Rebuilding Tottenham Court Road station

Tottenham Court Road station is being massively rebuilt and expanded over the next 8 years - both to accomodate Crossrail and increase capacity - and an exhibition about what they're doing opened at New London Architecture today.

Here's the money shot (click to enlarge):
(1) is the new Crossrail platforms; (2) is a new escalator down to the Northern Line platforms; (3) is Crossrail's Oxford Street entrance (which looks like this inside); (4) is an escalator down to the Crossrail platforms, obscured by a new ventilation and emergency stair structure; (5) is the massively expanded ticket hall; and (6) is a new set of escalators down to the Central Line.

To build this, they've got to dig up a big chunk of the West End:
The right half of the site is the plaza outside Centre Point, while the left half is a block of buildings to be demolished - including as noted, The Astoria. In the middle is where the top end of Charing Cross Road currently is. They'll also be demolishing the block to the south of Sutton Row to build the Crossrail ventilation shaft (4). Everything currently on the site of the western ticket hall (3) will also be going.

The timescale for this is glacial, with preparatory works long since started, demolition and construction beginning next year. The new piazza entrance (on the southeast corner) opens 2013, and the piazza itself opens in 2015. Charing Cross Road will be diverted from 2010 until 2014. Construction at the station won't be finished until 2016.

In contrast, the exhibition lasts only until August 9.

Crossrail is Law

Today both the House of Lord and House of Commons approved the Crossrail Bill, which grants the powers needed to build Crossrail, London's new super tube line. The only obstacle now is money.


From now on the route, the stations, the buildings to be demolished, and everything else is now set in stone. If they build it at all, it has to be built as set out in the countless bill documents, unless they aquire new powers or push through another Act of Parliament. The only thing I can't see is any requirement for them to build all of it.

So no more bickering about how the route should be changed. And no more Astoria.

The diagram shows how the tunnels will be dug, taken from this document. Yes, it's missing Woolwich station, but is otherwise correct.

Crossrail Bill approved by Lords

The Crossrail Bill was approved by the House of Lords this morning. The final step to Royal Assent is a vote in the House of Commons scheduled for 5pm-7pm tonight. Watch this space.

Crossrail Bill date: 22nd July

The House of Lords Committee on Recomittment that was reviewing final amendments to the Crossrail Bill appears to have finished, and readings of the Bill are now scheduled in both houses for 22nd July, the last day of parliament until October 5th. The Commons speaker is actually forbidden from packing up for the summer until both votes have happened and Royal Assent has been granted (assuming the houses vote yes, which is very likely).

So if they stick to this schedule, that's planning permission in the bag, and the funding agreement is scheduled to be signed until September. We're in the endgame on this one.

There is one final hurdle - the Lords Committee notes that the change in law allowing Crossrail to be funded by business rates hasn't happened yet:

Funding of Crossrail is very dependent on the legislation that will take into account the small part of the business rate that will provide funding. That is how the whole project was agreed. I think that the Prime Minister said in his pre-Queen’s Speech announcement in the summer that this legislation was to be protected in the coming year. If it does not happen and that legislation does not go through Parliament, the current funding mechanism for Crossrail will not be available.

It is noted later that the law is very likely to pass, on the assumption Gordon Brown's government is still around to introduce it.

Crossrail Bill ready to pass Lords

The parliamentary process to approve the Crossrail Bill looks to be coming to an end shortly, after the House of Lords committee hearing petitions against it, approving it while making only minor amendments. This was the last major hurdle for the bill, and the last chance for the public to object.

It now only has to pass a "committee on re-commitment" (whatever that is) and go for a final vote in the two houses - likely to be a formality - and then it's law. The bill provides powers and outline permissions to build the line, but not funding.

Looking at the committee's report, they were quite keen on a connection from Heathrow to the west (page 42), but decided not to require it be added to the scheme. They also liked the idea of extending the line from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet (page 36), but again, decided it could be built separately.

While we're on the topic, I've received an email from the Crossrail press office in response to this old post. They confirm the central section of the line will have Automatic Train Operation:

Crossrail is using Automatic Train Operation (ATO) in the central area from Ealing Broadway to Abbey Wood and up to Stratford station where it can be integrated with current automatic systems. ATO is a system in which all train movement control is automatic apart from the door operation and starting from stations.

Safety information is continuously transmitted to the train in the form of electrical codes in the running rails which tell the train its permitted speed. For signal stops, a brake command signal in the running rail causes the brake to be applied and then automatically restarts the train when the signal is cleared.

A quick Google reveals ATO has actually been an ambition for a while, but this confirms it's still on the table.

The email also goes over the reasons for not specifying double deck trains (construction expense, dwell times, limited capacity gains, etc), and mentions the future extension from 10 to 12 car trains will allow a similar capacity gain (20% vs 30-40%) for much lower cost.

Crossrail funding doubts

A couple of interesting stories regarding the funding of Crossrail. First the Guardian reckon if it goes ahead TfL won't be able to afford anything else:

Senior transport figures say the £16bn Crossrail project, an underground rail link from Heathrow in the west to Canary Wharf in the east, will stifle investment in the ageing tube network, meaning a number of station revamps and line upgrades could be postponed or cancelled.

Secondly the esteemed East London Advertiser claims Gordon Brown is about to cancel the whole thing:

A highly placed source in Crossrail's management team fears the PM will put the cross-London 'super tube' rail link on hold amid increasing concerns about the effect of the credit crunch on the economy.

Both stories are very wishy-washy, anonymously sourced and full of weasel words. The Guardian's story seems to be a thin regurgitation of one the same journalist wrote 6 months ago, only this time fleshed with numbers sourced from "industry speculation" and a few quotes from a rent-an-academic.

So while neither of these stories is very credible in itself, don't be too surprised if funding for Crossrail never actually materialises.

[Thanks to Ian M for the ELA link]

Crossrail images

A few weeks ago I attended a talk by the Engineering Director of Crossrail. Nothing particularly juicy was revealed, but there were some great diagrams shown.

Looking at Crossrail's online picture library, I found a few similar ones:

• This station diagram corresponds with the general layout of Tottenham Court Road (it's definitely not Liverpool St), with Oxford St runs along the top where the stairs come out, with Chraing Cross Road on the far right. As noted in the talk, the amount of walking needed to get from the platform to the street is designed to be as small as possible.
• Diagram of a running tunnel No chance of getting a double deck train in.
• Paddington station platform area, showing the huge slot that will allow daylight all the way down. You can also see the platform edge doors.

I would have posted about this a while ago, but I've been trying to get copies of the actual images. An apparently cooperative press officer did send me a couple of renderings, which weren't what I was after at all and are barely worth your time. But in the interests of having a petty "you won't find these anywhere else on the web" exclusive, I'm posting them anyway.

"Tottenham Court Road - Upper concourse"
"Bond Street - Western Entrance - Davies Street ticket hall"
The only things worth noting are the video avatars on the ticket machines (and no ticket offices) and the incredibly poor compositing work in the background of the second image.

£160m of Crossrail work in the next 12 months

Cross London Rail Links plan to award contracts for enabling works worth £160m over the next 12 months, just as soon as the Crossrail Bill passes. The works are described as "utility diversions, demolitions, site investigations, rail infrastructure modifications, environmental mitigation, traffic management and civil engineering works", but no more details are given.

Think of it as two Croxley Rail Links.

Picture: Crossrail borehole in Soho Square

How Farringdon Crossrail will work

New London Architecture have an exhibition on at the moment about Underground London, and included in the brochure is this diagram of Farringdon Crossrail station (the labels are my doing).

It shows how the station will connect into both Farringdon and Barbican tube stations, and how at the Farringdon end it incorporates the southern platform extensions and ticket hall that are being added as part of Thameslink Programme (shown in light green).

Crossrail refused full track access rights

The Crossrail project has been busy applying for thirty year access rights (what they call TAO) to make sure its services can run on existing lines. The Office of Rail Regulation has published its draft decision:

we should approve a TAO; [however] the parties’ proposed TAO should be modified to contain rights to two fewer paths per hour in each direction at weekends and in periods other than the peak, shoulder peak and service start and end periods on weekdays;

That upshot is that during the daytime and at weekends they only have rights to run six trains per hour west of Paddington - probably four to Heathrow and two to Maidenhead. On the Shenfield branch, they've only been awarded rights for six trains an hour rather than the eight requested. Peak services are unaffected.

The decision only determines what trains Crossrail has guaranteed long term rights to run. The regulator thinks it's unwise to award them the full set now, in case demand for freight or other passenger services becomes more pressing. If it doesn't, it's entirely possible they'll still be able to run all the trains they asked to, and they have at least 10 years to argue their case.

If you haven't seen the application documents before, they contain all sorts of juicy details like the proposed track layout (west, central and east) and the service frequencies and stopping patterns. West of Paddington it's expected all trains will skip at least one of Acton, Southall, Hanwell and West Ealing; and there'll be half-hourly non-Crossrail diesel trains that skip many more stations, mainly to provide a decent service to Maidenhead and Twyford. The latter are unaffected by the rights decision, so Maidenhead will have a total of four trains per hour to London off peak.

[via Transport Briefing]

February Board Papers: Miscellaneous notes

I've already posted separately about ELL Phase 2, the Southern franchise takeover and Shepherd's Bush Overground but there are a lot of other things worth noting:

• Another follow-on order for new London Overground Electrostars is planned for this month.
• Roll out of Oyster PAYG to the whole London rail network is still pencilled in for next January.
• The renaming of Shepherd's Bush (H&C) to Shepherd's Bush Market will happen when Shepherd's Bush (Central Line) reopens, not when Wood Lane opens (which may be earlier) as previously announced. There's likely only weeks in it.
• The King's Cross St Pancras tmporary tunnel is known as the 'Hockey stick'.
• Royal assent for the Crossrail Bill is expected by the end of July. A Lords committee will consider petitions from 19 Feb until mid May.
• Purchase time at tube ticket machines is down to "0.28 minutes".
• The East London Line officially ceased to be a London Underground line on 22 January, when they finished clearing their things and handed it over to contractors.
• Replacement signalling (and ultimately Automatic Train Operation) is due on the Jubilee and Northern Lines by December 2009 and September 2011 respectively, with the first part of the Jubilee commissioned this October.
• A tender for new Piccadilly Line trains has just been issued.
• The first S-Stock train is due for delivery for testing in January 2009.
• The first new DLR train was delivered on 22 December. The whole first 'Woolwich Arsenal' batch is due in service by September, with a follow-on 'Olympic' batch coming next.
• They're still deciding how to progress the Cross River Tram scheme.
• They're pressing on with Greenwich Waterfront Transit and East London Transit, and are due to start October 2009 and July 2011 respectively,

You can read more in the board papers PDF.

Crossrail to Reading safeguarded

The government have made an announcement regarding whether Crossrail should terminate at Reading rather than Maidenhead.

I have now decided to safeguard additional land between Maidenhead and Reading. While I am clear that Crossrail services will terminate at Maidenhead and have no plans to extend them to Reading, this measure gives the flexibility to be able to extend Crossrail in the future, should there be a business case.

While there's a prevailing opinion that Reading is the more "logical" place for services to terminate, the Crossrail people argue that it would be too expensive since "the first station where Crossrail would be likely to pick up considerable passenger traffic would be at Maidenhead". However, the biggest expense is the rebuilding of Reading station, which is happening anyway, making some regard an extension as the inevitable next step. There'll be various local, semi-fast and fast services in addition to Crossrail, so most passengers will be well-served whatever happens.

At the other end of the line, the statement mentions an extension from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet in Kent is already safeguarded. The safeguarding actually continues all the way to Hoo Junction on the other side of Gravesend, where a depot would be located. They say they're considering updating the safeguarding in some way, though there's no mention of how or why.

[via uk.railway]

Crossrail through Commons

The Crossrail Bill has now cleared the House of Commons and now has to be approved by the House of Lords. As previously discussed, there'll be another round of public petitioning. The petitioning period in the Commons resulted in this document, which details the various complaints and the committee's responses and recommendations.

Update: The Crossrail newsletter points to the Lords' Crossrail page. The petitioning period is 8th-30th January.

Crossrail parliamentary process

Today I received the least glamorous email the world has known, Crossrail Project Bulletin 11 ("This is the eleventh bulletin keeping you up-to-date on the progress of the Crossrail project"). It's not online yet that I can find, but there is one part worth quoting, about the hurdles the Crossrail Bill still has to face:

Remaining stages in the Commons
The Bill will now be considered by a Public Bill Committee, and then there will be a further debate (Report/Third Reading) in the Commons, before the Bill passes to the House of Lords.

House of Lords
When the Bill is introduced in the Lords a fresh petitioning period will be triggered, and those directly affected by the proposals will have the opportunity to petition against them just as they did in the Commons.

Not quite in the bag yet.

Crossrail fare rises: A stitch-up?

Last night the BBC London News led with a story bluntly stating that fares in London would have to go up to pay for Crossrail. The thing is, this story seems to be built entirely around catching the mayor out saying these words:

Fares are going up to pay for the cost of the borrowing to do the construction

Not much arguing with that. Now watch the video. Not only does it start awkwardly, apparently mid-sentence, but he says immediately afterwards that they aren't going to go up, and put out a press release this morning denying the story.

I've emailed both parties for clarification. The Mayor's office say the quote is taken from a hypothetical discussion of what might happen as a last resort if interest rates go out of control, which would mean the BBC cut off a rather important part of the clip. BBC London News haven't replied.

I realise the naivety of expecting even basic journalistic standards from local news, but unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, this is a just a little bit brazen, isn't it?

Mayor confirms Crossrail details

Ken has released a statement confirming various details of Crossrail. In summary:

• As already announced, TfL will take sole control of the Crossrail project from next year
• The Abbey Wood branch will be built in the first phase - a direct rebuttal of rumours it wouldn't.
• Crossrail services will be phased in over 12 months
• Standard rate zonal fares (including Oyster) will apply to most of Crossrail, but premium pricing on the Heathrow branch will continue.
• The Mayor hopes East Londoners will be able to get jobs on the project.
• "With the advent of Crossrail, total public transport capacity will increase by 10%", which represents "40% of the extra rail capacity London needs by middle of the next decade".

There's nothing spectacularly new here, but it should stop a few of the rumours flying around.

Crossrail still sort of actually has funding

The DfT have put out a press release making news of the Crossrail funding deal rumoured earlier in the week official, meaning Gordon Brown has given the project the 'go-ahead', whatever that means. As far as I can tell, there's no actual change in the project's status today - we still seem to be waiting for the deal to be finalised.

More interestingly, the press release has the latest construction timetable:

• 2008 Royal Assent
• 2009 Enabling works
• 2010 Construction begins
• 2017 First services commence

It looks like we can forget the possible 2015 opening date a few sources had been reporting this week.

Crossrail sort of actually gets funding

The BBC are reporting that the City of London has approved extra funding for Crossrail. So it looks like it might actually get built, assuming the actual last hurdle is crossed, and the bodies that have promised funding actually cough up.

Crossrail sort of gets funding

Gordon Brown has announced progress on Crossrail funding, in his inimitable way:

I want the project to go ahead subject to the satisfactory conclusion of detailed negotiations for additional contributions from all the beneficiaries.

This isn't an official announcement of funding, just that they've worked out how it might get it. And the bill still hasn't been passed in parliament, which means it essentially doesn't have planning permission either. No wonder opening is apparently now scheduled for 2017, with no work starting until 2010.

West London Tram officially dead

Ken has admitted defeat on the West London Tram scheme:

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, today joined Councillor Jason Stacey, Leader of Ealing Council, to announce that, on the assumption of a positive government decision on the construction of Crossrail, the Mayor and the local boroughs will work together to address the problem of improving public transport on the Uxbridge Road, between Uxbridge and Shepherd’s Bush, via a bus-based solution rather than the tram originally envisaged. This is because Crossrail would significantly increase public transport capacity in the area reducing the need for a tram and making a bus solution more practical.

It gives a Crossrail completion date of 2015, so presumably they think it's practical for it to be under construction at the same as the Olympic site and Thameslink.