Gatwick Express ceases to exist

By the time you read this, Gatwick Express will have operated its very last train, the 01:25 arrival at London Victoria. But not to worry, all trains, staff and operations immediately transfer to Southern, and nothing much will change in the short term.

That is, until December this year, when the scheme to overcome crowding on the Brighton Main Line will be implemented. There'll still be trains running non-stop from London to Gatwick every 15 minutes, and for most of the day they'll still use the same trains.

The different comes during each rush hour, when the current fleet will be substituted for longer, higher capacity trains which will run through to Brighton and various other stops south of Gatwick. These trains will have enough seats for 500 commuters in addition to the 100 or so airline passengers you'll currently find on the average Gatwick Express service.

These extra trains have been sitting idle since South West Trains displaced them during a fleet reshuffle last year. They're being refurbished with new seats and extra luggage racks and double width internal doors, but will still have narrow external doors. They'll lose their distinctive "snug" area in the buffet car.

Image taken from Elsie's Flickr stream under Creative Commons

Mitcham Eastfields now open (sort of)

London's newest railway station opened this afternoon, 8 hours, 2 weeks or 72 years late.

Just 9 months ago it was greenlighted, 5 months ago it was little but dirt, 2 months ago there were still no buildings and a month ago there was no footbridge.

As of today:

• Southern trains are calling, but First Capital Connect trains aren't, whatever Live Departures tells you. Update 3/6: Possibly they are now.
• One of the four Driver Only Operation cameras on the southbound platform is dead, and one of the four on the northbound is out of focus, which must be why only Southern are calling (FCC don't employ any guards).
• The footbridge is open, but the lifts aren't.
• Both platform canopies have panels missing.
• The station building canopy and adjacent platform canopy do not overlap.
• The station building has at least 5 external doors, but as yet none is the promised public toilet.
• Some ticket machines can already you a ticket to the station, but don't expect the barriers at Victoria (either station) to recognise them.
• It has a staffed ticket office, but the opening hours are puny.
• Both platforms have entrances at their far ends, as well as by the level crossing.
• There were a whole load of locals gathered to check out the station, but no staff around.

I shan't bore you with more photos. Go down there yourself - it's easy to get to now and you'll find the best chip shop in London a couple of minutes walk down Tamworth Lane.

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

Southern franchise consultation starts

The current Southern franchise expires in September 2009, and the DfT have just published the consultation document for its replacement. Of note:

• The mooted handover of London area services to TfL/London Overground is off, though TfL are being consulted heavily both before and during the franchise.
• London Overground style frequency and operating hour increases are suggested, as is gating of stations (required to operate full time) and monitoring ticketless travel.
• East London Line phase 2 is still treated as not confirmed, but something about the language makes me think they're assuming it's likely to happen.
• Future Southern services on the West London Line are likely to be Milton Keynes-East Croydon augmented by Shepherd's Bush-East Croydon services, as well as the future 4 trains per hour run by London Overground. Full details are given in the document.
• They expect Oyster PAYG to have been implemented before the end of the current franchise.

[via uk.railway]

Mitcham Eastfields: Two weeks to go

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Let's try this again. Mitcham Eastfields station is allegedly opening in two weekend's time, and last we looked, progress was disappointing.

Good news. The final landscaping around the station building is taking shape:

The footbridge is in:

The gap in the southbound platform has been fixed and all of the platform equipment is in:

Even the streetlights work. There are still a few bits and pieces to sort it out but it now very closely resembles a finished station. It'll take extra special effort to not have this open on June 1.

Mitcham Eastfields opening postponed until June 1

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First Capital Connect have posted a revised opening date for Mitcham Eastfields:

We have been informed that Network Rail do not feel the station will be ready to open before Sunday 1 June 2008. It is therefore anticipated that First Capital Connect trains will serve this station from the start of service on Monday 2 June.

FCC don't run trains this way on Sundays, so it's likely the first service will be run by Southern on June 1, and a note on the National Rail journey planner concurs.

The picture is of Greenhithe for Bluewater station, which is a larger version of the same design, with an enclosed ticket hall.

[Thanks to Pedantic of Purley for the FCC link]

Mitcham Eastfields countdown: Two weeks to go

Mitcham Eastfields station is allegedly opening in two weekend's time, and last we looked, progress was disappointing.

Here it is as of last Sunday. The building is almost finished, and the northbound platform has gained fencing and lights on top of its posts:
It turns out I was wrong to think there was anything to be built in the empty end of the building. While some plans show the ticket office at the north end, they've clearly switched it around and that end will be open to the elements. No ticket barriers either.

Still no sign of that footbridge:

The southbound platform has a bit of a localised Shepherd's Bush going on:

Still a lot to do, but the May 18th date isn't looking quite as unlikely as before.

Latest posts about Mitcham Eastfields

Mitcham Eastfields latest

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With the opening of Mitcham Eastfields allegedly only a month away, it's time for another visit.

Here's an overview of the site, looking south:

The station building and the northbound platform:

The liftshafts, footbridge columns, and the very end of the southbound platform:
(NB This blog does not endorse the commandeering of handy nearby tall buildings for photography purposes. Unless, of course, there's no one about)

So since three weeks ago they've put up equipment rooms for the lifts as well as pillars for the footbridge to stand on - but still no bridge. The station building has gained eaves and the canopies on both platforms look finished but unpainted, and the platform edging looks complete. The empty end of the building is where the ticket office, toilets and so on will be. Either it's all going to arrive in one piece on the back of a lorry, or they have a lot of work to do.

Mitcham Eastfields opening May 18th-ish

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The new First Capital Connect timetable gives a provisional date for Mitcham Eastfields station to open:

At the time of printing, the exact opening date of the station has not been determined, however it is anticipated that it will open on or close to 18 May 2008. Times of trains at Mitcham Eastfields (which is between Streatham and Mitcham Junction stations) are included in the tables of this booklet. However trains will not call there until the station has opened.

Handy advice in that last sentence.

London Overground info from Modern Railways

The latest issue of Modern Railways has a few bits of info relating to London Overground:

• Hampstead Heath tunnel to close for three months starting this autumn. The track is being lowered to allow full size containers through. The North London Line will be split between a Richmond-Willesden Junction and Willesden Junction-Queen's Park-Camden Road-Stratford services, with apparently no service between Willesden Junction and Camden Road via Gospel Oak. The Gospel Oak to Barking Line will be closed for a month for similar enlargement, though no date is given.
• Electrostar train order delayed Earlier this month the DfT ordered 11 new trains for Southern, which are urgently needed to allow some of Southern's other trains to be sent to First Capital Connect to run the Key Output 0 Thameslink service that's necessitated by the closure of the Moorgate branch this December. Modern Railways claims these will be built ahead of the new trains for London Overground, so you'll be riding in purple and green things a while longer.
• DfT taking Southern takeover seriously The DfT would normally have issued a "prior information notice" in February to alert bidders to the September 2009 renewal of Southern franchise. They haven't, and a DfT spokesman is quoted saying they're "seeking new operational arrangements" for the franchise.

Mitcham Eastfields station update

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At the end of last year I posted everything there is to know about Eastfields station. Since then they've renamed it Mitcham Eastfield, decided it will be in Zone 3 and possibly First Capital Connect are going to stop there (all according to the latest London Connections map). But with it due to open a few months from now, let's see how construction is going.

[Update: Buildings are up]

On the London-bound platform they've finished the standalone part of the platform and the foundations for the building and are putting up the short station canopy:
When completed, the platform will extend across in front to much nearer the level crossing (see plan).

On the other side of the level crossing, construction of the southbound platform is also nearly complete, as are the foundations for the footbridge:
The brick hut visible in this image is gone.

And here's a bunch of bits (possibly the footbridge) arriving on the back of a lorry:


The immediate location of the station is quite unusual. On one side there's little but school playing fields, and on the other it's surrounded by ramshackle allotments (the station is by the crossing gates in the distance):

There doesn't seem to be much sign of the fast, cheap modular station concept they once bragged about, though maybe that will change now the ground preparation is nearing completion.

"Number 10" supports TfL Southern takeover

The Guardian today provides some more speculation regarding the possible integration of bits of Southern into London Overground.

(try to ignore the gaffs re: London Overground being entirely within London, and the author's somewhat abstract description of Southern's routes)

London Overground for south London

This month's Londoner has a short article on Transport for London's ambitions to add services in south London to the London Overground network:

Following the successful takeover of the three Silverlink overground rail services in north London – that has delivered safer trains and increased revenue – Transport for London have asked the government for responsibility for national rail services in south London, too.

At last month's board meeting TfL discussed "taking a greater role" in running Southern services in London when the franchise is renewed next year, but not necessarily taking them over. Plans for a takeover were reported by the Times last year, in an article featuring a suspiciously similar quote from Ken as the Londoner have used.

Eastfields station

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I've neglected to mention Eastfields, a new station under construction in south London. Construction started a few months ago (after years of talking) and it's scheduled to open some time next year.

It's located between Streatham, Mitcham and Tooting (Google Maps) and I've marked it on our eponymous map. According to the Transport Statement, only the half-hourly Southern services to/from Victoria are expected to call. The line is also part of the Thameslink Sutton/Wimbledon loop service, but it's uncertain if those trains will stop.

The transport statement also mentions that "just over 13,300 residents live within 800m (as the crow flies) of the new station. Only a very few small proportion live within 800m of any other station." A quick check of the London Gaps map bears this out (I've marked it on the version to the right - click to enlarge).

The station itself is interesting in a couple of ways. It's being built at a level crossing with each platform on a different side of the road (plan), so that in both directions trains will go over the crossing before they reach a platform. This allows the gates to reopen while the train is stopped.

Secondly, it's the prototype of Network Rail's "modular" station concept. They're written a long essay on the topic as part of their planning application (though this news article is a lot more digestible). They want to use standard easy-to-maintain components for the station buildings and canopies. Having only one station using standard components isn't very useful, so the plan is to rebuild many stations this way. The concept doesn't extend to the platforms, which are concrete beams on breezeblock walls.

The photos show how far along constructions is. They've built about half the length of each platform, which will eventually be 170m long (for 8 car trains) and a healthy 3m wide, and by my count of the breezeblocks underneath they appear to be so. Both photos are looking north: The first shows the northbound platform, with the site of the station building on the far left. The second is from further south, and shows the southbound platform, with the level crossing and northbound platform in the distance.

Board Papers time again

The notes from this month's TfL board meeting have been published. A few things of note:

• TfL have started ordering Oyster equipment for the roll out to the whole National Rail network in 2009
• London Bridge may not have capacity for South London Line trains when it's rebuilt for Thameslink (there'll be fewer terminus platforms). TfL suggest the East London Line phase 2 should go ahead ASAP to solve this problem.
• Major DLR works will happen at Stratford during the Christmas closure on Liverpool St (this probably actually means the new North London Line platforms).
• An "Oyster Control Centre" has been setup, whose main job seems to be reprogramming the gatelines to fix unresolved journeys after station evacuations and other events.
• The first new Piccadilly Line train is due in 2011, with the upgrade progamme finsihed by 2014
• TfL are having doubts about how feasible it is to extend Circle Line stations for 7 car trains, and are investigating other options.
• TfL are still deciding whether to go with the "Harmony" or SLC2k service patterns for the North London Line upgrade. No idea what either of these are.
• The future of the Cross River Tram and Crystal Palace Tramlink extension looks very murky
• "The review of a number of projects in the Planning directorate continued this quarter, including tram and bus transit schemes. The outputs of these reviews are expected to be made available at the end of the year."
• The East London Transit project (Ilford-Barking-Dagenham) appears to be progressing, but isn't due to start in October 2009.
• Greenwich Waterfront Transit is still in public consultation, and will take even longer.
• A TWA application for the DLR Dagenham Dock extension will be made early next year, but the project has no funding after that.

The last few bits are from the appendices.

Update: The document has been updated with a load of extra bits tacked on, including enormous tables of Travelcard and London Overground prices.

Gatwick Express extended to Brighton

The Gatwick Express has been a thorny issue for a while. They take up an enormous amount of track capacity on one of London's busiest commuter routes, yet even at peak times are at best half-full. Meanwhile, pressure from BAA and the airlines make scrapping them politically impossible.

The DfT today announced a plan that does a shockingly good job of pleasing everyone. The Gatwick Express service itself will be essentially unchanged, but 6 trains each rush hour will double as commuter services to Brighton. To pull this off, the separate franchise will be scrapped and operations transferred to Southern. The enhanced service will need extra trains, so Southern will be getting some of the Class 442 units that were controversially withdrawn by South West Trains last year.

Also announced is the repatriation of 12 trains from Southern back to the Thameslink route they were built for, which should increase capacity there. Southern will in turn get a new fleet of Electrostars.

The DfT's full briefing is here, and the Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy that prompted this is here.