The Anonymous Widower

Before Crossrail – Stratford

Little of Note Is Left To Be Done – Rating 9/10

Stratford is the station, where you can get a good idea about the major effects Crossrail will have, as the two Shenfield Metro platforms, which will become the Crossrail ones, interchange on the surface with the Central Line.

This interchange is almost unique in London, where an Underground line offers cross-platform interchange to a main-line service. At present, it only means that Shenfield Metro passengers can go easily to and from Central and West London.

But with Crossrail it will be even more important as twelve ten-coach Crossrail trains and upwards of thirty Central Line ones will be passing through the station every hour.

Journeys such as Epping to Heathrow, which can be tortuous and long at present would just need a simple cross-platform change at Stratford.

It is obvious that Crossrail will take the pressure off the Central Line, as the very crowded section I often use from Marble Arch to Liverpool Street, will effectively be duplicated by the new line.

What is less obvious to those from outside East London is that Crossrail helps to solve the Central Line’s poor connectivity between Liverpool Street and Stratford, as it brings Whitechapel into the mix, with all the connections that station offers.

I have watched many times how this Shenfield Metro/Central Line interface works and I’m surprised that it is not duplicated all over the UK’s rail network. I can think of only a couple of places where, you arrive at a large main line station and all of the local services are just a walk across a wide platform.

I suspect that if I come back here in say 2020, the station will look very much the same, except that it will probably have had large cosmetic applications of purple paint.

October 9, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Before Crossrail, Crossrail, Stratford Station