Does London Need High Capacity Bus Routes To Extend Crossrail?
If Crossrail has a major problem, it is that some areas of the capital will find it difficult to access the new line.
Up to the age of sixteen, I used to live half-way between Oakwood and Cockfosters stations on the Piccadilly Line.
There are a large number of people who live along the Northern reaches of the Piccadilly Line, who might want to use Crossrail to perhaps go to Heathrow or places in East London.
But the journey will need a double change as there is no interchange between the Piccadilly Line and Crossrail.
I suspect that many will link to Crossrail by taking the Piccadilly Line to Wood Green, Turnpike Lane or Manor House and then get a 141 bus to Moorgate. It is a route, I use if I want to go to Southgate or Cockfosters from my house, which has a 141 stop opposite.
But then as a child to go to Harringay, where my father had an uncle, my mother would use a 641 trolley bus from Wood Green or Turnpike Lane.
Do people follow the public transport habits of their parents?
I know I do!
My father never went on a deep tube. As he several times mentioned the terrible Bank station bombing in the Blitz, which killed 56 people, I always thought that was his problem. But now living as I do along the Northern and Northern City Lines, I suspect it was more to do with air quality, as we were or are both bad breathers.
I suspect that when Crossrail opens, the 141 bus will be heavily used by travellers going between the Northern reaches of the Piccadilly Line and Crossrail at Moorgate.
The 141 bus goes between London Bridge station and Palmers Green and it has a route length of about nine miles.
Currently, buses run every fifteen minutes or so, but I doubt it will be enough in future as Transport for London are rerouting the closely-related 21 bus.
I suspect any route seen as an extension of Crossrail needs to have the following characteristics.
- High frequency of perhaps a bus every ten minutes.
- Interior finish on a par with the Class 345 trains.
- Wi-fi and phone charging.
I would also hope the buses were carbon-free. Given that some of these routes could be quite long, I would suspect hydrogen with its longer range could be better.
Other Routes
According to me, the 141 bus route needs improvement!
But how many other routes could need similar improvement?
The Great Bus Robbery
Transport for London (TfL) obviously don’t like people where I live in the Northern part of De Beauvoir Town in the London Borough of Hackney.
When I moved here, ten years ago there were six bus routes that passed through the traffic lights where the Balls Pond Road (It is not a made-up-name from Round The Horne) and Southgate Road/Mildmay Park meet.
- 21 – Newington Green and Lewisham Shopping Centre
- 30 – Marble Arch and Hackney Wick (From the sublime to the ridiculous?)
- 38 – Victoria station and the romantic Clapton Pond
- 56 – Bart’s Hospital and Whipps Cross (You’d be cross, if you’d been whipped!)
- 141 – London Bridge Station and Palmers Green North Circular Road (Surely, another romantic destination!)
- 277 – Highbury & Islington Station and Crossharbour
Note.
- We had two bus routes to and from Highbury & Islington station for Dear Old Vicky!
- We had two bus routes to and from Moorgate, Bank and the City of London.
- We had four bus routes to and from Dalston Junction station and the cultural attractions of Hackney Central.
- We had a direct bus to Canary Wharf.
TfL looked at the name of the district and thought the posh French name, meant we were all had expensive vehicles or Hackney carriages and said we had too many buses.
So in June 2018, the 277 bus was cut back to Dalston Junction station and TfL promised that the frequency of the 30 bus would be increased. We’re still waiting for extra services.
Now, if you want to go to Highbury & Islington station, according to TfL’s Journey Planner, it’s often quicker to take a 38 or 56 bus to Essex Road station and take a train.
To make matters worse the 30 bus route now has cheap and nasty Egyptian-built buses with more steps than Russia. All buses should have flat floors like the New Routemasters.
What is TfL’s latest crime?
The 21 and 271 buses are going to be combined into a new route between Lewisham and Highgate, which will go nowhere near the Balls Pond Road.
So we’ll just have the one bus route to the City of London.
On past form, if TfL say they will increase the frequency, I wouldn’t believe them.
I think that TfL have ignored some problems.
The Elderly And Disabled
Between Newington Green and Englefield Road, a higher proportion of the passengers getting on the 21 and 141 buses seem to be in these groups.
- As it’s a nice place to live, I suspect many elderly people have just stayed on.
- I believe that North of the Balls Pond Road, there are some care homes and sheltered housing.
Have TfL analysed their passengers?
Not Everybody Has Cars
There are several blocks of social housing on the Newington Green and Englefield Road stretch and you see a lot of passengers who don’t look like car owners.
The lack of parking and the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods don’t help.
Access To Waterloo
My quickest way to Waterloo, which is London’s busiest rail terminal, is to take a bus to Bank and then get the Drain.
A halved service to Bank station will probably force me to take longer routes.
Tradition
When I was a child in the 1950s, the 141 was the 641 trolley bus, which ran between Winchmore Hill and Moorgate.
People, who live in Wood Green, Turnpike Lane and Manor House still commute to the City by bus, as people have done for over a hundred years.
I suspect a lot of commuters change from the Piccadilly Line to the 141 bus at Manor House station. I certainly use that route if I’m going to Southgate or Cockfosters.
The 21 bus starts at Newington Green, which means if you want to go from Balls Pond Road to Bank, you’ll usually get on a 21 bus, as the 141 buses are full with passengers from further North.
So it looks like to get to Moorgate, we’ll need to get a bus to Angel and then get the Northern Line, after the rerouting of the 21 bus.
Crossrail
This will have a big effect.
Suppose you live in Wood Green and want to get to Crossrail.
There is no obvious connection, but tradition will mean your preferred route will be to take a 141 bus between Manor House and Moorgate.
There will also be a quick route between Moorgate and Liverpool Street station, that I wrote about in London’s First Underground Roller Coaster.
Conclusion
We will need the 21 bus to provide us with a route to Crossrail, as the 141 buses will be full.
The 21 bus is needed where it is and mustn’t be stolen.
Why Do 21 And 141 Buses Always Come Together?
To get between my house and Moorgate station, I use either a 21 or a 141 bus.
During the day, both buses run at a frequency of about one bus every ten minutes.
As the buses take exactly the same route between Bank station and Newington Green, surely it would be logical, if the buses were timed on this section, so that the buses ran every five minutes.
But inevitably, a 21 and a 141 bus always turn up together, which generally means if you miss both, you have to wait ten minutes until another pair come along.
Surely, a bus every file minutes might encourage more people to use the buses.
Thoughts On Step-Free Access At Manor House Station
I use Manor House station regularly, as I have a bus-stop by my house, that is perhaps fifty metres from my front door, that connects to the station.
- There is also a zebra crossing to get to the other side of the road.
- The 141 bus actually connects me to Manor House, Turnpike Lane and Wood Green stations on the Piccadilly Line.
- This is because it was a replacement for the 641 trolley-bus route that used to run between Winchmore Hill and Moorgate via. Milmay Park.
- I also use the station as a convenient station to go West on the Piccadilly Line.
- As it connects step-free at Finsbury Park station to the Victoria Line, it certainly has its uses.
Click this link to see an excellent photo of a 641 trolley-bus at Manor House station.
The pub in the photo was the Manor House, where I saw such performers as John Mayall and Eric Clapton amongst others.
I took these pictures today
The station has an unusual layout.
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- Two major roads; the Seven Sisters Road (A503) and Green Lanes (A 105) cross at the station.
- The four major roads are all controlled by traffic lights, which also allow pedestrians to cross the major roads safely on the surface.
- There are a couple of staircases at each corner of the junction and these lead down to a maze of passages that connect these entrances to the escalators that lead up and down to the platforms.
- The former Manor House pub and a new Travel Lodge sit opposite each other on the junction.
- The Travel Lodge sits on the South-West corner.
- The North-West corner leads directly into Finsbury Park., which is not a bad place to go for a walk or a jog.
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The below ground subways in the station are all level.
The staircases between subway and street level are very reminiscent of those at Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square stations.
The staircases also have some excellent period details.
But then they tend to do things as they should in my part of North London.
This picture was taken after a World Cup Third!
What will happen, if England win the Euros?
Manor House station’s design can best be summed up as two level areas connected by a series of staircases.
- Central London stations with this layout include Bank, Cockfosters, Kings Cross St. Pancras,Leicester Square, Manor House, Piccadilly Circus. Tottenham Court Road and Victoria.
- At least Cockfosters, Kings Cross St. Pancras, Tottenham Court Road and Victoria have lifts between the two levels.
- Bank station will have more lifts than Oti Mabusi in a dance routine, after the rebuild.
- Old Street was similar, but Transport for London (TfL) are rebuilding the station.
Cockfosters has level access at both the surface and the platform level and they have sneaked in a lift in a corner of the station.
Grandparents in a wheel-chair or Louis or Lilibet in a pushchair can easily be taken easily between train and the car-park.I am certain, that if there are a number of lifts at the four corners of the road junction at Manor House, then access both to the station and across the junction will be substantially eased.
That just leaves us with the problem of getting between subway and platform levels.
This map from cartometro.com shows the platform layout.
Note that as at Turnpike Lane station in this platform layout, there is also a generous space between the platforms.
The two escalators and a set of stairs face North.
Wood Green station is a bit different, as it has a turnback siding
The two escalators and a set of stairs also face South.
When I used to use the Piccadilly Line in the 1960s, it tended to be pain, if a Wood Green train turned up, when you wanted to go to Oakwood or Cockfosters.
Bounds Green station is shown in this map.
Again the tracks appear to have been curved to allow generous space.
The two escalators and a set of stairs face North.
Arnos Grove station is a station with sidings and four platforms on the surface.
The car parks are likely to be developed for housing, so there will be major changes at the station.
Southgate station is the last station, that doesn’t have step-free access.
But again there is some space between the tracks.
The two escalators and a set of stairs face North.
So did the designers of the Northern Extension of the Piccadilly Line leave space to put in more equipment or even lifts?
After all they didn’t stint themselves on the design of the stations.
Designing Step-Free Access
This is not easy and various considerations must be taken into account.
Revenue Protection
At Cockfosters station, the new lift goes between two areas that are outside the ticket barriers.
If as I have proposed at Manor House station, where there would be lifts between the surface and the subway level, both areas are outside the ticket barriers.
At Tottenham Hale station, there several lifts all of which are inside the ticket barrier.
Staff At The Barrier
Nearly all ticket barriers in London are watched by staff to sort out problems like passengers, who don’t know how to use the system.
Costs
It is unlikely, that large sums of money will be available to add step-free access to all stations on the Underground.
I also think, that step-free access at stations will be funded by developments close to stations.
A London-Wide Solution
It is for these and other reasons, that I think London needs to look in detail at all stations and see if a series of solutions can be developed for all stations.
In this section of the Piccadilly Line, there are five stations with three escalators or two escalators and a staircase.
But there are others on the other deep tube lines.
So should a standard solution be developed for all stations like this? And for all groups of similar stations.
Could An Inclined Lift Be Used At This Group Of Stations?
This picture shows the first inclined lift, I ever saw, which was on the Stockholm Metro.
Looking at the picture shows it was installed on a very long set of escalators.
At present, there is only one inclined lift on the London Underground and that one is at Greenford station.
It is a very neat and compact installation, that incorporates a double-staircase, an up escalator and an inclined lift in a confined space.
I think we’ll see similar solutions to Greenford employed in some stations on the Underground. In Is This A Simple And Affordable Solution To Providing Step-Free Access At Essex Road Station?, I outline how an inclined lift could be used at Essex Road station.
These pictures show the three escalators at Manor House station.
Note.
- The middle escalator was switched off.
- There is a spacious lobby at the bottom of the escalators.
The other four below-ground stations North of Finsbury Park; Turnpike Lane, Wood Green, Bounds Green and Southgate all have two escalators and a central staircase
These pictures show Bounds Green station.
Note that the stairs are in the middle.
It looks to me, that all five escalator systems to the North of Finsbury Park are more or less identical.
- Only Manor House has a third escalator.
- There is a large lobby at the bottom.
- All stairs are in the middle escalator slot.
- Are the stairs designed to be replaced with a third escalator?
So would it be possible to design an inclined escalator solution for all stations, that fitted all of the stations?
I think it might be very much a possibility.
- The central staircase would be replaced by a third escalator.
- One of the outside escalators would be replaced with an inclined lift.
Note
- Many of these escalators were probably installed in the early 1990s, a few years after the Kings Cross Fire.
- Escalators are replaced regularly every ten or twenty years.
So could the installation of the inclined lifts, be worked into the schedule of escalator maintenance and replacement?
I believe with good project management it could be arranged.
- At no time during the works would any station have less than two escalators.
- If there were to be an escalator failure, all of the stations are connected by frequent buses and some are even within walking distance.
The works could also be arranged to fit in with available cash-flow.
I believe that eventually all these stations will need to be provided with full step-free access.
Conclusion
I believe that a sensible program of works can be developed to make all deep-level stations North of Finsbury Park step-free on the Piccadilly Line.
- The deep-level platforms would be served by two escalators and an inclined lift.
- The works would be performed alongside the regular maintenance and replacement of the current escalators.
- There would be no substantial tunneling.
- The works could also be arranged to fit in with available cash-flow.
The technique would be applicable to other stations on the Underground network.
Turnpike Lane Station
In Is Turnpike Lane Tube Station Going Step-Free?, I tried to explain the puzzling works going on at Turnpike Lane station.
Could those works be digging a lift-shaft or something in a more engineering line, like installing more ventilation or new power cables?
There’s certainly no clues on the Internet.
This table shows step-free status and 2019 passenger numbers at the Piccadilly Line stations to the North of Kings Cross St. Pancras station.
- Cockfosters – Step-Free – 1.86 million
- Oakwood – Step-free – 2.78 million
- Southgate – 5.43 million
- Arnos Grove – 4.44 million
- Bounds Green – 5.99 million
- Wood Green – 12.13 million
- Turnpike Lane – 10.6 million
- Manor House – 8.55 million
- Finsbury Park – Step-free – 33.40 million
- Arsenal – 2.77 million
- Holloway Road – 6.69 million
- Caledonian Road – Step-free – 5.60 million
- Kings Cross St. Pancras – Step-free – 88.27 million
Note.
- The high passenger numbers at Finsbury Park and Kings Cross St. Pancras, where there is interchange with lots of other services.
- The long gap of step-free access between Oakwood and Finsbury Park.
- Arnos Grove could be an easier station to make step-free.
I just wonder, if a lift at Turnpike Lane station could be the interim solution, until inclined lifts are installed in the distant future.
Walking Between Cannon Street And Moorgate Stations
I took these pictures as I walked between Cannon Street And Moorgate stations.
Note.
- It was a Sunday, so there wasn’t much traffic about.
- The bus stop on King William Street is served by buses 21, 43 and 141. wjich all go to Moorgate and Old Street stations.
I needed to find out how long it took for this other post, called Thoughts On The Closure Of The Northern Line At Bank To Complete The Upgrade To Bank Station.
Timings were as follows.
- Cannon Street Station to the Northbound bus stop on King William Street – 3 minutes
- Cannon Street Station to Bank Junction – 6 minutes
- Cannon Street Station to Moorgate Station – 15 minutes
How much faster would I be in better weather?
My Bus Stop At Moorgate Has Been Reopened
The easiest way to get to my house is to get a 21, 76 or 141 bus from outside Moorgate station. All stop within a hundred metres of my house.
For several years the stop has been a temporary affair, whilst Moorgate station is rebuilt.
But now it’s a proper stop with a next bus display and a shelter.
Much of what I need in life, is available close to this stop.
- On the other side of the road is a Marks and Spencer store with both food and clothes.
- Within twenty metres of the stop, there are Boots, Hotel Chocolat, Pret a Manger and Leon.
- There’s a PC World and a Rymans around the corner.
And underneath it all is Crossrail!
I will have my own personal frequent bus route to London’s new rail line!
The Anonymous Widower 