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.
London's last new tube station is in the final stages of construction, ready for opening in October.
They've finished most of the external panelling:
If you click to enlarge you can see they've installed the external roundel, currently badly hidden by a black bin liner.
Down in the cutting is the Central Line, and the south end of the platforms at White City are a just the other side of the bridge on the left. Still probably not going to be marked as an official interchange.
The station building:
The pavement level has been raised far above road level here, for reasons unknown.
The platform signs are now visible from passing trains. Here's the roundel:
And the destination sign:
This shows the renaming of Shepherd's Bush (H&C) to Shepherd's Bush Market that will occur when Shepherd's Bush on the Central Line reopens, or when this station opens, or possibly it'll all happen at the same time.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Go here to see what I think is the first actual photo of one of the new S Stock trains. By 2015 these will be running all services on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines, with the first in passenger service some time in 2010.
[via District Dave]
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]
London Underground are thinning out the East London Line replacement bus service again:
From Saturday 19 July 2008, bus service ELS, between Whitechapel and Shoreditch (Bethnal Green Road) will be permanently withdrawn. Route ELW will be extended to serve Shoreditch on Sunday mornings and during Monday to Friday peak hours.Member Dstock7080 on the District Dave forum reports the ELW will also be downgraded from double to single deckers.
From Monday 21 July the ELC frequency will be reduced to every 10 minutes in peak times.
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:
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.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
District Dave's tube forum has some lecture notes about progress on upgrading the Northern Line, given by the line's General Manager, Jeff "98.5% train reliability" Ellis.
The Northern Line is due to be fitted with a new signalling system called TBTC (transmission-based train control), which is the what provides the automatic operation of the DLR and is currently being fitted to the Jubilee Line (look for the telltale loops of cable between the tracks), which will allow trains to run closer together and therefore more frequently.
The rebuilding of Camden Town is mentioned, apparently in Jubilee Line Extension style, although not until TfL next budget period, which starts in 2013. This will allow the Northern Line split, and a train every 90 seconds (36 trains per hour) could be the result, though they'd need to buy more trains.
Rebuilding Clapham Common and Clapham North to rid them of their narrow island platforms (as was done at Angel and Euston) is also thought necessary in the near future.
In the latest issue of Modern Railways there's an interview with David Millard, manager of the Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines, discussing the ins and outs of the plans to turn the Circle Line into a Hammersmith-Edgware Road spiral (see diagram). That's right, a senior member of staff has confirmed it on record in a public forum. No more rumours, no more leaked internal documents. It's happening.
One consequence of the plan is an increase in the number of trains using Praed Street Junction and Edgware Road. The article mentions a proposed solution - run half of the District Line's services to Edgware Road only as far as High Street Kensington. However this will only be possible off-peak when demand is lower.
The timescale - like everything else in London - is to have it ready by 2012.
Update: I've just had another read of the article, and they say they could introduce it as early as December 2009.
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.
Here's the DLR service map that appears above the doors on every train, and unlike the tube map, shows the individual services they run:
Or at least, are meant to run, because it's not really accurate anymore. Let's start with the obvious, Tower Gateway is closed:
For reasons unknown, possibly related to building the junction for the Stratford International extension (although I can't fathom what), the Beckton-Tower Gateway service is actually curtailed all the way back to Canning Town:
Moving on, they've turned the northbound track through Mudchute into a building site while they turn the siding into a third platform:
With only a single track available, the Stratford-Lewisham service has been curtailed at Crossharbour:
The line goes immediately into twin tunnels south of Mudchute, which would force trains to share a single track all the way to Greenwich, which would seriously limit frequency. So they've come up with a clever wheeze whereby trains from Mudchute reverse at Island Gardens. Meanwhile, trains from Lewisham reverse in the other platform there, using the normally-northbound tunnel under the Thames in both directions.
This has the happy side effect of leaving the southbound platform at Greenwich free to be extended for three cars, but the downside is there no trains run through Island Gardens:
Oh, and someone has demolished one of the viaducts into West India Quay, in preparation for the Delta Junction upgrade:
Which means with only one southbound track through the station, during peak hours when an additional Bank-Crossharbour service runs, half the trains from Stratford have to terminate at Poplar, and the rest terminate at Canary Wharf:
And let's not forget, as the network-wide tannoy announcements endlessly tell us, there is no interchange at Bank and Monument stations, except between the DLR and Northern Lines (not really true and probably never will be):
The service is so fucked they're running rail replacement buses while it's open, and the leaflet accompanying the disruption also suggests using the Greenwich foot tunnel, a Thames Clipper, even an East London Line replacement bus - anything but the DLR. TfL have gone so far as to invent a whole new bus route so you can avoid the DLR completely.
This phase of disruption lasts until August 25, and disruption in general lasts until ca. 2010 when all the various projects should be finished. With nothing but the probably-undisruptive Dagenham Dock extension on the horizon, you may even get some time to enjoy the upgrades.
[Thanks to an anonymous reader for the Delta Junction photo, and martin_petrov for suggesting I write about this]
I've found out what the "construction work" that's supposed to have started at Imperial Wharf station amounts to. They've put a new rendering on the hoarding:
Compared to the old rendering, it's gained Overground branding; shorter simpler canopies, and ticket barriers. You can just see the ticket office, which will be built along the back wall of the arch with a public area in front. An identical set of ticket barriers, lift and stairs will be on the other side of the viaduct for the other platform, and I presume the level access for wheelchair users to get into the station will be that side too.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, the arch is a disused road bridge. Here's a clearer picture of it than I've posted before:
You can also see there's still no sign of construction work starting.
If anyone's still confused about Imperial Wharf is on the rail network, it shows up in red on this old version of the London Connections map, opening "early 2006".
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.
