The Anonymous Widower

Could Highbury & Islington And Canada Water Stations Be Connected By A Twelve Trains Per Hour Service?

This article on IanVisits, is entitled More Frequent Trains And A New Station For The London Overground.

This is said.

In a statement, the government agreed to requests for £80.8 million from the GLA to support transport upgrades so that 14,000 homes can be built along the East London Line.

Upgrades include

• New Bermondsey station, which was originally to be called Surrey Canal Road, will be built.
• A second entrance will be built at Surrey Quays station.
• Frequency between Dalston Junction and Clapham Junction stations will be increased from four trains per hour (tph) to six tph.
• Frequency between Highbury & Islington and Crystal Palace stations will be increased from four tph to six tph.

The frequency upgrades will mean twenty tph between Dalston Junction and Surrey Quays stations, or a tyrain every three minutes as opposed to the  current three minutes and forty-five seconds.

Consider the section of the East London Line that I use most between Highbury & Islington and Canada Water stations via Whitechapel station.

• Highbury & Islington station has good connections to the Victoria Line, the Northern City Line and the North London Line.
• Highbury & Islington station is the thirteenth busiest station in the UK.
• Whitechapel station has good connections to the District and Hammersmith & City Lines, which have recently been increased in Frequency.
• Whitechapel station will be on Crossrail, when it opens.
• Canada Water station has a good step-free connection to the Jubilee Line.
• Canada Water station is the seventeenth busiest station in the UK.
• Currently, the frequency between Highbury & Islington and Canada Water station is eight tph and after the improvements it will be ten tph.

The frequency increase is to be welcomed but I wonder if it could be better.

Would it be possible that in addition to the proposed changes, the West Croydon and Clapham Junction services should swap Northern terminals, as they do on Sundays.

This would not affect any services South of Dalston Junction, but it would increase the number of services between Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington via Canonbury to twelve tph.

This would give several benefits.

1. Passengers changing from the North London Line to go South, would have an easier change at the less-crowded Canonbury station, rather than Highbury & Islington. Canonbury has only one Southbound platform, simpler passenger flows, is fully step-free and as the trains on the East London Line, will be at a higher frequency, the waiting time would be less and a maximum of just five minutes.
2. Passengers could avoid the cramped Dalston Kingsland, which is not step-free, on many journeys.
3. Half the trains going North through Dalston Junction would have a cross-platform interchange with the Westbound North London Line at Highbury & Islington.
4. Passengers going South from Dalston Junction wouldn’t dither about at the bottom of the stairs, trying to ascertain, which train is going first. As there would be sixteen trains per hour leaving on the left island Platform 3/4, only passengers going to New Cross would go right.
5. Dalston Kingsland and Highbury & Islington is one of the busiest Peak Hour services in the UK. Twelve trains per hour on the alternative route might ease the congestion.
6. The increased frequency might help, when Arsenal are playing at home.
7. In some ways, maximising the service between Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington, compensates for the annoying cut-back of the 277 bus service.

I do feel that swapping the two services so that both six train per hour services terminate at Highbury & Islington could be beneficial.

Hopefully, TfL have got there first! Unless of course, there’s an operational reason, why the swap can’t be done!

October 30, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland Station, East London Line, Highbury And Islington Station, London Overground, Surrey Quays, Transport for London, Whitechapel Station