If you believe this press release or this press release, they've finally started work on site at Imperial Wharf station, just 5 short years after it was approved (in May 2003). Hurrah for St George!
[Thanks to Rick for the tip]
Crystal Palace is one of the strangest stations on the network. It's built on the apex of a triangular junction with platforms on two sides of the triangle. While one side is perfectly normal, the other is, well... see for yourself:
That vast building is the station footbridge - and you can only see half of it in that picture. This is the platform area:
It once had six platforms and a twin-span overall roof. The roof has been gone for over a hundred years, there's nothing left of the two middle platforms, and only the through platforms are in use. So the current configuration looks like this:
Crystal Palace will be one of the termini of the extended East London Line, and they'll need a couple of terminating platforms. So given the choice between reinstating the existing side platforms, or rebuilding the centre platforms, they've chosen something completely different:
That's according to the latest planning application, which although not explicitly stated, will see the northern island taken out of use. I expect most East London Line trains will use platform 5, as getting out of platform 3 means crossing the other line.
I've marked the locations of the planned lifts as black squares, but I don't understand them. The one on the 3/4 island gets you to half way up the station's stairs, which is useless, and the one on the 5/6 island gets you to nowhere.
As for what's happening at the other new terminus, West Croydon, they're just putting in a siding beyond the station.
London Overground have quietly added walking interchanges to the London Overground network map found on trains:
Oddly they don't tell you which line the other station is on (except at West Hampstead), and some of them are completely useless (Kensal Green to Kensal Rise) and, as noted, some of the most useful ones are missing (Wanstead Park-Forest Gate).
Of course there's nothing saying these are meant as interchanges at all. Maybe they're just to show that stations in places you've never heard of (like Brondesbury) are near places you have (Kilburn).
A few quick quotes from the Barking - Gospel Oak Line User Group's latest news update:
[...] as all the track works to permit 4-trains-per-hour running will be complete, commissioned and tested by Easter 2009, we want that service frequency to start ahead of schedule in May 2009 [...]
[...] the new in-train maps show useful details of walking distance between our stations and others nearby - but oddly omit the Wanstead Park/Forest Gate interchange
[...] As a stop-gap the three-seat rows are to be converted to two-seaters to increase standing room, but regrettably it seems the North London Line trains are taking precedence over ours for this work to be done
Waltham Forest Council have assured us that there is firm commitment at senior level to getting the long-overdue pedestrian link constructed between Queens Road and CentralOddly, they don't seem to know Boris thinks the line's getting three car trains in 2010.
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.
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.
Reader Edward Betts has scanned in his copy of East London Line News, a newsletter delivered to local residents. The fourth page is the one with the interesting details on it, going over work for the next few months.
