East London Line phase 2 works to go ahead

According to this planning application, "funding has been secured" for enabling works for the phase 2 extension of the East London Line (network map) to be done before the line reopens.

To be clear, this isn't the full scheme, but it does involve building a rather substantial grade separated junction, like so:
You can view a much larger version of that picture, and a reverse angle shot in this document (sans annotations), and an explanation in this one.

The junction is located at the northern tip of the Silwood triangle (near Surrey Quays station), which currently looks like this:
That's taken from the footbridge marked on the diagram above, with the East London Line on the left, and temporary works sidings on the right, on the path of the phase 2 extension.

The work proposed to do before phase 1 opens in 2010 (and before phase 2 is given the green light) includes building the underpass, replacing the footbridge, and building earthworks to take the phase 2 tracks down the side of Silwood Triangle, but no further.

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.

Top secret London Overground news

Well, not very secret. But I've been sent a non-public London Overground presentation that contains a few interesting bits.

Firstly, there's an updated rendering of the new London Overground trains:
Compared to the old rendering, it's gained eyeliner and a thicker orange stripe that continues around the front, and lost its Overground logo, Bombardier logo and number (though there should be a real one of these to ogle by now).

Moving on, it's stated the East London Line will reopen in "January 2010". Although completion much earlier than the "Summer 2010" public date have long appeared in TfL's board papers, this is the first time I've seen them telling anyone it'll open so much earlier.

Finally, they have a construction schedule for the North London Line upgrade, and the extensive line closures required:

• April 2009 to April 2010: Camden Road to Dalston
  Freight trains will be diverted onto the passenger tracks. Currently freight trains use the single track on the north side of the passenger tracks, which needs to be rebuilt as double track during the upgrade. It's unclear what the effect on passenger services will be.
• April 2009 to June 2010 (Sundays): Hackney Wick to Stratford
  
• Dec 2008 to April 2009 (Sunday and some Saturdays) Gospel Oak to Woodgrange Park 
  
• April 2010 to June 2010 (weekends): Kensington Olympia to Clapham Junction
  They need to convert Latchmere Curve, just outside Clapham Junction, from single to double track.
• April 2010 to May 2010 (weekends): Willesden Junction to Kensington Olympia 
• Jan 2010 to Feb 2010 (weekends): South Action to Acton Central 
  
• April 2009 to Jan 2011 (Sundays): Acton Central to Gospel Oak
  

They don't actually give specific reasons for these closures, so the two above are mine, and otherwise it's for general track, signalling and power upgrades for the new high frequency service.

Network Rail: "Waterloo sucks!"

Network Rail have a long term plan (after 2014 at least) to extend Waterloo's platforms across the current concourse (which is elevated), and move all the stations facilities downstairs to street level. English Heritage have retaliated by trying to get the whole station listed, as "largest and finest British terminus of the early 20th century”.

Network Rail obviously object, and the only way to do that is to rubbish the station. Some choice quotes:

“a late and rather weak expression”

"The station was a major engineering project of its period, but the results, in spatial and architectural terms, are far from dramatic or memorable"

"The architecture... is a late expression of Edwardian baroque styling, rather thinly applied."

“Waterloo is not especially innovative in terms of planning and in structural terms is unadventurous, lacking the excitement of the great 19th century stations"

Thanks to reader Bob for sending this in.

Shoreditch High Street station box going up

As previously reported here, the East London Line extension's Shoreditch High Street station is to be enclosed on all sides by a massive windowless concrete box (i.e. walls and a roof). The primary aim of this is to protect the line so that it can stay open during the construction of skyscrapers alongside it.

Until now there was no sign of it, but this week they started erecting posts to support the structure:
It really is that big compared to the poxy humans.

Thanks to Antonio for the photo. Here's a panorama of the whole of Bishopsgate Goods Yard, using pictures taken by him today from the Tea Building on the north side of the site (click to enlarge):

The box will stretch at full height for the length of the platforms (which corresponds to the finished section of viaduct), and at a lower height all the way to Brick Lane on the left and Shoreditch High Street on the right (a map of Shoreditch, if you're lost).

The 2M Group's Heathrow Express Network

The 2M Group is an anti-Heathrow expansion pressure group formed by 19 London Borough Councils, plus a few from outside London. Today they became the latest entity to publish a blueprint for a high speed line to the north.

The intriguing part about this one is the diagram on the right. They want to passengers to be able to transfer from the High Speed Line to Heathrow, and also run feeder services from Cambridge and Portsmouth. The orange bit is Airtrack, the green bit is Crossrail and the purple bits are high speed lines, but what on earth is the route in red?

I emailed them, and their response is on this Google Map (the text is theirs, the route plotting is mine, using nothing but the text included). In short: Heathrow Express tunnels to Hayes & Harlington, new build route up to the Chiltern Main Line, east to Neasden, Dudding Hill Line to Cricklewood, Midland Main Line to Radlett, new build east to Hatfield, segregated as far as is possible, and running at conventional. They reckon trains will take 20 minutes to get from Heathrow to Cricklewood, and that this is comparable to interchange between terminals.

Obviously this isn't a transport project at all and is just meant as a cudgel to beat about the government's collective head, but as the plans have been worked out in some detail by a proper engineer, they're worth a look.

Shepherd's Bush Overground: Idiots!

The Good News: They've finished filling in the gap in the platform left by moving the wall back.

The Bad News: They've put those fscking street lights back in!


On the other platform they've finishing paving over the gap where the new entrance is (see the last update), but they still need to put the panes of glass over where the old one was:

There's now very little left to do other than fixing a handful of cosmetic gaps and putting up Overground signs. I've noticed the protective plywood is off the ticket barriers, so the place is on its way back from being a building site and to a railway station.

As an aside, the last issue of Modern Railways contains a brief note blaiming the narrow platform on the need to accommodate the West London Tram terminus alongside. Here's a diagram from the planning application, with the Overground platforms in orange and the tram tracks highlighted in red:
Not terribly convincing.

East London Line progress photos: July 2008

Construction of the East London Line extension continues apace. Since I haven't checked in on progress since May, so it's time for another look at how they're getting on.

At Dalston Junction, the station is going to be in the basement of a massive development, and they've now put in the floor above the station. Trains arriving from Highbury & Islington will go through the hole on the right:

Via the magic of the telephoto lens, here's a glimpse of Haggerston station from Richmond Road. The white vertical line is the Regent's Canal bridge even further in the distance:

And here's Haggerston station from ground level:

At Hoxton station they've been digging out the viaduct arches and laying a concrete slab, and in the foreground are the fundations for the stairs and/or lifts alongside the viaduct:

That mysterious building alongside the site is huge, and could possibly be a ticket office. It has a large opening in the side roughly at viaduct level:

Here are a couple of glimpses of the top of the viaduct from a nearby tower block. It looks like they're starting to prepare the ground for tracklaying:


The viaduct ends in Shoreditch, and it looks like they're deliberately not connecting it up so they can keep this access ramp. Note the massive concrete support column where the viaduct will eventually be:

Turning the camera slightly to the right, they've finished this section of the viaduct and are working on the next section that connects it to the Shoreditch High Street bridge:

On the other side of Shoreditch High Street the viaduct linking the bridge to the already-finished Shoreditch High Street station viaduct is also taking shape:

They're also working on the viaduct between the station and Brick Lane, but it's very hard to see or photograph.

At Brick Lane they've put in this little walkway so they can build the viaduct across the top, although there's no sign yet of them doing so yet:


Just to the left is the notorious GE19 bridge. Reader Steven Gee sends in this picture of the missing slab:
Going by the known measurements of the bridge, I estimate the weight of the slab that fell on the bridge at around half a ton.

This is the ramp down from the bridge. It looked pretty much like this at the time the bridge collapsed, so I'm not certain they've been able to work on it:

Conversely, here's the nearby ramp down into the East London Line cutting:

Just west of Valance Road there was a brick arched bridge, which has been demolished and replaced:
This is to provide clearance so that trains coming up the ramp from the cutting can get under it.

Just north of Whitechapel there's not a lot happening:


At the north end of the East London Line platforms at Whitechapel they've been busy digging out Crossrail interchange subways:

Just south of Whitechapel they've busy laying new track:

And south of the river, they've completed replacing the track on the New Cross branch, though they seem to have forgotten the conductor rail:
There's no sign of any connection to the main line here for works trains to get in, which was once rumoured.

As always, it's just about impossible to get a decent photo of anything at the New Cross Gate depot site, but they appear to have finished the concrete shell of the control centre buildings; finished the ramps up to the flyover; put in the second, smaller span of the flyover; and are in the very early stages of laying track.

Farringdon Thameslink works about to start

The Thameslink Programme has three elements: Reconfiguring track and junctions so that more routes and more trains can run through the central section; Extending platforms at local stations so that 12 car trains can run; and completely rebuilding Farringdon, Blackfriars and London Bridge stations for both of the previous reasons.

Major work work doesn't start until next March, but preparatory works ("Key Output 0") are happening now. The most significant of these is the replacement of the interchange footbridge at the north end of Farringdon station, and work on that starts next month.

Here are your before and after shots:

And here's the diagrams on the back of the leaflet:

Handily reoriented so that north is at the top. Thameslink trains use the tracks on the left, London Underground the tracks on the right.

The new footbridge will double as a new entrance to the station, which will come in handy as a lot is happening at the south end where the existing entrance is.

Update: Here's a much more detailed plan and an explanation from the planning application. A cross section is to the right - and until the trainshed roof is extended, a temporary fabric roof will be stretched across the top of the bridges.

Stratford International aerial photo

The Olympic Development Authority have published some amazing aerial photos of the Stratford Olympic site, including this one that shows the Stratford International DLR extension very clearly.

Here's an annotated version (click to enlarge):

You can see exactly where the track will go, taking over the North London Line route on the right and then running alongside the existing tracks on the left. They've been quietly boxing in the route at the Stratford station end, in order to build over it. The North London Line will be diverted to use new platforms parallel to the existing main line platforms, using the track along the right hand edge of the picture to get there.

This image shows a similar view but from nearer Stratford station.

[via Skyscraper City]

A few more West Hampstead Interchange details

In recent months plans have emerged to improve the interchange at West Hampstead in conjunction with the upgrading of the Thameslink station that will be done for the Thameslink Programme.

The various parties actually held a meeting last October but minutes have only just been made available, with lots of new details. The proposals are:

Thameslink Station – a new entrance on Iverson Road and new footbridge to west where platforms are wider to allow lifts. Existing entrance would remain open for people to/from the north. This will reduce pressure on West End Lane (WEL) pinch point.
NLL station – saw off front with a modest development to south at the same scale as current buildings.
West End Lane (WEL) – Make carriageway a uniform 7 metres all the way through and improve the public realm (footways on the west side) and crossings. Fully signalled junction with pedestrian crossing at WEL/Blackburn Road and widened footway between there and to beyond the NLL station would be provided.

The new crossing provides access to the tube station, which will remain on the other side of West End Lane. I've made a quick mockup of the changes in Google Maps. One victim of the scheme - and likely source of contention - is the trees between Iverson Road and the Thameslink station, because at least some of which will need to be removed to make way for the new entrance.

More London Overground sign shenanigans

Following on from the late decision to switch from orange on white to orange, reader Simon has spotted a third kind at Clapham , this time blue on white with an orange stripe. Clapham Junction is managed by South West Trains rather than Over- or Underground, which may explain it.

Meanwhile London Overground's Interim sign standards (Version 5!) now codify the situation of having white-on-orange outside and black-on-orange inside. TfL have a whole load of these available. On page 13 of this one you can see Hackney Central with lifts but very narrow platforms.

Chelsea-Hackney Line results published

The Department for Transport has published their results for their updating of the Chelsea-Hackney route (aka Crossrail 2). The only real change is that the route via Sloane Square will continue to be safeguarded, in addition to the newly proposed route further south. The original consultation documents are here, including a nice set of detailed maps at the bottom.

It's important to remember that this is only a safeguarded route and not a proposal to build anything. At some point between now and 2025 it's likely a proposal will be made, and they may use the route safeguarded here, or they may do something entirely different. Decisions about the locations of stations, the choice of outer branches, the tunnel diameter and so on simply haven't been made yet.

What the Overground disruption is for

As I've posted about before, most of the London Overground network is going to be disrupted this autumn for engineering work. If you haven't seen it, the official leaflet about the replacement buses and changes to service is online.

But I wanted to go over what work they're doing and why, and how it will benefit passenger services. Basically, the problem is freight traffic, particularly container traffic from the ports around the coast of Essex and Suffolk. A lot of this traffic ends up going north on West Coast Main Line, and the only real way to get there is along the most congested part of the North London Line. Here's a diagram:

The current main freight route is in dark blue. Freight from the LT&S Line has to run across both pairs of tracks of the Great Eastern Main Line. Freight from both directions has to pass along the two track section of the North London Line from Stratford to Dalston Kingsland, which is also one of the busiest passenger sections.

It should be obvious from the diagram that it'd be much better to send freight from the LT&S Line along the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (shown in light blue), and that's exactly what they're trying to do. The problem that needs fixing first is that bridges and tunnels along the route aren't tall enough to allow modern containers through. During the closure three bridges over the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will be demolished, and the track in Hampstead Tunnel will be lowered.

Similar upgrades to other rail routes are planned to reduce the importance of the London Overground network to freight. Work to allow larger containers on the Felixstowe-Ely-Peterbrough-Leicester-Nuneaton will provide an alternative to the North London Line, while Southampton-Basingstoke-Reading-Oxford will provide an alternative to the West London Line.

The frequency increases on the London Overground network can only happen if freight traffic is properly managed, and these various upgrades are an important part of that.

Croxley Rail Link soldiers on

Hertfordshire County Council are about to submit a new business case for to the Department for Transport, less than six months after the last one, and three months after that was rejected for not being "compliant". The cost has gone up from £95m to £150m, suggesting the original bid was rejected for underestimating costs.

All they need now if for the DfT to agree to fund the bulk of the cost (£120m), which is exactly the position they've been in since forever. They've received a boost in that the East of England Regional Assembly have given their backing, which may or may not be worth anything.

The scheme is to divert the Metropolitan Line's Watford branch to Watford Junction by building a 500m connecting viaduct to link it up with an mile-and-a-half long disused branch line (pictured), which will need to be rebuilt. The new route includes two new stations. Here's a diagram of all the bits and pieces on Google Maps.

[via uk.transport.london]

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.

Shepherd's Bush Overground: Wall moving complete

Each time I visit Shepherd's Bush Overground, they've made some significant step towards fixing the dodgy platform.

This time, they've filled in the gap between the station building and the moved wall:
Thus the station once again has a continuous retaining wall, and they're now in the cosmetic tidying up phase of the work.

Just out of shot, they've started reinstating the horizontal beams between the metal fence posts at the top of the wall. If they're sensible this will be followed by moving the platform equipment on to the fence and ditching the lamp posts, but it could go either way at this point.

Meanwhile, they've been busy on the other platform too:
They're making it so that the entrance is towards us onto the wide section of platform, rather than to the right onto the narrow section. As on the other platform, this has required adding a great big ugly steel beam to hold the structure together (ignore the yellow scaffold tower in the right picture).

I've also just been sent some pictures by someone who's been on site. This one is taken from the unwidened section at the far north end of the station, and shows exactly how narrow it was as built:
That glass box in the distance is what my second pictures above are of.

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.

Mayor's Question Time

Since coming to power, Boris Johnson has taken part in two Mayor's Question time sessions. You can read his written answers here and here. Lots of predictable non-answers to awkward questions, but a few interesting things come up:

• The East London Line phase 2 extension does not have funding. If it does get it, the target opening date is December 2011.
• London-wide Oyster PAYG on National Rail is now officially pencilled in for mid-2009 (the January 2009 date has seemed unlikely for some time).
• London Overground carried 29% more passengers in its first 5 months than Silverlink did in the equivalent period a year before.
• Feasibility studies for the Oxford Street Tram will not be going ahead. This answer is notably more negative than that given to the other tram schemes (which are merely "under review"), so don't expect it to happen in the foreseeable future.
• On Cross River Tram, Boris notes "the Government’s 2007 spending review allocation of funds to TfL to 2017 did not provide for the implementation of CRT". It's looking like time to cross that one off the list as well.
• A North London Line extension to Kingston is officially off the table (if it was ever on it).
• Not transport-related, but I think question 1052 (in the second document) may be some sort of secret of code.

I've also listened to some of the webcast of the June 18th meeting. About an hour in there's a long discussion of the Routemaster/bendy bus replacement project, which Boris sounds very keen on pushing ahead with.

During the discussion an assembly member points out that the first wave of bendy bus contracts comes up for renewal next year, which will put the Mayor in a very awkward position. He could renew them (can't do that), replace them with double deckers (not enough capacity) or replace them with lots of double deckers (increasing congestion). An issue to watch, certainly.

London Overground lose fight against darkness

When London Overground moved in last year, they were quick to replace the external signage at all of their stations with their signature white on bright orange colour scheme:

Looks great in sunlight, of course. Such a shame that their railway network had to be in a city with no sunlight at night, and is instead lit by dingy yellow streetlights, under which white looks orange and orange looks orange.

The Goblin people quizzed them on this a few months ago, but the LOROL suits were insistent, the colour scheme was perfect, the problem was Silverlink's substandard stations, and night time would simply have to be cancelled.

A surprise then, that now they've finally got round to covering over the Silverlink signs on platforms, they've done this:
Slightly less pretty, but actually readable in low light. It's almost as if they've got their priorities in the right order.

One consequence of this U-turn is that if you're on a London Overground train at night and you can't for the life of you read the station signs, you must be at a station managed by London Underground. They replaced their platform signs early on, and are now stuck praying for the sun to orbit the earth.