Abbey Wood Station – 9th June 2016
I took these pictures at Abbey Wood station.
If you look at the various pictures I have taken over the past months of this station, the station is progressing and the builders seem to be managing to always have a working station amongst all the construction work.
Certain factors have helped in this important aim.
- The previous station was unloved by everyone and had absolutely no architectural merit.
- There are no heritage issues.
- Good design of a temporary step-free pedestrian bridge, that appears to be morphing into a permanent one, has aided passengers.
- There always seems to be cheery staff on hand for lost and puzzled passengers.
- Traffic is heavy in the area, but not unmanageably so.
But I think most importantly, the Crossrail portal is some distance away from the station, keeping the two projects effectively separate.
Compared to some station rebuilds, I’ve encountered in the past, so far it has been a textbook example of good project management.
Rochester Station
Rochester station is one of the stations, that could be important to a proposed South London Outer Orbital .
The proposal says that two trains per hour (tph) could go to the Medway Towns. As Rochester has a new station with a bay platform 3, which is capable of taking twelve-car trains, it must be a possible terminus.
These are pictures I took of the station, as I passed through.
The Huguenot Museum above the Tourist Office opposite the station is worth a visit. There is a proper cafe downstairs, where you can eat in the garden.
It does need a light-controlled crossing to aid people in crossing the road.
Crossrail has a safeguarded route to Gravesend. Wikipedia says this.
The route to Gravesend has been safeguarded by the Department for Transport, although it was made clear that as at February 2008 there was no plan to extend Crossrail beyond the then-current scheme. The following stations are on the protected route extension to Gravesend: Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green, Dartford, Stone Crossing, Greenhithe for Bluewater, Swanscombe, Northfleet, and Gravesend.
There two major major problems with this.
- The Crossrail proposal doesn’t call at Ebbsfleet International station.
- Gravesend station is very cramped and it would need major rebuilding to accommodate Crossrail.
As I showed in Crossrail Extension To Gravesend, connecting services on the North Kent Line to Ebbsfleet International station wouldn’t be the most difficult of jobs and could involve a some new track or a rebuilt Northfleet station and perhaps a travelator connection.
This Google Map shows the lines in the Ebbsfleet International area.
Lines Around Ebbsfleet
The North Kent Line starts in the top left at Swanscombe station, crosses over the lines into Ebbsfleet International. It then goes through Northfleet station, before going off in a South-Easterly direction to Gravesend.
These pictures were taken from a train going towards London on the North Kent Line.
I’m certain, that an acceptable and affordable solution can be made to connect Crossrail to Continental services.
If Crossrail were to terminate in Platform 3 at Rochester station, it would only need the intermediate stations to be capable of taking twelve-car Class 345 trains. These have already been designed for running on third-rail lines.
When it comes to linking to the South London Orbital, which will probably mean that there are 4 tph between Rochester and Swanley stations, it would probably mean that Crossrail would need to run with a similar frequency to Abbey Wood.
At present Rochester has services to and from Charing Cross, which go via Abbey Wood and Woolwich Arsenal. The question has to be asked if as Crossrail serves the same stations and then goes across Central London, if this service should be configured differently. As the service goes between Gillingham and Charing Cross stopping at all stations, it might even be possible to cut out the service completely, if Crossrail stopped at all stations to Abbey Wood and fast services stopped at all stations in the Medway Towns, as they seem to do now!
But then the commuters would object and try to keep the existing unnecessary service. Gillingham for example would have.
- 2 tph to St. Pancras
- 3 tph to Victoria
- 2 tph to Swanley and Woking
Crossrail could even be extended to Gillingham.
There are an awful lot of ways to organise the train services.
By the way, can anybody tell me what is the point of Charing Cross station?
From Victoria To Bromley South
I took this sequence of pictures to show the route of trains from Victoria down the Chatham Main Line to the first important station of Bromley South.
The route goes past or through these stations.
- Wandsworth Road
- Clapham High Street
- Brixton
- Herne Hill
- West Dulwich
- Sydenham Hill
- Penge East
- Kent House
- Beckenham Junction
- Shortlands
- Bromley South
The Brixton Tunnel proposed by the Centre for London report called Turning South London Orange, would start in the Battersea area and emerge before West Dulwich station.
This journey illustrates one of the benefits of the Brixton Tunnel.
Fast trains from Victoria to Bromley South and on to Kent down the Chatham Main Line, would have their own private express tunnel to keep them clear of all the lines through Battersea, Wandsworth, Clapham, Brixton and Herne Hill.
Note.
- Kent services will probably be a few minutes faster.
- There will be capacity for more trains between Victoria and Kent.
- Thameslink and other services that cross the Chatham Main Line will not have to wait for the fast trains to go through.
- There would appear to be plenty of space for a tunnel portal at Battersea on railway land.
- After West Dulwich station, the trains will run as now.
It will also have major positive affects on the lines across South London.
Swanley Station
Swanley station is where the two Eastern branches of the proposed South London Outer Orbital, join together.
This Google Map shows the station.
Swanley Station
Note how the lines divide at the East of the station.
- The Northern line is the Chatham Main Line to the Medway Towns.
- The Southern line is the Maidstone East Line, to Maidstone East station, with the Sevenoaks Line branching off.
Under the South London Orbital proposals, both branches would get two trains per hour (tph)
This would make services from Swanley towards London at least.
- 3 tph to Victoria via Bromley South
- 4 tph to Working across South London via Bromley South, West Croydon and Sutton.
- 2 tph to Thameslink via Catford.
These are pictures I took of the station as I passed through.
Note that the pictures were taken on two days.
If Swanley station has one problem, it is that it doesn’t have a direct rail connection to Ebbsfleet International station. You have to change at Rochester.
This Google Map shows the area.
Swanley Station To Ebbsfleet International Station
Swanley station is in the South-West cornet of the map and Ebbsfleet is in the North-East.
I think a direct connection will be more important than most people think.
In ten or twenty years or so.
- Crossrail will have been extended to Gravesend and will call at Ebbsfleet International.
- More and more people will be travelling to Europe by train.
- Saint Pancras International will be full to capacity.
- Some Continental trains will terminate at Ebbsfleet International and/or Stratford International.
A direct link along the M25 would tie everything together.
Maidstone East Station
Maidstone East station is one of the two Eastern terminal stations on a proposed South London Outer Orbital
These are pictures I took of the station as I passed through.
This Google Map shows the station layout.
Maidstone East Station
It’s certainly a station, with a lot of land wasted for car parking.
Unlike the new Rochester station, which I wrote about in Rochester’s New Station, it is still very much as it has been for years. However development is promised.
At least the station is well connected according to Services in Wikipedia.
Under the South London Orbital plans, it would get two trains per hour (tph) to Swanley, Bromley South and across to Woking to go with the current 2 tph services to Victoria and Thameslink in the Peak.
So the South London Orbital would give at least 4 tph or a turn-up-and-go service to Swanley and Bromley South.
I think that whatever happens at Maidstone East station, in ten years time, the station will have been transformed in terms of buildings, facilities and train services.
I have just run Google Maps over the route between Maidstone East and the next major station towards London; Swanley. Although only two tracks with eight stations in between, it looks the sort of line, where some speed improvement would be possible.
Bromley South Station
Bromley South station is one of the stations on a proposed South London Outer Orbital
These are pictures I took of the station, as I passed through.
It is a typical South London station, that is step-free with reasonable facilities.
It is well-placed for Bromley town centre and offers a fair range of train services.
Beckenham Junction Station
Beckenham Junction station is one of the stations on a proposed South London Outer Orbital
These are pictures I took of the station, as I passed through.
Beckenham Junction offers the following connections.
- A link to Tramlink.
- A link to Thameslink in the peak hours.
- A link to Victoria via Herne Hill
- A link to London Bridge via Crystal Palace.
I also think that as I said in Do We Make The Assets Sweat At Crystal Palace Station?, that there will be a good one-change link to Beckenham Junction from the East London Line.
There are worst stations to get stuck!
Bromley Junction
In the June 2016 Edition of Modern Railways in an article is entitled Turning South London Orange.
One of the proposals is to create A New South London Orbital Rail Route.
The writer of the proposal suggests that there would be a three kilometre tunnel between Norwood Junction and Kent House to connect the East and West halves of the route.
I believe that if the tunnel were to be built that the Southern portal would be located in the region of Bromley Junction, which is North of Norwood Junction station.
This Google Map shows the area.
Bromley Junction
The lines are as follows.
The line going North West goes to Crystal Palace.
The line going North East is the Brighton Main Line to New Cross Gate and London Bridge.
The East London Line to Whitechapel and Dalston Junction shares the tracks of the Brighton Main Line.
The continuation of the Crystal Palace line turns east to Beckenham Junction and Bromley South and Orpington.
The Brighton Main Line continues South to Norwood Junction, East Croydon and Brighton.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines around the junction.
Lines Around Bromley Junction
Note how to accommodate the tram from Harrington Road to Beckenham Junction via Birkbeck, the route from Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction has been single-tracked.
It would also appear that this line was once connected to Norwood Junction station by the Norwood Spur.
These pictures show the Bromley Junction.
I wouldn’t believe it would be impossible to build a new connection between Birkbeck and Norwood Junction stations.
The traffic through Birkbeck station is as follows.
- 2 tph to Beckenham Junction (Southern)
- 2 tph to London Bridge via Crystal Palace and Peckham Rye (Southern)
As the line is single-tracked that works out as a total of 4 tph.
I believe that with modern signalling and better track layout, that this figure could be increased.
So would it be possible to run trains on a new South London Orbital Route through the area?
Four tph on both routes would mean that there would be up to sixteen trains through the single-track in every hour. Difficult and it would need to be well-signalled and well-driven and possibly under full automatic control, but as a Control Engineer, I don’t believe it would be impossible, given that the trains on the orbital route would not be stopping between Norwood Junction and Beckenham Junction stations.
Could Tramlink Use The Heavy Rail Lines In South London?
Look at these pictures, I took at Birkbeck station, where one track is for heavy rail and the other is for London Tramlink.
When I took these pictures, I wondered, if it would ease the expansion of the Tramlink network, if trains and trams could share lines.
I am not talking about tram-trains, but more a useful approach to benefit both types of transport.
So lets list the problems.
Rail And Wheel Profile
One of the problems in Sheffield with the introduction of tram-trains is that the rail profile needs to be changed to one that is compatible with the existing trams and the new Class 399 tram-trains.
But to be fair it is a trial and problems will be thrown up.
Platform Height
As someone, who has travelled all over Europe on trams, trains and tram-trains, one of the biggest problem is getting the platform height right, so that everybody including those in wheel-chairs can get on and off easily.
On a scale of five, we generally score about four, but we mustn’t be complacent and I think it will get better.
Some continental countries have problems as their trains have a low step and you step up into the train. This is because traditionally, they had low platforms, whereas for some time, we’ve been aiming for step across.
Karlsruhe has been running tram-trains on their Stadtbahn for over twenty years and are putting in a tunnel to take the tram-trains under the city.
This is said about platform height.
In addition, the platforms of the station’s tunnel will have pedestals that are about 15 metres long with a height of 55 cm above the rail so that the first two doors of Stadtbahn trains will have step-less entry. This will make possible stepless entrance on lines S 4 / S 41 and S 5 / S 51 / S 52 in Karlsruhe for the first time, reflecting a trend that has long been standard elsewhere. The platforms cannot consistently have a height of 55 cm, because the tunnel will be used by trams and DC services of the Stadtbahn, which have an entry level on the modern lines of 34 cm.
If the Germans have to go to that sort of solution, with all their experience, then platform height must be difficult to get right.
I have not heard anything about the platform design at Rotherham Central station, where the platforms must accept trains as different as Pacers and Class 399 tram-trains.
Power Supply
The current trams need overhead power, which with most tram systems is 750 VDC.
So if you want to run Tramlink trams on third-rail lines in South London, you’ll need to put up overhead wires or fit the trams with contact shoes.
It is my view, that for Health and Safety reasons and some design ones too, that running trams using third-rail power will not be practical.
Remember, passengers know they can walk across the tram lines and frequently do, so whatever happens, you don’t want live rails under the trams.
So any rail route, that will be running trams will have to have the 750 VDC overhead supply.
In the Sheffield trial, to extend the Sheffield Supertram, a freight route to Rotherham is being electrified at 750 VDC, rather than the main line standard of 25 KVAC.
Signalling Systems
Rail and tram signalling are different. But after a successful tram-trial in Sheffield, the problems of trams and train sharing the same track, should have risen to the surface.
Rules Of The Tracks
Trams and trains run under different rules.
One main difference is that trams have a maximum speed of 25 mph, whereas trains run at whatever speed the line permits.
So for safety and other reasons, if trams and trains were sharing a length of track, they would have to run under the same set of rules.
I suspect this would mean that the maximum speed would be 25 mph.
In some ways the problems are the equivalent of managing traffic at an airport like Southend, where light aircraft share the runways and airspace with Airbus-319s.
I don’t think it is an insurmountable problem, as two-car diesel multiple units have shared tracks with 125 mph expresses and hevy freight trains for years.
An Ideal Mix Of Trains
So is an ideal solution to use 750 VDC overhead wires for the trams and diesel trains?
Possibly!
But you could always use IPEMUs or EMUs with an on-board battery.
Supposing there is a chord or link line, that would be ideal to be used by trams and say the ubiquitous Electrostars that are popular in South London.
Wires would be put up and all Electrostars using the line, would have to have enough battery capacity to bridge the gap in the track with no electrification.
West Croydon Station
A possible application might be at somewhere like West Croydon station.
The map from carto.metro.free.fr, shows the heavy rail lines through the station and the tram lines around it.
Lines Around West Croydon Station
I’m sure that the engineers in Karlsruhe would have had the trams going through the station to give same-platform interchange to and from trains.
Conclusion
Network Rail has a lot of tools in the box and I think that as technology develops, we’ll see some interesting ideas.
Do We Make The Assets Sweat At Crystal Palace Station?
Crystal Palace station is of a high standard, but given the amount of money spent, do we make the assets sweat?
These pictures show the station.
This is a Google Map of the station.
Crystal Palace Station
And this map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the platform and line layout.
Crystal Palace Platforms And Lines
Note.Platform 3, which is one of the terminating platforms for East London Line services is next to Platform 2, which is the platform for Beckenham Junction, West Croydon and Sutton.
- Unfortunately, the space between seems to have been used for new and expensive housing.
- At present most, if not all East London Line services seem to terminate in Platform 5 not Platform 3.
- Platform 3 would appear to have better walking connections to the two North-bound platforms 1 and 4.
So is this making the best use of the station?
In Increased Frequencies On The East London Line, I stated that from 2018, there will be two additional trains from Dalston Junction to Crystal Palace.
This will make 6 tph in total.
Let’s hope that these extra trains will connect to onward trains.
It would be so nice to go to Platform 3 at Crystal Palace every ten minutes, just walk across to Platform 2 and get a train a few minutes later to Beckenham Junction or even Bromley South and/or Orpington. In an ideal world, that would be followed a couple of minutes later by a train to West Croydon, Waddon, the new Bebbington station, Wallington and Sutton.
At the present time, only two tph from Dalston Junction give a reasonable connection, but you wait around fifteen minutes.
One point that the maps clear up, is that there would appear to be little space for a tram platform.
Was this why the proposal was dropped?
But if the frequency of trains between Crystal Palace and Beckenham Junction could be six tph, would a tram link be needed?
At present they are just 2 tph. But surely, once Thameslink is complete and there are more paths available to London Bridge, I’m certain that the frequency could be increased.
It needs to be at least 4 tph.
The Anonymous Widower 