The New Entrance At Hackney Central Station – 2nd July 2022
The new entrance at Hackney Central station opened yesterday.
Note.
- The cafe must be fairly good, as it has two flavours of gluten-free brownies.
- I may have a touch of arthritis these days, but stairs like these are fine for me, as there are two right-handed paths.
- There is a second set of stairs down from the footbridge to speed passengers on their way to Hackney Downs station.
- There is a light-controlled crossing over Graham Road.
- Bus stops in both directions are only about twenty metres from the crossing.
- The station buildings appear to have green roofs.
- The is plenty of bike storage, but no car parking.
- There is no lift, although the design should allow one to be added later, if it is thought one is needed.
I’ve seen bigger budgets produce worse designed station entrances than this one.
My Use Of The Graham Road Entrance At Hackney Central Station
I suspect, I will use the new entrance mainly in one of two ways.
Going West On The North London Line
If I want to go west on the North London Line, the obvious one is to get a bus to Highbury & Islington station from the closest stop to my house and get the train from there.
But that route has got more difficult in recent years.
- Our South London Mayor in his wisdom cut the 277 bus back to Dalston Junction station.
- So there is only the 30 bus left and the route uses badly-designed Egyptian-built buses. I’ve nothing against Egyptians, but these buses don’t have the flat floor, that people expect from a bus these days.
- Since the roundabout was rebuilt, it seems to be a longer and more difficult walk for pedestrians.
So I’d prefer to take another route.
- Canonbury station is probably the closest station, but it is an uphill walk from my house.
- Dalston Kingsland station is a possibility, but the steps to the platform aren’t the safest.
- Dalston Junction station is another possibility, as it is step-free, but it means more changes of mode and train.
Going via the new Graham Road entrance has advantages.
- From my house, there are frequent 38 buses to the new entrance.
- The 38 bus stop at Hackney Central is only a few metres from the station entrance.
- There is a coffee stall in the station entrance.
- The steps in the entrance are easy for me.
I will try out this route the next time, that I go to the West on the North London Line.
Coming Home From Stratford With Shopping
If I need a big Marks & Spencer or a John Lewis, it is convenient to go to Eastfield at Stratford and come home on the North London Line.
I will usually use the The Canonbury Cross-Over to double-back and get a bus home from Dalston Junction station.
It is an easy route, but sometimes the trains mean a wait of nearly ten minutes at Canonbury station.
The new entrance at Hackney Central gives an alternative route.
- You would get in the back of the train at Stratford.
- Alight at Hackney Central.
- Exit the station through the new entrance.
- Cross Graham Road on the light-controlled crossing.
- Walk about twenty metres to the 38 bus stop.
- Wait for a frequent 38 bus.
Today, I waited just a minute.
Conclusion
The entrance was first mentioned in an article on Ian Visits in October 2019 and I wrote about it in Will Hackney Central Station Get A Second Entrance?.
In May 2021, I wrote £3m Hackney Overground Station Upgrade To Begin In June.
The entrance seems to have gone from a concept to reality in under three years and once the starting pistol was fired, it was built in under a year.
How many parts of the UK rail network could be improved, by small projects like this?
Put Thameslink On The Tube Map Says London Assembly
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.
This is the introductory paragraph.
A report on improving accessibility on London’s Transport services has called for the fully accessible Thameslink line to be on the Tube map as a matter of some urgency.
I’m all for this happening.
I use Thameslink quite a bit, as if I’m in some places South of the River and am coming home, taking Thameslink to West Hampstead Thameslink and then using the Overground to Canonbury, from where I walk home, is a convenient route.
- It is step-free.
- There is a Marks and Spencer at West Hampstead, where I can do a bit of food shopping.
- Walking from Canonbury station to my house is gently downhill.
These are some other thoughts about Thameslink,
The Underground Train With A Toilet
Sometimes, I also find it doubly-convenient, as I need to spent a penny or more. Often, the toilets on Thameslink trains are free in the tunnels under London!
How many other Underground trains have toilets?
Obviously, Eurostar does, but does anybody know of any other trains that run deep under the surface, that have toilets?
Do Thameslink Want The Extra Passengers That Being On The Map Would Bring?
This may seem a dumb question, but sometimes, I do wonder, if the answer is that they don’t!
Thameslink Would Surely Make A Good Travel Partner For Eurostar
Increasing, many visitors from the Continent to London and the South East are travelling across the Channel using the excellent Eurostar.
As the Thameslink and Eurostar platforms at St. Pancras International, there could be mutual advantages to both companies to be partners.
Suppose you were travelling on these routes.
- Paris and Gatwick
- Brussels and Greenwich
- Amsterdam and Brighton
- Rotterdam and Luton Airport
And for one reason or other you didn’t want to fly; climate change, you like trains, awkward baggage or just plain fear of flying.
Surely, using Eurostar and Thameslink would be the obvious travel companies.
Note that Thameslink have posters, saying that they are the ideal way to get to Luton Airport.
Do they have posters, saying they are the ideal way to get to Eurostar at St. Pancras?
If I was running Thameslink, I’d do the following.
- Make sure, that all Thameslink stations accepted contactless ticketing using bank or credit cards.
- Put information and advertising on Eurostar trains and stations, telling passengers how to get to and from any Thameslink station without buying a physical ticket.
- Devise a simple add on ticket, that would be printed on your Eurostar boarding pass or held in Eurostar’s app.
- Market Thameslink to the French as the UK’s answer to the RER.
- Put travel information in at least Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, at St. Pancras station.
I would think, that a properly thought-out plan, could be a nice little earner for Thameslink.
Has The Canonbury Cross-Over Become More Difficult?
In The Canonbury Cross-Over, I described how it was possible at Canonbury station to change easily from a Westbound train on the North London Line to a Southbound-train on the East London Line.
Services through Canonbury station on the East London Line in trains per hour (tph) are.
- Four tph between Highbury & Islington and Crystal Palace stations.
- Four tph between Highbury & Islington and West Croydon stations.
This means that eight tph call in Platform 2 at Canonbury station.
Services through Canonbury station on the North London Line used to be.
- Four tph between Richmond and Stratford stations.
- Two tph between Clapham Junction and Stratford stations.
This means that six tph call in Platform 3 at Canonbury station.
Since the December 2018 Timetable Change, two tph have been added to the Clapham Junction service.
So now both services calling at Platform 2/3 have the same frequency of eight tph.
So Why Does The Canonbury Cross-Over Appear To Be More Difficult?
Today, I was coming from Stratford on a Richmond train and was changing to the East London Line to Dalston Junction station, from where I can get a bus from outside the station to my house.
It takes a bit longer, but I was carrying my weekend shopping and as Dalston Junction station has lifts, if you need them and Dalston Kingsland station doesn’t, A lot of passengers, seem to use the Canonbury Cross-Over, when they are going from Stratford to stations on the East London Line.
As my train arrived at Canonbury station, in Platform 3, a Southbound-train was leaving Platform 2. So I had a wait of seven minutes in the rain for the next train to Dalston Junction station.
Since the Timetable Change, it appears that I am having to wait for several minutes a lot more.
Look at these times from the 6th of February. The time is when a train on the North London Line calls in Platform 3 and the integer is the number of minutes before the train calls on the East London Line in Platform 2.
- 1150 – 7
- 1157 – 0
- 1205 – 7
- 1212 – 0
- 1220 – 7
- 1227 – 0
- 1235 – 7
- 1242 – 2
- 1250 – 7
- 1257 – 0
- 1305 – 7
- 1312 – 0
- 1320 – 7
- 1327 – 0
- 1335 – 7
- 1342 – 0
- 1353 – 4
- 1357 – 0
- 1405 – 7
- 1312 – 0
In some cases two Southbound trains call between two Westbound ones.
Quite frankly, it’s crap!
Why?
I am no expert on railway timetabling, but if I look at the timetable, it appears that the two trains often seem to be timetabled to arrive at the same time.
As Southbound trains on the East London Line have only come one stop from Highbury & Islington station, are they more likely to be on time, than North London Line trains that have come all the way from Stratford station.
So like today, do North London Line trains arrive after the East London Line train has departed?
Conclusion
The timetable needs to be improved.
Would it be possible to timetable the East London Line trains a couple of minutes after those on the North London Line?
Steaming Along The Overground
According to this article on Ian Visits, the North London Line will have an unusual visitor on Saturday, December the 2nd.
A passenger steam train will be passing through on its way from Southend to Alton.
Useful timing are.
- 09:58 – Barking
- 10:03 – Woodgrange Park
- 10:08 – Forest Gate
- 10:14 – Stratford
- 10:26 – Canonbury
- 10:31 – Camden Road
- 10:48 – South Hampstead
- 10:54 – Kensal Green
- 11:07 – Acton Central
On December 2nd, 2012, I posted Tornado At Canonbury Station.
A Bactrian Station
Canonbury station has now got two Harrington Humps.
Does that make it a Bactrian station?
It’s certainly the sort of thing, that you’ll see in posh Islington and would never see in plebian Hackney.
How To Build A Step-Free Access Ramp For A Train
This new ramp or Harrington Hump, has been built on Platform 1 at Canonbury station.
I didn’t use it, as I was going the other way.
It looks to be a very good design.
- Like all the best designs, it is simple.
- It is double-ended.
- It’s a gentle slope to ascend to train level, with no steps to trip on.
- It’s got seats to prop yourself on.
- It’s got a rail to hang on to.
- Those with poor eye-sight wouldn’t miss it and trip over.
- I suspect any sensible local builder could build one of these, from a kit of parts and instructions on a page of A4.
It looks to me like it is one of those classic engineering designs, that was developed using copious amounts of real ale, with everything written down on the back of fag-packets and used envelopes.
After my musings on dual-height platforms for the Bakerloo Line Extension, in How Will They Build The Bakerloo Line Extension?, I think that a modified version could handle the problems at stations on the Northern reaches of the Bakerloo Line, where 1972 Stock and Class 378 trains, share a platform.
The Anonymous Widower 