A First Glimpse Of The Planned Hackney Central Station
London Overground are planning an upgrade of Hackney Central station, as I reported in The Redevelopment Of Hackney Central Station.
I went to Hackney Central Library to get a first glimpse of the design.
It’s certainly a big improvement on what’s there now. Some points.
- The station is to a modular design, so we’ll be seeing other similar stations.
- There is more space in the station, with the gate line turned through ninety degrees.
- The guys I met from Transport for London (TfL) were referring to the combined station as Hackney Interchange.
- TfL and Hackney Council are working together to get things right in the area.
- There is no entrance on the far side onto Graham Road, which is something I’d like to see.
- There may even be toilets.
- TfL are welcoming comments.
But TfL haven’t created the web site yet. I’ll point to it, when they do.
Improving Bus Connectivity
Like many in London, I don’t live on top of a Underground or mainline rail station. The nearest is Dalston Junction station on the Overground, which gives me good connections to mist the capital with one or more changes.
So I rely heavily on buses to get to and from stations like Angel, Highbury and Islington, Manor House and Moorgate for onward connections.
It is the same with Hackney Central and Hackney Downs stations, which could be united as Hackney Interchange.
The buses are rather chaotic around the two stations and if Hackney Council achieve their laudable aim of creating a proper public space between Hackney Central station, St. Augustine’s Tower and the Narrow Way, using the buses in the area will get more difficult.
Transport for London needs to take a good hard look at buses passing through the area of Mare Street and the proposed Hackney Interchange.
The Dalston Eastern Curve
The lack of an Eastern Curve at Dalston means that westbound passengers on the North London Line needing to go South from Dalston, must change at Canonbury.
I sometimes do this to get to Dalston Junction station, but I also take the 38 bus from Amhurst Road, after crossing the North London Line on the Hackney Central station footbridge.
In The Dalston Eastern Curve, I talked about the curve, but I don’t think it will be rebuilt in the next few years.
A Southern Entrance To Hackney Central Station
Because of its connections to the attractions at Stratford and Crossrail, I suspect that we’ll be seeing more passengers taking the North London Line to and from its Eastern terminus at Stratford station. Especially, when West Ham moves into the Olympic Stadium.
The proposed increase in size and facilities at Hackney Central will be very much needed, for all these passengers.
Many passengers though will need to go South from Hackney Central or along Graham Road, but will be frustrated in having to climb the footbridge to get out of the station on the wrong side of the line.
It is my view that a southern entrance to Hackney Central station would make travel easier for a great many travellers.
In an ideal world, a southern entrance would lead to a light-controlled crossing over Graham Road, to give easier access to the buses.
Squeezing Blood Out Of A Stone On The Northern Line
The Northern Line is not the most popular or glamorous line of the London Underground.
It is a line I try to avoid for various reasons.
- It’s often too crowded.
- I have buses, Victoria Line and the London Overground as alternatives. For example, I use Camden Road station instead of Camden Town station and walk.
- In recent months, stations I want to use have been renewing escalators.
- I also want to get to stations, that are on the Charing Cross branch of the line.
I also wonder, if I’m prejudiced against the Northern Line, as I spent so much of my formative years on the Piccadilly Line.
I have just read this article on London Reconnections, which is entitled Twin Peaks: Timetable Changes On The Northern Line.
I have extracted these points from the article.
- Until mid-2014, both central sections and both northern branches of the Northern Line in the peak hours were only able to handle twenty trains per hour (tph). This compares with 30 tph on the Jubilee Line, 33 tph for the Victoria Line and 34 tph for the Central Line.
- In June 2014, with the full introduction of automatic train operation (ATO), this was raised to 22 tph.
- Engineers were working hard to improve the track to allow better speeds and from December 2014, the train frequency in the peak was raised to 24 tph.
- The line is now running at 30 tph between Kennington and Morden.
- The Off Peak service at the start of 2014 was 15-16 tph and it is now 20 tph.
All of this frequency improvement has been attained because they have got ATO working well and they’ve done a good job to allow trains to run faster on much better track.
You could say it’s all down to quality engineering. With probably the input from someone, who understands scheduling.
The article has a section entitled As Good As It Can Get For The Moment?, where this is said.
No doubt the ATO system will continue to be refined but the dramatic time reductions already achieved are unlikely to be improved on much more. Unless more available trains or speed can be coaxed of the existing fleet it is hard to see how the peak timetable can be improved until new trains arrive.
So have we got to the limit of the current lines and the 1995 Stock trains?
If you read the article, you’ll see that Transport for London are talking about peak hour services of 30 tph with new trains after the reworking of track in Summer 2020.
But given the skilful way, the frequency of this line has been ramped up over the last couple of years, I suspect, there’s more blood to come from this particular stone!
The Dalston Eastern Curve
In several posts like Improving The East London Line, An Opportunity For Dalston, Platforms 11 And 12 At Stratford and Missing Links On The Overground, I mention the Dalston Eastern Curve. Currently, the land is occupied by a community garden called unsurprisingly the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden.
The Google Map shows the area.
Dalston Eastern Curve
The line of the Dalston Eastern Curve is clearly shown, as it leaves the North London Line that goes across the map, and curves its way down to Dalston Junction station on Dalston Lane. The garden occupies the Southernmost section and has an entrance on the Lane.
These pictures show the area of the Curve.
If it were to be reinstated the big losers would be the car park of the Shopping Centre and the Garden.
A new reinstated Dalston Eastern rail curve would probably be covered, as is much of the Western Curve. After all, railway lines in tunnels or covered over can be used as building land for houses, offices, shopping centres or gardens.
The rebuilding plans for Dalston Shopping Centre,shown many months ago, showed an open-aired concept, rather than the dated layout it has today. It also appears that the landlord of the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden is the owner of the Shopping Centre.
So I suppose that what Transport for London and the Shopping Centre agree is needed, will be implemented.
Other trends and facts must also be taken into account.
- The walking route between the two Dalston stations is terrible.
- Car parking is increasingly non-profitable for Shopping Centres to provide.
- More people will use bicycles and public transport to get to Dalston.
- Four extra trains an hour, are already planned on the East London Line.
- The East London Line has a capacity of twenty-four trains an hour. TfL has stated these could be six cars after some platform extensions.
- The East London Line will be given better connectivity to South East London, possibly by extending from New Cross or creating interchanges at Brockley and Penge.
- The North London Line could have more passenger trains. Especially, if freight trains on the line can be reduced.
- Waltham Forest Council has ambitions to have trains from Walthamstow Central and Chingford to Stratford by a reinstated Hall Farm Curve.
- Crossrail 2 or not, there will be massive developments up the Lea Valley, including housing and the Walthamstow Wetlands.
- Crossrail will connect to the East London Line at Whitechapel. What effects will this have on Dalston?
- Joining services back-to-back is always a good idea, as Thameslink showed years ago. It reduces the number of trains, staff and platforms needed to provide the service.
And then there is Crossrail 2, which once it is defined and started, will change everybody’s plans for Central Dalston.
I believe that the Dalston Eastern Curve will eventually be reinstated.
The main reason will be the need to have more Northern destinations for all of those trains going up and down the East London Line. A reinstated curve will allow services to go to and from Stratford and possibly if the Hall Farm curve was also to be reinstated as far as Walthamstow and Chingford.
So a series of short routes are converted into one long one, from Stratford or Chingford to say West Croydon, Orpington, Ebbsfleet or wherever!
It should be noted that at present Chingford/Walthamstow to South London is a difficult crowded journey on the Victoria Line to get a train going south from either St. Pancras or Victoria. A reinstated Hall Farm Curve would make things better by giving access at Stratford to the Jubilee Line and Crossrail in 2019.
Savvy passengers going from Stratford to South London destinations, change at Canonbury. But they would probably prefer a direct train via the Dalston Eastern Curve.
One thing that will happen, is that when the Shopping Centre is rebuilt, then space will be left to reinstate the Dalston Eastern Curve.
Beware The Tosser With A Digger!
This story from the Standard is entitled Digger cripples London Overground route after tearing down overhead wiring at level crossing.
This accident happened on a Sunday between Shepherd’s Bush and Willesden and it doesn’t appear anybody was hurt.
But it just illustrates how dangerous level crossing are.
Currently, several hours later,there is no service on the line.
The Redevelopment Of Hackney Central Station
On Saturday night, I was passing through Hackney Downs station, as I came home from having supper with my son and his partner in Walthamstow.
As I needed some food for today, instead of getting the 56 or 30 bus home, I came down the walkway to Hackney Central station, with the intention of going to the Marks and Spencer by the exit from the station.
The shop was shut, but before I took a 38 bus home, I saw this notice, announcing the redevelopment of Hackney Central station.
The Redevelopment Of Hackney Central Station
When I got home, I searched the Internet and found nothing. Even Hackney Central Library, which is hosting the exhibition on Tuesday, the 17th, has nothing on its web site.
But I did find this article on the Hackney Gazette entitled Narrow Way in line for multi-million pound revamp, where this is said.
Hackney Council has billed the works as a “dramatic reimagining of one of the borough’s oldest and most vibrant shopping districts”. The proposal is to change the former road and footpath in the Narrow Way with a more attractive pedestrian-friendly surface, with the new-look extending to the junction of Graham Road.
So it looks like the area from Marks and Spencer and St. Augustine’s Tower to Graham Road, is in for a substantial upgrading.
This is a Google Map of the station and the lower end of Narrow Way.
Hackney Central Station
If a decent architect can’t do something superb with the area, I’ll be very surprised. These are pictures of the buildings in the area.
One of the ideas in the Hackney Gazette article is a new public square in front of the Grade 1 Listed Tower.
But dramatic entrance squares like St. George’s Plateau in Liverpool need to be served by proper transport interfaces.
So the development of Hackney Central station is needed to complement the work done on the Narrow Way.
From what I read from the notice, the proposals will solve some of the problems of access to the station from the Narrow Way and other places to the North of the North London Line.
But I believe that there also needs to be an entrance to the station on the South side of the Line onto Graham Road, where there would be access to the buses.
Underneath And Above The Arches
London Fields station has improved in some ways with Overgroundisation since I wrote Before Overground – London Fields in September 2014.
It just shows what you can do with an army of cleaners and painters. And a touch of Overground Orange!
But there is still the problem of step-free access to solve.
This Google Map shows how difficult this could be.
London Fields Station
The site is cramped, with the platform and stairs for the Liverpool Street platform squeezed between the slow and fast lines.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Transport for London, put the addition of step-free access to this station at the very back of the queue.
Unless of course, they could persuade a developer to do something very imaginative and expensive, which they can market as having its own station and a large park with an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Walking From De Beauvoir Town To London Fields
This walk follows the route that I traced in Cycling Across De Beauvoir Town.
I’ll show the Google Map from that post
Cycling Across De Beauvoir Town
The route, which I started on Southgate Road is traced by the blue line. I continued up Middleton Road to London Fields.
These are pictures I took on the way.
It is an absolutely flat route, except for the dip under the railway. This will surely encourage people to walk and cycle along it.
Cycling Across De Beauvoir Town
When I wrote Walking From Haggerston Station To Mare Street, I hadn’t realised how the scheme to effectively convert Middleton Road into a car-free route, would affect De Beauvoir Town.
Look at this Google Map, which shows the car-free route across London Fields.
Car-Free Route Through London Fields
The map is rather vague about what happens when it crosses the Kingsland Road and all it shows is a wavy line, which if you enlarge it and use a magnifying glass, has something like Northchurch Road written on it. This Google Map shows the area from Southgate to Kingsland Roads.
Cycling Across De Beauvoir Town
I think as Middleton Road links up to the South Side of De Beauvoir Square, that the downward kink in the route is De Beauvoir Square, so the route goes past St.Peter’s Church and then up Northchurch Road. For the first part of Northchurch Road, the route is following the route of the Cycle Superhighway CS1, that goes up Culford Road.
The two cycling routes are marked in blue on the map.
If the traffic scheme in London Fields is made permanent, I think I will be pleased, as it would give me a car-free cycle route from my house to the Cultural Quarter of Hackney.
If there were Boris Bike stations in De Beauvoir and London Fields, I wouldn’t even have to buy a bike.
On the other hand the London Fields scheme could generate a lot of cycling traffic through De Beauvoir Town.
Others might not be so pleased!
Later I walked the route and there are photographs of it in Walking From De Beauvoir Town to London Fields
A Lesson In Traffic Management
On Friday, next door got low water pressure. So now we have a chicane around the hole that Thames Water have dug, whilst they look for the problem!
My road certainly seems quieter, as traffic could be much less and slower.
Perhaps Thames Water and National Grid, should be asked to dig holes in rat runs as a traffic-calming measure!
Is Network Rail Only Part Of The Problem?
We like to have something simple to blame for our troubles!
I have just read this article in Rail Magazine entitled Carne opposes five-year funding cycle for big projects. This is an extract.
Network Rail Chief Executive Mark Carne told the Public Accounts Committee “there is no doubt at all in my view” that the Great Western Main Line electrification programme should have been managed in the same way as projects such as Crossrail and Thameslink.
“Personally, I think it [five-year funding cycles] is a really good way of funding ongoing operations, maintenance and renewals. But I am not sure it is a really good way of funding major investment projects,” he said.
We can look at various rail projects, that have been successfully completed without too much trouble, in the last few years.
Borders Railway
The Borders Railway seems to have been completed on time and on budget.
The only problem so far seems to be crowded trains and difficulty in finding more carriages.
So what’s new? This is only another manifestation of New Railway Syndrome.
Chords, Curves and Flyovers
Network Rail have also successfully built a few short railway lines to make the rail network and trains, easier to manage. This is a selection.
- The Allington Chord removed a bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line.
- The Hitchin Flyover removed another bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line.
- The Ipswich Chord allowed better access for freight trains to Felixstowe Docks and removed a lot of truck journeys from the roads.
- The Todmorden Curve allowed trains from Burnley to reach Manchester.
The only one with a problem was the Todmorden Curve, where Northern Rail had trouble finding trains for the new service.
Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway Upgrade
The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway has been upgraded from Doncaster to Peterborough via Lincoln to act as a freight route away from the East Coast Main Line.
I talked about this upgrade in Project Managers Having Fun In The East.
This was no small project, as it involved resignalling, improving nearly a hundred miles of track and dealing with well over a hundred bridges and culverts.
It cost £330million and few people have heard of it.
But there doesn’t appear to have been any problems with the delivery of the project.
Rebuilding Birmingham New Street, Kings Cross, Manchester Victoria and Reading Stations
The rebuilding of these stations has not been trivial.
- The Birmingham New Stret rebuilding had its design and planning problems, but cost of around £500million
- The King’s Cross restoration cost £500million
- The Manchester Victroria renovation cost £55million.
- The Reading station redevelopment and some other works cost £850million
All were delivered on time, with the exception of Reading, which was delivered a year ahead of schedule.
You could add into this section, the substantial upgrades at Leeds, Newcastle and Peterborough.
Stafford Area Improvements Program
The Stafford Area Improvements Program is a £250million improvement to the West Coast Main Line.
It removes a bottleneck and allows extra trains on the line.
But few people have ever heard of it.
Summing Up Well-Managed Projects
So it would appear that Network Rail can manage some projects well and deliver them on time and on budget.
In my experience, they do seem particularly good at stations and always keep the trains running as much as possible.
If these projects have one thing in common, it is that they could all be well-defined before the project was started.
The Projects That Didn’t Go So Well
The following projects didn’t go as well as the previous ones.
Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Program
The Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Program is a £1billion program to upgrade and electrify the lines between the two largest Scottish cities.
It has had a rather chequered history and the original program has been reduced in scope.
Wikipedia says this in its entry about the project
It was reported that the project was delayed for up to three years due to the need to negotiate for the demolition of the west wing of the Millennium Hotel and works on Winchburgh Tunnel.
It has not been an easy project.
Great Western Main Line Upgrade
The Great Western Main Line Upgrade involved resignalling, electrification and a lot of track and station work on the Great Western Main Line.
To say it has been the project that keeps on wanting more time and money would not be an understatement.
This article in Rail Magazine says that the project could be two years late and cost three times as much as original estimates.
I have no insight into what has gone wrong, but there are several factors that have conspired against the project.
- Most electrification in the UK has been done in a series of phases, but on this project, they went for a faster approach, using a special train, which hasn’t worked very well.
- There have been planning problems in places like Bath, Goring and Oxford.
- The scale of the project is very large, with over a hundred bridges and tunnels to be modified.
- Politicians have changed the project several times.
It has been an unmitigated disaster.
However, I do feel that the engineers have got out the fag packets and envelopes and that they will find a way of getting this railway running under electric power. Or at least partially!
Politics is the science of spin and illusion, whereas engineering is the science of the possible.
North Western Electrification
The electrification in the North West, should have been a simple project, as the country is flat and the engineers must know the busy lines between Blackpool, Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Wigan like the back of their hands. It’s also a join the dots exercise with the electrification, so this should just be connected to the main line electrification at Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Wigan.
But the benign flat lands have bitten hard, just like they bit George Stephenson.
My generation grew up with boyhood stories of George Stephenson’s problems as he crossed Chat Moss and where did his twenty-first Century successors have trouble, whilst electrifying Liverpool to Manchester? Chat Moss!
They’ve also suffered the well-publicised problems of the reconstruction of the Farnworth Tunnel and several other issues on the Manchester to Preston Line.
I think Network Rail appreciated the problems before they started and made the North West Electrification, more of a series of smaller projecs, than one large one.
The project is now on course for a two year delay, but the project now looks to be more likely to be completed.
Ordsall Chord
The Ordsall Chord is on the face of it, a simple project that should have been built years ago, to connect Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly stations and allow a large increase in number and quality of TransPennine services.
If anybody doubts the value of the Ordsall Chord, then read this article in the Manchester Evening News.
But sadly, the project has been delayed for many years, firstly by politicians and then by a veracious litigant.
I suspect that any Mayor of Manchester, would have built this important piece of railway many years ago.
Thameslink
Network Rail would probably say that the Thameslink upgrade is going well. Looking at the massive bridges and embankments, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I have added it to the list of failing projects, as there is no denying that they had their problems last Christmas, when they changed all of the routing. Network Rail received a £2million fine for their part in the chaos.
The Thameslink upgrade has been contentious and a long time coming, as it was originally approved in 2006.
I know there has been a major recession and effectively two changes of government since then, but the outcome when the project is delivered in 2018(Hopefully?), will be the same now, as was proposed a dozen years ago.
I think some major mistakes have been made.
- Network Rail were bullied by politicians to abandon their plan to terminate Wimbledon Loop services at Blackfriars, which would have taken pressure off the central tunnel.
- A protracted tendering process for mew trains, resulted in an interim fleet of Class 387 trains being delivered to fill in before the new Class 700 trains. Any sensible person would say, that Thameslink and Crossrail should have very similar trains.
- Before the major timetable change at Christmas 2014, the East London Line should have been running five-car trains and possibly more services, so make up for the reduced London Bridge services.
I would also have seen if by increasing other services, they could take the pressure off the overcrowded routes through London Bridge and on Thameslink.
In my view the project management of Thameslink has not been good. But then it is a London project managed nationally and responsible to Central Government. Crossrail on the other hand is a separate project, which is more under the control of Transport for London.
Summing Up The Bad Projects
These projects have various themes running through them.
- You could argue that the recession of 2008 and three changes of government have not done these projects any good.
- Public protest has caused delays and in the case of Thameslink unwelcome changes.
- Some of the projects don’t seem to have an independent structure that makes it easier to get things done and for the public to relate to the project. Thameslink for instance doesn’t have Crossrail’s openness.
- The time and budget constraints put on the projects by politicians have probably been a tad unrealistic.
It is my view, that the project management of these projects could have been a lot better.
I also feel, that Network Rail didn’t seem to have the strength to say No to politicians.
Is Mark Carne Right?
His first point is this.
There is no doubt at all in my view, that the Great Western Main Line electrification programme should have been managed in the same way as projects such as Crossrail and Thameslink
He is generally right on this, although I think Thameslink could learn from some of the actions of Crossrail, in the way they deal with passengers and public who are inconvenienced.
Thameslink is an information desert. If you tell people nothing and just give them hassle, you’ll reap your just rewards.
Mark Carne’s second point is this.
Personally, I think it [five-year funding cycles] is a really good way of funding ongoing operations, maintenance and renewals. But I am not sure it is a really good way of funding major investment projects.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a cardinal sin with large projects to mix them in with ongoing maintenance and general operation. Or it certainly was in ICI. One accountant told me that the separation , means you don’t get complicated lines of management and it controls costs better.
So it is my view that larger projects should be managed on an independent basis.
Network Rail Must Say No!
I think Network Rail can be accused of not fighting its corner against politicians and local vexatious litigants.
Hopefully Sir Peter Hendy’s Arrival at the top will help.
Projects Should Be More Like Crossrail
In some ways Crossrail is a project, that is broken in quite a few distinct smaller projects, which can be delivered in sequence.
Perhaps because of its size, it seems to have more sub-projects than say Thameslink or the Great Western Electrification.
But although some of the sub-projects are large on Crossrail, they do seem to be much smaller in scope than some of the sub-projects on the other projects.
If I look at some of the troubled projects, their structure and order is often more complicated than the much bigger Crossrail.
Both Thameslink and much of the electrification involve bring in new trains. Crossrail has the luxury of being able to introduce its new trains on the almost separate lines of the Shenfield Metro. So if the new Class 345 trains have some teething troubles, they will hopefully be very little collateral disruption to other routes.
Conclusions
Looking at this, I feel that the biggest problem is when Network Rail tries to manage large projects, especially when they are in a political or protester-rich environment.
They seem to manage better with smaller projects or one that are less politically important. But surely smaller projects are easier to give to a contractor to do the complete job.
The Crossrail structure of an independent project, seems to give a better result for large projects. In this independent structure, I suspect that the politicians and protesters still have influence, but this is direct to top management of the project, in hopefully a controlled manner.
Perhaps, all projects should be independent?
Years ago, when I worked for ICI, they used to like everyone working on a particularly project to be located closely together, if that was possible. They had found it got a better design, that was delivered faster and for less money. Communication between everybody on the project was also very good.
The Anonymous Widower 