Structures At Whitechapel Station
I believe that Whitechapel station, will be Crossrail’s Jewel In The East and over the Easter weekend the East London Line was closed to allow Crossrail work. These pictures show the station after the weekend.
It does seem that more big structures are going up.
This Google Earth image shows the station.
Whitechapel Station
The image was taken some time ago, but it does show the layout of the station.
Note the orange line determining how the East London Line passes through and how the Metropolitan and District Lines go either side of the works. When the station is completed, there will be one large platform between these lines, from which escalators will descend to the Crossrail platforms about thirty metres beneath.
Know Your Ticketing
My trip yesterday illustrated one thing, in that you can save pounds and pence by being smart with ticketing. This picture shows my six tickets from yesterday.
Tickets To Huddersfield
I travelled virtually along to Sheffield on the 07:24 for £17.15 and back on the crowded 20:49 for £19.15. Both tickets were for use with a Railcard in First Class and bought on-line from East Midlands Trains.
If I wanted to do that journey today, the cheapest ticket I can find on the web is £48.85
My Return from Sheffield to Huddersfield was bought from the ticket machine in Dalston Junction for £6.20, which was incidentally ten pence cheaper than one of my tavelling companion’s ticket bought on-line some days earlier.
Why the North Needs Electrification And Pacer Eradication
Huddersfield is one of these classic Northern towns and cities that do not have a direct train to London.
In the past, when Ipswich have played there, I’ve either taken a fast train to Manchester or Leeds and then taken a train across in a twenty minute ride or so ride.
A typical trip via Leeds takes about ten minutes under three hours, with one via Manchester Piccadilly taking perhaps ten minutes longer.
On my trip north to Huddersfield, because I wanted to do take some photos in Sheffield and because the West Coast Main Line was closed, I decided to go via the old steel city from St. Pancras. With just one change at Sheffield this journey takes ten minutes short of four hours.
So imagine, you were perhaps a businessman needing to go to Huddersfield to check something out or a fan going from London to see your team play Huddersfield Town, would you bother?
I probably wouldn’t except for the fact that I got First Class tickets to Sheffield £36.30. That was Advance tickets with a Senior Railcard and I did buy them several weeks ago, but both journeys were in two hours, so it was probably good value.
I then took a local train from Sheffield to Huddersfield on the Penistone Line, with the journey taking over an hour in a dreadful Class 142 Pacer, as it meandered through the Yorkshire countryside, stopping at stations with interesting names like Wombwell, Denby Dale and Silkstone Common.
At least I wasn’t alone, as I shared the journey with an Ipswich-supporting student and another guy, who like me had been to Loverpool University. So at least it was an entertaining journey.
When you arrive in Huddersfield, you aren’t greeted by some dreadful pile of bricks, which has suffered the excesses and poor imagination of British Rail’s in-house architects, but a regional station that is second to none and is up there with Kings Cross for grandeur and setting.
Huddersfield station deserves a lot better than it is currently getting. The Wikipedia entry, says this about the views of those who knew about architecture, trains and stations.
The station frontage was described by John Betjeman as the most splendid in England and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘one of the best early railway stations in England’.
The only blot on the station, is that in front is a statue of one of Huddersfield’s most famous sons; Harold Wilson. When he was Prime Minsister, he could surely have done more to put an electrified railway across the Pennines from Liverpool and Manchester to Sheffield and Leeds via his home town. Wilson also has the dubious claim to fame in that despite the recommendations of Beeching, he was Prime Minister, when the only electrified line across the Pennines, the Woodhead Line was closed to passengers in 1970.
But things could be getting better.The number of Trans Pennine trains has been increased in the last couple of years and the Huddersfield Line from Manchester to Leeds has been funded for electrification by 2018.
Six fast electric trains every hour between Leeds and Manchester via Huddersfield will be a big improvement in terms of speed and capacity, even if for a few years, they are just refurbished Class 319 trains. For example, journey times between Manchester and Leeds via Huddersfield will be down to forty minutes.
I find it rather ironic, that an electric train based on a design started under Wilson’s Prime Ministership, which was designed for the mountains of the South East, has such an important role in the exorcising of his sins as regards to railway electrification across the Pennines. It probably shows that engineers know a lot more about providing good infrastructure than politicians. But although Class 319 trains may be ugly buggers, underneath and behind that extremely tough steel bodywork, lies all the suspension and power systems to create a comfortable, fast and reliable train, that rides with all the smoothness and finesse of a top of the range car. The one I rode on in Liverpool recently had certainly scrubbed up well.
But this 100 mph electrified railway across the Pennines will be ruined for many, if there is no improvement in feeder services on other routes, which are generally worked by the dreaded Pacers.
To be fair to Northern Rail, yesterday’s example did have new seats and had been smartened up, but that doesn’t alter the fact that they should be sent to the Army for use as targets in gunnery practice.
Take the Penistone Line on which I travelled to Huddersfield. It has four major stations at Sheffield, Meadowhall, Barnsley and Huddersfield, with a host of what look like to be well-maintained stations in smaller and often rural communities. A Pacer trundling along the line once an hour is not exactly a passenger-magnet.
Northern Rail probably don’t have enough trains to provide a more frequent service, but surely in an ideal world, there should be at least two trains an hour along the line. Hopefully, with electrification in the north and transfer of trains from other parts of the country, in a few years time, we’ll see a better service on the line, provided by something like Class 172 trains.
Around the end of this decade, Sheffield will be electrified to London and fast electric trains will do the journey in well under two hours. As Huddersfield will also be electrified, the electrification and modernisation of the Penistone Line and the related Hallam Line between Sheffield and Leeds , could be a logical step to take. In fact the recent report on Electrification in the North has recommended this.
This would open up all possibilities for services, such as providing direct electric services from Leeds, Barnsley and Huddersfield to London via Sheffield and the HS2 interchange at Meadowhall, in addition to very much improved local services.
I look forward to the day when voters in London and the South East start moaning about all their money being spent on electric railways in the North. Hopefully by then, London’s Mayor will have a lot more freedom on how to fund railways in the capital.
Quiet Flows The Don
The tram-trains between Sheffield and Rotherham will join up to the Sheffield Supertram in the area of the Meadowhall South/Tinsley tram stop.
This Google Earth image shows the area.
Tinsley Area
Note the tram line marked by the blue symbol which shows the Meadowhall South/Tinsley stop, running down the map, with the single-track Tinsley/Masborough South Junction-Rotherham freight railway, splitting off to the right. Note the footbridge that rises from the tram stop and crosses the freight line, which you can see in the pictures. You can also see Meadowhall at the left and the M1 at the right and the various roads leading to and from Sheffield.
I took these pictures of the area.
Believe it or not, in the midst of all this chaos is a quiet area by the River Don.
For the eagerly awaited tram-train, a connection will need to be made between the tram line and the single-track freight line. There is little detail at present about how the connection will be made, but the freight line will have to be provided with some form of overhead electrification at either 750 V DC or 25kV AC. However, the Class 399 tram-trains will be able to use any handy voltage.
I’ve just found this page on the Network Rail web site, which is their home page for the creation of the Tinsley Chord which will connect the tram line to the freight line. I was able to create this map of the chord from one of their published documents, from the impressive and comprehensive site.
The Tinsley Chord
The new chord is shown in red and curves between the tram line at the left and the freight line, which goes off to the right.
Note that the Meadowhall South/Tinsley tram stop is the Sheffield side of the chord, so passengers going between Rotherham and Meadowhall could enter the Meadowhall Centre via Debenhams, as I did after my walk by the River Don.
Incidentally, Network Rail and their contractors will like working on this one, as sixty percent of the work is virtually indoors, as it is underneath the massive Tinsley Viaduct that carries the M1 over the area.
If you want to know how this chord underneath the M1 will effect the local bats, hedgehogs and newts it’s all laid out in this document.
Perhaps the best news of the project is contained in this recent report from the Sheffield Star, which is entitled Construction work planned for long-awaited £60m Sheffield to Rotherham tram-train scheme.
The article hopes that tram-trains will be running in 2017.
Liverpool Street To De Beauvoir Town
I regularly do this journey both ways to get to and from the main line station, which I regularly use to get a train to and from Ipswich.
Getting to the station has now got a lot better as the 21 and 141 buses that are the simple way now stop in Eldon Street by the station.
But coming back is getting to be an increasingly variable and difficult journey.
Take last night!
As I was watching Murray’s progress on my phone and the train from Walthamstow Central to Hackney Downs didn’t have any working announcements, I missed by stop in the dark and ended up in Liverpool Street at about nine o’clock. My normal route from the station these days is the reliable one taking the Metropolitan Line to Whitechapel and then getting the Overground to Dalston Junction, from where I get any of a number of buses to my house.
But last night the Overground wasn’t working due to Crossrail works and the last time on a Sunday night, I had walked to Moorgate to get a bus, I’d ended up walking all the way to Old Street to get one and then I’d waited for perhaps twenty minutes.
So I took the Central Line to Bank and luckily a 21 arrived in a few minutes to get me home.
Crossrail and the lengthening of platforms on the Overground, has made the last two or three years difficult, as you never know what you’ll find when you make the journey. Hence my going via Whitechapel, as on most days that is the most reliable.
It would help if Transport for London provided one stop that was never closed, especially as the only one that seems to be there all the time is the one by Bank, which requires a long walk or a one-stop Tube trip.
After Crossrail opens it will get better, as not only will Whitechapel-Liverpool Street be a fast one stop, but surely the 21 and 141 buses will be an easy and perhaps underground and covered walk from Liverpool Street.
Look at this Google Earth map between Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street stations.
Liverpool Street And Shoreditch Stations
Liverpool Street station is in the bottom left, where all the indicated Underground lines join and Shoreditch High Street is in the top right on the orange Overground line.
Surely something could be done to create a better walking route between the two stations.
Trouble For Crossrail At Shenfield
In my piece on Crossrail 2 through East London, when discussing how Crossrail 2 will be built, I said this.
Crossrail 1 was built rather traditionally, in that the tunnels have been bored first and then the stations have been created. One thing that surprised me was that the surface sections, which have nothing to do with the tunnels were not prepared for Crossrail 1 a lot earlier.
So now because they didn’t sort out Shenfield station years ago, the adding of the required additional platform at the station has caused problems, with the parking. This report on the Brentwood Gazette explains it all.
I do wonder, if those inconvenienced and loudly complaining about the lack of a place to park the 4×4, belong to a faction, that think Crossrail is a total waste of money and will never use the line when it opens.
The Station Now Arriving Is Running Late
Network Rail is creating several new stations in the UK. But not every one seems to be going to the original schedule.
In the following, which lists current new station projects in Wikipedia, I have not included any Crossrail or Borders Railway stations.
Appleby Bridge
The station at Appleby Bridge would appear to be progressing according to the latest plan and could open on time in August 2015. I went past the site recently but didn’t manage to see much.
Bermuda Park
Bermuda Park station is a small station in Nuneaton, but according to this story in the Nuneaton News, construction appears to be going well for an opening this year.
Cambridge Science Park
Cambridge Science Park station was originally approved in December 2013 scheduled to open in December 2015. This has now slipped to December 2016.
When I last went past the area in March 2015, there appeared to be little happening.
Cassiobridge And Watford Vicarage Road
Cassiobridge and Watford Vicarage Road are two new tube stations being built on the Croxley Link of the Metropolitan Line linking it to Watford Junction. The link and the new and updated stations were due to open in 2016, but after the takeover of the project responsibility and management by Transport for London, the completion date is now a more realistic 2018.
Coventry Arena
Like Bermuda Park, Coventry Arena is a new station on the Coventry to Nuneaton Line. Like Bermuda Park, things seem to be going well for a scheduled opening in May 2015.
Cranbrook
Cranbrook station is a small single-platform being built in Devon, perhaps using ideas borrowing from James Cook. Progress is summed up by this story in the Exeter Express and Echo.
Ebbw Vale Town
Ebbw Vale Town is a new terminus station for the Ebbw Vale Railway, being built for the town and various reports say it will open this year.
Ilkeston
If ever a station was delayed by great crested newts on the line, it is the new Ilkeston station. This story on the BBC details the problems, which mean that this important station will be delivered over two years late.
Would the Germans, French and Italians allow this sort of construction delay? The Chinese would probably serve them with ginger, pak choi and noodles.
Kenilworth
Kenilworth station has had a protracted gestation period, with an original planned opening of 2013, which is now scheduled for December 2016, with this report in the Leamington Observer saying work will start this year. It looks impressive and it is one I’m looking forward to use.
Kirkstall Forge
Thje builders must be confident of the schedule for Kirkstall Forge station, as the Wikipedia entry gives a completion date of the station is given as October 2015, which is confirmed on this page on the Leeds Metro web site. When I passed recently, there certainly seemed to be an embryonic station at the site.
Lea Bridge
It was hoped that Lea Bridge station would reopen in late 2014, but despite one sighting of the orange army, nothing seems to be happening. and the new hoped-for opening date of December 2015 would appear to be optimistic.
Oxford Parkway
Oxford Parkway station is not only a new station, but one at the interim end of a new privately-funded railway route from London. As it is key to the opening of the line, I would suspect that the planned opening date of September 2015 will be achieved.
Wixams
Wixams railway station was originally promised to be completed this year. This report on Bedfordshire on Sunday takes about broken promises and a much-delayed station. In other words, it is an aspiration, that has not been planned.
The lateness with some of these stations is a trend that is worrying, but in many cases it seems that you can’t blame the politicians but bad planning and the not getting everything sorted before announcing start and finish dates.
And of course there are the newts at Ilkeston!
How Did They Do That?
Normally, the new five-coach trains have their new car inserted next to the end car at the northern end. So how did this train have its extra car inserted at the southern end?
Note how the interior of the new cars are brighter. The dull seats are those reserved for the elderly, disabled and pregnant.
As I don’t think there is a turning loop on the East London Line, the train was either modified this way or it was sent on a jolly somewhere, perhaps to test out compatibility with a new route or back to Bombardier for some special maintenance.
Since most of the trains on the East London Line are now five-car, it does seem that the trains are less crowded.
On the whole, this train lengthening would appear to passengers to have been a pretty painless exercise, although I’ve heard rumours of a few teething troubles with the trains.
According to some Transport for London documents, the trains will go to six-cars some time before 2030, so if that is as painless as the two previous extensions, it is a validation of the quality of Bombardier’s cut-and-shut design for the trains.
When Crossrail opens and is joined to the East London Line at Whitechapel, I have a feeling, that many more passengers will use the East London Line to access the new line to places like Heathrow and Paddington, so the extra capacity will be fully used.
When I grew up in London just after the war, you’d see a short line on the tube map that was the East London Line. Mo-one thought, that this line would become the expanding East London Line we have today.
Where will it go by say 2030?
It will probably be joined to the Central Line at Shoreditch High Street and there will be extra branches in both North and South to handle the twenty-four trains in each hour for which the infrastructure of the line is capable.
It all goes to show how you can sometimes create new rail lines without spending billions of pounds.
Crossrail and Thameslink may get all the publicity, but London Overground’s policy of continuous improvement on the East London Line, is a philosophy that could be copied on many railway lines in the UK, Europe and the wider world.
Dancing With Cranes And A Bridge With Help From Lego
I just had to put a link to this article on Rail Engineer, which is entitled Scarborough Bridge – Monte Carlo Or Bust.
It describes how the bridge that takes the York Scarborough railway line over the River Ouse in the medieval heart of York, was replaced over the half-term weekend in February, at a cost of six million pounds. This Google Earth image shows the centre of York.
York
The bridge is the one at the left of the image, with the station below it.
It was choreographed to an amazing degree and used three enormous mobile cranes squeezed into the car park by the bridge on the north bank of the river. Luckily the wind and the weather were kind and the project was completed on time. Perhaps, the most strange aspect of the project is told in this paragraph.
And then we should take our hats off to team member Eamon McAuley who literally built the bridge single-handed…albeit in Lego. It was remarkably detailed – including the track layout and little orange men with chainsaws – and could be deconstructed and rebuilt to follow the lifting sequence. Sitting as a centrepiece in the conference room, it proved more useful than a PowerPoint when explaining the challenges to visitors and stakeholders.
Anybody who said engineering isn’t fun, should hang their head in shame.
Humour On The Overground
This story from the Standard has gone viral around London.
London Overground and Underground staff are increasingly posting humorous messages at several stations.
Does this happen on any other metro or tram system?
The Anonymous Widower 