The Anonymous Widower

An Improved Station For Brixton

In the June 2016 Edition of Modern Railways, there was an article entitled Turning South London Orange.

One of the proposals in the article is to create an improved station at Brixton, by reopening disused platforms on the Northernmost tracks at the station.

Brixton station was designed by Topsy.and could probably be summed up by my post; Changing Trains At Brixton.

This is a Google Map of the station.

Lines Through Brixton Station

Note.

• The Northernmost lines don’t have platforms.
• The Overground uses the Southernmost lines, which also don’t have platforms and soar high above everything else.

Centre for London’s proposal envisages platforms being added to the two Northern platforms and using them for the Overground.

This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines between Wandsworth Road and Brixton stations.

WandsworthRoad, Clapham High Street And Brixton Stations

This map shows all the junctions between the lines, which probably means that running Overground trains on the Northern pair of tracks is probably possible.

If the only platforms where trains stop are the low-level ones in Brixton station, surely, it would be be much easier to link them to the Victoria Line.

These are some pictures of the station.

If it was being sold by legendary Estate Agent Roy Brooks, he would describe it as a building with potential.

The four low-level platforms are on solid Victorian railway arches and I suspect that a 3-D rendition of the station, would show it was possible to tunnel from the arches into the Victoria Line platforms, to give an escalator and lift connection.

It wasn’t done in the 1960s, when the Victoria Line was built or when the Overground was created, as in both cases, money was short and no-one believed that the two lines would be as successful as they are now!

But the more I look at the pictures and the maps, Centre for London’s idea of running the Overground on the Northern pair of tracks looks more feasible.

The related proposal of creating a tunnel under Brixton to remove the fast trains between Victoria and Kent, also helps, as it removes the fast trains from passing through Brixton station.

May 27, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Brixton Station, Brixton Tunnel, Centre for London June 2016 Proposals, Railway Arches, Victoria Line