All Change At Barking
Over the next few years there are going to be changes at Barking station.
Barking and Dagenham Council have plans to redevelop the station, but compared to many 1960s stations built by British Rail, Barking station isn’t one where you need to call in the heavy demolition squads. From what I’ve seen elsewhere, a partnership between good architects and a competent construction company, should be able to create a station fit for the twenty-first century.
The station is also served by two ambitious operators; Transport for London, with both Underground and Overground and c2c with services along the Essex Coast.
So I have this hope that between the three of them, they can turn Barking into another East London gateway to Essex alongside Liverpool Street and Stratford.
It has also been announced that the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will now be going to a new station at Barking Riverside.
Transport for London have now produced two options about how this line will link up to the station.
This is Option A, which would need two single track viaducts.
Barking Option A
And this is Option B, which gives the option of a second station and needs a double-track viaduct.
Barking Option B
As both link into Platforms 7 and 8 at Barking station, there would appear to be little difference between the two options except for the ability to have a second station with Option B and the possibility of one track layout being cheaper.
This Google Earth image shows Barking station.
Barking Station
Platforms 7 and 8 are at the southern side of the station. So this means that trains from Gospel Oak, will have to criss over several lines to get from the northern side to the southern. But this is not a problem here, as there is a flyover, which has been built to get freight trains across the main lines. If this hadn’t been built sometime in the past, then extending the GOBlin to Barking Riverside would be a lot more expensive.
When I was at Barking recently, Underground and c2c trains were using opposite sides of the same platforms, thus allowing cross-platform interchange.
This would appear to be the platform usage.
1 – Bay platform for Gospel Oak to Barking trains
2 – Eastbound Underground – Paired with 4
3- Bay platform for Underground – Tucked between 2 and 4
4 – Eastbound c2c – Paired with 2
5 – Westbound c2c – Paired with 6
6 – Westbound Underground – Paired with 5
7 – Eastbound c2c – Paired with 8
8 – Westbound c2c – Paired with 7
If there is a problem, it is that to change between c2c and the Underground isn’t always a simple cross-platform interchange, but sometimes up and down steps. As getting on the Underground at Fenchurch Street isn’t simple and West Ham is similar to Barking with lots of steps, it would seem that this neglected part of London needs a few station improvements.
This won’t get any better after Barking Riverside is served, as this will put extra trains through platforms 7 and 8.
I would assume that Network Rail have a cunning plan up their sleeves.
It would surely be better if all c2c trains used either platform 4 to go east and 5 to go to west to Fenchurch Street.
This may not be possible with the current track layout, which would appear to split into the two services via Basildon and Ockendon respectively to the west of Barking station. The southern route via Ockendon, branches away soon after the station, so moving the junction to the east of the station to use just a single platform in each direction, might not be possible.
But a better platform layout would make it more difficult for passengers to get lost or miss connecting trains at Barking.
I think in a few years time, Barking will have an important interchange station, adding significantly to the transport options of the area.
New Routemasters On Westminster Bridge
As I walked along the Albert Embankment, I took these pictures of New Routemasters crossing Westminster Bridge.
They are really becoming part of the scenery.
Thames Tideway Tunnel Site – Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore
Index Thames Tideway Tunnel Sites Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore
Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore is going to be a major site for the construction and operation of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
This Google Earth image shows the area of the site.
Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore
Note the pier for the river boats and HMS President in the angle between Blackfriars Bridge and the Victoria Embankment. Compare this image with this visualisation clipped from the Thames Tideway Tunnel web site.
Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore
The pier for the river boats will obviously be moved downstream and I found the works for this a few days ago and wrote about it here.
The first thing anybody will notice here is the relocation of the pier, which Thames Water say won’t happen until the new one is ready. At the moment the current pier is looking a bit tired, as these pictures show.
The text system for the Next Boat works.
Thames Tideway Tunnel Site – Albert Embankment Foreshore
Index Thames Tideway Tunnel Sites Albert Embankment Foreshore
The Albert Embankment Foreshore site must have given the Secret Intelligence Service kittens, as it is going to be located across the front of their famous building. I also went to a lecture at University College London, which said that in the river at this point, there are prehistoric structures.
Thames Water say this on the Thames Tideway Tunnel web site.
Work will comprise construction of a new area of reclaimed land in the foreshore, in front of Camelford House for a shaft approximately 48 metres deep with an internal diameter of approximately 16 metres. Connection to the existing sewers will be made within a second new area of reclaimed land underneath Vauxhall Bridge and in front of the Vauxhall Cross building. These two areas will be connected under the foreshore. The shaft is required to transfer sewage flows from the combined sewer overflows to the main tunnel.
Once construction is complete there will be new public space extending into the foreshore providing a viewing platform to Central London, benches and intertidal terraces. The Thames Path will be widened to allow pedestrians to be diverted in front of (rather than underneath) Camelford House.
It is certainly a large set of works in the area, which they also say will link the Clapham Storm Relief and Brixton Storm Relief sewers to the new Thames Tideway Tunnel. This is a visualisation of how the completed site will look
Albert Embankment Foreshore
Joseph Bazalgette would be pleased at the expansion of his Albert Embankment. These are a few pictures I took around Vauxhall Bridge.
There is certainly scope to improve the river in this area.
It’s My Fault HaHa!
I just had to post this story from the BBC, about how an Ipswich fan punched a hole in his ceiling when Ipswich equalised against Norwich and the scorer; Paul Anderson offered to pay for it.
Can you imagine the fuss of a Liverpool or Chelsea player did this for a fan living in Leeds!
It’s All Happening In Todmorden On Sunday
Where I live in London a few years ago they opened a new rail service called the Overground and the transformation has been dramatic. Not least in the rise in passenger numbers, but also it seems in the drop on the number of unemployed youth hanging around on the street. Perhaps, now you can get to that job reliably, you have got a better and well-paid one?
I don’t know, as it’s many years since I went job hunting!
But this Sunday the Todmorden Curve opens to passengers as is reported in this piece in the Lancashire Telegraph. If nothing, the locals certainly seem excited!
You do have to wonder how many other short rail lines like this could be re-opened?
Thames Tideway Tunnel Site – Victoria Embankment Foreshore
Index Thames Tideway Tunnel Sites Victoria Embankment Foreshore
The Victoria Embankment Foreshore is a site just to the west of Hungerford Railway Bridge on the North Bank of the Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel web site says this about the site.
The Victoria Embankment Foreshore site is on the northern bank of the River Thames. It comprises a section of the foreshore and a section of pavement and roadway on Victoria Embankment (A3211).
This is a Google Earth image of the site.
Victoria Embankment Foreshore
Note the two ships; the larger Tattersall Castle and the smaller Hispaniola. Moving the Tattersall Castle to a new mooring is going to be one of the first tasks on site.
This image from the Thames Tunnel web site, shows what the completed installation will look like.
Victoria Embankment Foreshore
It might look a bit like a Victorian memorial to an important Admiral, but it certainly could be made into an excellent garden with a unique water feature. I took these pictures as I walked over the Jubilee Footbridge on the Hungerford Bridge and then walked along the Embankment.
One of the pictures is of Whitehall Gardens. I’ve included it, as it looks like the finished feature over the works might be modelled on the Victorian gardens.
My only worry with getting the design of this site right, is that they have talked to those designing the Cycle Superhighway through the area.
This is probably one of those sites, where there are few residents to annoy, proving that the traffic isn’t disrupted too much. On the other hand, whilst the site is being worked, it would appear that the footbridge might make a good grandstand.
The Golden Jubilee Bridges In The Sun
I walked across the Thames on the the Golden Jubilee Bridges today in the sun.
I think it’s one of the first times, I walked across the upstream bridge on the House of Commons side.
I like this pair of bridges and to me, they are much better than the wobbly bridge.
They also don’t wobble!
Plus Ca Change
Soon after the last General Election in 2010, three big issues were Why isn’t Kevin Pietersen playing for England, the non-winning of the Premiership by Liverpool Football Club and the Leader of the Labour Party.
Have I been asleep for five years?
Railway Arches On The Greenwich Line
Wikipedia says this about the railway built between London and Greenwich Railway.
The railway was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first elevated railway.
As it’s a line on a viaduct it has lots of arches.
And as the picture shows, many are good ones and seem to be being used profitably.
As I said in the piece on the Greenwich Pumping Station, the area between the blue bridge and the Pumping Station at Greenwich could become a quality leisure area, with waterside cafes and shops, overlooked by a hopefully-restored Deptford Creek Lift Bridge.
The Anonymous Widower 