Custom House Station – 5th July 2015
Custom House station has been progressing and now even has some glass in the windows.
You can also see that the Crossrail trains will go either side of the central building. It now appears that this is the preferred way to design a new station.
At Custom House station it will mean that passengers arriving at the station from Excel or on the DLR, would appear to go to the same platform, which will have two faces; one for Central London and one for Kent.
When you consider that London Underground deep-level stations since the 1930s have been designed this way with a central platform, it puzzles me, why we have such uninspiring recent station designs like the Thameslink platforms at St. Pancras.
Where you have a two-track railway, the layout must be more affordable, as you only need one set of lifts/escalators/stairs and other services.
On the other hand, you need a bridge over the tracks or a subway beneath them, where the railway is on the surface. Obviously in some places the geography of the area, will make this easier. For example if a station is in a cutting or there is a road bridge.
At Custom House a large proportion of passengers will arrive at First Floor level either from Excel or after taking a short escalator up from the DLR, so there will only need to be access from the street up to the First Floor circulation area, from where I took these pictures. At present the DLR uses steps and a lift. I’m sure the completed station will use an elegant solution with probably escalators instead of stairs.
Greeky Bum Time
The Sun can always be relied upon for a catchy headline.
The Anonymous Widower 