Battersea Park Station To Go Step-Free
This document on the Government web site is entitled Access for All: 73 Stations Set To Benefit From Additional Funding.
Battersea Park station is on the list.
These pictures show the station.
This 3D Google Map shows the station.
It’s a bit different to the average commuter station.
Installing Step-Free Access
This will be a challenging station to install step-free access.
- The station is Grade II Listed.
- There are four platforms
- Platform 2/3 is reasonably wide, but Platform 4/5 is narrow.
- The station handles ten trains per hour (tph) in both directions.
- In 2017-18, the station handled nearly two million passengers.
- The station will have an out-of-station interchange with the new Battersea Power Station station, when that station opens.
As the pictures show, the entrance hall has been tastefully restored in the last few years.
Surely, only a masochist would work on installing lifts in this station.
Four Trains Per Hour Between Dalston Junction And Battersea Park Stations
Normally, there is only one train per day in both directions between Dalston Junction and Battersea Park stations.
Wikipedia says this about the service.
Until December 2012, Southern operated a twice-hourly service from London Victoria to London Bridge via Denmark Hill. This ceased when London Overground’s Clapham Junction to Dalston Junction service commenced at that time. However, since December 2012, a skeleton London Overground service has run to/from Battersea Park (instead of Clapham Junction) at the extreme ends of the day to retain a “parliamentary service” between Battersea Park and Clapham High Street.
But today, London Overground were running four trains per hour between Dalston Junction and Battersea Park stations, as there was a track fault, which meant trains couldn’t get between Wandsworth Road and Clapham Junction stations.
I took these pictures on my journey.
It certainly looked, like London Overground weren’t having much trouble, in running four trains per hour between Dalston Junction and Battersea Park stations.
Battersea Power Station Station – 14th November 2016
I was on a train between London Victoria and Brixton stations, when I took these pictures.
They show the spoil conveyor and the site of the new Battersea Power Station station.
Rail Lines In The Battersea Area
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the various lines in the area.
Rail Lines In The Battersea Area
Note.
- The lines from Victoria splitting into two groups.
- The Western group, managed by Southern, goes to Battersea Park and Clapham Junction stations
- The second group, managed by Southestern, goes via Brixton to the South East.
- The lines going across are manged by South West Trains and go between Waterloo and Clspham Junction.
Complicated would be a good description
The Connection To Battersea Park Station
According to Wikipedia, there will be an out-of-station interchange between Battersea Power Station and Battersea Park stations.
I hope that when they reburbish the Grade II Listed Battersea Park station, they do it properly to create an interchange between the 10 trains per hour (tph) through the National Rail station and the upwards of 15 tph through the Northern Line station.
It is interesting to note, that plans for the Northern Line Extension could take it to Clapham Junction station, which is the first station for all the 10 tph, that start from Victoria and call at Battersea Park station.
So has the design of the extended Northern Line, achieved the objective of having a simple connection to Clapham Junction?
A New Station For Battersea
In A New Station For Battersea, I wrote about a proposal to create another Battersea station on the Southeastern lines.
I like this idea.
- It effectively gives Victoria station, a connection to a terminus of the Northern Line.
- It could be considered to make Victoria station, London’s second cross-river station.
- It could have more than just the odd parliamentary train to Dalston.
It would be even better, if Battersea Park station was rebuilt with escalators and lifts to make it step-free.
The Lines At Battersea Power Station On the Way Into Victoria
This Google Map shows the area to the West of Battersea Power station, where the various lines go across the Thames into Victoria.
Battersea Power Station, The Lines Into Victoria And The Dogs Home
This image was taken a couple of years ago and the iconic gas-holders next to the power station and between the rail lines were still standing.
The lines to the West of the gas holders include the Brighton Main Line. They go through Battersea Park station before turning towards Clapham Junction station and all places to the South.
The lines to the East of the gas holders include the Chatham Main Line. They go via Wandsworth Road, Chatham High Street, and Brixton stations to places in Kent and the South-East.
There is also a set of lines that come from the station and go under the Chatham Main Line before turning to the West towards Clapham Junction.
It certainly is a complicated layout of tracks and points.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr might make things a bit clearer.
Lines Between Battersea And Victoria
Note on the map, there is a Battersea Park Road station on the Chatham Main Line. The new station wouldn’t surely be far from this position.
This set of images were taken on a train from a Clapham Junction to Victoria train show the Chatham Main Line, as it passes the power station and the Dogs Home.
Note.
- The new modern viaduct, where the Chatham Main Line crosses over the third set of lines.
- The massive area, where the gas-holders once stood.
- There is quite a space between the lines going through Battersea and the Chatham Main Lines,
- How the Dogs Home seems to be using any bit of space they can.
Although not a lover of the power station, the flats do seem to be hiding any decent view of the iconic building.
This is another set of images, which were taken coming in to Victoria on the Chatham Main Line.
Note that taken with the previous set of pictures, they certainly reinforce what I said there.
This third set of images show the other side of the Chatham Main Line going out from Victoria.
Note.
- There wouldn’t appear to be much space between the flats and the line, so the new Battersea station will probably be built further towards the South.
- If you look at these pictures carefully, you can see when the train is on the new concrete viaduct.
- It would appear that there are three tracks on the viaduct.
- The blue building is only shown as it puts a marker on the line.
If I was going to be pushed, I would suspect that a new station could be built fairly easily, that was linked by escalators and lifts to Battersea Power Station station.
I’ll leave the position and design to the architects and engineers.
But before I finish this post, look at this Google Map.
In the South-West corner, there is Battersea Park station.
Some think it an architectural gem, but I think, it’s a dump and a death-trap for anybody with any movement problems. This post entitled Battersea Park Station gives some more details.
In the North-East corner, you can just see Battersea Power Station.
The map of the lines earlier in this post, showed that the Northern Line Extension points at Battersea Park station, if the map is correct.
So could it be that now the gas-holders are cleared, that it would be possible to create a surface level walkway between all three stations.
- Battersea Power Station tube station on the Northern Line Extension.
- The proposed Battersea station on the Chatham Main Line into Victoria.
- Battersea Park station on the Brighton Main Line into Victoria.
It would certainly make things a lot easier for architects, construction companies, train operators and passengers.
It would probably just be called Battersea! Or Perhaps Cats and Dogs! Would it be the first station in the world named after a charity?
One point is that the remains of Battersea Park Road station are still tucked into the bridge, that takes the Chatham Main Line over Battersea Park Road.
As you often find in this country, the railway arches under the viaduct seem to be in very good condition.
A combined station would be a station with very good connectivity.
- There would be the Northern Line to Central London.
- There would be the Southern services that stop in the current Battersea Park station.
- There could be new Metro services going along the South London Line via Brixton, Denmark Hill and Packham Rye to London Bridge, Dalston Junction, Abbey Wood and Orpington.
One interesting possibility, is that a terminating platform could be provided at the station. Occasional services to Dalston Junction do already terminate at the station and perhaps if reorganised South London Line services were created. then Victoria And Battersea could share terminating duties, just as Dalston Junction and Highbury and Islington stations do at the Northern End of the East London Line.
The proposed tunnel under Brixton would start somewhere to the South of Battersea Park Road.
Battersea Park Station Revisited
I crossed the river by getting a train from Battersea Park station.
It certainly isn’t one of London’s better appointed stations!
It certainly isn’t one of London’s better appointed stations, with dangerous stairs and narrow platforms! Or one with the best signposting and information.
With all the development going on in Battersea, surely if any station needs a refurbishment it is this one,
Battersea Park Station
I saw something in Modern Railways about the refurbishment of this station. So I went and took a few pictures.
It may be a nice station, but it certainly isn’t one you’d use, if you had diofficulties with stairs.
The Anonymous Widower 