The Anonymous Widower

Connectivity Around Clapham

I’ve talked a lot lately about improving the rail lines and especially their connectivity in South London in quite a few posts lately.

So I extracted this map from carto.metro.free.fr

 

I think we have to congratulate the French behind these accurate metro maps.

Note the following.

• In a few years time, there will be two high-capacity North-South routes through the area; Thameslink and the Northern Line, which meet with the Bakerloo Line at Elephant and Castle station.
• Thameslink at Farringdon station and the Northern Line at Moorgate and Tottenham Court Road will have excellent connections to Crossrail.
• Thameslink goes through Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction and will have at least six eight-car trains all day, with extra services in the peak.
• Herne Hill is a big railway bottleneck, with as yet no sensible proposal to solve it.
• The Northern Line will have at least twenty trains per hour all day, between Morden and Kennington stations.
• The Victoria Line is also important to the area, as it will provide a thirty trains per hour service to from Brixton to Walthamstow Central via Stockwell on the Northern Line.
• The East London Line connects Clapham Junction in the west via Clapham High Street and Surrey Quays to Highbury and Islington in the north-east.
• The East London Line is getting crowded and increased frequencies will happen in 2019.
• The Law of New Routes, Stations and Trains will mean that Thameslink will attract traffic and the trains will quickly get busy.
• In the future Balham station could be served by Crossrail 2.

I believe that expecting Crossrail 2 to solve South London’s transport problems, is a bit like waiting for the United States to help the beleaguered good guys out in the First and Second World Wars.

Like the Americans, Crossrail 2 will arrive, but we have to make the best of what we’ve got in the meantime.

Perhaps these projects will help.

More And Better Designed Stations

Transport for London (TfL) have very sophisticated train and passenger modelling systems, which enable them to propose where improvements to stations should be made.

Sometimes this type of analysis, gives surprising results, that are counter-intuitive.

For example, I pointed out in Faster London Trains Could Make Your Commute Even Longer, how French research had shown this premise, to sometimes be true.

But the research also showed that in certain cases, extra stations could make journeys faster.

From my personal observations at Angel station, I sometimes think that trains arrive and depart faster on the wider southbound platform, rather than the narrow northbound one.

Camberwell Station On Thameslink

A couple of miles north of Loughborough Junction station is  the disused Camberwell station, which Transport for London are proposing to reopen.

In their report on the Bakerloo Line Extension, TfL give this concise summary on reopening Camberwell station.

A new station at Camberwell would be a significantly lower cost option to a Tube extension, whilst serving the same catchment area. Investigations show significant journey time improvements could accrue to Camberwell passengers and that operationally there may be scope to integrate re-opening of the station into the launch of the completed Thameslink programme.

We will therefore undertake further planning work with Network Rail and the London Borough of Southwark to assess the proposal. 

From their statement, it would appear that TfL have done an extensive analysis.

I would not be surprised, if this enthusiastic statement wasn’t followed through.

Northern Line Stations

Several of the Northern Line stations are relics of the line’s Victorian past and  stations are slated for major improvements over the next few years.

• Bank – A big development has just been announced.
• Camden Town – I wrote about the proposed development of Camden Town station in The Camden Town Upgrade Exhibition.
• Elephant and Castle – A big property development is planned, which incorporates a new Northern Line station.
• Moorgate – Crossrail will improve the station.
• Old Street – Developments are planned in the area, which could result in an improved station.

These developments will probably mean that after the Northern Line Extension to Battersea is completed, most major stations between Camden Town and Kennington will have been upgraded.

Only the two Northern branches and the Morden branch will have not received a substantial number of upgraded stations with complete step-free access, wide safe platforms and escalators.

I think we’ll see other improvements to stations, especially an upgrading of the two island platform stations at Clapham North and Clapham Common.

The Herne Hill Loop On The Victoria Line

One constraint on the efficiency of the Victoria Line, is reversing the trains at Brixton station. There have been proposals in the past to crete a reversing loop with another station on the loop at Herne Hill station. I wrote about it in detail in Will The Victoria Line Go To Herne Hill?

This extension will only be built, if it is value-for-money in improving the Victoria line, despite the positive secondary effects it might have in the Herne Hill area!

An Interchange Hub At Streatham Common Station

Transport for London has recently proposed a interchange hub at Streatham Common, which I wrote about in Puzzled Over Streatham Common Station.

In my article, I showed that a well-designed hub could connect the following lines.

• The Sutton Loop Line Of Thameslink – Linking To Wimbledon and Sutton
• The Brighton Main Line
• Tramlink – With the possible use of tram-trains.
• East London Line – Linking to East London, Kent and Essex
• West London Line – Linking to Old Oak Common for HS2 and the West Coast Main Line

I very much think that the idea of an interchange hub at Streatham Common is a masterstroke.

Especially, as it will take the pressure off Wimbledon and East Croydon!

Another Branch Of The East London Line

The East London Line currently has four trains per hour in both directions across South London to and from Clapham Junction station.

This branch is getting very busy and from 2019, an extra two trains per hour will use this route.

But will Clapham Junction be able to cope with the extra services?

If it can’t, a possible alternative would be to run some trains from Peckham Rye via Tulse Hill to a terminus at Streatham Common.

Clapham High Street, Brixton And Brockley Interchanges

These are three possible interchanges with the Easst London Line in South London.

• Clapham High Street and Clapham North stations could be connected, if it was decided to improve the Northern Line through Clapham.
• Interchange between all the lines at Brixton station has been mentioned by TfL and I wrote about it in Could The Various Lines At Brixton Be Connected?
• TfL have also suggested that Brockley station could be a potential interchange hub and I wrote about it in A Report On The Bakerloo Line Extension

Each will have advantages and disadvantages.

Conclusion

There are a lot of possible projecs to improve the train services in the Clapham area.

What TfL have in their traffic database will decide the pattern of trains the area.

 

December 24, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | East London Line, London Underground, Northern Line, Thameslink, Victoria Line