Shepherd's Bush Overground: Finished!

Well almost. These men are putting the last bits of trim onto the aluminium panels that cover the rebuilt part of the station building:
You can see in that picture there are still some bits of back fence to do, and there's some tidying up of the work of the other platform, but I can't see them spinning it out for more than a couple more weeks.

In that spirit, here's an attempt to recreate the very first picture I posted of the station, last October, so you can see the difference:

And here's the widened bit and the non-widened bits of the platform together:


Update: According to the latest TfL board papers, opening is pencilled in for October 1. [Thanks to D-Notice in the comments]

Finally, a bonus picture of the enormous new Shepherd's Bush Central Line station:

Shepherd's Bush/White City/Wood Lane interchanges

When the new stations at Shepherd's Bush and Wood Lane open there'll be two new out-of-station interchanges, requiring a short walk outdoors to change between lines. But how short?

Interchange #1: Shepherd's Bush (Overground) to Shepherd's Bush (Central Line)
Just across the bus station.

Approximate gateline-to-gateline walking distance: 100 metres.

Interchange #2: Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City Line) to White City (Central Line)
A stroll along Wood Lane right past BBC Television Centre.

Approximate gateline-to-gateline walking distance: 230m.

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.

Shepherd's Bush Central Line station closure documents

Andy Slaughter MP has been doing some digging on why Shepherd's Bush Central Line station closed so suddenly earlier this year. Using the Freedom of Information Act he's got hold of a whole stack of internal documents. While they fill in few new details, the story laid out is pretty much what we knew already. The original plan was:

• Westfield, developers of the new shopping centre, were due to replace the station building before the shopping centre opens, keeping the station open as far as was possible.
• At some point, a new high-capacity staircase would have been installed down to the platforms, in conjunction with step-free access and other below ground works (BGW).
• Metronet were due to replace the escalators in the period 2010-12. There was a possibility that if one escalator could be kept in service ("there have been engineering differences of opinion on the feasibility of this"), combined with the new staircase the station could remain open.

Fast forward to late November last year with the centre's opening less than a year away, work on the station not started, the BGW programme looking increasingly unfeasible, and Metronet in administration. Westfield made London Underground an offer: let us close the station so we can get the building replaced on time, and we'll replace the escalators for you while we're at. After some deliberation, TfL accepted.

That's a picture of the new ticket hall I've posted before. Thanks to reader Tim for the tip.

Shepherd's Bush progress update

They've now moved 26 of the 45 blocks at Shepherd's Bush Overground:
The rate seems to be about 1 a day, so this task should be done by the end of June. They've already filled in behind the blocks in the middle. The hole at the north end (nearest the camera) has got much deeper, but there's no sign of work to connect the two parts of the wall, or to fill in the gap between the wall and the platform or move the street lights.

At the south end, under the footbridge, they're putting in rebar to form the joint between the relocated platform wall and the station building:
There's also a strange bracket covered in pink gunk where the footbridge is held up by the old wall. I presume this will be cut.

(In the first photo I've annotated how interchange between the Overground and tube stations will work. The two face each other across a new open air bus station. There'll be no indoor interchange)

Speaking of the tube station, they've nearly got the front wall fully glazed:
I say "front wall", but this would have been the side wall of the old building, which had its main entrance round to the left. The focus has been rotated 90 degrees away from Shepherd's Bush Green and onto the bus and rail stations and shopping centre.

Just around the corner, here's London's last new tube station for the foreseeable future, Wood Lane:
All this cladding is new, as are the window frames above the entrance. From a passing train you can see the platform surfacing and edging is almost complete.

All these stations open in October-ish.

Shepherd's Bush Central Line update

They've started putting the western half of the frame (in the background), plus the internal walls for the staff accomodation:

Ever seen a brand new escalator on the back of a truck?

Thought not.

Central Line trains to get new motors

The trains on the Central Line are generally regarded as lemons, and recently they've been suffering serious motor problems* causing service disruption. London Underground appear to be taking drastic action to get it solved, as they propose spending £90-130m to replace the entire drive system of every train:

Replacement of existing DC traction system by new AC traction system on approximately 85 trains each of 8 cars. Requirement includes replacement of 4 electric traction motors and related equipment on each car.

Almost all new electric trains are built with AC motors - including the Jubilee and Northern Line fleets - as they're simpler, smaller and more efficient. Note that "AC" refers only to the design of the motors and the way they're controlled, so the fourth rail DC supply system on the line will not need to be replaced.

It would previously have been Metronet's responsibility to solve this problem. You may like to ponder whether they'd been putting off fixing it properly.

(* if you don't trust that rant, the problem is also mentioned briefly on page 33 of the Feb 2008 board papers)

[via uk.transport.london]

How Bank-Monument works

Since I made my maps of Green Park and King's Cross St. Pancras I knew it was only a matter of time before I had a crack at Bank-Monument. And here's what I've come up with:

[ Update: Diagram of the current closures ]

There are several other maps available, but I wanted to do something a bit more detailed and geographically accurate that could be reconciled with the actual experience of traipsing through the tunnels.

Notes, disclaimers and things learnt during this exercise:

• This was made entirely by visual observation on a handful of short visits, with no accurate charts used save an aerial photo to get the general shape right. It's entirely possible it's hilariously wrong.
• The DLR really is slightly offset from the Northern Line and not quite parallel to it as shown. It's not me making my drawing easier.
• From shallowest to deepest the levels are: Ticket halls, District/Circle Line, Waterloo & City Line, upper interchange level, Central Line, lower interchange level, Northern Line and DLR.
• The route from end to end via the DLR rather than the Northern Line isn't actually much longer, it just involves a stupidly high number of bends and transitions.
• The Waterloo & City Line platforms have a tiny newsagent hidden in a cross passage. Is it the only deep[-ish] level station so blessed?
• The complex is so vast it has a whole other tube station within its thrall (Cannon Street).
• The lift access from street to the DLR requires using three separate lifts, two of which are in the peak hours only ticket hall.
• I have no idea what shape the Bank ticket hall really is.
• For extra anorak points I've included the platform numbers and escalator numbers - I've heard the guy on the tannoy (it appears the same one works there 24/7) use the latter to refer to the escalators under repair.

This long easter weekend, why not use the diagram to try to work out what on earth today's rambling TfL press release about escalator closures is trying to say.

Shepherd's Bush (Central Line) refurbishment works

Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line is closed until mid October for modernisation. What are they actually doing?

This factsheet goes over the details. Basically the plan during the closure is:

• Demolish the existing building
• Remove the escalators and install new ones while the building isn't in the way
• Build a much larger new building, with a large entrance facing east the bus and Overground station, rather than the narrow entrance facing the street.
• Get started on refurbishing the platform area

Missing from the current plans is the installation of lifts and any other below ground works. This page describes a possible scheme where two new shafts will be dug down to the existing horizontal ventilation tunnel, which will be enlarged for passenger use. The west shaft will connect to the station building and contain a lift, while the east shaft will contain a new set of emergency stairs. A second lift will connect this shaft to the platforms, coming out between them, part way along. You can sort of it see how this works in this picture [hosted by Always Touch Out], though not really.

This news article says London Underground "admitted they now had no plans" to install lifts, and the blurb on TfL's site goes no further than saying they're "evaluating a congestion relief and step-free access scheme". On the other hand, this article says the new shafts have already been created. So I've no idea what's going on.

One thing to note is that, as far as I can tell, there are no plans to enlarge or significantly alter the existing escalator, stair and platform arrangements during any of these works, beyond basic refurbishment.

(btw I don't buy the conspiracy theories on this. If TfL's claims about needing to close the station to replace the escalators are even slightly true, then making it coincide with the station building being out of the way and getting it done before the shopping centre opens is such a forehead-slappingly sensible plan I'm shocked they ever proposed anything else)

Shepherd's Bush is closed

Shepherd's Bush Central Line station closed for eight months

TfL have announced that the Central Line station at Shepherd's Bush is closing from 2 February 2008 until October:

This will result in the ticket hall being demolished and rebuilt, as well as the installation of new escalators and modernisation of the station.

I note that the press release mentions the new Wood Lane station, the renaming of Shepherd's Bush H&C. the new Central Line depot, even the new H&C viaduct over the entrance to that depot, but not a peep about a certain other station.

(this announcement may explain why both stations are shown as under construction on one version of the new tube map)