More On The Camden Town Station Upgrade
This document on TfL’s web site gives more details of the proposed capacity upgrade at Camden Town station. This schematic of the tunnels, platforms and walkways shows how the station could look in a few years time.
Camden Town Station Schematic
Note the following.
- The Northbound platforms are above the South ones.
- The triple escalators (7) and double lifts (8) at the left, leading down the the circulation space (9), which is shared with two escalators of the existing station.
- There is a new cross passage between the two Northbound platforms, which means that the interchange between the Northbound High Barnet and Edgware branches is a simple walk across, as it is now in the current station.
- The cross passage between the two Southbound platforms, is a bit more complicated, as the platforms are beneath the level of the circulation space. Judging by the large ends of the passage in the schematic, I suspect that as at Angel short escalators will give access to the platform.
- These short escalators would also help those passengers, who’ve gone the wrong way, as we all done from time to time, change direction.
- Would the current cross-platform connections with their steps down to the Southbound platforms just be refurbished or would they be changed to give a direct step free connection between the two Southbound platforms?
- The current emergency stairs are shown and I suspect that a bit of remodelling in this area, could improve cross-platform connections.
At a first look I see two problems with the design.
Obviously, the route between the two Northbound platforms and to the circulation space and the lifts is step-free, but I can’t see how this is the case for the Southbound platforms. It could be that lifts will be provided to access the platforms from the circulation space, or the main lifts will go down another level to what appears to be a a second cross passage, which appears to connect the two Southbound platforms and by-pass the stair or escalators to the circulation space.
I also can’t see how the station could be connected to Camden Road station. Unless the route from say escalators and lifts down from the London Overground station feed into a tunnel, which is an extension Northwards from the lift lobby.
An uncovered walking route between the two Camden stations, is not a solution that is acceptable, in the present and passengers in the future will demand something a lot better.
I shall be going to the exhibition in the next couple of days and all will probably be clear.
Camden Town Station Capacity Upgrade
Camden Town station on the Northern Line of the London Underground is one of the most congested stations on the network.
It finally looks like something is happening to ease the problems as this consultation is now on the TfL website.
TfL’s first rebuilding plans are described in Wikipedia and they needed a lot of demolition. Wikipedia says this.
Apart from complaints about destruction of one of the ox-blood tiled station buildings, there is a significant controversy over the demolition of the buildings to the north. Complaints particularly centred on London Underground’s desire to replace the buildings with modern construction said to be out of place and out of scale with the remainder of Camden Town, together with complaints about the loss of the buildings and market themselves. This led to a public inquiry being held. In January 2004, consultants Arup published plans commissioned by Save Camden, a group of local market traders, for a remodelling that would preserve the majority of the threatened buildings, including the market. In 2005 Transport for London lost its appeal to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the scheme has been cancelled.
So this has led to the current plan, where TfL are proposing a second entrance on Buck Street. They say this in the consultation.
A possible site for a new station entrance would be on Buck Street, between Camden High Street and Kentish Town Road. It would lead to three new escalators and two lifts. Below ground there would be more space to change between trains. This would in turn enable future capacity benefits on the Northern line.
The most significant point is the capacity upgrade on the line, which involves splitting the Northern Line into two.
- The Edgware Branch would take the Charing Cross route to Kennington before continuing to Battersea and eventually Clapham Junction.
- The High Barnet Branch would take the Bank route to Kennington and then go to Morden.
The only thing stopping this is the current mess that is Camden Town.
I would assume that this upgrade would include an easy walk-across for passengers changing between the two new lines at Camden Town.
On the surface, it would appear that little will be done, except to build the new station entrance on the site of a closed school. This map shows the position of the new entrance.
New Entrance To Camden Town Station
It would be ideally placed for the hoards of visitors going to and from Camden Lock and the various markets.
It is also worth looking at the layout of lines in the area.
Camden Town And Camden Road Stations
Note how Camden Road station is actually quite close to the northern end of the platforms at Camden Town station.
So would it be possible to create a better link between the two stations?
I would certainly feel that when the Northern Line is split and extended to Battersea, many people would use the interchange. I certainly would, as getting to places like Charing Cross or Waterloo is one of those journeys you don’t start from Hackney.
future.
In Transport for London’s London Infrastructure Plan for 2050, this is said.
This will allow, for example, higher frequency services out of terminals such as Victoria to South London centres such as Croydon and the development of major interchange hubs that act in a similar way to Clapham Junction in the South West. e.g. Camden Interchange between Camden Road and Camden Town stations.
So obviously, TfL are thinking along these lines.
The two stations are an official out-of-station interchange.
A Google Map also shows Buck Street and the North London Line.
Buck Street To Camden Road
Buck Street is the curved road in the bottom left corner of the map, just above the white building which is Camden Market. On the North side of the street is Hawley Infant and Nursery School, which will become the site of the second entrance to Camden Town station.
The North London Line runs across the top of the map with Camden Road station at the right. It is worthwhile noting the fork in the line.
- The southern arm is a freight-only line, that leads to the disused Primrose Hill station and the Watford DC Line.
- The northern arm is the North London Line to Willesden Junction.
At one time it was proposed that changes be made here, as detailed in Wikipedia, but nothing seems to be planned at the moment.
The only thing the proposal shows is that TfL have been thinking hard about this area.
But I do think that London’s universe-class tunnellers could create an escalator connection between the two stations, if that was decided how the interchange was to be created.
There could also be other simpler ways to create better walking routes between Camden Road station and Buck Street. I will have to check, but I don’t think it is possible to walk along the tow-path of the Regent’s Canal.
Later I took a train to Camden Road station and then walked by a roundabout route to Camden Town station.
Do I have any conclusions and questions?
- The current walking route between the two stations is crowded and possibly dangerous. It also involves crossing two roads at lights.
- Because there is now steps down from Camden Road to the Regent’s Canal Tow Path, there is already a walking route between Camden Road station and Camden Lock, which does not mean any roads have to be crossed. Some improvements to the surface and perhaps guard and hand rails would need to be made to bring it up to a safe standard.
- It might be possible to install lifts, at Camden Road, Kentish Town Road and Camden Lock to make the tow path fully-accessible to all.
- Until Camden Town station is extended and improved, it could be sign-posted as an alternative route to Camden Lock.
- As you approach Camden Lock, where the railway runs along the Regent’s Canal, what plans are there for development in the area?
- The Regent’s Canal Tow Path, would also enable a walking route between Camden Road station and the new Buck Street Entrance to Camden Town station.
- It would appear that the Hawley Infant and Nursery School is not a bad place for a second entrance to Camden Town station, as it is well placed for the attractions between Camden Town and Camden Lock.
- The Buck Street site is probably big enough to create a second entrance, which has a capacity substantially greater than the current station. The consultation talks of three new escalators and two lifts, but capacity is often determined by the space at the bottom of the lifts/escalators, which I’m sure would be more than adequate.
- The area round Camden Town station is more than incredibly busy.
- There are bus stops everywhere and they could do with being reorganised. As an example, getting a bus to London Zoo is not very easy.
- There are quite a few low-grade buildings in the area, that few would miss.
- How was planning permission for the Sainsbury’s supermarket obtained?
- Incidentally, the store was built in 1988, so it must be coming up for refurbishment soon.
But looking at the North London Line as it passes over Camden Gardens and along the canal, it struck me that something dramatic and modern, but that still fitted in with the surroundings could be created that connected the high viaduct of the North London Line to the ground below and then by escalators and/or lifts to the Northern Line tunnels. I then looked at the Google Map of the area from Camden Road station to Camden Gardens.
To The West Of Camden Road Station
Note the disused twin-track rail loop around Camden Road station to the north side of the station. There is also a smaller space on the south side that leads almost to Camden Gardens.
Surely, an imaginative architect could use these resources to extend the station to the area of the gardens, from where some means of descending and ascending would be provided. Large lifts or escalators fully enclosed in glass would be something I’ve seen elsewhere and they would contrast well with the bricks of the viaduct.
With my project management hat on, I also believe that TfL have chosen a design, that will be easy to build.
- Phase 1 – Build the second entrance with its lifts and escalators as almost a second station connected to the existing platforms. There is another station on the Underground that is effectively two stations – Knightsbridge, because of Harrods.
- Phase 2 – Open the second entrance and prove that it can handle all the passengers who want to use the station.
- Phase 3 – Close and refurbish the existing station.
The link to Camden Road station would probably be incorporated into Phase 1.
I don’t know anything about the safety arrangements of stations, but surely a twin station’s duplication must make it simpler.
There is a chance to create an iconic Camden Interchange station, that truly reflects the unconventional nature of Camden Town.
My Thoughts On Tube Noise At Walthamstow Central
This report in the Standard is entitled Homes in Walthamstow hit by ‘jack-hammer’ Tube train noise after Victoria line upgrade work.
It describes how after all of the upgrade work I described in What Really Happened At Walthamstow Central, noise levels have increased in some of the houses by the station. This is an extract.
Resident Lynda Bailey said the noise, which strikes about every three minutes during peak hours and less frequently the rest of the time, began after Transport for London undertook engineering work over the summer.
“We bought this house about 10 years ago knowing it was above the southbound tunnel of the Victoria line.
“We came a couple of times – it was a rumble but we deemed it to be reasonable noise, as did everyone else.
“But this is unacceptable. I would liken it to a jack-hammer in the next room, like a banging sound … It’s almost like we’re on a Tube platform itself.”
Tonight, I had supper with my son in Walthamstow. He told me how one of his friends lives in a hoise, where the noise has reduced considerably since the work.
It’s all very curious.
Taking my answers from this article in Rail Engineer, there are major differences, indicated in this extract.
Careful survey work of the tunnels checked every millimetre of available space – especially length. The new crossover design is a technical step-change in that it involves the use of Sonneville Low Vibration Track (LVT) – a track system embedded in slab concrete. The point ends have been taken as far as practicable into the tunnels to achieve the longest possible crossover length. Coupled with new components, the maximum speed has been raised to 60kph (35 mph) – enough to secure the required turnround and the 36 trains per hour throughout the line.
Put simply, the crossover should generate less noise because of the Low Vibration Track, but because of the increased speed, more noise could be generated unless LVT was used for a lot more of the line.
I would think that my son’s friend lives over the crossover and its LVT, whereas the other complainants are on lines, where the trains are now going faster. The Standard reports this.
“Our engineers are treating this as a priority and have been improving and renewing the track beneath their properties over the last week.
Hopefully, this will affect a solution. If not, I suspect that London Underground will have a solution in their toolbox.
I have been involved in various noise and vibration issues in the past and in most cases a simple solution is usually found.
If they can’t find one, then I suspect they’ll lay a bit more Low Vibration Track.
What Really Happened At Walthamstow Central
I heard a lot of complaints about the closure of the Victoria Line in August. So I was pleased to see this article in Rail Engineer entitled Life is not a rehearsal… but pumping concrete can be!
As detailed by Transport for London this is a summary of what needed to be done.
Improvement work planned this summer by London Underground (LU) will lead to the operation of 36 trains per hour. From April 2016, this will provide a train every 100 seconds during peak hours, making the Victoria line the UK’s highest frequency railway and comparable with the very best in the world. All peak-time trains will run the full length of the line from Walthamstow Central to Brixton, giving a 40% capacity boost for customers northeast of Seven Sisters.
But it wasn’t that simple to achieve and the Rail Engineer article explains the main problem of a crossing at Walthamstow.
The trackwork kept pace with the times, but wasn’t shiny and, of course, it was out of sight. At Walthamstow – the end of the line – the track arrangement ended in a scissors crossover. For the non-pway engineers, this is a compact and complex track arrangement where terminating trains arriving at the crossover from the south in the northbound tunnel can be routed into either of the two platforms at Walthamstow Central, then routed back from either platform into the southbound tunnel.
Changing it wasn’t simple and they used every trick in the book to do the project.
- A bespoke overhead crane was installed at the crossover, for ease of working, and after the job was completed it was left behind in the tunnel, so it could be used again if needed.
- A number of demolition techniques were used to remove the old track and its concrete base.
- They even wrapped the new track in polythene, so that no concrete got on the rails.
- They had actually rehearsed the major concrete pouring which required fifty truck-loads of concrete in the open at Acton Depot.
The major outcome is that the speed of trains through the crossing has been raised from 20 mph to 35 mph, which is necessary to achieve thirty-six trains an hour through London.
This is the sort of project that would make good television!
Except for one thing!
Nothing went wrong and the project was delivered thirty-six hours early.
Tottenham Court Road Station – 14th September 2015
At least the jams gave me time to take a few pictures.
The Central Line platforms at the station can’t open too soon.
According to this page on the TfL web site, the platforms will open around December 2015.
It will be a big day for me personally, as they’ll help my getting around Central London.
Are We In For More Strikes On Tubes And The Railways?
Sometimes, I think that when I posted Après Bob, Le Déluge and asked this question.
Where else will this worrying new militancy turn up?
That I got things about right.
Transport for London, won the row about the closure of Ticket Offices and now contactless ticketing is used all over London, by virtually every passenger. You see very few orange cardboard tickets.
So the Unions lost that battle and then their friends on the left lost the much more important General Election in May!
This week, there are strikes on First Great Western over the introduction of new Class 800/801 trains and the Underground is being shut down by the strike over the introduction of the Night Tube.
On the First Great Western strike, I have a feeling, that these trains may not be all they’re supposed to be cracked up to me, after a brief conversation with a senior guy at FGW on a train.
I sometimes think that the Tube strike is all about the pay back to TfL on losing the Ticket Office issue and punishing passengers for not voting for Labour in the General Election.
The Night Tube is also a difficult battle to fight, as once it starts, because lots of people will depend on it, I suspect that it will be a very difficult service to stop. Like closure of Ticket Offices, it would be filed under things difficult to reverse like putting toothpaste back in the tube.
I do think though, that this is just the start of an Autumn of rail strikes. Especially, if Jeremy Corbyn is elected to be leader of the Labour Party and he decides to back them.
Although, if JC decided to be pragmatic, he could be the one person, who sorts out the Tube Strike. After all, he has no monetary responsibility, but he is a London MP, who if he becomes leader would be in debt to the Unions. If he got this right, then we could have a very Left Wing Labour Mayor or if he got it wrong, then, if the Tories put up a total nonentity, he or she would be home and hosed.
I do think that things will get a lot nastier and more angry before they get any better.
The Piccadilly And Victoria Lines, Manor House Station And Harringay Green Lanes Station
The planners and the politicians created a real dog’s breakfast here, when the Victoria Line was designed and built in the 1960s.
A Few Facts
I’ll start with a few facts, as far as we can trust Wikipedia.
From the Planning and construction section of the entry for the Victoria Line.
A test tunnel from Tottenham to Manor House under Seven Sisters Road had been bored in 1959 and was later incorporated into the running tunnels.
From the entry for Seven Sisters station.
The section of Victoria line between Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park stations is the longest between adjacent stations in deep level tunnels on the London Underground network.
From our own observations.
There is a ventilation station at the junction of Green Lanes and St. Ann’s Road. This was put in, as it’s a long way between Turnpike Lane and Manor House stations. The Cockfosters Extension section of the entry for the Piccadilly Line says this.
It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann’s Road in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick, who felt that the bus and tram service at this point was adequate. However, a ‘Ventilation station’, in similar architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site, and is visible today. There was also some opposition from the London and North Eastern Railway to the line.
I think we underestimate the influence the LNER had on shaping London’s railways. Much was positive, but some was about protecting their interests.
I had a great uncle, who lived in Harringay and in the 1950s, we’d go and visit him on the 29 bus, as it was a long walk from Turnpike Lane.
What Might Have Been
Here again from various parts of Wikipedia.
From the Victoria Line section of the entry for the Piccadilly Line
During the planning stages of the Victoria line, a proposal was put forward to transfer Manor House station to the Victoria line, and also to build new “direct” tunnels from Finsbury Park to Turnpike Lane station, thereby cutting the journey time in and out of central London. This idea was eventually rejected due to the inconvenience to passengers that would have been caused during rebuilding, as well as the costs of the new tunnels.
From the entry for Seven Sisters station.
During the planning phase of the Victoria line, thought was given to converting Manor House into a Victoria line station and diverting the Piccadilly line in new tunnels directly from Finsbury Park to Turnpike Lane via Harringay Green Lanes, but the idea was abandoned because of the inconvenience this would cause, as well as the cost.
From fifty years and more after construction of the Victoria Line it might seem to be a feasible plan on a cursory look.
- It would speed trains on the Piccadilly Line to Kings Cross and Central London, as the route is shorter.
- There would be an extra station at Harringay Green Lanes on the Piccadilly Line, which would replace Manor House.
- It might also be feasible to turn the ventilation station at Green Lanes into a station.
- There would be an extra station at Manor House on the Victoria Line.
Also affecting these services will be this summer’s upgrade to the Victoria Line which will allow thirty-six trains per hour on that line.
So if you take the two improvements together passengers on both the Victoria and Piccadilly Line would get a better service with extra stations.
Enter Crossrail 2
Crossrail 2 will add another dimension to the planning in this area.
I’ll start with a personal observation from my childhood.
Many times, I travelled from Oakwood to Leicester Square or South Kensington and it’s a long way! It probably still is! And in trains that are a lot more crowded.
The opening of Crossrail 2 will affect the Piccadilly and Victoria Lines.
- Passengers on the Piccadilly Line from Wood Green northward may switch to Crossrail 2 at Turnpike Lane.
- Passengers on the Victoria Line from Walthamstow may switch to Crossrail 2 at Tottenham Hale.
- Many passengers from the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Harringey and Waltham Forest, will change their route to Central London with the arrival of Crossrail 2. And before that an upgraded Thameslink.
I think overall, we’ll see an easing of the lot of passengers on both the Piccadilly and Victoria Lines, by the end of the next decade. The Piccadilly Line should also have been upgraded with new and larger trains, running to an increased frequency. The Future Upgrades section for the Wikipedia entry for the Piccadilly Line says this.
On current plans, resignalling work on the Piccadilly line will begin in 2019 and new trains should be in service by 2022.
If the Piccadilly Line eases South of Turnpike Lane, then there may be scope for opening more stations on the line at perhaps the ventilation station on Green Lanes and Harringay Green Lanes.
And what about an interchange to the North London Line at Maiden Lane to serve the Kings Cross Central development?
How Could New Stations Be Built?
Doing anything at present to create any new stations on the Piccadilly Line is probably not feasible, as it would be impossible to shut the Piccadilly or Victoria Lines for long enough to do anything substantial. There’s been enough chaos caused by shutting the outer reaches of the Victoria Line this summer.
Transport for London have a similar problem about creating a link between the Central Line and the East London Line at Shoreditch High Street station. Transport for London feel that nothing can be done until Crossrail opens. I discussed that link in Will Shoreditch High Street Be Connected To The Central Line?.
Creating new stations on the Piccadilly Line probably can’t be done, until Crossrail 2 is opened, as how do the passengers get to work, rest and play?
I think that in a few years time actually creating the stations will not be as difficult as it would be today, from a construction point-of-view. The experience gained on building Whitechapel station on Crossrail, where a technique called uphill excavation has been used, might be applicable.
Conclusion On The Piccadilly Line In Harringay
My view is that a sort out of the Piccadilly Line and its stations in Harringay is possible and probably very worthwhile, but only after Crossrail 2 has been opened.
Planned Rail Development At Harringay Green Lanes Station
Over the next few years, there will be two major developments on the GOBlin through Harringay Green Lanes station.
The line is going to be electrified with 25 KVAC overhead lines, which will mean putting up structures to support the cables. The bridge across Green Lanes will probably be replaced, as it doesn’t look to be in the best of condition and to be safe, it will probably be replaced before the wires are erected.
The new electric trains will be four-car and this will probably mean the platforms have to be extended. I suspect that Transport for London may well future-proof the station and extend the platforms for perhaps six or even eight-car trains.
There is definitely space at the eastern end of the station to do the platform extension, but why not extend the platforms over the bridge and perhaps even use glass sides, as they’ve done at Deptford. Extending over the road will also mean that in future a western entrance or link to Harringay station could be created.
As no plans to replace the bridge have been published that I can find, could it be that Network Rail and their architects are working with property developers to design a proper flagship station?
I also think that designing a station to carry the overhead wires in its structure, as I’ve seen at Liege station, may simplify the design and save on the cost of the building.
Property Development And Harringay Green Lanes Station
If you want a profitable development, building car parking is a waste of money, so good access to public transport is essential.
For this reason and especially for housing, property development will be the force that drives the development of London’s transport system.
There is a lot of scope for property development in the area around Harringay Green Lanes station.
This document from the London Borough of Harringey entitled Harringay’s Local Plan lists a large number of development sites around the station.
On Page 92 the document details the St. Ann’s Hospital Site, which lies to the north of the GOBlin. It details how the South West corner of the hospital site will be connected to Green Lanes and the station.
On Page 94 the document goes on to talk about the Arena Retail Park, which adjoins the station.
Both sites have something that developers love. They are both in single ownership; one public and the other private.
So you can have control of the sites without the sort of problems that Tottenham Hotspur have had on building their new stadium, which has delayed the development for some years.
As it will be in the developers’ interest and profitability to have good public transport, I would be very surprised not to see a very good station built at Harringay Green Lanes to serve their developments and also to improve the transport opportunities for locals. This is said in the document.
Access to Harringay Green Lanes Station should be improved by creating a
new entrance on Portland Gardens.
Also, no sane developer would build this station without a secret place, where the escalators and lifts to the Piccadilly Line could be installed. As an example, Tottenham Court Road and perhaps Angel stations, are already ready to accept Crossrail 2.
I believe that given the amount of property development that will take place in the area, a new station at Harringay Green Lanes will be one of the first new buildings to be constructed.
Imagine the advertising potential for your development to see a shiny glass and steel station built over Green Lanes, as you drive or ride a bus through the area. Buiilding the station partly over the road would mean you need to use less valuable land and it would be easier to create a Hackney style link to Harringay station along the railway. If you want to see what can be done, go to Deptford station.
Tailpiece
If you have a flagship station at one end of Green Lanes in Harringay, why not have one at the other by converting the ventilation station into a real one?
I just wonder if that should and could be done before Turnpike Lane is rebuilt for Crossrail 2, so that there is an alternative station, if Turnpike Lane had to be closed.
Crossrail have shown that they like to be good neighbours and converting the ventilation station could be something they’d look at to cool the anger of diverted passengers and local residents. The superb new Pudding Mill station on the DLR was built by Crossrail, as the old station was in their way and had to be demolished. I was very surprised that the new station is so spectacular, but I suspect that through good design, clever use of space and leaving out expensive escalators and various utilities not needed if there are driverless trains and no booking office, that the station wasn’t as expensive as it looks. The property developers and West Ham United won’t be complaining.
Could The Gospel Oak to Barking Line Transform East London?
Two reports on the web prompted me to write this post.
The first was an article on CityMetric entitled Forget Road Bridges. TfL Should Extend The Overground To Thamesmead And Abbey Wood, which prompted me to write No To Silvertown Tunnel.
The second report was on various web sites with headlines like Enfield Council Shortlists Developers For Meridian Water.
Enfield Council is planning to build substantial numbers of new homes at a 85 ha site called Meridian Water near Lee Valley Regional Park over the next couple of dcades.
To help the development at Meridian Water, the station at Angel Road is to be improved and this page on the Meridian Water web site gives details. This extract details the development of the station and the related rail line and transport interchange.
The station will be a thriving new hub that combines rail and bus services to provide better access to Meridian Water for future residents and businesses. Meridian Water is a new £1.5 billion, 85 hectare, eco-development which will provide up to 5,000 new homes and up to 3,000 new jobs. The improvements, which will be completed in the next five years, will bring benefits for those that currently live and work in the area, as well as the new residents of the Meridian Water development. The project is being funded with £2.5 million from the Greater London Authority with a further £1 million from Enfield Council. This new station combined with additional investment in three tracking the railway, will bring forth a four trains per hour service at Angel Road Station.
All good stuff and very much about motherhood and apple pie in the manner of the way that the Metropolitan Railway used to sell Metroland.
But let’s not knock it for that, as London needs lots of new housing and the current station, Angel Road, which will be renamed Meridian Water, is one of the worst transport interchanges in the UK,. They’ve probably got better stations in many of the worst slums in The Third World.
Angel Road is just two platforms and a bridge as Before Crossrail 2 – Angel Road shows, whereas the average station in deepest Africa or South America, probably has at least someone, who’ll help you or sell you a tasty local morsel or a bottle of fizzy drink.
Whilst looking at developments in this area, it is worth looking at the wider area and investigate how transport links might develop. This Google Map shows the Lower Lea Valley from Angel Road and Meridian Water in the North to Lea Bridge Road in the South.
Lower Lea Valley
In addition to the housing developments at Meridian Water, more housing is being developed around Tottenham Hale station and other places in the area. But the development that will have the biggest impact on the area is not these developments but Thames Water and Waltham Forest’s massive plan to create the Walthamstow Wetlands. The project web site has this strap-line.
Transforming Walthamstow Reservoirs into a new urban wetland reserve for London
I have written about the Walthamstow Wetlands before in Before Crossrail 2 – Walthamstow Wetlands and now the project has its own web-site, I shall be following this exciting project a lot more. I believe the project has a lot going for it, but also it could be very important for Thames Water, who over the last few years haven’t exactly had the best of publicity at all times, what with our water bills and the Thames Tideway Scheme.
Because so much of London’s water is stored in the Lea Valley, it is very much in their interest to be good neighbours to the people and wildlife of the area.
The map also shows the rail links through the area.
1. The Lea Valley Lines
The Lea Valley Lines go northwards from Liverpool Street, Stratford and Hackney going up to Broxbourne, Hertford, Cambridge and Stansted Airport and as indicated earlier, extra tracks are being added and stations like Angel Road are being upgraded. A new station at Lea Bridge is also being built.
2. The Victoria Line
The Victoria Line goes underneath the area and links Central London to Tottenham Hale and Walthamstow. The line was built on the cheap in the 1960s and I have dreamed of what might have been. This August the line is closed to rectify one of its shortcomings, which will increase the capacity of the line.
3. The Chingford Branch Line
The Chingford Branch line crosses the Lea Valley Lines and the Walthamstow Wetlands as it links Chingford to Hackney and Liverpool Street. It is a line that can’t be extended, but there are plans to link it to the Lea Valley Lines by reinstating the Hall Farm Curve to allow trains to run from Stratford and Lea Bridge to Walthamstow and Chingford.
4. The Gospel Oak to Barking Line
The Gospel Oak to Barking Line (GOBlin) is the forgotten and down-trodden Cinderella, who could gatecrash the party in the Lea Valley and be a star of East London’s transport system.
Over the next few years, the following will or may happen to the line.
- Electrification
- Extension to Barking Riverside
- New four-car electric trains
- Smaller numbers of day-time freight trains.
- Increased passenger train frequency
The first three are hopefully cast in stone, as to cancel them now, would probably cost more than doing them. Especially, as the new trains have been ordered.
I am hopeful, that once the line is upgraded and electrified, this will enable freight operators to switch to electric traction, that could mean quieter services that might possibly run through at night.
As an aside, if I was standing for London Mayor, I would say I would put a limit of perhaps two non-electric trains a day on both the GOBlin and the North London Line. The freight operators would protest, but Class 66 locomotives have no business going through residential areas and crowded stations. Especially, when environmentally acceptable locomotives are available.
If the number of day-time freight trains could be reduced, this would allow more passenger services.
5. Crossrail 2
Crossrail 2 will have a big impact, when and if it arrives, as it will serve Tottenham Hale, Northumberland Park and Angel Road.
Before I finish this post, I have to ask, if we are doing enough with our transport network to serve large developments like Meridian Water, the Walthamstow Wetlands and Barking Riverside.
So what would I look at?
1. Crossrail 2
Politicians of all colours and tendencies are putting their faith in Crossrail 2.
But, I believe that the line, although surveys show it is much-needed, is a bit like the US Cavalry in a 1950s film, arriving in force after the poor settlers or ranchers have virtually been wiped out by the Indians.
We should prepare for Crossrail 2, so that all the engineering and architectural connections are there and all surface stations are upgraded over the next few years. This would mean that building Crossrail 2 would be just a matter of accurately threading the needles and then linking the tunnels to the existing stations.
Perhaps we should think of Crossrail 2 as a series of closely-related projects, rather than one huge mega-project.
- The main tunnels from Walthamstow Marshes to Wimbledon.
- The rebuilding of Central London stations to make them Crossrail 2-ready. Tottenham Court Road is already awaiting the tunnellers.
- The upgrading and rebuilding of the surface stations and rail infrastructure.
The great advantage of this, is that political responsibility for a lot of the work like the upgrading of surface stations, can be shared with the relevant Local Authority.
This post started with Enfield Borough Council and the Meridian Waters project and wandered into rail infrastructure, because Angel Road station is an important part of that project.
I doubt I’ll ever live long enough to see the opening of Crossrail 2. But I live in hope!
2. Improving Connectivity On The Gospel Oak to Barking Line
The Gospel Oak to Barking Line hasn’t got the best connectivity to other lines and it is also blessed with some difficult out of station interchanges for even strong walkers.
Walthamstow is an example, where the walk between Queen’s Road and Central isn’t that long but it is tortuous. This Google Map shows the area.
Walthamstow Stations
The East-West line is the Chingford Branch, with St. James Street station in the West and Central in the East. Croosing this line is the GOBlin with its station at Queen’s Road.
Surely something better could be done in Walthamstow. Interchange for someone pushing themselves in a wheelchair would be very difficult.
There is also an out of station interchange between Wansted Park on the GOBlin and Forest Gate on the lines out of Liverpool Street, which in a few years time will be Crossrail. This map shows the area.
Wanstead Park And Forest Gate
It is an area, where some selected development could be of value, especially as the GOBlin passes over the Liverpool Street Lines. I’ve walked this interchange a couple of times and the following would help.
- Step-free access at both stations. Forest Gate is getting this with Crossrail.
- A light-controlled crossing at Wansted Park station
- A minor rerouting of the buses so that some passing through the area stop at both stations.
This would mean that someone pushing themselves in a wheelchair could use the interchange.
One station that needs to be improved is Blackhorse Road, which connects the GOBlin to directly to the Victoria Line. This Google Map shows the area.
Blackhorse Road Stations
Note that the station site is not particularly cramped and it would be a not-to-difficult walk to the Walthamstow Wetlands, especially if you could hop on a bus for a couple of stops.
There is also the possibility of an improved station at Harringay Green Lanes, where a large amount of property development is possible according to this document on the Harringey Council web site. I talked about the possibilities in The Piccadilly And Victoria Lines, Manor House Station And Harringay Green Lanes Station, where I believe a flagship station could be built across Green Lanes.
This section in the Wikipedia entry for the GOBlin, lists other ideas for extra connectivity for the line.
But I believe there are three other important interchanges that will or may happen and I describe them in the next three sections.
3. Seven Sisters Interchange With Gospel Oak to Barking Line
Transport for London’s Plan for 2050, has a section in an Appendix with the heading of News links and/or Stations for Strategic Interchange. In a list of places where this might be done are the words Seven Sisters (GOB). Seven Sisters station is currently a valid out of station interchange with South Tottenham station on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. In Crossrail 2 At South Tottenham/Sevens Sisters, I speculated as to how the two stations could be linked by a large double-ended Crossrail 2 station. This Google Map shows the two stations.
South Tottenham And Seven Sisters
There are also other possibilities here, like building a new station, housing or commercial development or allowing trains to link from the Northbound Lea Valley Lines through Seven Sisters to the Eastbound GOBlin. But whatever happens here, the GOBlin will eventually be linked to the Victoria Line and Crossrail 2.
Search the Internet and You’ll find little about this project, which is just two words buried in a TfL report.
4. Extending The GOBlin To Angel Road
This is speculation on my part, but the Meridian Water development will need more than just the one station at Angel Road. As the GOBlin goes across the southern part of the development site, is there an opportunity for an innovative connection through the development to Angel Road? This is a Google Map of the area from Angel Road in the North to Blackhorse Road in the East.
Blackhorse Road To Angel Road
The connection might be difficult for a train, but use a Class 399 tram-train and it could twist and turn its way between Blackhorse Road and Angel Road stations amongst the reservoirs and the developments to serve both those developments and the Walthamstow Wetlands.
5. Extending The GOBlin To Thamesmead And Abbey Wood
In No To Silvertown Tunnel, I examined the possibilities of extending the GOBlin from Barking Riverside over or under the Thames to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood station, where it would join up with Crossrail.
I felt that this would best be done using Class 299 tram-trains as they could go walk-about on both sides of the river giving much needed connectivity to the housing on both sides of the river. If it could be done, I felt that a bridge shared with pedestrians and cyclists would be the best way to join the two banks of the Thames.
6. The Hall Farm Curve, High Meads Loop and Dalston Eastern Curve
These three curves, if reinstated for passenger trains would create routes between the Chingford Branch and Lea Bridge, Stratford and any desirable station to the West. Reopening the Dalston Eastern Curve would give access to the East London Line for Crossrail at Whitechapel and South of the Thames.
As there could be spare capacity on the East London Line, which has been designed for twenty-four trains per hour, there could be a myriad of ways it can be used to increase the services under the Thames, so what Transport for London might do would be pure speculation on my part.
But I think they will eventually use these three curves to improve services in the Lea Valley.
7. Tram-Trains On The GOBlin
This may seem a bizarre idea, but having seen these hybrid vehicles all over Germany, I believe tram-trains are the way to add extra destinations to core electrified lines. On the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, in addition to being used to connect to Angel Road, as I showed previously, they could also be used with a tunnel or a bridge to extend the line from Barking Riverside under or over the river to Thamesmead and Abbey Wood.
People might worry that when running as trains, they may need different stations to the other trains, but the Germans seem to be able to design stations that accept both vehicles and I suspect the planned Rotherham extension of the Sheffield Supertram, will come up with solutions applicable to our standards. As to the required overhead lines, the Class 399 tram-trains can run using any of the voltages used for trams and trains in the UK.
There may be other places on the GOBlin and the other rail lines in East London, where tram-trains could be used effectively.
This will obviously be up to the planners, but I will be very surprised if tram-trains don’t infiltrate there way into many places all over the UK. At the moment transport planners, haven’t the experience of seeing a well-designed tram-train system working in the UK, but after what I believe will be a successful trial in Rotherham, I think we’ll see planners embracing the technology with open arms.
Conclusion
The GOBlin won’t be Cinderella any more!
Working Around The Victoria Line Closure
Today, I wanted to go to IKEA and a decent B & Q, so as both are close to Tottenham Hale station, it required a trip to that station or thereabouts.
The problem is that the Victoria Line is closed past Seven Sisters in August, so they can remove the bottleneck at Walthamstow Central that was part of the cheapskate design of the 1960s. Click here for the full story.
So I couldn’t take my usual route of an Undrground train to Tottenham Hale and a 192 bus.
I decided to go to IKEA first, which is just an easy trip all the way on a 341 bus from perhaps a hundred metres from my house. But as I got to the stop, the 341 whizzed past. Luckily it was followed by a 476 bus, which joins up with the 341 at Northumberland Park and hopefully because of the route it takes will get there first.
So I got the 476 and sat upstairs. I was watching to see if the 341 was behind us as we turned off Tottenham High Road and saw the 341 appear behind.
At the next stop I got off the bus to get the 341, only to see that bus go straight past. Luckily, I was able to get back on the 476, so in the end, I went all the way to Northumberland Park, a couple of stops short of IKEA. The bus information saif I’d haveto wait twenty minutes for a 341, so I walked over the level crossing to the Marigold Road stop for the 192. Again my luck was in, as a 192 had just turned up and they were changing drivers.
Coming back, I was carrying a full IKEA bag, and wanted to get to B & Q at Tottenham Hale for a couple of small bits, so I needed a 192 bus. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a gap in the service, but after about twenty minutes, I’d done my hopping and needed to get home.
So I walked back to Tottenham Hale station, hoping that there was a Hackney Downs train due.
Remarkably there was one in a couple of minutes and I just had time to climb over the bridge to catch it.
At Hackney Downs, the train dropped me on Platform 1, so I could either go down into Hackney Downs station and get a 56 or 38 bus, or use the new walkway to Hackney Central, from where I could get a more numerous 38 bus.
As it was a warm day and there was a lift in the walkway, I decided to take the newly-opened route.
I’m glad I did, as it turned out that due to the wire mesh at the top of the sides of the walkway, it was remarkably cool.
I’d surmised it would have been good in wet weather, but I’d never thought I’d be pleased to use it because of the heat.
According to one of the staff to whom I spoke, the walkway is staring to be increasingly well-used as passengers discover it.
I think that we’ll see this type of walkway in other places on the UK rail network.
One thing that helped this morning to get around the Victoria Line closure, which removes a bit chunk of my usual routes to Tottenham and Walthamstow, was London’s superb text message-based bus information system, which like any good system is designed to work on any device that can send and receive text messages.
And it does it all without using any dreaded app.
The Importance Of The Victoria Line
In an ideal world, Crossrail 2 would be a follow-on to Crossrail 1, but there is not enough money to do that.
So in the time before Crossrail 2 is built, we must make the most of other lines.
The Victoria Line is by some measures one of the most heavily used Underground lines in London and this summer a bottleneck is being removed at Walthamstow Central to increase the frequency of trains on the line.
After this wirk, the big constraint on frequency on the Victoria Line will be the reversing of trains at Brixton. Under Future Projects for the Victoria Line, Wikipedia says this.
For many years there have been proposals to extend the line one stop southwards from Brixton to Herne Hill. Herne Hill station would be on a large reversing loop with one platform. This would remove a critical capacity restriction by eliminating the need for trains to reverse at Brixton. The Mayor of London’s 2020 Vision, published in 2013, proposed extending the Victoria line “out beyond Brixton” by 2030.
I would suspect this will be done in the near future, as it both increases Victoria Line capacity and gives the line a new station at Herne Hill, which has good interchange possibilities.
Although the Victoria Line is important to London, I do find it strange, that it has no interchange with Crossrail.
Hopefully, during the wait for Crossrail 2, improvements to the Victoria Line will soothe some of the problems.
The Anonymous Widower 