TfL Board Papers: June 2008

TfL held its first board meeting since the Mayoral election last week, and the papers are online. Highlights:

Oyster PAYG on National Rail

• The rollout of Oyster PAYG London wide will require work "at 240 National Rail stations [which] includes the installation of around 1,100 Oyster validators, over 600 ticket gate upgrades, ticket machine upgrades [...]"
• A fares proposal for Oyster PAYG has been submitted by the train companies, and is expected to be signed this month (July).
• "Southern has now agreed to allow installation of Oyster equipment to commence immediately."
• The Mayor's planned summit with train companies will look at "harmonisation of passenger standards (fares and information) plus interchange security and policing", as well as the headline Oyster PAYG issue.

London Underground

• "Prior to its introduction on the District line, the new Sub-Surface train will be introduced on the Metropolitan line (from 2010) and on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines (both 2012)," as previously announced. This seems to contradict Modern Railways' claim of a change of plan.
• The Northern Line is now the most reliable on the network, with 98.5% of services running as planned, thanks to the new timetable.
• The opening of the Northern Ticket Hall at King's Cross St Pancras has been moved forward to December 2009 at the request of the Department for Transport, in time for the start of Kent High Speed rail services.
• The first new Victoria Line train will be tested in service in January 2009.
• Testing of the new Jubilee Line signalling system isn't going well, with only a 50% success rate.

London Overground

• Ticketless-travel on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is down from 15% to 1.7% since London Overground took over.
• The first new London Overground train will be tested in Derby this month, though it's unclear when the first one will be tested in London.
• A few seats will be removed from the existing trains this month (as discussed for the GOBlin) to increase standing capacity and reduce boarding times.
• The new London Overground platforms at Stratford will open in December 2008. These allow the existing ones to be reused for the DLR extension to Stratford International.
• The first section of new slab track for the East London Line extension was laid on 12 April.

Crossrail

• A final Crossrail funding agreement is being prepared for signing in September.
• They're trying to get the Crossrail Bill passed before Parliament breaks up on 22 July, but it's looking "increasingly tight"
• The congestion relief plans for Tottenham Court Road tube station require powers granted by the Crossrail Bill.

DLR and Tramlink

• Track work for the DLR Woolwich Arsenal extension is complete
• Testing of the new DLR trains is being held up by getting electrical interference approval from London Underground at Stratford.
• An immediate cleaning and refurbishment of the Croydon tram system is planned now TfL own it, to be carried out by existing operating contractor First.

TfL Question Time

Two TfL managers have just done an online Question Time session with an uncharacteristically eloquent and on-message section of the general public. There are quite a few interesting answers:

• On tube cooling: "A new ventilation shaft is being installed at Liverpool Street"
• On the Northern Line split: "We're currently reviewing the prospect of being able to separate the service and the likely timescales involved. [...]
  The option of fully separating the line would mean all Charing Cross branch trains would only go on to Edgware. All Morden - Bank trains would go on to High Barnet. [...]
  It's unlikely we would be able to implement any proposal before 2015 at the earliest."
• On the King's Cross St Pancras Northern Ticket Hall: "This redevelopment programme is due to complete in December 2009" That's a little bit earlier than previous official dates.
• On extending the Bakerloo to Watford Junction. The strategy guy says: "There are no plans at present [...] The Bakerloo line is being upgraded by 2020 and this would be the time to consider this"
  However the possibly-less-informed operations guy is slightly more positive: "At the moment we don't have funding to do this so London Overground services will continue to serve Watford Junction for a few years to come."

[via District Dave]

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.

Tube upgrade schedule

There's a new brochure (well I think new, it's undated) on TfL's website that gives an overview of what the "Transforming the Tube" programme amounts to. There's a whole chunk of information hidden in the timeline that I thought I'd repeat here.

Completion of line upgrades (new signalling and trains):

• Mid 2007: Waterloo & City Line
• Mid 2009: Jubilee Line
• Late 2011: Victoria Line
• End 2011: Northern Line
• Mid-2014: Piccadilly Line
• Early2014: Circle Line
• Early 2015: Metropolitan Line
• Mid 2016: Hammersmith & City Line
• Mid 2018: District Line
• End 2020: Bakerloo Line

Absent is the Central Line, which is considered already upgraded.

Power & cooling works completion (don't know what this is exactly):

• Mid 2007: Waterloo & City Line
• Mid 2009: Jubilee Line
• Mid 2010: Central Line
• Late 2010: Northern Line
• Late 2011: Victoria Line
• End 2011: Hammersmith & City Line
• Early 2012: Metropolitan Line
• Mid 2014: Circle Line
• Mid 2014: Piccadilly Line
• Mid 2018: District Line
The Bakerloo Line isn't mentioned.

Major station upgrades (rebuilds and/or step-free access):

• Early 2007: North Greenwich (extra escalators)
• End 2007: Covent Garden
• Early 2009: White City (mainly Shepherd's Bush Central Line)
• Mid 2009: King's Cross St. Pancras
• Late 2010: West Ham
• Mid 2011: Paddington
• Late 2011: Vauxhall
• End 2011: Green Park
• Mid 2012: Highbury & Islington
• Late 2012: Finsbury Park
• Early 2014: Bond Street
• Late 2014: Victoria
• Late 2015: Tottenham Court Road
• 2020: Bank

Several of these are otherwise unannounced. I'll see what I can dig up.

Step free access totals:

• End 2006: 45 stations
• End 2007: 51 stations
• End 2008: 62 stations
• End 2009: 73 stations
• End 2010: 84 stations
• End 2011: 92 stations
• End 2012: 94 stations

Stations refurbishment totals:

• Early 2007: 71 complete
• Early 2008: 117 complete
• Early 2009: 149 complete
• Early 2010: 179 complete
• Early 2011: 225 complete
• Early 2011: 241 complete
• Early 2013: 247 complete

There are 268 since the East London Line closed, of which London Underground manage 248 by my reckoning (or 259 including the recently transferred Silverlink stations).

The timeline also covers Heathrow T5 (empty running starts this month, opens in March), the upgrade of the ex-Silverlink stations (completed end 2011), and some depot upgrades.

Station openings today

This weekend saw the opening of two new London stations, and the closure of another after 134 years.

The last ever train left King's Cross Thameslink last night around 1.15am (several minutes late), and the first ever train to call at St Pancras International arrived on time at 9.13am (earlier trains today called at neither, though did appear on the St Pancras departures board). The interior is a lot like City Thameslink, but with everything twice as big. Meanwhile, King's Cross Thameslink is now plastered with massive red "Do not alight here" signs. I was there for both events, but my photos were eaten by a shonky cheap memory card (don't do it kids), so you'll have to make do with this picture of a random train at St Pancras this afternoon.

Langdon Park DLR also opened this morning. When I passed yesterday afternoon the entrances were sealed off and it was swarming with men in orange jackets fiddling with the paving. But today the fences were gone and trains were stopping there, confusing at least a couple of passengers. As shown in the second picture, they've really gone to town with the footbridge roof. Disappointingly the station still has the standard DLR ticket machines that don't do Oyster.

At Stratford this afternoon, all DLR trains were using the north platform, rather than the south platform as they usually do. I'm not sure if this has been happening for a while or only started today, but at least both are now in use, though apparently not yet at the same time. The new footbridge from the old platform area is still sealed off, but appears complete (that's the rather unpromising Central Line/One end of it in the photo).

The King's Cross St. Pancras nexus - a novelty tube map

Just in time for the closure of King's Cross Thameslink and the opening of the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras this weekend, here is a complete diagram I've made of the whole complex, in the style of the tube map. It attempts to show every public passageway, escalator and entrance, and as far as possible it's geometrically as well as topologically accurate, so in a very approximate way the shape of the interchange blobs matches the shape of each interchange.

There are a few of the more obvious things I left out:

• None of the changes for the new King's Cross concourse are shown, though the new tube station passageways underneath it are.
• It shows all of St Pancras as open. The Circle and the coach station are not.
• Pancras Road continues further north.
• The public part of the mezzanine level at St Pancras is not shown, but there's very little on it of note.
• The temporary diversion of the passageway to the Piccadilly Line is not shown.
• I couldn't be bothered drawing separate lines for GNER/NX East Coast, Hull Trains, Grand Central, etc.
• It's in Gill Sans, not New Johnston.

Links: PNG | Zipped PDF

King's Cross temporary tunnel is truly temporary

A couple of weeks ago I reported on a new "temporary" tunnel at King's Cross St Pancras tube station. I've just got an email back from London Underground, and it turns out it really is temporary:

It will be filled in once redevelopment work is completed in approximately two years time, when escalators will be in place to link the two services.

Seems an awful lot of effort going to waste.

Temporary tunnel opens at King's Cross St Pancras

A new tunnel connecting the Piccadilly line with the Victoria line at King's Cross St Pancras. What's odd about this tunnel is despite its size, it's only temporary, while they rebuild the old route as a connection to the Northern Ticket Hall.

I've drawn a quick sketch of the area. The new tunnel replaces part of the Thameslink interchange tunnel, and once King's Cross Thameslink closes in December will serve only as an interchange route between the Piccadilly and Victoria lines (which are also connected by a shorter route at their southern ends), and as a route from both lines to the Thameslink station entrance on Pentonville Road.

Update: Yes, it truly is temporary

[via]

Hitachi A-Train on its way to the UK

The first train for Southeastern's forthcoming high speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link services to Kent has completed testing in Japan and has been loaded onto a ship bound for Southampton. It'll arrive in August and begin testing on the network in October.

Transport Briefing has a pretty picture of the train and some more details, though they incorrectly state it can do 186mph (the line speed is indeed 186 mph, but the A-Train's top speed is only 140 mph). There's a picture of it being loaded onto the ship on the Southeastern site.

East Coast Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy

Network Rail have published their strategic plans for the East Coast Main Line, which covers all services from King's Cross and Moorgate via Finsbury Park. Of interest to Londoners:

• The Finsbury Park to Moorgate branch is currently closed all weekend and after 10pm on weekdays, with trains directed to King's Cross at other times. The document rejects
  extending these hours as too expensive, though they suggest it might be needed on Saturdays to free up capacity at King's Cross.
• Inner-suburban services (ie the ones that run to Moorgate) may be increased from 3tph (trains per hour) to 4tph off-peak on each branch north of Alexandra Palace, and therefore from 6tph to 8tph south of there. A similar extra train may run at weekends.
  
• Four North London Line Class 313s may be transferred to First Capital Connect to run more inner-suburban trains as six car formations. They recommend doing this as soon as possible, which won't be until the new London Overground trains come into service.
  
• Lots of vagueness over when and whether the ECML will be connected to Thameslink. Seeing as a decision on this is meant to be due shortly and it has a major impact on any plans, it's an odd time to publish the document.
• Outer-suburban services will probably be extended to twelve car eventually, though due to the Thameslink Programme indecision, it's hard to say when.
  
• The long rumoured new "Platform 0" at King's Cross is apparently now called "Platform Y". It would be created by building a track through the more-or-less derelict arches and buildings along the east wall of the station.

King's Cross dome approved

The plans to build a massive dome shaped concourse on the side of King's Cross have been approved:

The London Borough of Camden has resolved to approve Network Rail's GBP400 million redevelopment of King's Cross station. The decision will allow major benefits of the scheme to be realised in time for the 2012 Olympics. The project, which will be funded by the Department for Transport and Network Rail, will support the continued growth in passenger numbers at Britain's busiest transport interchange.

Oddly, the new northern ticket hall for the tube is already well under construction, and will essentially form the basement of the new structure.