Green Scars Across East London
When the Lea Valley Lines were built across East London in the 1800s, they didn’t seem to box them in with houses, like they did elsewhere in the capital.
This Google Earth image shows several stations between Bruce Grove in the North, Harringay Green Lanes in the West and Stoke Newington in the South.
Green Scars Across East London
Note the green scars between the stations, where the lines often take up quite a small part of the available land. Look at this Google Earth image of the area between Seven Sisters station and South Tottenham station.
Seven Sisters
Surely, the development possibilities for this space, when linked to a new station are endless, even if you just develop a park.
7/10 For Day Zero For The New Overground Lines
You might ask how I can give the 7/10 for the new Overground lines, when the service hasn’t officially started.
But I didn’t see anything wrong and there was a lot of positivity from staff and passengers. Here’s a few things I noticed.
1. Freedom Passes
Transport for London obviously know their passenger model and the Freedom Pass holder I spoke to who said she would use the line from Enfield at all times of the day, must mean that TfL know they can accommodate the extra passengers, who will turn up early in the morning and in the rush hour to go home.
Perhaps, the small modal shift say from vehicular transport to trains, will actually free up the roads.
I’ll just let the data do the talking, when passenger numbers are published in a few months.
2. The Deep Clean At Enfield Town
It looks like they’ve deep cleaned Enfield Town station for the launch and if this is indicative of the standard we’ll see at the piles of bricks, that double as stations, they’ve inherited from Abellio Greater Anglia, then the good burghers of East London will be pleasantly surprised.
To be hard on London Overground, choosing Enfield Town station for the launch was a bit of a cheat, as the station is naturally step-free and it was built in 1957, as opposed to the 1840s for most of the stations.
It is certainly built and cleaned to a standard, that few if any, would complain about.
3. Staff
The staff seemed positive in a lot of ways, just as they do in a typical Overground or Underground station.
4. Trains
The trains, I travelled in today were clean and one lady thought that Abellio Greater Anglia could have done more to keep them clean.
If London Overground follow the cleaning procedures they use on the North and East London Lines, where litter is regularly collected throughout the day, the passengers will be pleased.
5.Future Overcrowding
From experiences with the current Overground, I can see a small problem. And that is overcrowding.
But whereas on the North and East London Lines providing more capacity is a problem, on the Lea Valley Lines, all platforms can take eight car trains, as they do in the rush hour and you can always couple two Class 315 trains or Class 317 trains together. And as Class 345 trains are delivered for Crossrail, more of these will come available.
6. Future Investment
London Overground have acquired these routes from Abellio Greater Anglia, with all the skill of an East End trader who sold car aerials in Ridley Road Market.
They have similar costs to Abellio Greater Anglia in terms of trains, track charges and stations, but they get more of the revenue, as they are a not-for-profit organisation and don’t have external owners.
So they get the benefit of all the investment they make, provided of course it is sound! But Transport for London have said they are going to put £25million into the Lea Valley Lines.
But it won’t be just Transport for London putting money into the Overground. The proposed new station at Hackney Wick has a variety of sources of funding and I think we’ll see other stations built by external developers, so that their houses, offices or industrial units are more desirable.
In this section in Wikipedia, it says that the current trains will be replaced by thirty-nine new trains in 2017. New trains always attract more passengers, but unlike the current Overground lines, adding more capacity will not involve any expensive platform lengthening.
7. Everybody Will Want Overground
The only serious long term problem, they have is that if the Lea Valley Line takeover is as successful as the current Overground, then there will be a clamour for other lines to be taken over, or at least run on the same lines.
I have a feeling that there are going to be some very unhappy train operating companies, who lose some quite lucrative routes in the next few years.
Testing The Journey Planners
I’ve just tested the Network Rail and Transport for London Journey Planners for the first London Overground journey from Liverpool Street to Walthamstow Central tomorrow.
They gave the same time of 07:33. I’ll be on the train, if the barriers agree.
A First Glimpse Of The New Tube And Rail Map
There was a copy of this map at Enfield Town station.
Incidentally, I probably look at this map more than I ever look at the standard tube map, as I generally need it when coming home from an unfamiliar rail station south of the Thames.
One of these maps should be prominently displayed at all rail stations in at least the grester South East of England. This was originally said to me by a Virgin employee at somewhere like Coventry, as they’re always getting asked where unusual London stations are by passengers. So he thought one on the London-bound platform would be a good idea and passengers could look it up for themselves.
The Orange is Starting To Appear
Today, I took the Enfield branch of the Lea Valley Lines up to Enfield Town station, to see whether there was any signs of rebranding for the London Overground.
As you can see there were!
As one picture shows, they were changing what they could today for the start of service tomorrow.
Boris is coming to Enfield Town station on Monday, so they’ve obviously cleaned that station first. And very clean it was too, with lots of new shelters and seats.
The only problem was the new rubber floor had the smell of new rubber, but that will dissipate by Monday.
I chatted for a few minutes to a member of staff and to a couple of fellow travellers. All seemed very pleased and a fellow Freedom Pass holder was pleased that she could now use her pass before 09:30 in the morning.
West Hampstead Station: A Tangle Of Property Development And People To Solve
West Hampstead station is one of those North London Line stations, that has narrow platforms, which need lengthening and a cramped station building with no step-free access. The station also sits in the middle of a large property development. This Google Earth image shows the station.
West Hampstead Station
This was obviously taken before the development started. There were plans for a grand West Hampstead Interchange, drawing the four rail line in the area; Underground, Overground, Thameslink and Chiltern together in modern stations linked by a boulevard.
This page on the London Borough of Camden web site, is a pointer to some documents. This Google Earth image shows the various rail lines.
West Hampstead Lines
There is actually more lines than is obvious here. Starting from the top (north), the lines and stations are.
1. Thameslink passing through West Hampstead Thameslink station – From 2018 this will be a very much increased service.
2. Midland Main Line passing through West Hampstead Thameslink station – The number of services stopping here to places like Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and Corby may well increase as the line to Sheffield is electrified.
3. North London Line passing through West Hampstead station – This is being upgraded to take five-car trains.
4. Jubilee Line passing through West Hampstead Tube station – A station not to the standard of the Jubilee Line Extension.
5. Metropolitan Line passing alongside West Hampstead Tube station, but without platforms.
6.Chiltern Main Line passing alongside West Hampstead Tube station, but without platforms.
This is Wikipedia’s schematic of the lines.
West Hampstead Lines
I would say that the best way to sum up the area is using that old estate agent’s phrase of development potential.
So how is West Hampstead station getting on?
There certainly seems to be lots of flats growing up by the side of the railway and these seemed to have replaced the trees. There was a bit of fuss about the thirty-five trees being removed, which I can sympathise with, but surely a better plan would be to take away as much traffic as possible from West End Lane and make it a proper tree-lined boulevard. But any council that suggested that would be voted out by the 4×4 owners.
There’s a preview of the new West Hampstead station on West Hampstead Life.
I’m not impressed and it is rather a poor design compared to Hackney Wick.
Only time will tell, but rail developments will have a big effect on the number of people using the stations at West Hampstead.
1. The opening of the full Thameslink service in 2018.
2. More trains from West Hampstead Thameslink station to the North on full electrification to Sheffield.
3. The possible opening of Metropolitan and Chiltern Main Line platforms in a rebuilt Underground station.
4. Network Rail and Transport for London have stated that they will increase the capacity on the London Overground, by increasing the number of trains and running six-car trains. Certainly they will do this on the East London Line, which will get twenty-four trains an hour.
It is my view that all of this extra rail traffic, will necessitate the turning of West End Lane into a proper pedestrian boulevard with very much reduced traffic levels. The only alternative would be to create a pedestrian tunnel.
London Overground: A Day’s Walk Around the Ginger Line by Iain Sinclair
The Evening Standard has a review of this book on their web site.
It looks like the book could be a good read for anybody who loves London and like me is seduced by the charms of London’s superb remodelling of the old railways into the London Overground.
Looking at the title, it would have to be a very fast walk to go round the Overground in a day, but one of the developments recently has been the opening of quality budget hotels like the Premier Inn in Dalston, close to me and virtually next door to where my maternal grandmother Upcott was born.
The Anonymous Widower 