The Anonymous Widower

Calls For London Overground Extension To Lewisham

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on IanVisits.

This is the first paragraph.

Lewisham council has issued a call for the Overground to be extended to Lewisham town centre as part of a wider series of improvements to the local rail and DLR networks.

To extend the Overground from New Cross station, Overground trains would need to be able to cross over to the tracks through the station.

This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the tracks at the station.

There are four Overground trains from Dalston Junction station and they terminate in the bay Platform D.

Note how the Overground skirts round New Cross Depot to get to the platform.

This Google Map shows the curve of the Overground Line and what lies between the lines out of London Bridge station and the Overground.

It looks to be the old New Cross depot and a green space surrounded by rail tracks, that is all inaccessible to the public.

I took these pictures as I passed.

Note.

1. The Lines out of London Bridge are much higher.
2. It’s quite a big space.
3. It might be possible to connect the Overground to the down slow line, that goes through Placform C at New Cross station.
4. It would need a tunnel under the lines out of London Bridge to connect to the up slow line, which is goes through Platform A at New Cross station.
5. I suspect this connection would be difficult and the lines would have to be slewed to the West, so that trains could dive under the down slow line.
6. Do Network Rail want to cause all the grief at London Bridge, whilst they built the junction.

It could be a challenging and very expensive project.

It might even be impossible!

On the other hand, it might be possible using flat junctions, but this line is busy and building and operating  them could be the stff of  nightmares.

Trains Services At New Cross Station

Wikipedia says these are the service frequencies at New Cross station in trains per hour (tph)

• 10 northbound to Cannon Street
• 4 northbound to Dalston Junction or sometimes Highbury & Islington
• 2 southbound to Hayes
• 4 southbound to Cannon Street via Sidcup, or via Bexleyheath and then returning via Greenwich
• 2 southbound to Orpington, calling at all stations
• 2 southbound to Tunbridge Wells, non-stop to Orpington then all stations

Merging ten trains to and from Cannon Street with four trains to and from Dalston Junction could be extremely difficult.

It should be said that the interchange between Overground services arriving at New Cross and Southbound services on Southeastern is just a walk across between Platform D and C, which is shown in the picture below.

Note the Overground train in Platform D.

It appears that most Overground trains from Dalston Junction, connect to a Lewisham train after between five and ten minutes.

As there is a coffee stall on the station, on a cold day, you can buy a hot drink.

The problem is coming North, as you have to use the step-free foot bridge from Platform A.

Too many times, I’ve negotiated the bridge only to arrive on Platform D, to watch the Overground train disappearing.

Increasing Frequency On The Overground

Currently, the frequency of trains on the East London Line is as follows.

• 4 tph – Dalston Junction to New Cross
• 4 tph – Highbury and Islington West Croydon via New Cross Gate
• 4 tph – Highbury and Islington to Crystal Palace via New Cross Gate
• 4 tph – Dalston Junction to Clapham Junction

In the next couple of years, Crystal Palace and Clapham Junction services will be raised to six tph. I wrote about this in Increased Frequencies On The East London Line.

This will mean that New Cross Gate will have ten tph on the East London Line, as against four at New Cross.

I don’t know whether it’s possible to increase the Dalston Junction to New Cross service to six tph, but this would reduce the wait, when changing at New Cross to go North.

The Bakerloo Line

The Bakerloo Line is being extended to New Cross Gate and Lewisham, so perhaps in the future, East London Line passengers will go via New Cross Gate.

New Cross Interchange

I have read, that Transport for London would like to make it easier to change between New Cross and New Cross Gate stations.

Conclusion

Extension of the Overground to Lewisham will be extremely difficult and other developments will improve rail transport in South-East
London

 

 

 

April 3, 2018 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Bakerloo Line, East London Line, Lewisham Station, London Overground, New Cross Gate Station, New Cross Station