The Anonymous Widower

The Future Of The Watford DC Line

Primrose Hill Station

I was looking at the tracks through Camden on carto.metro.free.fr, as I wanted to see how the  former Primrose Hill station fitted into the knitting.

Lines Through Camden

Note the two orange tracks of the Watford DC Line from Euston curving to the West around the carriage sidings.

The line through Primrose Hill station from Camden Road is a connection that allows freight trains to  go between the North London Line and the West Coast Main Line.

One of the plans for the area, is to reopen the station. This is said in the station’s Wikipedia entry under Plans.

It has been proposed to re-open Primrose Hill station by bringing the short stretch of line between South Hampstead and Camden Road stations back into the regular passenger service by incorporating it into the London Overground network.

South Hampstead station is just off the map to the West on the Watford DC Line.

No Infrastructure Required To Open Primrose Hill Station

Obviously, the station will have to be rebuilt, but look at this page from the Journey Planner for Sunday, the 2nd of October, when I enquired how you would get between Willesden Junction and Highbury and Islington stations.

Willesden To Highbury and Islington

As the Class 378 trains can’t fly, the route via South Hampstead station must be open and available to the trains.

This sequence of pictures shows a train entering Camden Road station after coming through the site of the former Primrose Hill station.

Benefits And Disadvantages Of The Route

The current setup seems to be rather a waste of resources, with two tracks into Euston for the Watford DC Line and the need for platforms with third-rail electrification to handle the short four- and five-car trains.

Euston station is a very busy station and it would probably be glad to lose the Overground services.

So it might be a good idea to divert the three trains per hour (tph) between Watford Junction and Euston, through Primrose Hill and onto perhaps Highbury and Islington or even Stratford stations.

Others might not think so, as all those passengers along the Watford DC Line, would lose their direct connection to Euston.

But in a few years time, the following projects should have been completed or will be in progress.

• Crossrail will have opened.
• Plans for Old Oak Common station will be well advanced.
• El;ectrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (GOBlin) will be complete.
• Rebuilding of Euston station for HS2 will have started.
• Capacity and station improvements at Highbury and Islington station will be known, which should give better access to the Victoria Line and the Great Northern Metro.
• The Metropolitan Line will have reached Watford Junction, by way of the Croxley Rail Link.
• The future of the Bakerloo Line will have been decided.
• West Hampstead Interchange  might have been progressed.

These projects will mean that the Watford DC Line could and will have to be reorganised. If only to make sure there was enough capacity for commuters in the Peak and electric freight trains.

In my view the service on the Watford DC Line to London,  should be as close to a high-capacity link running perhaps six to eight tph as is possible.

It is not as easy to achieve as many might think.

• London Midland services stop at stations on the Watford DC Line.
• The Bakerloo Line runs 6 tph on the line.
• The train size limit on the Watford DC Line is probably about six cars and might be possible to raise to say eight or ten.
• The train size limit along the North London Line is currently five-cars and all the Class 378 trains are this length.
• Six-car trains on the North London Line is probably an upper limit, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see longer platforms in my lifetime.
• There will be pressure to increase the number of freight trains on the North London Line.
• A Northern terminal for the Bakerloo Line must be provided.
• Third-rail electrification must be provided on all track shared with the Bakerloo Line.
• If possible, the route should avoid Euston, so that the HS2 rebuilding can proceed at a faster pace.

But I suspect an innovative solution will be found to provide a high capacity link between the stations on the Watford DC Line and Central London.

Crossrail

Crossrail will have a massive influence on how passengers use London’s rail network.

Plans have been talked about for extending Crossrail to the West Coast Main Line. Wikipedia says this.

Network Rail’s July 2011 London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) recommended diverting West Coast Main Line (WCML) services from stations between London and Milton Keynes Central away from Euston, to Crossrail via Old Oak Common, to free up capacity at Euston for High Speed 2.

The previous Government rejected it as having a bad economic case

But Crossrail with its massive trains carrying fifteen hundred people a time, will strongly influence stations and routes it connects to Central London.

• At Abbey Wood, it is forcing an update to services on the North Kent Line, which could bring 6-10 tph through the Medway Towns.
• At Moorgate, it will bring passengers to an updated Great Northern Metro sending 8-10 tph to North London and South Hertfordshire.
• At Reading, it will bring passengers to updated Thames Valley and West Country services.
• At Shenfield, improvements are in progress to link Crossrail to Essex and East Anglia.

Where Crossrail will lead is an unanswerable question.

North-West from Old Oak Common, there are several stations that could be possible Crossrail termini.

• High Wycombe for Chiltern.
• Milton Keynes with its link to the East West Rail Link
• Tring, which was the original idea
• Watford Junction has been suggested before.

In the end, passenger numbers will decide where the trains go.

This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines at Watford Junction station.

Rail Lines Around Watford

The North-South orange line is the Watford DC Line, which goes starts from Watford Junction station and goes through Watford High Street, Bushey and Carpenters Park stations.

Note the Croxley Rail Link going between Croxley and Watford Junction stations.

This short length of new line would also make possible direct services between Amersham and Watford Junction stations.

I’m not going to speculate on where trains on Crossrail and the Watford DC Line will go, but there are lots of possibilities.

I suspect that new housing developments will also be a driver of the routes of services.

The New Class 710 Trains

The Watford DC Line is going to see some some extra trains from the new fleet of Class 710 trains. If we see eight trains of the new dual-voltage fleet going to the GOBlin on a one-for-one replacement basis, that would mean a doubling of capacity on the line, that means that only six trains are left for the Watford DC Line.

But as the Watford DC line runs three tph currently in the Off Peak and the trip takes about fifty-five minutes, then perhaps those six four-car trains might be enough.

When I first read the specification for the Class 710 trains for the GOBlin, I was surprised to see that they were dual voltage. After all between Gospel Oak and Barking stations, there is precisely no third-rail lines.

But if you think about extending GOBlin services, the ability to run on third-rail lines would be needed on the following routes.

• Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction
• Willesden Junction to Richmond
• Willesden Junction to Watford Junction
• The Barking Riverside Extension to Abbey Wood.

Abbey Wood, Clapham Junction, Richmond and Watford Junction stations all have third-rail platforms.

I doubt all of these routes will be delivered, but at least by making the GOBlin trains with a dual-voltage capability, they are future-proofed for any possible services.

The Future Of The Bakerloo Line

The Bakerloo Line is a line, with spare capacity across Central London, according to many reports I’ve read.

Wikipedia has a section on the Future of the Bakerloo Line in its entry for the Watford DC Line.

This is said.

Various proposals have been made to alter services involving both extending or truncating Bakerloo Line services but there has been no basic change until 2015 other than to rolling stock and service patterns. As of 2015, plans and suggestions (from official bodies and others) connected to development of Crossrail and the Old Oak Common area have current potential consequences.

If the Bakerloo Line is extended into South London, this must have an effect.

Rumours are circulating as I write this, that this is being brought forward to 2029.

This article in New Civil Engineer is entitled £775M Paddington Cube gets green light. It says that the development by Paddington station, will be designed to enhance the area and will upgrade the Bakerloo Line station.

What Will Upgrades And Extensions To the Bakerloo Line Do To The Watford DC Line?

I suspect there’s both scope for rationalisation, increased capacity and faster services, along both lines, with the correct design.

There are other factors, that might create something special from an integrated Watford DC/Bakerloo Line.

• The Milton Keynes to East Croydon service might be increased in frequency and it might share the route.
• London Midland trains to Birmingham, Northampton and the Midlands could join the party.
• Train control and signalling is improving fast and might allow all these dissimilar services to share safely and give passengers better routes.
• Better train and station design could improve the terrible step-down and step-up access to Bakerloo Line trains at some stations.

The Watford DC/Bakerloo Line could end up as another important North South route.

• 27 tph on the Bakerloo Line.
• Same platform interchange with trains for Birmingham, Euston, Milton Keynes, Northampton and many other places.
• Quality step-free interchange to Crossrail and main line services at Paddington.
• Improved step-free access to main line services at Charing Cross, Marylebone and Waterloo stations.
• An improved interchange with the Victoria and Central Lines at Oxford Circus station.
• Interchange with Thameslink at Elephant and Castle station.
• Interchange with the East London Line at New Cross Gate station.

If all this happens by 2029, it won’t be soon enough!

The Bay Platform 2 At Willesden Junction Station

In posts like this one, entitled More Platform Action At Willesden Junction, I showed work to create a new bay platform 2 at Willesden Junction station.

On Sunday, the 2nd Of October 2016, I took these pictures of the station in use.

What are Transport for London’s plans for this platform, other than stock transfers and Rail Replacement Trains?

As they were doing on that Sunday, they could run a Willesden Junction to Stratford service via a rebuilt Primrose Hill station.

Platform Height Issues

At some stationS to get in to and out of the Bakerloo  Line 1972 Stock trains, is quite a step and it would be difficult in a wheel-chair.

I have covered this in Platform Height Issues On The Watford DC Line and feel that dual-height platforms could be used.

Highbury And Islington Station

In some ways, Highbury and Islington station is the worst station in North London, as after war damage and then the addition of the Victoria, North London and East London Lines, it shows major evidence of Topsy at work.

With better connections between the deep-level Victoria Line and Great Northern Metro and the London Overground, it could be a very useful interchange. At the moment, there’s just too much walking in long underground passageways.

But as the Great Northern Metro will have new Class 717 trains giving a  10-12 tph link to Crossrail and the City at Moorgate, surely improvements at Highbury and Islington station would be worthwhile.

These services will be going through the station in a few years.

• 6 tph between Highbury and Islington and Crystal Palace – East London Line
• 4 tph between Highbury and Islington and West Croydon – East London Line
• 3+ tph between Stratford and Richmond – North London Line
• 3+ tph between Stratford and Clapham Junction – North London Line
• 10+ tph between Moorgate and Hertfordshire – Great Northern Metro
• 36 tph between Brixton and Walthamstow Central – Victoria Line

Admittedly, Crossrail will take some pressure off the station, by providing alternative routes via Moorgate and Stratford, but I can’t believe that Transport for London, aren’t looking to improve the interchange between the various lines.  Especially, as with a few tweaks, Dear Old Vicky could possibly deliver forty tph or a train every ninety seconds, as opposed to the current hundred. These could include.

• A second entrance at Walthamstow Central station to provide step-free access and cope with the sheer numbers of passengers.
• A loop at Brixton, with a possible new station at Herne Hill to turn the trains at the Southern end.
• New trains with a higher performance.
• Improvements at certain busy stations like Oxford Circus, Euston and Kings Cross St. Pancras.

Other improvements like air-conditioned trains would attract passengers to the line and make greater capacity necessary.

This article on the authorative London Reconnections, which is entitled A Look At The World Class Capacity Upgrades, concludes its thoughts on the Victoria Line with this.

With the Victoria line pushing towards what must be the theoretical limit for a line with that amount of rolling stock and – more importantly – two-platform termini, there are no plans to further improve the service. Indeed the challenge of procuring more trains and finding the depot space for them would probably discourage any such plans on its own. This does not mean that the line will be forgotten, as both Oxford Circus and Walthamstow Central are on TfL’s top ten hit list of stations in need of a major capacity upgrade. Simply that the days of pushing more trains through the same stations more quickly have passed. In the case of Walthamstow Central it is highly likely that the next step will be making the station double-ended, with an entrance near or in the shopping centre.

I have a feeling that forty trains per hour will come sooner rather than later.

Oxford Circus Station

In two sections of my ramblings, Oxford Circus station has had a small mention.

An improved Oxford Circus station could benefit both the Bakerloo and Victoria Lines.

As the station is high on TfL’s list of stations for improvement, I would expect to see something planned to start here before the mid 2020s.

• Step-free access.
• Better interchange between Victoria and Bakerloo Lines in different directions.
• More space around the Central Line.
• An underground pedestrian link to Crossrail at Bond Street station.
• Extra entrance and exits to serve pedestrianised Oxford and Regent Streets.

I believe, that adding new passages, entrances, exits, lifts and escalators into the current complex can be organised in a similar way to how Bond Street station has been successfully upgraded over the last few years. Hopefully, Bank and Camden Town stations, will also be upgraded in the same way.

But Oxford Circus is the big one!

Conclusion

As I write this, the BBC is announcing that plans will be announced by Sadiq Khan today to bring the Bakerloo Line Upgrade forward to 2029.

I think that this will bring forward a lot of related work to improve the Watford DC Line and the related lines across North London.

The future is brown, with large splashes of orange!

October 26, 2016 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Bakerloo Line, Bakerloo Line Extension, Class 378 Train, Crossrail, Croxley Rail Link, Great Northern Metro, Metropolitan Line, Watford DC Line | 17 Comments