Mitcham Eastfields station opening this Monday
There's been a bit of confusion over whether Mitcham Eastfields station would open on Sunday or Monday. In particular, the National Rail Enquiries site had trains in the timetable for Sunday, and explicitly gave that date in its notes.That's now been fixed. The first train to call at the station appears to be the Southern service from Epsom to Victoria at 5:49am. If you want to be on it, First Capital Connect run all night to East Croydon, where you can catch an early tram to Mitcham Junction, one stop before Eastfields on the Southern service.The National Rail page notes the footbridge will be available "from Summer 2008", implying it won't be ready for this weekend.Photo taken two weeks ago. Hopefully it's finished by now.
Update: The opening's been postponed again. See the comments.
Update 2: Opening at 4pm today. The first train to call will be the Epsom-Victoria at 16:10
9 comments:
Is there any pedestriancrossing protection for passengers crossing the footbridge having visited the ticket office when they cross the road that runs through the middle of the station
It is with regret that I inform you that the planned opening of the new Mitcham Eastfields Station on Monday 2 June 2008 has had to be slightly delayed due to last minute technical issues that must be resolved ahead of any operation of the new facility. All partners have worked very hard to achieve the planned opening but unfortunately, due to unforeseen difficulties, this will now be delayed. A new date will be set as soon as possible and all partners hope to be in a position to communicate the new date at some stage over the next few days.
The new Station consists of the latest modular facility technology and is the first new suburban station to be opened in London since the second world war. The complexities of the new technology, designed to ensure maximum sustainability, passenger comfort and efficient operation have tested all partners to the maximum and it is apparent only this afternoon that further time is required to compete essential works. Please accept apologies for any inconveniences as a result of this decision.
For further information, please contact Bronwen Pickering on 020 8545 3483.
Kinds regards
Abby
Abby Burford
Principal Publicity and Marketing Officer
www.merton.gov.uk
London Borough of Merton
Business Support
12th Floor
Civic Centre
London Road
Morden
SM4 5DX
Those Merton council lot are a hard-working bunch, still toiling away at midnight on a Friday! Unless of course either Mr Thant or another visitor to the blog copied the above text from the publicity officer Abby from an email, which is perhaps a more likely explanation!
FWIW I took a bit if a detour and went past the station on Friday just after midnight, where I saw a good number of hi-vis jacketed gents (though no sign of the diligent Abby) toiling away putting the finishing touches on the station, which appeared to be fundamentally finished.
Mwmbwls makes a good point about the pedestrian crossing, or more to the point the lack of one. The station is dissected by Eastfields Road - the location of the station can be seen in the middle square of this street map - it's to the left of the roundabout (the road actually crosses the railway by means of a level crossing).
The up platform with the ticket office is to the north of Eastfields Road (on the west side of the line), the down platform is to the south of Eastfields Road (on the east side of the line).
The bridge leads to the down platform from an entrance to the south side of the road on the west side of the line - I'm unclear as to whether the bridge will be the only way of getting to the down platform, or whether passengers will be able to just walk across the level crossing (if it is open) and get direct access to the down platform from street level.
Regardless of whether passengers will have to use the bridge or not, they will still have to cross the busy Eastfields Road. AFAICS no specific provision has been made for this (not even any traffic islands) - there is a zebra crossing some distance to the west along Eastfields Rd, but I can't see many people making a detour to use it. However I can certainly see the difficultly in trying to place a pedestrian crossing over this road, given the proximity to the level crossing.
Maybe the bridge should have led diagonally across the level crossing, directly linking one platform to the other? Of course that would have been a substantially more complex undertaking for a station that's supposed to be an exemplar of the new way of building such things fairly rapidly and without great expense.
LB Merton's website has a page on the station which says that the station will open in "Summer 2008".
BBC News article telling us what we already know
BBC - "But passengers will have to wait until later this week to use the station..."
Likely?
I had a chat with the affable site foreman yesterday evening and he said from his point of point of view the station was ready to open. He said it was just a signature from somebody on high that was required to get the trains to stop. Rather unfortunate that our local MP put fliers through all the local letter boxes yesterday saying it was due to open today. Hope there weren't too many disappointed commuters this morning!
It's past 16:11. Is the station now open?
Just looking at the Live Departure Boards, and yes Mitcham Eastfields has a service running!
Post a Comment