Friday 26 October 2007

TfL October board meeting notes

Transport for London held a board meeting on Wednesday, and today they published the stack of documents (5 MB PDF) produced for it. A skim through the 286 pages reveals:

Oyster

  • On October 7, TfL began replacing the now-redundant push-button Few Fare Machines with Advanced Fare Machines, which do Oyster, but don't do change. 100 are planned by January, and the full 350 by April.
  • TfL's rollout of Oyster to Overground faced problems at Clapham Junction, because South West Trains are meant to be selling ITSO rather than Oyster cards. TfL ticket machines will be installed at each entrance.
  • Barclaycard expect to issue 75,000 OnePulse Oyster cards by the end of the year.
  • Cash fares are down to 3.5% of tube journeys and 2.3% of bus journeys.
  • All the train companies have finally signed an agreement for Oyster PAYG use, which includes details of how fares money will be distributed. The Financial Services Authority have confirmed the scheme doesn't fall under e-money regulations.
  • It's stated "C2C, ‘one’ and First Capital Connect" will be expanding PAYG from this January, but I think they mean Chiltern rather than FCC (see this blog's sidebar).

London Overground

  • The upgrade plans for the North London Line are due to be agreed with Network Rail this month, for delivery in 2010-11. This presumably includes resignalling, 3 and 4 tracking in places and platform extensions for 4 car trains. The associated improvement in service is called "SLC2k" and is due in January 2011.
  • The superstructure design for the "bridge at Liverpool Street" has been approved. I'm not sure if refers to the one over the Liverpool Street tracks by Brick Lane, or the one nearer Liverpool Street station over Shoreditch High Street.
  • The 3 extra Overground trains ordered in July are said to be dual voltage and intended for the North London Line, rather than for the East London Line as stated at the time. I'm not sure which is correct.
  • Stations on the Gospel Oak to Barking line will get shelters by March 2008, and initial repairs at all Overground stations will be completed by May. The full upgrade programme will run until November 2011, however.

Tube, DLR, Rail and Trams

  • Approval has been given to apply for the Victoria and Archway station upgrade Transport & Works orders.
  • Automatic Train Operation on the Jubilee Line is due by the end of 2009, and on the Northern by the end of 2011.
  • The first new Victoria Line train is due in service by January 2009.
  • Southfields, Baker Street (SSL only) and Green Park will be made step-free in time for the Olympics.
  • The DLR City Airport extension is carrying 48% of the airport's passengers.
  • The first new design DLR car is scheduled to be delivered on 14 December this year, a bit behind schedule. It's already running on a test track in Germany.
  • Train and platform lengthening are planned for many London National Rail lines (details are in the minutes).
  • TfL has now officially disbanded the West London Tram team, and appear not to be leaving open the possibility of restarting the scheme.
  • Funding for the Crystal Palace Tramlink extension appears hazy.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good, good, good! Pretty much all of that is good news. I had been wondering about the new DLR stock; it should've been delivered this summer and there seemed to be no announcements of any kind.
If it's running on test track already, are there any pictures around?