Go-ahead For £900m London Bishopsgate Goodsyard
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on Construction Enquirer.
It seems a good scheme.
- Mixed-use urban quarter.
- 500 homes, half affordable.
- 1.4m sq ft of workspace
- Public park sitting on top of restored historic railway arches
- Six acres of public realm.
There is only one major problem, as far as I can see. – If Crossrail is still running late, this project could further delay it, by stealing the resources needed to finish the job.
Yet again, the Mayor has given planning permission to a project that could delay Crossrail, by stealing its resources.
Planning permission, should be conditional on Crossrail being finished.
A Central Line Connection To The East London Line At Shoreditch High Street Station
Shoreditch High Street station will be very close to the development.
There will be twenty trains per hour (tph) on London Overground’s East London Line.
Under Future Proposals in the Wikipedia entry for the station, this is said.
There have also been discussions of creating an interchange with the Central line between Liverpool Street and Bethnal Green which runs almost underneath the station. However, this would not be able to happen until after the Crossrail 1 project is complete, due to extreme crowding on the Central line during peak hours.
I think it will be a good idea, to create the connection.
The Anonymous Widower 
Given the way Bank Station gained a new entrance as part of the Bloomberg development then building a new Central Line Station as part of this development would not only make sense but could be more economical as its entrance could be designed as a box structure similar to the new entrance Bank Station gained .
One of major benefit is the lack of accessibility the Central Line suffers and due to the way it was built the narrow platforms existing stations have making it one of the least accessible lines .
While it would also be useful if Liverpool Street mainline station gains double ended access with passengers able to use country end of platforms to enter and exit trains with Shoreditch High Street Station close by .
Hopefully this development will also complete the Overground Station with it incorporated into the development like at Canary Wharf and of course direct interchange between overground and underground bringing new journey opportunities!
Whether funding towards a new station can be extracted from the development could also help funding this new station.
Comment by Melvyn | December 4, 2020 |
Unfortunately it looks like little provision has been made for such an extension to Shoreditch station. However, provision for 8-tracking the mainline into Liverpool Street has been maintained. How difficult would it be to construct an underground chamber or ‘box’ at Basement level (approx. WAML track level but above the Central line) from which a new Central line or Lee Valley line station could later be constructed? The plans show that a small basement will be built, full of plant and storage. Could this be contructed 1 level lower with an empty box for future TfL use? The Lee valley lines here might also form the basis of a future Crossrail route, too, so allowing for a tunnel portal here would be sensible.
Comment by JM | December 5, 2020 |
I covered a lot of issues in this post!
https://anonw.com/2016/06/14/will-shoreditch-high-street-be-connected-to-the-central-line/
Now given London’s finances, I think it is even more sensible to get Crossrail up to full speed of thirty trains per hour (tph), before starting Crossrail 2. That will include extension along the WCML and to Ebbsfleet, full development at Old Oak Common and development of Crossrail feeder lines like the Brentford, Greenford, Windsor, Marlow branches.
Analysis will show if Shoreditch needs to be a stop on the Central Line. As to a Lea Valley metro, which is an alternative to Crossrail 2 to Broxbourne, that should terminate in the loop at Stratford, like Stansted Expresses used to use. If Liverpool’s single track loop can handle sixteen tph, then there must be lots of capacity in Stratford’s double-loop.
Comment by AnonW | December 5, 2020 |
The Lee Vally metro as you describe it, to Stratford (Which already operates, in part) isn’t what I’m talking about- I meant provision for the ‘Suburban’ lines into Liverpool Street (The Cambridge Heath overground line) to drop into a tunnel at some point in future. Bishopsgate will be built long before CR2 comes to fruition, so passive provision must be provided at this stage, even if the connection isn’t yet built. once Bishopsgate is built, adding a central line or suburban line connection later will be almost impossible otherwise, and NR / TfL would have resigned themselves to the existing configuration for at least the next 50-60 years.
With a CPI with CR1 at Stratford, I expect the Central line between Stratford and Liverpool Street will be much quieter in future. Adding a connection to the central line at Shoreditch would improve connections from the ELL into central London. Where currently passengers from Dalston, for example, will go around to Highbury and Islington- this could represent a viable alternative and reduce overcrowding on the Victoria line somewhat. however, adding this connection would be expensive and probably wouldn’t facilitate the construction of any new homes so I can’t imagine it will be a priority for TfL until long after Bishopsgtae is developed.
Comment by JM | December 6, 2020
What we are doing, is just listing the enormous possibilities in the area.
And there are others.
I can see Crossrail being extended in the East to Southend and the new station at Beaulieu to the North of Chelmsford.
In the West, Oxford and possibly Newbury are extra terminuses.
Neither of these would need any new infrastructure, but would release capacity in Liverpool Street and Paddington.
One piece of infrastructure that may be needed, is a cross platform interchange between Crossrail and Liverpool Street and Great Eastern main-line services
Perhaps, this could be Beaulieu.
Comment by AnonW | December 6, 2020 |