The Anonymous Widower

Crossrail 2 At Wimbledon

After my trip to Wimbledon, I just had to look at how the Crossrail 2 will affect the area.

Depending on what you read, the tunnel portal could be to the London side of Wimbledon station or the country side.

I always thought it was going to be south-west of Wimbledon station, but the latest route map on the Crossrail 2 web site shows it on the London side and I do remember reading somewhere that it had been moved.

I think there may be advantages to this position of the portal.

1. There may be more space in which to work on the London side, as there is a lot of land used by the railway and industrial units.

2. The tunnel is probably a kilometre shorter and this may have the knock-on effect of needing less ventilation and access shafts.

3. Wimbledon station will still be on the surface. It will need extensive remodeling, but there will be no need for platforms in tunnels.

4. Wimbledon station could easily be rebuilt with the two hundred and fify metre long platforms needed for Crossrail 2.

5. Integrating the Crossrail 2 lines into the busy lines of the South Western Main Line, may well be an easier construction job on the London side, that causes a lot less disruption to an already overloaded route into London. South West Trains would do anything to avoid the line being shut for a long time.

6. Constructing the portal on the London side, may well cause less inconvenience to a smaller number of local residents.

For these reasons, I’ll look at the London side portal position and how it might affect those that live and work in the area.

This is a clip of the area of a possible London-side tunnel portal from Crossrail 2’s map from Wimbledon to Chelsea.

Crossrail 2 Wimbledon Poral Area

The area is mainly a collection of train sidings and depots and lots of industrial units, as this Google Earth image shows.

Crossrail 2 Wimbledon Area Now

Unfortunately, the two maps are at a different orientation.

My feelings are that the two tracks will be served by a single island platform at Wimbledon station, which would obviously need a rebuild. This Google Earth image shows the station.

Wimbledon Station

Note the shopping centre to the south-east, with the Tramlink approaching from the south to a terminus squeezed in tight.

Wimbledon station is not a modern station by any means with several problems.

1. Access to the platforms is up and down steep steps.

2. There seems to be no logic to which platform you catch your train, except that the Underground platforms are together on one side of the station.

3. Tramlink needs at least an extra platform. At the moment the Tramlink stop at Wimbledon, must be one of the pokiest and passenger-unfriendly tram stops in the world, as it seems to have been modelled on the Black Hole of Calcutta. The improvements to Tramlink at Wimbledon are shown on this page of the TfL web site, but there is no design for the new Tramlink stop.

4. Changing between Tramlink, South West Trains services and the Underground involves going up one set of stairs and then down another.

5. London is moving away from manned ticket offices and the whole layout of stations is changing dramatically.

I’m no architect, but I know a good modern station layout like say Reading when I see it.

I think at Wimbledon, you could build a deck over all the lines and access the various services using escalators and lifts, as at Reading. All of the customer services and the shops and kiosks would be on the deck and passengers would just walk into the station at the deck level straight off the street. As at Reading and other new stations, passengers would tend to wait above rather than on the platforms.

The platforms would extend both sides of the bridge, so that Tramlink could have its own well-lit two-platform station tucked under the road outside the station or the car park opposite. One small point is that when I traced TfL possible GOBlin extension, it needed to reverse at Wimbledon. One or more bay platforms could be tucked in on the country-side of the station, if they were needed.

The French, Germans and a lot of other nations would handle the problem of Tramlink differently. They would probably run it across the station perpendicular to the train tracks, either on-street on in a tunnel. But we don’t like the first and the second would be expensive.  It would only work well, if the Tramlink was going to be extended to somewhere north-west of Wimbledon station.

I would though investigate a solution for Tramlink, similar to the platform layout used by the Overground at Clapham Junction, where the two services meet head on and passengers just walk up the platform to change trains. The problem is that Tramlink would need to cross the train lines as the tram and Underground lines are on different sides of the station. This would need a flyover or extensive on-street running for the trams, but I believe that it would be good to have both together in their own part of the station. At worst getting Tramlink from its awful location, would give passengers a better experience and release half a platform for train services.

Whilst I was writing this, I had an idea worthy of getting myself certified. And that is the tram-tube! It’s so bonkers, it needs a separate article, which I wrote later.

So that is my thoughts on Crossrail 2 at Wimbledon!

I believe that it can be put through a rebuilt station, with very little disruption.

I also don’t think it will disrupt much on the northern side or Wimbledon village side of the lines,

The dreadful station needs a complete rebuild anyway.

If the station design is done well, I think that everything else will fall into place.

April 26, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Crossrail 2, London Tramlink, Trains, Wimbledon Station