Before Overground – St. James Street
A Station With Potential – Rating 5/10
St. James Street station, is one of those that with a deep clean and a good paint job could become an acceptable station.
But of course, in the long term, it would need lifts to make the access step-free.
I know the station has a florist, but someone is maintaining a good floral display at the entrance to the station.
Before Overground – Highams Park
A Station With A Garden – Rating 7/10
Highams Park station, is one of those that doesn’t need a great deal of work to make it one of the best stations on the Overground.
It is one of the few stations, where because there are three ways to cross the tracks, step free access isn’t the greatest of problems. Although, when the new trains come, it might not be a bad idea to make sure that the platform edge is matched to the train.
Does London Need A ‘Grand Paris Express’?
The Grand Paris Express is a plan to create an automated Metro, that goes all the way round Paris. Wikipedia says this.
Grand Paris Express is a project of new rapid transit lines to be created in the île-de-France region, in France. The work could begin in 2014, with the first line opening between Pont de Sèvres métro station and Gare de Noisy – Champs (fr) RER A station around 2020. This line was first proposed in the project Orbival, then integrated into the Arc Express project.
The French also seem to be moving on the project as is reported here in Global Rail News.
So does London need something similar?
If we look at Berlin, that has a circular railway around the city centre called the Ringbahn. It’s about the same size as the Circle Line, but differs in one big way; it has a parallel freight ring.
London also has the Overground,which is a great way to get round the city without going through the centre. Like the Berlin Ringbahn it also carries freight.
The Overground is not a Metro, as in Berlin or as Paris is proposing, but a full-size railway, with not as high a frequency, as you’d get on a tube or metro line. However, the Overground does share a lot of objectives with the Grand Paris Express.
But those creative minds at Transport for London have proposed something similar to the Grand Paris Express in their Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050. It’s a plan to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line under the Thames from Barking to Abbey Wood and then by means of existing lines take the trains around London via Sutton, Wimbledon, Hounslow, Old Oak Common to Gospel Oak. I documemted the route in full in these posts.
London’s plan differs from that of Paris in one big way, as it only requires one expensive piece of new infrastructure, which is the tunnel from Barking to Thamesmead. The main factor that will make London’s plan possible is that in a few years, all trains will have in-cab signalling, so slotting in the new Overground services on existing lines, will be a lot easier.
The title of the French proposal sums it up. It contains the word Grand and that is what it is.
London may take a much more mundane and affordable step-by-step approach, but it means that you don’t have to wait years to get the benefits you need now.
Before Overground – Clapton
Another Station For Those Not In The First Flush Of Youth – Rating 2/10
Clapton station is another with access problems for the disabled, buggy-pushers and the elderly.
Unfortunately, the station also seems to have a touch of the Japanese Knotweed, although this could be one of the few stations in the Lea Valley Lines, where simple gardens could make the station much more pleasant.
I’ve been trying to imagine this station in a few months after a deep clean and a good painting, London Overground double orange handrails, some better standard seating and some tidy foliage at the far end of the platforms.
It will be much better than it is now.
Before Overground – Hackney Downs
Could Be A Great Station With Imagination – Rating 3/10
Hackney Downs station is rather a dump at present, as the pictures show.
But because it is four platform station with rooms all over the place, it could with imagination be turned into the Crystal Palace station of the North.
The pictures show how the bridge over Dalston Lane has been restored, so at least a good start has been made. As the station has a lot of ironwork, I wonder if a Leadenhall Market solution could be applied. Instead of using expensive painters for all the ironwork, the City of London laid down the scheme and paid art students to do it. Hackney Downs obviously isn’t as grand, but if some of the ironwork in the station and others on the Lea Valley Line were to be properly painted, it might liven up a series of otherwise drab stations.
I also think that the large island platform, may be a suitable place to put a nice bronze sculpture that is deemed to be too valuable to display, as it might get nicked.
The station is a bit like one of those large rambling Victorian houses with umpteen rooms, that are advertised with tremendous potential.
Before Overground – London Fields
A Station With an Excellent Bakery/Cafe – Rating 3/10
London Fields station is another station on the Lea Valley Lines with no decent access.
As I arrived a Japanese lady was struggling down the stairs with her three-year-old, a buggy and a scooter.
The reason she was coming was to visit the E5 bakehouse and cafe. It was so full, that I couldn’t get my intended cup of tea.
As you can see from the pictures, Network Rail have done a superb job in creating a series of small workshops in the railway arches.
It’s just a pity, that the access at the station wasn’t fixed at the same time.
As the station has only had a frequent service since 2005. was this one of those stations that British Rail hoped would quietly die?
Before Overground – Stoke Newington
A Dreadful Station To Avoid – Rating 2/10
Stoke Newington station was built when people weren’t disabled, pushed buggies or grew elderly and it shows.
In my view it’s one of those stations, that with a creative surface makeover, lifts and perhaps a light-controlled crossing to access buses going north, could be turned into one of the better stations on the line. The station forecourt has what looks to be a decent cafe, so selective development around the station could probably improve matters.
Before Overground – Silver Street
A Disgraceful Station By An Important Hospital – Rating 1/10
These are pictures taken at Silver Street station.
It is not one of the better equipped stations, as it has no lifts, escalators, no open ticket office or cafe.
The stairs are also long and precipitous. They would be impossible for anybody with a baby in a buggy!
What makes this a lot worse, is that the station is close to the North Middlesex hospital. So if you have access problems and are visiting the hospital, steer clear of this station. You’d be better going to Edmonton Green and ordering a taxi.
All hospitals should have very easy step-free access from the nearest transport interchange.
Before Overground – Edmonton Green
A Prototype Station For The Lea Valley Lines – Rating 8/10
This is the first of a series of posts, where I post pictures of the stations on the Lea Valley Lines before the takeover by the London Overground in May next year.
Edmonton Green station is one of the better stations on the line and the lifts that are being installed, should be fully working in a month or so.
I’ve used quite a few stations on the Lea Valley Lines, but this must be one that needs the smallest amount of work to bring it up to a high standard. It’s got lifts, a cafe, tasteful shelters and seats.
It also has good bus connections, so it is one of those stations, where if you were in a wheelchair or pushing a buggy, you might swap your mode of transport.
Up And Down On The East London Line
My memories if the East London Line don’t go back very far, as I probably only ever used the line once before I moved to Dalston in 2010. I think it must have been around 2000, when I was travelling from Brighton to my youngest son’s house in Bow. I changed trains at New Cross Gate to get to Whitechapel, from where I must have used the Metropolitan Line to Mile End, near to where he lived.
Comfortable and clean it wasn’t! The trains weren’t as bad as the travelling urinals of the North London Line, but the A Stock were forty years old and very tired.
I posted here about the step-free access improvements on the London Overground, so I thought I’d check them out.
The pictures show my route from Dalston Junction to New Cross, from where I walked to New Cross Gate for a train to Crystal Palace. After a refreshment stop at the excellent Brown and Green cafe at the flagship southern terminus of the East London Line, I retraced my steps stopping to look at the improvements at Honor Oak Park and Brockley.
Of the stations south of Surrey Quays on the New Cross and Crystal Palace branches only Sydenham will not be substantially step-free by early next year. At Sydenham though it is effectively two stations, one for each direction, which means with planning, difficult stairs can be avoided.
Several excellent new cafes and coffee stalls, seem to be setting up in the stations.
The future is definitely looking up on the East London Line.
A good start has definitely been made on bringing some of the stations in South London into the twenty-first century.
The Anonymous Widower 