the shock of seeing the line suddenly trackless. Especially for one nearly run over by an enthusiasts train previously: so startling was the sight of a train on the line that it induced a frozen fascination, unfortunately while positioned dead centre of the track used by said approaching train. Only the swift intervention/removal by a less than impressed mother prevented mishap.

As for what the future holds for the line; to measure the possibilities of it returning to railway use or perhaps tram conversion, it is necessary to understand the reasons for its closure. It was ostensibly closed because of a lack of passengers; its custom drawn away by competing transport systems. The bus service running between Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park offered cheaper fares and a more direct route than the radial hill-avoiding route of the railway. These days however, this advantage has been negated by the huge increase in road traffic and the further speed reducing introduction of road humps and speed cameras (never mind the erratic bus services).
Pre-war plans became broken post-war promises. The two-thirds completed conversion works from steam line to tube line were so slow in resuming that the issue was raised in parliament; the reply stressed the need to restrict capital investment in a war-torn and bankrupt economy.
One of the primary areas of importance for public transport is reliability: war time cuts in the line's service did nothing to attract passengers. The line's gradient caused problems for the ageing steam locomotives that ran the line*, producing the chain effect of unreliability, loss of passengers, loss of investment, further unreliability, further loss of passengers, etc, until the line was deemed financially unviable and its electrification program was cancelled.

For the last half century, the densely populated areas of Crouch End and Muswell Hill have been railwayless, reliance being solely on road transport. Many of the large houses in the areas are being converted to flats and there is insuffient road parking space for the extra cars caused by individually owned, rather than family shared cars. Given the poor public transport in the area, car ownership is entirely understandable, yet it would presumably (hopefully) be rendered less of a necessity with the introduction of an efficient rail or tram service to central London.

The Parkland Walk as it stands now is struggling. It is difficult to police; weekend afternoons may be safe because of the numbers of people walking the line but at other times it is less so. Graffiti artists brazenly adorn the brickwork with their various levels of artistic skills. Some are actually quite good but the effect produced is still one of decay, urban desolation, and vandalism; not conducive to sustaining the line as a nature reserve or leafy retreat. It is often used for fly-tipping and rainy weather turns the track bed into a slippery mud path.

There is a need for rail transport in Crouch End and Muswell Hill. Alexandra Palace would benefit from it also. The investment that would be required to reinstate the Northern Heights (southern sections) to a working rail or tram route is minimal (in the same way that the East London Line extensions are being done 'on the cheap' by utilising existing but disused rail routes). The disadvantages of the line's radial route are outweighed by the advantages of its reinstatement. The 'rail-closure-party' was in power when the post-war decision was made to abandon the pre-war works to convert it to a tube line, plans that would have seen it thriving under the benefits of investment and regular, reliable service. While the current government is in power, it should take the opportunity to address the public transport inadequacies of the area before the pendulum swings toward road building again.

(May 2005)

*Modern day tube trains and trams would make short work of the line's gradients, as demonstrated by the DLR with its astonishing inclines.