Do Crossrail Trains Need Toilets?
ITV have published this web article entitled The £1bn Crossrail where you can’t spend a penny.
It’s a catchy headline, but is the article just knocking copy to get views or rival politicians making a point.
At present, the Class 315 trains that run from Shenfield to Liverpool Street, do not have toilets. The journey takes up to forty three minutes. So does anybody get taken short on a train?
I discussed this with a customer support guy, that I met at Tottenham Court Road. We thought that some Underground journeys would be longer. I’ve just looked up Cockfosters to Heathrow, which is a journey that if I still lived in the area where I grew up, I’d probably do occasionally. It takes ninety minutes.
So if toilets were to be provided on Crossrail Class 345 trains as some journeys will take nearly an hour, they should probably be provided on long distance Underground services.
In my chat at Tottenham Court Road, I was reminded about the version of the iconic tube map that shows the location of toilets. It actually shows, whether toilets at stations are inside or outside the gate line.
Surely, a much better and more affordable solution would be to update the ribbon maps in all Underground and Crossrail trains to show if the station had toilets, in the same way, they show the step free access. Some extra signs on stations showing the status and location of toilets would also be a good idea.
Incidentally on the Essex and Reading legs of Crossrail, several of the stations already have decent toilets. Getting off a train and catching the next one, to have a relaxed toilet break, is probably not a huge delay, due to the high frequency of the trains.
London has a chance to set high standards in this area, without putting toilets on any trains.
Although saying that, Thameslink’s Class 700 trains will have toilets, but then Brighton to Peterborough might take two hours plus.
Perhaps, ITV should stick to reporting the news they do best, like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
Transport for London Get The Cleaners, Painters And Engineers Ready For The Shenfield Metro
There is an article in the Brentwood Gazette, entitled Shenfield to London slow trains to get refresh before end of year, which illustrates how Transport for London aim to hit the ground running, when they take over the Shenfield Metro services in May this year.
1. The Class 315 trains will be refreshed. I took these pictures.
I think that TfL could spend billions on these trains and they wouldn’t be that much better, as in their current state, they do the job they were built for of moving people in and out of London, reliably and with enough comfort for those with seats. So fixing the seat covers, perhaps getting rid of the awful pink colour and asking Aggie and her ilk to give them a good clean, and they’ll last until the Class 345 trains arrive.
2. Staff will be on duty when trains are running.
3. The stations will be fully integrated into TfL’s information and brought up to their standards.
I wonder if their other big acquisition in May;the Lea Valley Line services will get the same treatment.
The Shape Of Things To Come
I visited the newly-reopened Tottenham Court Road station and took these pictures.
The pictures were taken in sequence. I arrived on a Northern Line train from Embankment, took the steps and long escalators to the enormous ticket hall, where I got sanother escalator to the station entrance, where you are delivered at pavement level. I then left on a 10 bus, from where I took the last pictures.
Obviously, there is still work to do, but you have to remember that this is perhaps a third of the station that will have been created by when Crossrail opens. The Central Line will be connected again, an entrance will be positioned by Centre Point and a new large entrance to the west in Dean Street is being built.
This Google Earth image shows the area around Soho Square.
The Soho Square Area
Tottenham Court Road station and the iconic Centre Point at the top right corner and Dean Street to the left or west.
Note the distance between the two entrances, which emphasises how long the platforms are to accommodate two hundred metre long trains, that call at two hundred and sixty metre long platforms. Crossrail describes their new station with these points.
- 24 trains per hour service at peak times in each direction
- 260m – length of platform tunnels
- 25m – platform depth
- 102,000 passengers are estimated to use Crossrail station each day
- 40 utilities diverted in and around Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street
- 500,000 square feet of premium retail, office and residential accommodation created at eastern end of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road
- £1bn – total investment to build Crossrail station and upgrade capacity of existing Tube station
It is a massive project in its own right and will totally reform the area.
This new tube station is just the first manifestation. The first benefit other than better exit and exit to the Underground, will probably be lots of walking short cuts on the area, when it is busy or raining hard.
Will Modern Construction Techniques Create New Stations For The London Underground/Overground?
London is under tremendous pressure to provide more and more housing and in some ways it seems we’re using up the obvious sites like Stratford, Barking Riverside and Old Oak Common. So we’re going to start building on perhaps less obvious and more cramped sites.
The area round Shoreditch High Street station is being developed more and more with tower blocks. I have talked about linking the station to the Central Line and also about a new main line station in the area, so what happens here in the next few years is going to be an experience that will be worth watching.
I also feel that the area to the east of Gospel Oak station could be opened up for development, which might involve a link to the Northern Line.
Yesterday, I mused about reopening Maiden Lane station, which would involve a lot of properly development and a possible link to the Piccadilly Line.
So all three of these developments could involve a connection to a deep level underground line, something which five years ago would have been very difficult.
A few months ago, I talked about using an uphill excavator at Whitechapel station to connect the deep level Crossrail tunnels to the other lines. I have also found this article on the New Civil Engineer website, which gives more details of the amazing construction going on at Whitechapel.
My only comment is – You ain’t seen nothing yet!
If I take the three examples above, they would all mean connecting to a working twin-bore deep Underground line between two stations. I suspect that some clever construction engineers will develop a methodology to do this, with the minimum of disruption to the working line. If the first time, they do it, it is on time and on budget, the engineers will have a job for life in adding connections to deep underground lines not just in London, but all over the wider world.
To return to London, I think we’ll be surprised at some of the seemingly crazy schemes put forward for new or extended stations in the future, that have become possible with the improvement of tunneling and other construction techniques.
An Alarmist Report About Crossrail
This article in the Evening Standard. entitled Commuters facing year of disruption due to Tottenham Court Road station works has an alarmist headline.
But seeing that the same station was closed to Northern Line trains and platforms at Bond Street and Embankment have all suffered lengthy closures, without millions of Londoners marching in front of City Hall, I don’t think many will bother and will use one of the many alternative routes. Most of the comments from readers of the article, say they’re not bothered.
In a few weeks, it is rumoured that the new entrance for Tottenham Court Road station will open.
So can we have some real journalism?
An End-Of-Year Report For The Crossrail Surface Works
To many, Crossrail is all about the tunnels under London, but this report from New Civil Engineer gives the status for the extensive works being done on the surface by Network Rail, which they say are now one third complete.
Reading the report, makes me realise that Crossrail will bring a lot of work on new and refurbished buildings in the next year!
It’s almost as if much of London lives in the midst of a giant building site. But at least it’s a well-run one!
Custom House Station – 18th December 2014
I took these pictures today.
Note that the bridge that will link the station to the Excel Exhibition Centre has now been positioned.
An Idea For A New Station At Shoreditch High Street
I read today in The Sunday Times, that Network Rail are looking to create some new terminal platforms for Liverpool Street.
One of the ideas was the obvious one to add some extra platforms at Liverpool Street. but I know the station well and can’t think where they would be fitted in, unless they were do away with the taxi ramp or put the platforms in tunnels underneath the current ones.
Another idea mentioned in the Sunday Times, is to build a station at Shoreditch High Street on a site owned by Network Rail, next to the current Overground station. The idea is described in the Architect’s Journal.
Terry Farrell’s contentious proposals for Bishopsgate Goodsyard could be sent back to the drawing board after plans emerged for a major new station on the east London site
A report by Network Rail outlining options for rail upgrades on the Anglian Route suggests the City fringe plot could house the first new rail terminus in the capital since the completion of Marylebone in 1899.
The currently uncosted option – part of a document prepared by Network Rail for its future railway investment period CP6 – explores the ‘creation of an additional terminus to the north of London Liverpool Street’ on Network Rail-owned land next to Shoreditch High Street station.
It strikes me that this could be a good idea. Although, it won’t be plain sailing, as there was so much aggravation, when they wanted to demolish the Braithwaite Arches to build the East London Line through the area. This article from Spitalfields Life gives some of the history of the area.
I think if a station gets built alongside or under Shoreditch High Street station, it will be nothing like any ideas, thatr might get talked about in the media now. One of the Foster/Farrell/Rogers fraternity could probably do something extraordinary here.
This map shows the site.
Shoreditch High Street Station
The orange line defines the route of the East London Line and the red line is where the Central line goes underneath. The site itself is the green area between these lines. It would appear that there is quite a bit of space to put in a decent sized station with perhaps four main line platforms, which would be linked to the East London and Central lines.
But it would be a lot of work and money for a station, that would only have limited connection to the Underground/Overground compared to Liverpool Street.
However, look at this wider map of the area.
Old Street To Shoreditch
The first thing to notice is the size of the site, when compared to Liverpool Street station, which lies to the West of Spitalfields Market.
Also note the black line going North-South, which is the Northern line, fom Moorgate to Old Street. The latter is highlighted. Somewhere in the same direction from Moorgate northwards is that relic of previous expansion plans for the Underground; the Northern City line.
I think that if a main line station is built at Shoreditch High Street, it might also connect some of the lines into Liverpool Street to the Moorgate suburban services.
Consider.
1. Railways hate terminal platforms with all their restrictions and much prefer two lines linked end-to-end as Thameslink links Brighton and Bedford via St. Pancras.
2. So could say some of the Lea Valley services be diverted from Liverpool Street to the new station and then onto the Moorgate suburban lines? Not only would it link Silicon Fen with Silicon Roundabout, but also it could be used for the Stansted Express. At the new station, there could be cross-platform interchange between the through lines and the Central line.
3. Original plans showed Crossrail 2 stopping at Essex Road station, which is on Northern City line.
I have only listed three of any number of possibilities, but a new main line station at Shoreditch High Street providing extra capacity for Liverpool Street might be feasible.
On the other hand, it might annoy a lot of the passengers, by giving them inferior onward connections. Remember that many who commute into Liverppol Street, just walk to their place of work.
Something will happen, as Liverpool Street doesn’t have enough capacity, but in my view the first thing to do would be to see how Crossrail affects traffic.
To take one example in a frivolous manner, think of all those Essex boys going to their desks in Canary Wharf, How much will all the other routes possible after Crossrail opens, take the pressure off Liverpool Street?
I think the most likely scenario will be a mixture of all current ideas and proposals together with some no-one has thought of yet.
At a minimum, the addition of two platforms in the cab rank at Liverpool Street .will happen.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of platforms on the Lea Valley lines at Shoreditch High Street giving an easy and quick interchange to the East London and Central lines. If nothing else it would link the curremt Overground to the Lea Valley lines and give it a much-needed connection to the Central line.
Coal Mining in Whitechapel
I’ve just received Crossrail’s Autumn 2014 newsletter and there’s a section about using coal mining techniques to connect the Crossrail platforms at Whitechapel to the rest of the station and the surface. They say this.
An uphill excavator is being used for the first time in the UK on the Crossrail project. The machine is being used at Whitechapel, before installing the escalators that will take passengers from the platforms (over 30 metres below ground) to and from street level.
Due to difficulties in accessing the station box to dig downwards, Crossrail’s Whitechapel contractor BBMV decided that excavating the escalator barrel upwards, starting from the platform base, was the best solution.
The uphill excavator, traditionally used in coal mines, is being used in an innovative way on the Crossrail project. Built to do two jobs in one, it works its way up by excavating the earth using a digger fixed to the front. With a spray nozzle attached to the top of the machine it also installs the tunnel lining as it goes.
I suspect this won’t be the last place that the technique is used under London. I think it could find applications in connecting stations to the surface in a reversing loop with stations, or perhaps adding step-free access to a deep Underground station.
Whatever happens, it does seem that engineers are throwing conventional thinking out of the window.
Tunnelling certainly seems to be fun!
Hanwell Station Gets A Second Entrance
Hanwell station, which will become a stop on Crossrail, is a Grade II Listed building, which according to Wikipedia, English Heritage says is in very poor condition.
A second entrance on the South side of the line has now been opened.
If this is the standard to which the rest of the station will be refurbished, I suspect that English Heritage will be pleased to update their view of the station.
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Radio 5, where there has just been a piece talking about a shortage of bricklayers. Obviously, some very good ones were working hard on Hanwell station.
When I visited Hanwell station in October, I gave it a score of 3/10 and said it was a relic from the past.
I now have high hopes, that when this station opens fopr Crossrail, that it will be one of the jewels in London’s new train line.
The Anonymous Widower 