Custom House Station – 24th July 2016
I took these pictures at Custom House station.
The pictures also show a work-train entering the tunnel and the Crossrail track alongside the DLR until near the Connaught Tunnel.
The North End Of The Connaught Tunnel
The Connaught Tunnel takes Crossrail under the Royal Docks.
If you take the DLR to the East from Custom House station, you can see the North End of the tunnel.
The track is there and I suspect fairly soon, we’ll be seeing overhead wires going up.
Custom House Station – 20th March 2016
Progress at Custom House station.
It’s certainly going to be an impressive entrance to Crosrail from the Excel.
Making Tracks For Crossrail At Custom House Station
The track laying is well under-way at Custom House station for Crossrail.
It certainly seems that there are signs of progress, all over the place.
Custom House Station – 29th July 2015
More progress at Custom House station.
It does look that they’re starting to lay the railway on the London-bound track.
Custom House Station – 5th July 2015
Custom House station has been progressing and now even has some glass in the windows.
You can also see that the Crossrail trains will go either side of the central building. It now appears that this is the preferred way to design a new station.
At Custom House station it will mean that passengers arriving at the station from Excel or on the DLR, would appear to go to the same platform, which will have two faces; one for Central London and one for Kent.
When you consider that London Underground deep-level stations since the 1930s have been designed this way with a central platform, it puzzles me, why we have such uninspiring recent station designs like the Thameslink platforms at St. Pancras.
Where you have a two-track railway, the layout must be more affordable, as you only need one set of lifts/escalators/stairs and other services.
On the other hand, you need a bridge over the tracks or a subway beneath them, where the railway is on the surface. Obviously in some places the geography of the area, will make this easier. For example if a station is in a cutting or there is a road bridge.
At Custom House a large proportion of passengers will arrive at First Floor level either from Excel or after taking a short escalator up from the DLR, so there will only need to be access from the street up to the First Floor circulation area, from where I took these pictures. At present the DLR uses steps and a lift. I’m sure the completed station will use an elegant solution with probably escalators instead of stairs.
An Express Station
Crossrail have put up this time-lapse video of the building of the structure of Custom House station.
If you want to read the full details, it’s here on the Crossrail web site.
I believe the station is a major advance in the construction of buildings.
One of the engineers working on the station, told me that compared to traditional methods of pouring concrete on site, the quality is a lot better.
As Crossrail are claiming the whole structure was put together in a year and a day, it would appear to be quicker too!
Custom House Station – 22nd March 2015
Today’s pictures add a few of the Crossrail line as it runs along by the side of the Docklands Light Railway to the Connaught Tunnel.
This area of the line is now starting to look like a railway. The bridge at Prince Regent station must have some of steepest and longest steps on the DLR, but once you’re up there you get good views of the rebirth of the Connaught Tunnel and Crossrail as it goes back to Custom House station and the portal to the tunnel to the west of that station. This Google Earth image shows the location of the station by the Excel Exhibition Centre.
Prince Regent Station
You can clearly see the buttresses in the Connaught Tunnel, that are also visible in the gallery, to the east of Prince Regent station and above the train on the Docklands Light Railway.
The Connaught Tunnel must curve southwards to link up with Crossrail’s Thames Tunnel.
Custom House Station – 25th February 2015
I took these pictures today.
The works are showing how long the Crossrail stations will be. As a Crossrail engineer said to me a few months ago, you may get complaints about all the walking the two hundred metres from one end of the train to the other. As she was female, I suspect she was thinking high heels and not her sensible work boots.
Custom House Station – 25th January 2015
I took these pictures today.
Compare them with those taken six weeks ago.
Progress seems to be happening, with some stairs and the tunnel towards London now showing themselves.
The Anonymous Widower 