Up The West London Line
After my visit to Clapham Junction, I came back via the West London line, taking a break to explore at the new Imperial Wharf station.
It is an impressive station as the pictures show. But I doubt it’s one I’ll use it very often, as it’s on the far side of London from me.
How To Improve A Station
Clapham Junction station is one of the busiest in Europe and on some measures the busiest station in the UK.
I had only been twice before. One was in the 1960s, when I was looking to see some of Bulleid ‘s steam engines, like the Merchant Navy class. The other was a few years ago, when I was going to Southampton from Suffolk.
Since those days, the station has had a makeover. The most impressive feature is the rebuilt bridge with lifts to all the platforms and the new south-eastern or Brighton Yard entrance to the station.
I’ve tried to annotate the pictures correctly, but if you have better captions please let me know.
I should say that in the future Clapham Junction will be important to me, as I will be able to get a direct train to the station from Dalston Junction using the Overground, which will mean, I can get to the south and south west without having to struggle to Waterloo or Victoria. Incidentally, the design of the Overground Platform 2, shows how with a bit of innovation, you can squeeze wide easy-to-navigate platforms into a small space. Once complete passengers arriving on the new East/South London line will just have to walk a few metres to catch the West London line and vice-versa.
Just like with Stratford, it shows how by using good design and a sensible amount of money you can create a good interchange to take the pressure off the main London termini.
I think it is true to say, that the new bridge is the most impressive feature of the redevelopment. If you are changing trains, at the station, it is the ideal place to wait with interesting views, cafes and shops. It is also well-provided with information and has lifts to all platforms.
How many other stations would benefit from a similar makeover?
West Hampstead – This has been proposed and probably will happen. I would certainly benefit, as I could take the North London line to pick up the Jubilee line or Chiltern line to Birmingham.
Hackney Central and Hackney Downs – This could be an important interchange in north-east London, as I indicated here.
Willesden Junction– Connected to both Stratford and Clapham Junction by the London Overground, it should be developed as a link to the north. Selected Virgin expresses should stop at the station.
West Croydon – This needs to be sorted and linked properly to East Croydon. At present it’s easy to go from West to East, but the other way is difficult.
Get these and other interfaces sorted and a lot of pressure could be taken off the main London termini.
92 Clubs – Day 12 – Crystal Palace, Dagenham and Redbridge, Derby, Doncaster, Everton
If I had been predicting what would happen on this day as I started out, I’d have been very wrong. But it does show what is possible.
I started by taking the Overground to Norwood junction for Crystal Palace. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but some idiot had hit a bridge at Homerton with a truck. And then as I walked to the ground another pair of idiots had a head-on on a cross-roads. Luckily no-one was physically hurt, although the words were flying. Both drivers then started arguing with me, so that I could be their witness and I was delayed about ten minutes. Then a policeman turned up and he extricated me from the argument and told me to get on with my business. If I have one regrest, it was I didn’t take the car numbers, so that I could report them to an accident claims specialist.
A few minutes later, I was at Selhurst Park.
Selhurst Park
I didn’t stay long and it was a long drag on the Overground and the District line to Dagenham East for Dagenham and Redbridge.
The ground is a short distance away and rather tucked down a side-street, but at least it’s signposted well.
Dagenhajm and Redbridge
I was now running late for my 10:55 train out of St. Pancras and I didn’t get there until 12:30 or so. But I had booked an Off-Peak rather than an Advanjce ticket deliberately, so the only inconvenience was that I lost my free reserved seat.
Pride Park, is easy to reach at Derby, and I just walked out of the back of the now rather grand station through the business park to the ground.
Derby's Pride Park Stadium
I wasn’t there long and I was soon off to Doncaster on a direct train.
Doncaster is one of these inaccessible drive-to stadia, so it was a taxi from the station again.
Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium
A few minutes after returning to the station, I was on a crowded Trans Pennine Express for Manchester, where I changed for Liverpool.
It got a bit of a fraught journey later on, as I point out in this post, however, once I got to Liverpool, it was redeemed by a proper Scouse taxi driver and Liverpool supporter, who took me quickly to Everton‘s Goodison Park.
Outside Goodison Park in the Dark
It was all very quick and he only charged me for the diesel and I was back in time to get the 19:48 for London. The train conductor even held the train for perhaps a minute or so, so that several of us late comers got on-board.
We were just a few minutes late into Euston, but as I was two trains in front of where I thought I’d be, I’m not complsining.
Avoiding the Rain on the Train
One of the reasons, I wanted to use the bus to get home, even if it meant a change, was that it was raining hard. If I could have ended up on any one of several routes, I would have been dropped within a hundred metres of my house. Usually when you change buses, you don’t get that wet too, if you choose the changeover with care.
I have three choices of train from Stratford. I usually take one of.
- The Overground to Dalston Kingsland and walk.
- The Overground to Hackney Central and get a bus.
- Central line to Bank and then a bus.
All though would have meant a ten minute walk in the rain. And I didn’t have an umbrella with me.
So in the end, I took the Overground to Canonbury, then back on the East London line to Dalston Junction and then a bus along the Balls Pond Road. Not the simplest, but definitely the driest. It was very wet as this picture at Canonbury shows.
Canonbury in the Rain
To make matters worse, my preferred route via Hackney Central requires a walk over an uncovered bridge and I wasn’t the only person, who on seeing the weather there, declined to get off.
The Overground is one of those modes of transport, that is very good in fine weather, but some stations get you very wet, when it rains heavily.
The amount of passengers using the line is starting to cause problems. I left Stratford in the rush hour and getting to the platforms was difficult because of large numbers of passengers going the other way. I used the lift to avoid them. The platforms also need a Next Train indicator, as is common on many parts of London’s railways, both over and under the ground.
Overground Art
I had gone to see the non-opening of the DLR extension to Stratford International this morning and coming back, I came back via Haggerston station, rather than the more usual Dalston Junction station, as I wanted to get a paper on the way home.
It wasn’t the first time I’d used the station, but it was the first time I’d seen this artwork.
The Elliptical Switchback by Tod Hanson at Haggerston Station
And here’s the explanation.
Art Inspired by Edmond Halley
There should be more art like this on the Overground. I wonder what Sir Edmond would have thought!
Could A Hackney Junction Station Be Created?
Today, I was returning from Stratford station and did what I often do now and that is get off the Overground at Hackney Central station and get a 38 bus to just round the corner from my house. Ideally, I would like to take the disused Eastern Curve to walk from Dalston Junction station. But this would be a difficult route to reinstate. It would also be expensive, with not much change left from a million pounds.
The change at Hackney Central only takes a few minutes, but it involves using an overbridge to cross the North London line and a U-shaped walk to get to the bus stop on Graham Road.
The other problem at Hackney is getting between the two stations of Hackney Central and Hackney Downs. I walked it at ground level and it doesn’t take too long. There are some pictrures here.
But I wouldn’t like to do it in a few years or with a child in a buggy or in a wheelchair. There used to be a walkway at track level, but this was demolished, when the North London line was truncated to Dalston in 1944.
So could anything be done to improve the station? Let’s start by looking at an aerial view of the two stations and the surrounding roads coutesy of Google.
Map of Hackney Central and Downs Stations
The first thing you will notice is that there is a surprising amount of greenery and trees, especially along the line running westwards from Hackney Central station.
There is also car parking to the north of Hackney Central on Amhurst Road, which could be developed for something more worthwhile.
Returning to ground level, I took this picture of the old station building for Hackney Central, which sits on the corner of Mare Street and Graham Road.
The Old Hackney Central Station
This is surely worth preserving and using for something better than as a prop for the railway. Note the alleyway that leads to the new station buildings at the side.
This station is very similar to Camden Road station, also on the North London line, and like that station, I suspect Hackney Central also featured an underpass to get to the line on the other side. If this could be reinstated, this would remove one of the main problems of the station and that is having to use the overbridge to get to and from the westbound platform. I can manage it OK after a stroke, but I couldn’t if I was a young mother with twins in a double buggy.
I’m no architect, but I feel that a good one, with an understanding of structures could create an imposing station at the Hackney Central end of the combined station. As I said before there is space to the north of the station, which could be used as either a bus interchange, a square with cafes and other meeting places or niche retail. Or perhaps all three to create somewhere you might go to meet someone before walking the Lea Valley, going shopping at Eastfield or to the football at White Hart Lane.
The Hackney Downs end on the other hand doesn’t offer such a good collection of buildings on which to create a statement as you could at Central. So perhaps you just do something with the staircases and give it a good or as I said earlier, a wild coat of paint.
To connect the two stations you have three options.
- The simplest would probably be to signpost a preferred route, perhaps cutting the current distance slightly by sneaking in at the back of Hackney Downs.
- You could also put controlled crossing in at the two stations, so that the bus routes that served both stations could be used to bridge the gap.
- Or you could create a Hackney Skywalk alongside the two railways, above the streets below. Whether this could be done meeting all of the safety regulations, I do not know, but it would be a statement of intent of two rail lines and one station.
Finally, the buses in the area need a bit of reorganisation, especially if the North London Line continues to carry more and more passengers and the stations get full step-free access.
- Some buses for instance, like the 30 and the 277 almost parallel the line from Hackney Wick to Highbury and Islington, so perhaps some simplification could be envisaged.
- The 38 goes all the way to Victoria from Hackney, as does the 73 from Stoke Newington, so perhaps if Hackney had better connections to the Victoria line, some passengers might take that route.
- The new North London Line has shown that if you provide good east-west links in North London, they’ll get used. So perhaps, there is a need for a bus from somewhere like Archway to Walthamstow.
If nothing with this ramble, I’ve proved one thing. There are endless possibilities about what can be done to improve public transport in Hackney and up the Lea Valley.
To be fair to, to the Council, they have a lot of useful information and alternative plans on their web site.
Avoid Changing At Bank
For some time now, changing from one tube line to another at Bank has been something to avoid according to Transport for London.
I have advised people coming to see me to change at Bank onto a 76, 21 or 141 bus to go north to Dalston. But now CrossRail works and putting in a new water main seem to mean that finding a bus at certain times at Bank, is like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack.
Coming back from Oxford Circus at around four this afternoon, took me nearly an hour, when normally in the rush hour, I can do it on a 73 bus in about thirty-five minutes.
So where were the seventy-frees this afternoon? Stuck in the jams at Bond Street caused by Sunday afternoon shoppers and the CrossRail works at Bond Street. I couldn’t tak the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington, as that was closed for engineering work.
The problems will sort themselves out in the next few weeks, as the summer will be over and a lot of the weekend engineering work will be suspended until the Christmas period.
It is now though, that one of the major faults of the Overground is starting to show itself. And that is the lack of a link to the Central line in the east of London. You have to remember too, that the Central line is actually under Shoreditch High Street station. But then the cost of a new tube station there would probably have doubled the cost of the East London line.
I suppose the planners felt that when CrossRail is finished, then this will solve the problem with the interchange at Whitechapel.
The Edinburgh Tram Fiasco Continues
Over the last few years, there have been several local transport prjects in the UK. Most like the London Overground have been completed on time and on budget, with one in London the DLR Extension to Stratford International being a year late.
Two major projects though have gone seriously over budget; the Cambridge Busway and the Edinburgh Tram.
The former is now up and running and most of the reports are positive. Extra buses are supposedly being ordered to cope with demand. But it will be easier to sort out the problems of the cost overruns for a success than a failure.
But the Edinburgh Tram fiasco continues according to this report on the BBC. So for a large cost overrun, Edinburgh will get what half they originally ordered. When what they are now getting is completed, passengers arriving at the airport will be unable to take the tram to the City Centre to see the similarly half-finished National Monument. But at least the tram will serve the headquarters of the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers at Gogar!
At least it has given a lot of work for consultants and material for comedians at the Festival.
A Plan For Tottenham Is Emerging
It would appear that Spurs are on the point of dropping their bid to take over the Olympic stadium according to the BBC.
I have looked at the plans for the new stadium and feel that the way it would be built is innovative and good project management, making the best use of all the resources.
A deal seems to be being working out with the Mayor and the Government about improving public transport in the area. As I said earlier, I believe this should be achieved by giving some or all of the Lea Valley lines to Transport for London and adding them to the Overground. The trains, track and power supplies are not the worst, but improving the stations with their dreadful access and especially the link at Hackney Downs to the North London line and to buses must be done. A point here, is that this access traps the locals in the area, whether they like football or not.
It would also help London and Tottenham Hotspur, if a large Park and Ride was built somewhere to the north of White Hart Lane station on the Cheshunt line by the M25. London and the City lacks a decent Park and Ride and parking at most stations to the north and east of London is inadequate and overpriced.
So in my view a proper modern railway run to the same reliability as the Overground would transform the whole area from Bethnal Green, through Hackney and Tottenham to Enfield and the M25.
Finally, it has always irked Spurs supporters that Arsenal have their own Underground station. So why shouldn’t White Hart Lane be renamed Spurs?
The Overground Connection to the Lea Valley Line at Seven Sisters
I tried to take a picture of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line of the Overground, as I passed over it, just before I got to Seven Sisters station whilst travelling to Bruce Grove today.
The Overground Passing Under the Lea Valley Line South of Seven Sisters
It was not good and neither was the one of the I took of Seven Sisters South junction that connects the two lines.
Seven Sisters South Junction
Some might argue that an interchange station here would be a good thing. Or perhaps that some trains from Enfield might use this junction to get to Barking and other places in East London.
I wouldn’t! But I would make the walk from Seven Sisters station to South Tottenham station as easy as possible. According to Wikipedia, there is a shorter route that is not well signposted.
So often improvements in many things can be brought about by decent signs, maps or a few litres of well-applied paint. Perhaps when we signpost an area, we should involve the teenagers. They know all the short-cuts and those places that are dangerous.
The Anonymous Widower 