London Underground's rare sections where you'll end up waiting at least 30 minutes for a train

One of the most common misconceptions about the London Underground is that you can simply 'turn up and go' at any time of day, wherever you see the iconic Tube roundel. While this holds true for most stations, there are a few where a single cancelled Tube train could leave you waiting for as long as an hour for the next one.

Contrary to popular belief, the Tube does operate according to a timetable, much like a National Rail service. As trains usually run so frequently, full timetables aren't typically displayed to the public, with the exception of first and last train times.

The Metropolitan line is an exception to this rule, with its northwestern branches to Amersham, Chesham, and Watford seeing around half the trains the rest of the line does, prompting TfL to publish a full timetable online and in print.

READ MORE: The London Underground's 'secret' Metropolitan line stations passengers think are just for Jubilee

The majority of these 'lower frequency' sections of the Tube network are found on the Metropolitan line, but there are also stretches of the Bakerloo, Central, District, and Piccadilly lines, plus the Waterloo and City line, where you'll have to wait more than the 'turn up and go' 12 minutes for a Tube at off-peak times.

Metropolitan line

On the Metropolitan line, between Chesham-Chalfont and Latimer and Amersham-Chalfont and Latimer, trains can only run every 30 minutes due to the single track section. This means two trains cannot operate simultaneously on this stretch.

However, during weekday peak times, there are some 25-minute intervals. In addition, Amersham benefits from two additional Chiltern trains per hour supplementing the two Metropolitan line trains, ensuring a good level of service overall.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan line station in Watford, awkwardly located on a residential street a mile away from the town centre, sees less footfall than other stations in the area. As such, trains over this section only run every 15 minutes.

Despite usually being half-empty, these trains can get very busy during school hours due to several nearby schools that thousands of students and staff use daily.

Bakerloo line

Stonebridge Park- Harrow and Wealdstone - every 15 minutes: Most Bakerloo trains terminate at Queen's Park or Stonebridge Park instead of completing the whole line to Harrow and Wealdstone. There are two reasons for this: there simply is not enough space to terminate every single Bakerloo train at Harrow and Wealdstone as they have to share the same platforms as Overground trains, and that four Overground trains serve the same stations as the Bakerloo between Queen's Park and Harrow and Wealdstone anyway.

Central line.

Woodford-Hainault - every 20 minutes: A shuttle train service runs three times per hour between Woodford and Hainault stations on the Central line, stopping at Roding Valley, Chigwell and Grange Hill which are all three slap bang on the Essex/London border. This section of the line is not as busy as the others and forms part of a loop where it is as quick to travel to Central London by taking the first train in either direction and changing at Woodford or Hainault as appropriate meaning there's little impetus for TfL to increase how often trains run on it.

District line

Olympia-Earl's Court - infrequent weekdays, every 20 minutes weekends: Since the reduction of Tube services in 2011, Olympia has been operating as a part-time Tube station. Southern and Overground services now offer more frequent trips to Olympia than the Tube ever could, given that Olympia, like Chesham, only has a single track limiting the number of trains that can run to it.

On certain event days, additional District line trains operate to Olympia.

Piccadilly line

Rayners Lane- Uxbridge - every 20 minutes: Only three Piccadilly trains per hour reach the end of the line at Uxbridge. As they share the same route with more frequent Metropolitan trains from Rayners Lane, there is little demand for more through journeys as the Met tends to be much quicker when travelling to Zone 1.

Waterloo and City line

If you miss the last train on Friday on the Waterloo and City line, you'll have the longest possible wait - the next train isn't until Monday morning!

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