Signs Of The Northern Line Extension
I have been past Battersea Power Station twice in the last few days and have been able to take pictures of the conveyors linking the excavations of the now-started Northern Line Extension to the river.
I do wish I could find a train from which it is possible to get a decent photograph of the conveyors and the barge, which is used to take the spoil away. Sadly, it wasn’t there when I took the Thames Clipper trip yesterday.
In this article in the Railway Gazette, the following is said.
Boring of twin tunnels is due to begin in early 2017 and is expected to take six months to complete. An expected 680 000 tonnes of material would be excavated. A 300 m long conveyor belt will carry 92% of this to the River Thames, from where barges will carry it to Goshems Farm in East Tilbury to the east of London.
This is only a small project compared to Crossrail or Crossrail 2, but you have to wonder, if we should be doing a few smaller rail projects like this, to squeeze more capacity out of our overcrowded railways, metros and trams.
In London some smaller projects come to mind.
- Extending the Victoria Line to Herne Hill station, which I wrote about in Could The Victoria Line Go To Herne Hill?
- Extending the Bakerloo Line, which according to this TfL press release has overwhelming support.
- Reinstating the Hall Farm Curve to allow direct services between the Chingford Branch Line and Stratford.
- Connecting the Central and East London Lines at Shoreditch High Street station.
The only certainty, is that the projects that get started will surprise us.
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The Anonymous Widower 
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