A New Tram Loop At East Croydon
I don’t go to Croydon very often, but I always have problems with getting between the two stations; East Croydon and West Croydon. The reason is that I live near Dalston Junction and therefore end up at West Croydon, but I have onward travel from East Croydon. I also sometimes want to travel to IKEA via West Croydon.
The Tramlink is being updated with a new turnback loop at East Croydon station, which is described here. I took these pictures in the area, where it will go.
It doesn’t seem to me that any of the options suit me better than any other, but I hope the cars I saw rushing about in the area between the offices calm down, when they share the roads with the trams.
One thing the new loop won’t do, is help me get to IKEA from West Croydon station. Either I walk through to the Church Street stop or go to East Croydon and get on a tram to Wimbledon.
East Croydon Station’s New Entrance And Bridge
At East Croydon station, I used the new bridge and entrance to get to the town centre.
It is much better than the main entrance, where the trains pull-up outside.
Network Rail are certainly getting the designs of their stations more passenger-friendly and welcoming.
Could The West London Line Be Another Important North-South Link In London?
I took the Southern service from Wembley Central to East Croydon. It is an hourly service that goes between Milton Keynes and South Croydon stations using a Class 377 train. These pictures show some view of the route.
It is not a high-speed service, and it took about an hour. It does go by a bit of a roundabout route calling at the following stations.
Shepherd’s Bush – For the Westfield shopping centre.
Kensington Olympia – For the exhibition centre.
West Brompton – For Earl’s Court, which is being redeveloiped as housing
Imperial Wharf -For Chelsea and all the smart housing
Clapham Junction – For trains to just about anywhere in the South West and South
Wandsworth Common
Balham – The Gateway to the South
Streatham Common
Norbury
Thornton Heath
Selhurst
East Croydon – For Tramlink, Thameslink and trains to Brighton, Gatwick and many places on the Sussex Coast.
I think we can assume that if a station is built at Old Oak Common to link Crossrail and the Overground, then the West London Line will be linked into this station with a modern step-free interchange.
London has two high capacity North-South routes that cross the central part of the City; Thameslink and the East London Line.
So could the West London Line be upgraded as a third high capacity North South link?
There are several reasons why this might be done.
1. Waterloo is a difficult station to go to, to get trains for the South West. If I’m going to Portsmouth or Southampton, I generally pick up my long-distance train at Clapham Junction, after using the Overground to get there. An upgraded West London Line would give a route to avoid Waterloo to many travellers.
2. The line would also act as a route to avoid going to Euston in the same way.
3. As the line should be linked to Crossrail and HS2 at Old Oak Common, an upgraded line will improve access to Heathrow and the North for South and South West London.
4. In my view, the massive development at Earl’s Court needs a good rail link and possibly another station to the North, as it already has West Brompton to the South.
I think that in ten years time, when plans for HS2 and Old Oak Common are being put into concrete, we’ll see the West London Line upgraded to act as a high-capacity route.
The one thing we mustn’t do is build developments such as at Earl’s Court, so that they compromise what we might want to do on the West London Line.
We should make sure that any developments are done in a similar manner to Wembley Central, which has just enclosed the four rail lines underneath in a step-free concrete box.
A Station With Oversite Development
I’d never been to Wembley Central station before and was surprised it was being redeveloped with a hotel, flats and shops over the top.
We certainly need to do more development like this.
In my view everybody wins, as the station is better and can be made totally step-free, and we need hotels, offices and housing in London. Perhaps too we should think about building public buildings like hospitals, schools, colleges and council buildings over the top of stations.
Judging by the adverts on the development, Wembley Central will be getting a much needed coffee shop.
More Platform Action At Willesden Junction
In a previous post, I talked about work on the Southbound platforms at Willesden Junction. Here’s some more pictures.
The low-level platforms to and from Watford are in better state than those on the North London Line.
The Dreadful Change At Willesden Junction
No sane person with movement issues, like a wheelchair, a baby in a buggy,a heavy parcel or just plain old age, would change between the North London Line and the Watford DC or Bakerloo Lines at Willesden Junction.
As a lot of the walkways are uncovered, you certainly wouldn’t do it in the rain.
Train/Platform Gaps At Willesden Junction
Willesden Junction’s Westbound North London Line platform has some of the worst train/platform gaps on the Overground.
Train/Platform Gaps At Willesden Junction
The reason is probably that the platform is on a curve here as this Google Map shows.
The platform is the rightmost in the picture. Here’s a close-up of the platform.
The Curved Platform At Willesden Junction
As can be seen, there is quite a curve. Unfortunately, trains tend to have straight sides!
The Guy Trying To Get To Ipswich Hospital
I know where things are in Ipswich very well, but I have no idea about the buses you get for a particular place.
Earlier in the day, a guy had asked me where he could catch a bus to the hospital. I said I didn’t know, so I pointed him in the direction of the bus station.
Whilst I was waiting for a friend to turn up for supper, I found myself on the main Tower Ramparts bus station. So I looked at this list of buses.
What Bus For The Hospital?
The hospital isn’t mentioned. There was also no-one to ask.
But then I was just walking to the football ground and then afterwards to the train. So I wasn’t bothered.
Ipswich To Felixstowe Has Improved
Over the last few months, I’ve travelled half a dozen times between Ipswich and Felixstowe by train.
I can’t remember a train being late at all, since the Bacon Factory Curve has been opened.
And here’s why!
A Freight Train Waiting On The Bacon Factory Curve
Note the freight train waiting for our one-coach Class 153 to pass. Before the curve opened the freight train would have had to go into Ipswich yard and the locomotive would have had to run-round to the other end, causing all sorts of disruption to the Great Eastern Main Line and especially the Felixstowe Branch.
Also now I noticed that trains coming out of Felixstowe and going South towards London, now sometimes seem to get their diesel locomotive changed for a Class 90 electric one.
The next improvement will come when more of the Felixstowe branch line is double-tracked and the whole branch is electrified.
It’s all a far cry from when I lived in Felixstowe in the 1960s, where the most reliable way to get between the two towns was to cycle along the A45 or A14 as it is now! There were only a handful of trains every day.
How many other places on the UK network need smaller improvements like the Bacon Factory Curve to be implemented?
First Class On Greater Anglia
I needed to go to my dentist in Felixstowe and then on to the evening’s match at Portman Road, so I took one of Greater Anglia’s Mark 3 services in mid-morning.
The coaches don’t have the style of the new First Great Western First Class, but I did get a large table to lay out my paper, unlike on Saturday’s Virgin to Manchester.
The trolley also came round twice and I had a welcoming cup of tea.
Incidentally, I had bought the First Class Off Peak Return at Dalston Junction from the ticket machine, the previous evening for £35.40.
That is the same as the best Internet price from Greater Anglia’s website. The return half has a validity of a month too, so you get the best value, if perhaps you’re going away for a few days.
We need ticket machines, like the ones on the London Overground all over London and the rest of the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 