Will Old Oak Common Station And The Wimbledon To Sutton Tramlink Extension Get The Go-Ahead?
This article in Rail Engineer is entitled TfL Budget Confirms Rail Projects. This is said.
The GLA budget, announced in February 2016, included a £250 million fund for two new overground stations at Old Oak Common, linking with Crossrail, national rail and HS2, and £100 million towards a potential extension to the tram network to Sutton.
So will we be seeing a start to the planning for these two projects?
Obviously, nothing will be decided until the new Mayor is elected.
The Tramlink Is Back In Wimbledon Station
The Tramlink is now back in a two platform stop in Wimbledon station.
I always found that the old tram stop was like going into a mine as it was dark and not very welcoming.
This new tram stop is a lot better and there is plenty of space.
Although one passenger said it is now further to walk, as the trams stop further down the platform.
As the two platforms appear to be independent, I wonder if the proposed Extension A to Sutton could now be incorporated into Wimbledon station? This is said in the Wikipedia section.
The Sutton to Wimbledon proposal utilises the existing line between Wimbledon and Morden Road, but the cramped terminus inside Wimbledon station is barely adequate for its present function. If another service is to serve Wimbledon a new terminus will be needed.
The terminus is certainly not cramped any more and now that a second platform for the trams is available, then could Extension A be built?
In Crossrail 2 October 2015 – Wimbledon station, I said that I felt, the trams should cross over the rail lines on a viaduct and come into the other side of the station opposite to the District Line platforms, as this would give some advantages.
- Any rebuilding of the tram connection at Wimbledon station for Crossrail 2, might be avoided.
- A large concourse could be provided between tram and Tube, to give a totally flat interchange and provide the services interchanging passengers need.
- The trams would be well out of the way of Crossrail 2 and during the building of that line could keep running at most times.
- It might be possible to have three tram platforms for extra services if required.
I know because of the viaduct over the tracks and the building the platforms on the other side of the station, that my solution would be very much more expensive, but it does completely separate the trams from Crossrail 2.
The Crossrail 2 proposal achieves the same separation by putting the trams on Wimbledon Bridge in front of the station, which would probably mean that traffic would need to be restricted to buses, taxis and trams.
Other vehicular traffic would require a new bridge over the station.
I think we’ll get a better solution, when a decent architect has had a good look at the problems caused by trying to put Crossrail 2 through Wimbledon station.
Why The London Tramlink Should Be Extended To The Royal Marsden Hospital
One of my Google Alerts picked up this article in the Sutton Guardian entitled Bunker for breakthrough cancer therapy machine could fit 24 Routemaster buses.
It is about the creation of a concrete bunker at the Royal Marsden Hospital to house a cross between an MR Linac machin which is decribed like this here on the Institute for Cancer Research web site.
The MR Linac combines two technologies – an MRI scanner and a linear accelerator – to precisely locate tumours, tailor the shape of X-ray beams in real time, and accurately deliver doses of radiation even to moving tumours.
All this leads to more and more patients going to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton to get treatment.
As many will not be in the best of health and would not relish a stressful journey, surely now is the time to build extension A of the London Tramlink to Sutton and the Hospital. This map shows the current proposal.
St. Helier Tramlink
The Royal Marsden Hospital is South of Sutton.
As Sutton is a Thameslink station, this Tramlink extension will give access to the Royal Marsden from a large area of London and the South East.
Tramlink Works At Wimbledon
I came back from Wimbledon by using the Tramlink to West Croydon station and then the East London Line. It’s a bit chaotic at Wimbledon as they’re updating the tram terminus with a second platform and you have to walk to Dundonald Road.
When the works are hopefully completed in October, this will allow four new trams to be introduced on the route to Wimbledon, which will result in an increase in service. Read about it here on the TfL web site.
Would A Tram-Tube Be Feasible?
I have seen tram-trains at work in Karlruhe, Kassel and Mulhouse and they work well as they travel on the tram-tracks in the city centre and the train tracks as they travel outside and to the next major town. We’re soon to introduce Class 399 tram-trains between Sheffield and Rotherham as an experiment and after what I’ve seen in Europe, I don’t believe that the trial will be a substantial failure because of the concept.
When I looked at Crossrail 2 at Wimbledon, I said I had a bonkers idea. If we can have tram-trains, then why can’t we have tram-tubes?
Dimensional restrictions would apply and I suspect it would only be possible with the larger size of tube train. But the cross-section of the modern S7/8 stock is not that different to your average tram, although they are longer. Although, I’ve seen some substantial tram-trains in Europe, with at least four coaches.
What gave me the thought was the problem of the Tramlink platforms at Wimbledon would be solved if they could run up the District Line to another terminus.
It is probably infeasible at Wimbledon for various reasons, but once the tram-train technology is proven in a UK environment, I can’t see why the concept might not work in the right way in the right place on the sub-surface lines of the London Underground. One possibility would be to create a branch line shuttle. Such a concept could have been used at Barking Riverside, but they have decided to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line instead.
I do think it will be wrong to underestimate the devious minds of those engineers trying to squeeze the last drop out of London’s transport infrastructure.
Crossrail 2 At Wimbledon
After my trip to Wimbledon, I just had to look at how the Crossrail 2 will affect the area.
Depending on what you read, the tunnel portal could be to the London side of Wimbledon station or the country side.
I always thought it was going to be south-west of Wimbledon station, but the latest route map on the Crossrail 2 web site shows it on the London side and I do remember reading somewhere that it had been moved.
I think there may be advantages to this position of the portal.
1. There may be more space in which to work on the London side, as there is a lot of land used by the railway and industrial units.
2. The tunnel is probably a kilometre shorter and this may have the knock-on effect of needing less ventilation and access shafts.
3. Wimbledon station will still be on the surface. It will need extensive remodeling, but there will be no need for platforms in tunnels.
4. Wimbledon station could easily be rebuilt with the two hundred and fify metre long platforms needed for Crossrail 2.
5. Integrating the Crossrail 2 lines into the busy lines of the South Western Main Line, may well be an easier construction job on the London side, that causes a lot less disruption to an already overloaded route into London. South West Trains would do anything to avoid the line being shut for a long time.
6. Constructing the portal on the London side, may well cause less inconvenience to a smaller number of local residents.
For these reasons, I’ll look at the London side portal position and how it might affect those that live and work in the area.
This is a clip of the area of a possible London-side tunnel portal from Crossrail 2’s map from Wimbledon to Chelsea.
Crossrail 2 Wimbledon Poral Area
The area is mainly a collection of train sidings and depots and lots of industrial units, as this Google Earth image shows.
Crossrail 2 Wimbledon Area Now
Unfortunately, the two maps are at a different orientation.
My feelings are that the two tracks will be served by a single island platform at Wimbledon station, which would obviously need a rebuild. This Google Earth image shows the station.
Wimbledon Station
Note the shopping centre to the south-east, with the Tramlink approaching from the south to a terminus squeezed in tight.
Wimbledon station is not a modern station by any means with several problems.
1. Access to the platforms is up and down steep steps.
2. There seems to be no logic to which platform you catch your train, except that the Underground platforms are together on one side of the station.
3. Tramlink needs at least an extra platform. At the moment the Tramlink stop at Wimbledon, must be one of the pokiest and passenger-unfriendly tram stops in the world, as it seems to have been modelled on the Black Hole of Calcutta. The improvements to Tramlink at Wimbledon are shown on this page of the TfL web site, but there is no design for the new Tramlink stop.
4. Changing between Tramlink, South West Trains services and the Underground involves going up one set of stairs and then down another.
5. London is moving away from manned ticket offices and the whole layout of stations is changing dramatically.
I’m no architect, but I know a good modern station layout like say Reading when I see it.
I think at Wimbledon, you could build a deck over all the lines and access the various services using escalators and lifts, as at Reading. All of the customer services and the shops and kiosks would be on the deck and passengers would just walk into the station at the deck level straight off the street. As at Reading and other new stations, passengers would tend to wait above rather than on the platforms.
The platforms would extend both sides of the bridge, so that Tramlink could have its own well-lit two-platform station tucked under the road outside the station or the car park opposite. One small point is that when I traced TfL possible GOBlin extension, it needed to reverse at Wimbledon. One or more bay platforms could be tucked in on the country-side of the station, if they were needed.
The French, Germans and a lot of other nations would handle the problem of Tramlink differently. They would probably run it across the station perpendicular to the train tracks, either on-street on in a tunnel. But we don’t like the first and the second would be expensive. It would only work well, if the Tramlink was going to be extended to somewhere north-west of Wimbledon station.
I would though investigate a solution for Tramlink, similar to the platform layout used by the Overground at Clapham Junction, where the two services meet head on and passengers just walk up the platform to change trains. The problem is that Tramlink would need to cross the train lines as the tram and Underground lines are on different sides of the station. This would need a flyover or extensive on-street running for the trams, but I believe that it would be good to have both together in their own part of the station. At worst getting Tramlink from its awful location, would give passengers a better experience and release half a platform for train services.
Whilst I was writing this, I had an idea worthy of getting myself certified. And that is the tram-tube! It’s so bonkers, it needs a separate article, which I wrote later.
So that is my thoughts on Crossrail 2 at Wimbledon!
I believe that it can be put through a rebuilt station, with very little disruption.
I also don’t think it will disrupt much on the northern side or Wimbledon village side of the lines,
The dreadful station needs a complete rebuild anyway.
If the station design is done well, I think that everything else will fall into place.
Hospital Closure Protests
Yesterday’s BBC London local news led with a story about how the hospitals of Epsom and St. Helier NHS Trust will be redeveloped.
They currently have three hospitals at Epsom, St. Helier and Sutton and consultants overhead on a train, are saying that a new hospital will be developed on one of the sites.
From what the report said, the locals want to keep all hospitals, which may not be the most economic or practical solutions.
I have looked at Google Earth images and the details on how you get to these hospitals and I suspect that the only practical way to get to these hospitals is by car or taxi. But as they probably charge an arm and a leg for parking, this is probably something that gets protested about all the time.
If they do build a new hospital it must be easily accessible by public transport. At present all sites need a long walk to all except Epsom, which is obviously a policy designed to discourage poorly and elderly patients and visitors without their own transport. There have been plans to link St. Helier hospital on the Tramlink, but nothing seems to be happening in that area. This is the Google Earth image for the hospital.
St. Helier Hospital
Surely, if you are going to create a new super-hospital it must have first-class public transport links. This article in the Local Guardian shows the route of the proposed Tramlink extension.
St. Helier Tramlink
I would assume that the loop to St. Helier Hospital includes street running or goes through Rose Hill Park. This a Google Earth image of the area.
St. Helier Tramlink Detail
The roundabout at the top left is Rosehill roundabout, which is planned to have a tram stop and the hospital is at the bottom right.
It would seem feasible to run the Tramlink to the hospital, but would the street running and/or possible loss of green space, create a lot of opposition?
A survey on the Merton Council web site is very supportive of Tramlink going to the hospital.
An interesting fact is that there is a frequent train service, that takes just ten minutes between Epsom and Sutton stations, so if a super-hospital was built on the St. Helier site, getting there from Epsom wouldn’t be difficult, provided of course the Tramlink extension was built.
If we look at Epsom Hospital becoming the super-hospital, then here is a Google Earth image that shows both Epsom station and the hospital.
Epsom Station And Hospital
The station is at the top and the hospital is indicated by the red arrow at the bottom.
From experience of the area years ago, it is not an easy walk and should a super-hospital be served by buses alone?
The other site is to build it on the old Sutton Hospital. But this is only served by buses from Sutton station, as is the nearby world-class Royal Marsden Hospital. This Google Earth image shows the two hospitals and the nearest rail station at Belmont.
Sutton Hospitals And Belmont Station
There could be possibilities to sort out the transport links in some way to Belmont station, but it only has an infrequent service with nothing on a Sunday.
I have a feeling that if the Tramlink extension is built between Wimbledon and Sutton stations, that if tram-trains were used they could extend down the Epsom Downs branch, with perhaps a loop to serve the developing Health Campus based on the Royal Marsden and perhaps a super-hospital built at Sutton.
Disconnected Croydon
Connected Croydon is a programme of public works to improve Croydon’s streets, squares and open spaces.
On Tuesday, I had a simple need to go to IKEA Croydon, which is served by the Ampere Way tram stop, to meet an e-friend, who’d seen my musing about creating a new IKEA Kitchen. We’d agreed to meet at 13:00 and as I knew the journey well, I took a timely train from Whitechapel to get to Croydon about 12:30, which would have given me time to walk through Croydon to one of the tram stops like George Street that are served by trams going to Wimbledon.
But there had been no warning that the trams weren’t running through Croydon town centre and an Overground employee told me, I must walk to Reeve’s Corner tram stop.
But I don’t know Croydon at all, except from on a tram or train passing through, so I got lost and walked to East Croydon, where a sensible man told me that there were no trams and I would need a 410 bus to get to Reeve’s Corner. But the bus information system didn’t call out Reeve’s Corner, so I ended up two stops down the line at Wandle Park, where the information system said that I’d hjave to wait twenty-seven minutes for a tram to IKEA.
Luckily, the display was wrong and a geezer with a clipboard, said that was par for the course, so I eventually got to IKEA at 13:30 or so, after my friend had had to give up.
I didn’t muck about coming home and avoided Croydon by going the long way round via Wimbledon.
Connected Croydon? Pull the other one!
Or at least put up some signs that can be understood by visitors! And a Tram Replacement Bus would have helped this simple soul!
On the other hand, perhaps, they don’t want visitors!
My mother was right, when she told me not to go south of the Thames, as you get lost!
The Design Of Tram Or Tram-Train Stations
When I wrote the article about using tram-trains in Blackpool, I wanted to include a picture from an existing UK tramway to show what a stop might look like on the Colne Line after conversion to tram-train operation, if that should be decided. The only tramway near me is the Croydon Tramlink, for which my Freedom Pass is valid, so I went to take some pictures.
Some more are shown in this article about Birkbeck Tramlink stop.
I believe that the pictures show the sort of stations you would get on a line like the Colne Line, if you used Class 399 tram-trains instead of Class 142 trains. As Birkbeck shows you can have single-track bi-directional stations in addition to the more normal ones with two platforms, either on the outside of the tracks or as an island between them.
If I’d gone to any other UK tramway and a good few on the continent like Strasbourg, I’d have found similar good design. Although some don’t quite get the step-free access quite as good as Croydon and Strasbourg do.
But next time you get into a Class 142 or some of their dreadful cousins to go to work or for a bit of pleasure in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield, think what train travel could be like in a brand new tram-train that sped you to your destination in complete comfort, in a faster time, than your current scrapyard special.
The experience will be even better, if the stations you use have all of the superb step-free access that you get in Croydon, Strasbourg and Edinburgh.
To sum up my ideal tramway must have.
1. Low floor trams or tram-trains with level access from the platform, with no gap between.
2. Gentle slopes up from street level to the platforms if possible.
3. As few lifts and escalators as possible to break down.
4. Crossing the tracks should be a simple walk across.
5. A shelter on every platform.
6. Good information on use and ticketing, with maps of the network and the local area at every stop and on every vehicle.
7. Multiple next stop displays with a clock on the vehicle. Trains and trams, are well behind London’s buses in this area.
8. Contactless bank card and cashless ticketing. Anything else is so last millennium! If one of the biggest cities in the world; London can do it across all their modes of transport and well upwards of a dozen transport operators, surely all smaller ones can!
9. Free wi-fi!
10. An on-board Train Captain like the Docklands Light Railway!
I’ve never used a tram network that scores ten! Croydon Tramlink scores about eight.
Could Tram-Trains Be Used To Advantage In Croydon?
The Croydon Tramlink has been around since 2000 and doesn’t get mentioned very often with respect to either expansion or tram-trains.
Tramlink Route 1
The Tramlink Route 1 to Elmers End, does not give much scope for tram-trains as Elmers End is the only station with a rail connection, other than East and West Croydon.
That is unless you wanted to run tram-trains up the Hayes Line to perhaps Lewisham or even Cannon Street.
These pictures show how the tram interfaces to the rail line at Elmers End.
It would appear to my untutored eye, that trams might be able to connect northwards, but southwards looks difficult. This is probably confirmed by this Google Earth image of the station.
Elmers End Station
If Route 1 was run by tram-trains, that continued after Elmers End, this would not cause any problem at the Croydon end, as they’d just go round the loop and back to the east.
So it looks like there is little scope to put tram-trains on Route 1 and then run them up and down the Hayes branch.
Tramlink Route 2
The Tramlink Route 2 to Beckenham Junction actually runs alongside the electrified railway between that station and Birkbeck. If that line had been built in France or Germany in the last few years, I think they would have used tram-trains to provide the service.
It is in the area of Birkbeck station, shown here in a Google Earth image that tram-trains could be used to advantage.
Birkbeck To Crystal Palace
Note the red arrow pointing out Birkbeck station, the orange lines denoting the East London Line and the green line denoting Tramlink Route 2.
The Crystal Palace Line and Tramlink Route 2 are both single-track lines from west of Birkbeck most of the way to Beckenham Junction, with the railway carrying just two trains an hour each way.
It has been a long-term ambition of Tramlink to run the trams on-street to Crystal Palace, but with tram trains you only need a small piece of infrastructure.
At the bottom of the image, there is a blue roundel at a kink on the green line denoting Harrington Road tram stop. From here, the line goes northwards and turns to run alongside the railway to Birkbeck station.
The line goes to Crystal Palace station if you could turn left. That station is at the end of the topmost orange line on the map.
Here’s a large scale Google Earth image of the area, where Route 2 joins the main line railway.
Tramlink Route 2 To Crystal Palace
There is probably enough railway land where the lines meet to create a simple triangular junction that would allow tram-trains to go from Harrington Road to Crystal Palace. As tram-trains are in effect normal trains on the main line, they would use the normal platforms.
The only problem is to decide where they reverse and go back to Croydon.
Looking at the Crystal Palace Line, the tram-trains could even be run all the way to and from Victoria or London Briodge, but that probably wouldn’t give enough capacity. So a bay platform will have to be brought into use somewhere. This is Platform 1 at Crystal Palace station, where it might be possible.
But it would need some good architecture and clever engineering.
Incidentally, the line has an operating speed of sixty miles an hour, so the Class 399 tram-trains would not interrupt any traffic, if they went all the way.
Where the tram-trains terminate will also be determined by passenger statistics.
If a variant of Route 2 was run by tram-trains, that continued to Crystal Palace, this would not cause any problem at the Croydon end, as they’d just go round the loop and back to the east.
The Hayes Line
Closely related to Tramlink Routes 1 and 2 is the Hayes Line.
I get the impression that it is a bit of a nuisance to train operating companies, as it’s always being talked about as a possible new terminus for the Bakerloo Line. Withdrawal of passenger services from the line have also been proposed and rejected in the recent past.
This Google Earth image shows how it crosses the Crystal Palace Line to the west of Beckenham Junction.
Hayes Line Crossing The Crystal Palace Line
The Hayes Line crosses from north to south, but it is not a complete junction, where tram-trains coming from Crystal Palace could access the line. But there would appear to be the space for the necessary infrastructure.
As I said in the section on Tramlink Route 1 it could also be linked to that route at Elmers End.
There may also be advantages in running tram-trains as trams on the Hayes Line.
Remember that if you ran tram-trains from Victoria to Beckenham Junction and/or from Cannon Street to Hayes, you don’t necessarily have to stop running the current trains.
But overall, I have my doubts about tram-trains on the Hayes branch, without some radical thinking.
Perhaps it is extended to the south past Hayes station as a tram route or Elmers End could be developed as a full interchange for trams and tram-trains, working the two routes.
But as there are more urgent proble,s and proposals on Tramlink, I think nothing much will happen on the Hayes branch.
Tramlink Route 3
The Tramlink Route 3 to Wmbledon has two connections with the rail network; Mitcham Junction and Wimbledon.
I am not knowledgeable about routes and traffic levels in that part of London, to postulate if tram-trains would be any advantage and give better connectivity for rail passengers.
However one of the proposed extensions of Tramlink is to Sutton station. Look at the layout at Mitcham Junction in this Google Earth image.
Mitcham Junction
It might be possible to put a curve between Tramlink Route 3 and the Sutton and Mole Valley Lines that go south to Sutton and Epsom. According to Wikipedia Sutton station used to have a bay platform for local services from Mitcham. Could it be reinstated?
Tramlink Route 4
The Tramlink Route 4 to Elmers End is a partial dupication of other routes.
Proposed Routes
There are several proposed routes for the Tramlink.
I have already dealt with the extensions to Crystal Palace and Sutton and how tram-trains might help.
But could tram-trains help with other extensions. I also think that if anybody suggests more street running of trams, this might get short-shrift from car drivers, so a lot of the proposed extensions might be difficult to get planned.
As to getting to Mitcham Town Centre from Mitcham Junction, they probably won’t help unless another station is added to the line between Mitcham Junction and Mitcham Eastfields. But as the latter station was only opened in 2008, I can’t see that happening.
The route south to Purley would probably be liked by passengers, but it would probably be difficult to fit into Croydon’s crowded town centre.
Croydon Town Centre
The red arrow points to West Croydon station, with East Croydon station at the right, with the green lines showing the current tram routes.
The only way to go south would probably be with a lot of unpopular street running.
However, a route to Brixton could be fairly easy for a tram-train, by going via either Mitcham Junction or Crystal Palace.
The Tram-Trains Go Anywhere Capability
I am assuming that the tram-trains chosen are something like the Class 399, with the following characteristics.
1. Ability to use third rail or overhead 750 V DC.
2.Double-ended and able to use both tram and train platforms.
3. 110 kph and main line crash protection.
4.ERTMS
A tram-train with this level of capability could go virtually anywhere in South London, provided the track layout allowed it to get on the full-size railway.
So where could a tram-train go from Croydon?
Brixton – Via Crystal Palace, Gypsy Hill, West Norwood, Tulse Hill and Herne Hill
If the Victoria Line was extended to Herne Hill, this would give South London a very useful tube connection. You could also build a decent station at Brixton to link all the lines together.
Bromley South – Via Beckenham Junction
Epsom – Via Mitcham Junction and Sutton
Clapham Junction – Via Mitcham Junction, Balham and Wandsworth Common
Lewisham – Via New Beckenham, and Catford Bridge
This would link the Tramlink to the DLR
Orpington – Via Beckenham Junction and Bromley South
New Cross – Via New Beckenham, Catford Bridge and Lewisham.
This route actually extends the New Cross branch of the East London Line to Hayes.
Whatever happens in Croydon, I think it would be a good idea if perhaps four trains per hour of the eight extra that could be sent down the East London Line were to be sent to the Hayes Branch or Orpington via Lewisham. It would connect that part of South London to Crossrail at Whitechapel.
The Anonymous Widower 