The Barbican Entrance To The Elizabeth Line – 10th June 2022
This series of pictures shows the route between the Westbound platform at Barbican station to the Elizabeth Line at Farringdon station.
Note.
- There is only a single lift between the Western end of the Westbound Platform 2/3 at Barbican station and the lobby between the two banks of escalators and inclined lifts, that give access to the Barbican end of Elizabeth Line platforms.
- Currently, there is no access between the Elizabeth Line and the Eastbound Platform 1 at Barbican station.
- If you lived in one of the towers of the Barbican estate, if might be a marginally shorter walk to walk along Platform 2/3 and up the stairs to the street.
When C and myself, lived in Cromwell Tower in the Barbican, in the 1970s, we must have walked that route with our three children hundreds of times. It really isn’t very different.
I have a few thoughts.
Is The Route Really For Passengers?
Consider.
- A journey, where you might need to use the route could be one like Barking and Heathrow.
- But you have a wide choice, as you could alight at Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Farringdon and Ealing Broadway on the sub-surface lines and have step-free access to the Elizabeth Line.
- I suspect most customers will choose Whitechapel or Liverpool Street.
This picture shows the comprehensive control panel in the lift.
Could it be, that the main purpose of the lift is for staff access to hard to reach plant rooms?
Or perhaps it is designed to get a stretcher or wheelchair to the island platform at Barbican station?
Is The Connection Incomplete?
It could be that there is more work to do and the connection is incomplete.
There is a section, which is entitled Elizabeth Line, in the Wikipedia entry for Barbican station, where this is said.
Farringdon’s Barbican ticket hall for the Elizabeth line is just to the west of Barbican station along Long Lane. This construction involved significant changes at the western end of the station, including the demolition of the former signal box to construct a lift shaft from the Elizabeth line station to the westbound Underground platform only. The original plan of a new footbridge spanning the tracks to the eastbound platform was not proceeded with on the grounds of engineering difficulties. Work was anticipated to be completed in 2018, but was completed in May 2022.
It does look like, that the best that was possible was built.
Dalston Junction To Moorgate Via The Elizabeth Line
This morning to get my breakfast at Leon on Moorgate, I took the longer route via Dalston Junction and Whitechapel stations using the East London and Elizabeth Lines.
Note.
- I travelled in the last coach of the Overground train from Dalston Junction station.
- I travelled towards the front of the Elizabeth Line train from Whitechapel station.
- There are lifts between Overground and the Elizabeth Line at Whitechapel station.
- All the escalators have traffic lights.
- Using stairs and escalator, the change at Whitechapel station took around two minutes.
The total journey time was just over 25 minutes.
Does The Paddington Bakerloo Line Link Make The Bakerloo Line A NW-SE Cross-Branch Of The Elizabeth Line?
The Elizabeth Line has these major North-South cross-branches.
- Jubilee Line at Bond Street station.
- Charing Cross Branch of the Northern Line at Tottenham Court Road station.
- Thameslink at Farringdon station.
- Bank Branch of the Northern Line at Moorgate station.
- East London Line of the Overground at Whitechapel station.
With the opening of the Paddington Bakerloo Line Link, another North-South cross-branch of the Elizabeth Line has been added.
It could be argued that London has a new NW-SE high frequency link between Harrow & Wealdstone and Abbey Wood stations.
- Bakerloo Line – Harrow & Wealdstone and Paddington
- Paddington Bakerloo Line Link – 165 metre level step-free walk
- Elizabeth Line – Paddington and Abbey Wood via Whitechapel and Canary Wharf
The journey would appear to take 73 minutes from the National Rail journey planner, which allows fifteen minutes for the change at Paddington.
A New Route Between New Cross Gate And Queen’s Park Stations
In Does The Elizabeth Line Offer Similar Benefits To The Bakerloo Line Extension?, I said this.
I suspect that the easiest way between New Cross Gate and Harrow & Wealdstone will be with changes at Whitechapel and Paddington.
I also said, I would try out the route today.
I did a shorter route between New Cross Gate And Queen’s Park stations, with the same two changes.
For each extra station, I can apply Irene’s Law, by adding two minutes for each station.
I took these pictures on the route.
Note.
- On the Overground and the Elizabeth Line, there were few spare seats and a number of standees.
- Quite a few passengers changed at Whitechapel.
- The tunnel at Paddington between Elizabeth and Bakerloo Lines wasn’t very busy.
- The Bakerloo Line wasn’t very busy.
I have a few thoughts.
First Time Riders
I got the impression, a lot of passengers were first-time riders.
This could explain the passenger numbers.
Timings
These were my timings.
- It took me forty-six minutes for the fourteen stations.
- The interchange at Whitechapel was about four minutes.
- At Paddington, I walked between the Elizabeth and Bakerloo Line platforms in under five minutes and then just missed a Northbound train.
Irene’s Law
I talk about Irene’s Law in Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times, where I define it like this.
If you want to get an estimate of how long a journey will take on the London Underground, you count the number of stations and multiply by two, before adding five for every interchange.
For the Overground, I’ve found that using three minutes for the number of stations gives a reasonable answer.
So how does it fit for my journey?
- The base time is forty-six minutes.
- Deduct ten minutes for the two changes gives thirty-six minutes.
- 36/14 gives 2.6 minutes.
I’ll go with that! But it looks like for a mixed journey like this, 2.5 might give a rough estimate.
How Would This Time Compare With An Extended Bakerloo Line?
Consider.
- New Cross Gate station could be on an extended Bakerloo Line.
- The Bakerloo Line timetable gives a time of 26 minutes between Queen’s Park and Elephant & Castle stations.
- There are three extra stations, which would probably be two minutes per station.
So the time between Queen’s Park and New Cross Gate stations would be 32 minutes via an extended Bakerloo line.
Conclusion
It looks like an extended Bakerloo Line will be a few minutes quicker.
But that the Elizabeth Line will be a good alternative for a few years.
My feeling is that the Elizabeth Line will have enough capacity for several years, but that eventually the Bakerloo Line will need to be extended.
Feeling Unwell On The Elizabeth Line
I have made several trips on the Elizabeth Line and sometimes, I feel slightly unwell, when I get off.
Nothing serious, but I do wonder if it could be due to the depth of the tunnels.
- The tunnels are up to 42 metres below ground.
- I felt similar when I visited the hundred metre-deep tunnels at CERN, that I wrote about in A Visit To CERN.
- To my knowledge, I never knew my father to take a deep level Underground train. So perhaps, we shared a genetic problem?
I also used to love flying in my aircraft at high altitudes.
Could it be the air pressure or is it psychological?
Does The Elizabeth Line Offer Similar Benefits To The Bakerloo Line Extension?
This map shows the proposed Bakerloo Line extension.
Note.
- There are new or improved stations at Old Kent Road 1, Old Kent Road 2, New Cross Gate and Lewisham.
- New Cross Gate station has Overground and Southern services.
- Lewisham station has Docklands Light Railway and Southern services.
- The future potential option going South is to take over the Hayes Line.
Could we provide improvements along the line of the Bakerloo Line Extension in a less disruptive and more affordable manner?
I will look at the various stations.
New Cross Gate
New Cross Gate station is a fully-accessible station, as these pictures show.
The station, currently has the following services.
- Overground – Highbury & Islington and Crystal Palace – 4 tph
- Overground – Highbury & Islington and West Croydon – 4 tph
- Southern – London Bridge and Victoria via Sydenham – 2 tph
- Southern – London Bridge and Coulsdon Town via Sydenham – 2 tph
Note.
- tph is trains per hour.
- The Overground services provide an 8 tph service to the Elizabeth Line at Whitechapel station.
- TfL may well increase the frequency of the two Overground services to 5 tph.
I suspect that the easiest way between New Cross Gate and Harrow & Wealdstone will be with changes at Whitechapel and Paddington.
- New Cross Gate and Whitechapel – Overground – 13 minutes.
- Whitechapel and Paddington – Elizabeth Line – 14 minutes.
- Paddington Interchange – 15 minutes
- Paddington and Harrow & Wealdstone – Bakerloo Line – 29 minutes
This gives a total time of 71 minutes.
As Bakerloo Line trains go between Elephant & Castle and Harrow & Wealdstone, which is 24 stations and the journey takes 48 minutes, this gives a figure of two minutes per station.
- This seems to fit Irene’s Law, which I wrote about in Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times.
- So it looks like a direct train on the extension would take 54 minutes.
- That time fits well with the 71 minutes via the Elizabeth Line if fifteen minutes is allowed for the walk at Paddington.
I will do the trip for real today.
Lewisham
There are two ways to get between Lewisham and the Elizabeth Line.
- Take the Dockland’s Light Railway to Canary Wharf. Estimated at 15 minutes.
- Take a train to Whitechapel, which needs a change of train at New Cross station. Estimated at 17 minutes minimum.
Neither are perfect.
I will try out these two trips soon.
Hayes
The Hayes Line is often talked about as the final destination of the Bakerloo Line.
In More Frequent Trains And A New Station For The London Overground, I put forward a plan for connecting the Hayes Line to the New Cross branch of the London Overground.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines at New Cross station.
Note.
- The double-track East London Line, shown in orange, arrives from Surrey Quays station arrives in the North-Western corner of the map, becomes a single-track and then goes under the main lines before going into the bay platform D.
- Hayes Line services use Platform C going South and Platform A going North.
- Could the Overground going South divert into Platform C for Hayes?
- It would appear there used to be a line connecting Platform A to the East London Line of the Overground. Could this line be reinstated?
This Google Map shows the same area.
Note.
- The London Overground track is clearly visible.
- The needed connection certainly looks possible, without too much heroic engineering.
- Although, I suspect it could need digital signalling to get everything to work smoothly. But that will happen anyway!
The big advantage of this approach, is that all stations between Whitechapel and Hayes, would have a direct connection to the Elizabeth Line.
Hayes Line services would still continue to Victoria and Cannon Street, although the frequency might be reduced, depending on how many Overground services used the route.
Old Kent Road 1 And Old Kent Road 2
I think there are two ways to serve this important area.
- The first would be to run a high-frequency bus service between Elephant & Castle and the two stations at New Cross.
- I also suspect, it would be possible to have a short extension of the Bakerloo Line to a double-ended station at New Cross Gate and New Cross stations.
I went into the second way in More Frequent Trains And A New Station For The London Overground, where I came to these conclusions.
I am drawn to these two conclusions.
- The Bakerloo Line should be extended via two new Old Kent Road stations to a double-ended terminal station in New Cross with interchange to both New Cross Gate and New Cross stations.
- The New Cross branch of the London Overground should be extended through Lewisham to Orpington and/or Hayes.
My preferred destination for the London Overground service could be Hayes, as this would surely help to free up paths through Lewisham and London Bridge.
I also feel, that the scheme would be much more affordable if high-specification buses were used between Elephant & Castle and the two stations at New Cross.
Conclusion
There are certainly possibilities to create an alternative route, with the same objectives as the Bakerloo Line Extension.
Will The Elizabeth Line Have Wi-Fi And 4G?
This page on the TfL web site is entitled Everything You Need To Know About The Elizabeth Line, where this is said about Wi-Fi and 4G.
WiFi access within the tunnels will be introduced later in 2022. Customers on both trains and platforms will have access to 4G connectivity this year too.
Will passengers be more likely to take a route through London with Wi-Fi and 4G?
I very much feel they will and that this could draw more passengers to use the Elizabeth Line.
And once, they start to use it, they’ll keep with it, so long as they’re happy.
Elizabeth Line – Moorgate Station – 27th May 2022
I took these pictures as I walked between the Northern Line and the Moorgate entrance to the Liverpool Street station on the Elizabeth Line.
Note.
- There is a lift and stairs at the Northern Line end.
- I would estimate that the tunnel is about two hundred metres long.
- There are resting bars at intervals.
- There are two help points along the tunnel.
- There are two lifts to get to the Elizabeth Line ticket hall, at the other end.
I was able to walk it today, but when my damaged knee is playing up, I will not use this route.
However, the rat-up-the-drainpipe route to the surface, that I described in Up From The Depths At Moorgate Station is still available.
But this route is not wheel-chair and buggy friendly.
In this route, a single escalator is taken from the Northern Line platforms to the National Rail platforms, from where there is a double escalator to the ticket hall level.
Conclusion
The rat-up-the-drainpipe route is acceptable to me, but I don’t feel the step-free route via the long tunnel will be acceptable for all those, who need to use it.
It’s just too long to walk for many!
Perhaps the addition of seats for a rest would help.
Step-Free Access Between Train And Platform On The Elizabeth Line
Any new railway with new trains, should have step-free access train and platform.
I know that this has not always happened in the last few years, but how does the Elizabeth Line match up.
I’ve taken these pictures in the last couple of days.
On this evidence, it certainly seems that the access between train and platform is step-free, between at least Woolwich and Paddington stations.
The Story Behind The Concrete Panels On The Elizabeth Line
These are a selection of the pictures I took yesterday inside Elizabeth Line stations.
Note.
- The walls and ceilings appear to be covered in light grey panels with holes.
- The material appears to look like concrete.
- Every one is a totally different shape, so how were they manufactured?
This article on Ian Visits is entitled How Crossrail Is Using 3D-Printing To Build Its Stations.
This is the two opening paragraphs.
When you start to use the new Elizabeth line stations, among its many achievements will be the first large scale use of 3D-printing in concrete.
The use of 3D printing has made possible one of the more distinctive features of the future Elizabeth line stations — the curved concrete panels that will line the inside of the passenger tunnels and some stations, and sinuously glide around corners in a way never seen before in a tube station.
There will be a total of something like 36,000 of these panels and although printing each in concrete is possible, Crossrail would probably have been delivered in the 2040s or 2050s.
The contractors used an innovative process called FreeFAB, which had been invented by an Australian architect.
- The process creates a wax mould for each panel using 3D printing.
- This mould is then used to create the actual panel.
- After each panel is cast, the wax is melted off and recycled.
- The panels are made in a factory in Doncaster.
We will see a lot more of this technique used in the construction industry.
The Anonymous Widower 