Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Waterloo To Sevenoaks
During this week Network Rail are working on the OverJubilee or the lines between London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross, so capacity from places like Sevenoaks station is reduced.
To compensate Southeastern are running a two trains per hour (tph) service between Sevenoaks and Platform 22 at Waterloo station.
- One train goes to Dover Priory station and the other goes to Ramsgate station.
- The trains take the old Eurostar route into Waterloo station over the Waterloo Curve or the Nine Elms Flyover.
So I thought I’d have a look, hoping to perhaps have a lunch in Sevenoaks.
These are a few pictures I took.
There would have been more, but it was chucking it down and the ones I took were terrible.
The Linford Street Junction And The Waterloo Curve
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the Linford Street Junction and the Waterloo Curve.
The Junction and the Curve are used by trains to connect from Waterloo in the North East, to the lines from Victoria that go across South London via Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye stations.
Note how the train going into Waterloo and the train coming out passed on the flyover. I assume this was for safety so that trains could leave and join the lines to Victoria at Linford Street Junction.
These pictures of the flyover were taken on another journey to Clapham Junction station.
The flyover is recent and was built for Eurostar and completed in May 1993. There’s a page called Nine Elms Flyover on the Kent Rail website, which gives a detailed history of the flyover.
The Route Between Waterloo And Sevenoaks
The journey between Waterloo And Sevenoaks passed through the following stations without stopping.
- Vauxhall
- Wandsworth Road
- Clapham High Street
- Denmark Hill
- Peckham Rye
- Nunhead
- Lewisham
- Hither Green
- Grove Park
- Elmstead Woods
- Chislehurst
- Petts Wood
- Orpington
- Chelsfield
- Knockholt
- Dunton Green
From Lewisham station onwards the route is on the South Eastern Main Line.
Overall Impressions
The route seemed to work well, although between Waterloo and Lewisham, the train was rather slow, with a slight delay joining the lines out of Victoria.
The journey was timed at 47 minutes, with the fastest normal services between London and Sevenoaks being around ten minutes faster.
It certainly seems to be providing an extra two tph between London and Sevenoaks. In Eurostar days, it handled up to six tph.
I also suspect it could handle twelve-car trains, although my journey was in an eight-car train.
Future Developments Along The Route
There are going to be more developments to rail services along the route and also into Kent. Many will be driven, by the bidding for the new Southeastern Franchise.
Ashford International Station
In Kent On The Cusp Of Change – Ashford Spurs, I talked about the completed upgrading of Ashford International station, so that more Eurostar and other Continental services can call.
As the station is going to get more Highspeed services, I can envisage some innovative ways to make more and better use of this station.
Bakerloo Line Extension To Lewisham
The Bakerloo Line Extension will provide passengers with the option of using the Underground from Lewisham to access Central and North London.
Brockley Lane Station
The Lewisham Line runs between Peckham Rye and Lewisham stations and is used by Southeastern trains from both Victoria and Waterloo.
There used to be a Brockley Lane station, where the route crosses the current London Overground’s East London Line, close to Brockley station.
This is said under Future in the Wikipedia entry for the station.
According to the Department for Transport and the Transport for London rail prospectus report released in 2016, it has been listed as one of the Southeastern franchise planned improvements in the document entitled “New interchange at Brockley”, suggesting that there might be a case to reopen the station.
Creating an interchange here would certainly open up lots of travel opportunities.
It should be noted that Brockley station will from 2020, have a ten tph service to Canada Water and Whitechapel stations, with all their Crossrail and Underground connections.
Charing Cross Station
Charing Cross station is bursting at the seams, with typically fourteen and more trains in each hour.
This extract comes from Network’s Kent Route Study.
Charing Cross has just six 12-car platforms and Platforms 4, 5 and 6 are very narrow, leading to operational restrictions.
Class 465 units cannot operate in 12-car into these platforms and selective door operation is used on Class 375 units.
A major rebuild of the station could allow it to be extended south over the river, like Blackfriars, providing compliant platforms and greater passenger circulation.
At concept level, a new link to Waterloo from a southern entrance to Charing Cross may supersede Waterloo East allowing the station area to be used for additional track capacity, but there are likely to be many issues with a project on this scale.
One of the many issues would be how to keep services running during the rebuild of the station.
I suspect that Waterloo could have a role to play in handling some of the services.
Fawkham Junction Link
In Kent On The Cusp Of Change – Fawkham Junction Link, I talked about the proposal to reopen the Fawkham Junction Link, which was originally used to allow Eurostar trains to get to Waterloo station.
If this link were to be reopened, coupled with what has been happening between Waterloo and Sevenoaks, this would enable extra Southeastern HighSpeed services to Thanet to be run to either Victoria or Waterloo.
Victoria Station
Victoria station will periodically need work and might even be subject to a major upgrade project.
As with Charing Cross, I’m sure Waterloo could be used as an alternative terminus for a few trains.
Could Southeastern Services Into Waterloo Become Permanent?
I suspect that as has been successfully shown this week, that it is a feasible proposition.
But whether it actually happens would be up to the train operators.
Consider.
- Eurostar used to run a 6 tph service on this route.
- A single well-designed platform can handle 4 tph.
- The new platforms can handle twelve-car trains.
But most importantly, the train operators will have all the passenger data!
Conclusion
Southeastern and Network Rail have certainly shown it is possible to run a two tph service successfully between Sevenoaks and Waterloo.
If nothing else, it could prove to be a useful alternative route during engineering works or other diversions.
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