It Looks Like The Hackney Downs/Central Link Is Ready To Open
I took these pictures at Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations today,
I don’t think it will be long before when I come back from Walthamstow, I can arrive at Downs station, walk through the link to go out on the street at Central station station to get a 38 bus home. The advantage of this route, as opposed to getting a 56 bus by Downs station, will be that I can do some food shopping if necessary in the Hackney Marks and Spencer.
I can’t help feeling that passengers will press for links between the other platforms and lifts to the platforms from the subway at Hackney Downs station.
The reopening of Lea Bridge station and the possible reopening of the Hall Farm Curve are both developments that could affect any future work at Downs and Central stations. This Google Map shows the layout of the two stations.
Hackney Downs/Central Link
Downs station is at the top and Central station is at the right.
You can actually see some sections of the new link in place, so the image must have been taken recently. The large oval object at the left (west) of the image is the ventilation and evacuation shaft for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which is easily seen from trains on the North London Line. It is connected by a concrete roadway to Graham Road.
Note how it is possible to walk inside the railway land to Graham Road. I believe it would be possible to create a southern entrance for the two stations, by the two bridges, that would give access to the westbound platform at Central station and possibly perhaps using a lift to Platform 4 at Downs station. These pictures show the area of Graham Road, where the two bridges cross.
This is an enlarged Google Map of Graham Road, the two bridges and the two access roads.
An Enlarged Map
In order from the west, the features are.
- The Ventilation and Evacuation Shaft for the CTRL
- The Access Road to the CTRL shaft
- The two-track Curve that connects the Lea Valley Line to the North London Line.
- The four-track Lea Valley Line
- The Network Rail Access Road
The footbridge at Central station is shown at the far right.
As the pictures and the map show there is an embankment, so to get to a possible southern entrance, there might need to be some serious engineering.
On the other hand their is already a light-controlled crossing on Graham Road by the bridges.
The only problem of putting a second link on the southern side of the tracks, is that signalling cables and equipment may get in the way. This necessitated a big redesign of the link, that is now being created. This page on the contractor’s web site, which describes the current link, says this.
An earlier proposal had to be abandoned because it would interfere with Network Rail signalling equipment. The latest plan avoids this problem by building the interchange on the northern side of the track.
So this probably partly explains, why the new walkway is not a small structure.
I also heard in the evening that the link will open next week, possibly on Tuesday.
In the nearly five years, I’ve lived in Hackney, the development of the area around the two Hackney stations has been extensive and it is showing no sign of slowing down.
The London Borough of Hackney is now one of the more desireble boroughs in which to live.
Why Would You Create A New Digital Bank In Durham?
I’ve only one regret about my investment in Zopa and that is that I didn’t invest earlier. I could only have invested a few months earlier, as the financial web site hadn’t been created.
Recently, I’ve seen mention of Atom Bank in the press and this afternoon I went to have a dig around the Internet at what has been trailed as a new form of digital bank.
I found this article on the Finanser web site, which is an interview with Mark Mullen, who is the CEO of Atom Bank.
The interview contains a lot of sensible and surprising facts.
They are creating the whole digital bank from scratch and Mullen has a refreshingly blunt attitude to consultants (He doesn’t use them!), which I wholly agree with. So much so, if I was developing a bank with my old Chairman at Metier,we’d probably do it the same way.
As an example of Mullen’s thinking, I’ll copy his reasons for basing the bank in Durham.
There is a lot to be said for being outside London, not least because it’s an expensive place to base a business. If you don’t need to be in London it doesn’t make sense to place a business where the ground rents and employment costs are so high, and where the markets are so massively competitive. Durham is appealing as the real estate is less expensive; but cheap land gets you nowhere when you’re building a high end company. So as importantly there are also fabulous universities; a huge population catchment area; and the city is well connected by trains to north and south. Equally, there is actually not that much in the way of alternative financial institutions, so we are offering an alternative employment proposition in the local market. That’s quite an attractive thing to do.
I shall be watching Atom Bank with interest.
Will Crossrail 2 Get Development Finance In The Budget?
This report in The Independent is entitled Crossrail 2 proposal receives £100m Budget boost from Chancellor. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
If it’s true, it’s short term bad news for me, as more and more Estate Agents will be pouring leaflets through my door, in the hope, they can make a quick killing.
But seriously though Crossrail 2 is needed to connect Tottenham and Wimbledon. With the new double-ended station at Dalston, I will have better connections to the West End, Euston and Victoria.
The Anonymous Widower 