The Anonymous Widower

Progress Through Walthamstow – 28th September 2016

These pictures show the Gospel Oak to Barking Line through Walthamstow.

Note.

• It looks like both tracks have been mostly relaid.
• The slab track under Pretoria Avenue, where it was put in due to a sewer being beneath the bridge.
• There is also slab track at the other end of this section of line, but I suspect, it’s covered with ballast.

From what I could see at Blackhorse Road station, there doesn’t appear to be any foundations for lift towers or ramps to create step-free access to the Overground platforms. On Network Rail’s Access for All list of improvements. the improvements at Blackhorse Road station are listed as Future Planned for 2017/2018.

As the new Class 710 trains will start running in 2018, surely it would be good planning to at least do all the work needed on the Overground platforms now!

Or is there some rule, which says that when you make one line at a station step-free for all, you must do that for all lines?

It is interesting to look at this Google Map of the station.

The Victoria Line station is the square building to the North East of the obvious GOBlin station, with the space between the stations being just grass and some bushes.

In one of the pictures, there is a lot of work going on in this area.

Could it be, that there is a route to create a lift shaft from somewhere in this area, that goes both down to the Victoria Line and on the surface connects to the ticket hall and the bridge over the GOBlin?

It could also be work associated with a new chiller described in this article on the TfL web site., which is entitled Innovative new fan chiller to help customers beat the heat.

If you look inside the station, you’ll see that the escalators down to the Victoria Line platforms, start just to the West of the bridge over the Overground.

Without more information, it’s difficult to work out what is happening.

But it would surely be a good idea to do all the work at the same time and get the station step-free before the GOBlin starts running electric trains.

September 29, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | GOBlin Electrification, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Step-Free