Before Crossrail – Maidenhead
Another Station Almost Ready For Crossrail – Rating 7/10
According to Wikipedia, Maidenhead needs some updating for Crossrail.
The station will undergo significant modification, including the replacement of the existing passenger waiting facilities, a new ticket hall, lifts, a new platform for Marlow branch line services, the introduction of overhead line equipment and the construction of new stabling and turnback facilities to the west of the station.
The expensive lifts have already been installed into the subway.
The statue is of Sir Nicholas Winton and it is good to see a statue of the man. It is also good that it is displayed in such a public place, which is probably almost safe from metal thieves. I have long believed that more works of art should be placed on stations, as you’d generally need a train and a large crane to steal them. This Google Map shows the layout of the station.
Maidenhead Station – Downloaded 6th July
Note the Marlow Branch Line
Before Crossrail – Twyford
The Station Is Ready For Crossrail – Rating 9/10
Twyford is a well-equipped station, that only needs to be given the signage and information for Crossrail.
Obviously, work will have to be done to track and signalling, and probably to make sure the platform edges match the Class 345 trains.
This Google Map was downloaded on the 6th July, 2015
Twyford Station – Downloaded 6th July 2015
If all stations were as well-equipped as Twyford, we would all be getting around easier and quicker.
Before Crossrail – Reading
A Magnificient Station In Most People’s Opinion – Rating 9/10
Reading ranks with some of the best stations in Europe and probably the wider world. There are pictures in this post entitled Is it Architecture, Engineering Or Art?, which show how spectacular the station is.
Wikipedia says this about adding Crossrail to the station.
Crossrail could also be accommodated at the new station with little work beyond electrification, as new sidings have been planned to the west of the station.
So it looks like adding Crossrail to Reading isn’t a difficult problem, if Wikipedia is correct.
Logically, I feel strongly that Crossrail should go to Reading, as Reading is a large city that has twice the population of the original terminus of Maidenhead.
Reading station also has fifteen platforms, and can probably be configured so that passengers arriving on Crossrail could walk across the platform to get their train to Wales and the West Country, with other passengers doing the reverse in the other direction.
If they do provide this sort of change at Reading, I might well go to and from the West by changing at Reading rather than Paddington, as it will be as easy to get to Reading as Paddington, if I take Crossrail from Whitechapel. But at Paddington, I’ll have to get from the Crossrail station deep under Paddington to the main line platforms.
If Reading does have a problem, about its integration into Crossrail, it’s that it’ll put the other terminals into the shade. By any scale Shenfield looks small and outdated against the beauty, size and passenger-friendliness of Reading.
Before Crossrail – Issues On The Shenfield Metro
Now that I’ve visited all of the stations on the Shenfield Metro, that will be taken over by Crossrail, I can list a few of the issues.
1. Disabled And Step Free Access
The stations generally suffer because when they were originally designed disabled people and those pushing prams and carrying heavy cases didn’t travel by trains.
Some like Stratford, Shenfield, Brentwood and Chadwell Heath are now fully accessible, but even they would have been designed differently in the last few years.
I’m not disabled, but I do have access problems in that I don’t bounce around like I used to. I would like to see more high quality handrails on stairs, such as you get at Stratford.
But if all the stations are upgraded to the level of Chadwell Heath, I suspect that most will find the access to the platforms acceptable.
2. Train Access
The current Class 315 trains don’t line up with the platforms well. But in a few years time, when the new Class 345 trains arrive, I suspect that the platform edges will be adjusted to be level with the trains.
One thing that will help in getting this level step-across access from platform to train, is that all of the station platforms between Stratford and Shenfield seem to be pretty straight.
3. Norwich In Ninety
This project has nothing directly to do with Crossrail directly.
But the Great Eastern Main Line is a busy rail route for travellers to Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich and all the other connected towns and cities.
So how should these trains interface with Crossrail?
If I want to go to Ipswich now, as I do regularly for the football, I usually take a bus followed by either a walk or an Underground train to get to Liverpool Street. My actual route usually depends on which bus arrives first and the weather.
But for me, after Crossrail opens, it might be easier to go to either Whitechapel or Farringdon and get Crossrail to either Stratford or Shenfield to pick up the train to Ipswich. It all depends on how the trains align with Crossrail.
This all shows how Crossrail might solve a few problems, but it will give passengers the problem of finding the quickest and most convenient route.
One thing though that the upgraded route will do, is substantially cut the time it takes to between East Anglia and Heathrow. Incidentally, for Gatwick, they’ll go via Cambridge, which will have a direct link.
4.Buses
One of the strengths of London’s public transport system is the buses, which move six million passengers every weekday.
But at none of the stations on the Shenfield Metro, except for Stratford, was there a proper bus interchange. I suspect too, that Stratford is the only station on that line where Transport for London plays a substantial part in the management of the station.
Perhaps the most interesting comparison is to compare Shenfield‘s bus arrangement with those at the much smaller Chingford, which has a sizeable and well-designed bus station, for half the passengers Shenfield handles.
If you read this document about Crossrail’s plans for Shenfield, you’ll see that they aren’t too happy about bus arrangements at the station and are proposing solutions.
5. Onward Travel Information
At most stations with the exception of Stratford, the onward travel information is poor and minimal and very much gives the impression it was designed in Norwich by Abellio Greater Anglia. It is certainly not to the standard you get in the average Underground or Overground station. At one station, luckily there was a bus stop outside with a shelter and spider and local walking maps.
All stations except for Brentwood and Shenfield have bus spider maps on-line.
Hopefully, this will all improve, when Crossrail takes over the management of the stations.
6. Freight
What surprised me at Forest Gate was that a freight train trundled through. I suppose once the line is fully open, then freight trains will get out of the way.
But it does go to show, that we should have sorted out the freight some years ago, before London Gateway was built.
The Anonymous Widower 