Paint London Orange
My Google Alert for “Overground” picked up two stories today.
1. One story in the Evening Standard had Lord Adonis arguing for most inner suburban lines to be given to and run by the Overground.
2. A second in the Croydon Advertiser argued that the Overground should run for twenty-four hours on some days, to match the Underground.
I think that both things will hapopen over the years.
Will Modern Construction Techniques Create New Stations For The London Underground/Overground?
London is under tremendous pressure to provide more and more housing and in some ways it seems we’re using up the obvious sites like Stratford, Barking Riverside and Old Oak Common. So we’re going to start building on perhaps less obvious and more cramped sites.
The area round Shoreditch High Street station is being developed more and more with tower blocks. I have talked about linking the station to the Central Line and also about a new main line station in the area, so what happens here in the next few years is going to be an experience that will be worth watching.
I also feel that the area to the east of Gospel Oak station could be opened up for development, which might involve a link to the Northern Line.
Yesterday, I mused about reopening Maiden Lane station, which would involve a lot of properly development and a possible link to the Piccadilly Line.
So all three of these developments could involve a connection to a deep level underground line, something which five years ago would have been very difficult.
A few months ago, I talked about using an uphill excavator at Whitechapel station to connect the deep level Crossrail tunnels to the other lines. I have also found this article on the New Civil Engineer website, which gives more details of the amazing construction going on at Whitechapel.
My only comment is – You ain’t seen nothing yet!
If I take the three examples above, they would all mean connecting to a working twin-bore deep Underground line between two stations. I suspect that some clever construction engineers will develop a methodology to do this, with the minimum of disruption to the working line. If the first time, they do it, it is on time and on budget, the engineers will have a job for life in adding connections to deep underground lines not just in London, but all over the wider world.
To return to London, I think we’ll be surprised at some of the seemingly crazy schemes put forward for new or extended stations in the future, that have become possible with the improvement of tunneling and other construction techniques.
A Surreal Experience
I have just come back from Walthamstow on a Victoria line train. I actually sat in the empty front carriage opposite to the big window. When the train stopped at I think, Seven Sisters, I became aware that eyes were watching me. Only then did I realise that the train had stopped, so that the four puppies in an advert on the station wall stared in through the window.
What are the chances of that happening?
I had to get the Victoria Line a day later, so I thought, I’d find the puppies! It wasn’t Seven Sisters, but Tottenham Hale.
Could this advert start a whole new trend, where some of the large wall adverts in stations are arranged so that the message is aligned with the window?
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
The title of this post occurred to me, when I saw this sign.
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
All it does in English, is get you from one side of the road to the other.
You could also ask, what would you call seven sisters in the subway at Seven Sisters station.
Is Silicon Roundabout Going To Become Silicon Peninsular?
Silicon Roundabout or the Old Street Roundabout is well known as the centre of a high-tech area of the UK.
But is that all going to change as part of the de-roundabouting of London by Transport for London, the roundabout will be simplified. The full plan is here. It includes this map.
Note how in TfL’s words in the full plan, it has been turned into a peninsular. Hence the title of this post.
I think car, truck and van drivers will hate it, taxi drivers will do what they always do and adapt and joke, cyclists will love it and pedestrians will probably find it better.
For myself, I would like the bus stops placed so that I could get on a 21/141 bus going northward with only a short walk from the station. Coming from Kings Cross or Euston, I might take the Northern line to Old Street station and then get the most convenient of the number of buses that serve my house. I probably wouldn’t go the other way very often, as getting a 38 to the Angel will probably be slightly quickly.
Whatever you say about the plan, it has been very well explained on a good map.
An Impressive Visualisation
The Croxley Rail Link is a major project to improve the links of the Metropolitan line into Watford and connect the line to Watford Junction station.
Out of curiosity I looked at this 3d visualisation of the new link.
I found it very impressive.
Note the following.
1. After Croxley station, the line bends away to the right on a viaduct.
2. At present the line goes straight on at this point to the current Watford station. This line will become a siding, when the Croxley Rail Link is built.
3. As the Grand Union Canal is crossed, this is in the area of this post.
4. Ascot Road station shown in the visualisation is now to be called Cassiobridge station.
5. The next station is Watford Vicarage Road, which serves the football ground and the hospital.
6. The existing Watford DC Line of the London Overground joins before Watford High Street station, from where the two lines share the same track to Watford Junction.
Hopefully, I’ll still be here and can try this route for real to get to the football ground in 2017.
But I don’t think that the project will be implemented as is currently planned. The Watford Observer is reporting that London Underground is taking over the responsibility for the project and I think this will result bin some changes, most likely for the better.
1. Some parties want Watford station to stay open. As it will be possible to run trains from the Croxley Rail Link through Rickmansworth and on to Amersham, could a shuttle be introduced between Amersham and Watford stations? There is a precedent for this type of arrangement in that there is a shuttle between Dalston Junction and New Cross stations on the East London Line. The main purpose is to increase the service frequency on the core of the line through the Thames Tunnel.
2. Both Amersham and Chalfont & Latimer stations are served by Chiltern Railways, who may want to put their view forward.
3. Could the changes mean that costs rise further and a delay is introduced into the project?
Sneaking Onto The Metropolitan Line At Baker Street Station
I have used Baker Street station many times over the years, but I’d never found this way to sneak between the Metropolitan/Circle line platforms to and the Bakerloo/Jubilee line ones.
I wonder how many other quick routes there are on the London Underground
Transport for London Drops An Interchange
I noticed this Tube map at Whitechapel station today.
Transport for London Drops An Interchange
The interchange at Embankment seems to be missing. It was certainly there when I went through the station this morning. Although for many months lately, the interchange wasn’t able to be used during escalator rebuilding.
There is a piece in Business Insider, which discusses the omission.
What would Harry Beck have thought?
Contactless Cards For Travel In London Are Working
This article entitled Tube Record Smashed Again has just been published on Modern Railways. This is the last paragraph.
Numbers on both days were boosted by ‘MasterCard Fare Free Friday’, through which holders of contactless MasterCard debit or credit cards could use their card to travel for free within the capital, with over 270,000 journeys made on 28 November under this offer. Passengers have been able to use contactless bank cards to pay for Tube travel since September, with 18 million journeys made using contactless payment cards since that date and usage reported to be growing at a rate of 12% per week.
The most significant bit is that the use of contactless payment cards is growing at an unheard of rate for anything.
So if it is so popular in London, when will I be able to use my contactless credit card for travel on Nottingham, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester trains, the Newcastle Metro and local trains outside London? If these cities in the North want to rival London, they must give the passengers the easy ticketing system, they obviously like to use!
If any did bring in a contactless system for payment, I think it would be a long odds-on bet, that at least one of Mastercard, Visa and Amex would run a promotion to get people on the buses, trams and trains.
Sorting The Under/Overground Around Gunnersbury
After I wrote this article about reversing loops instead of termini, I wondered if I could find any references to operating problems on the Piccadilly Line loop that serves Termial 4.
I didn’t find anything but I did find an article on London Reconnections called Upgrading The Piccadilly: Calling Time On Mind The Gap?
It is a well thought-out article that starts by talking about the new trains and the problems of platform-edge doors. It then goes on to suggest what it thinks appears to be the bad idea of transferring the Ealing Broadway branch of the District line to the Piccadilly line.
This is the map of the area.
Gunnersbury Triangle
The triangle of lines in the area is bordered at the West or left by the North London Line (orange), the District and Piccadilly lines from Acton Town to Turnham Green at the top right and the District line to Richmond at the bottom right. Chiswick Park station is marked with the red arrow.
The article then goes on to suggest reasons why it might not be a bad idea and that Chiswick Park station might be put on the Richmond Branch of the District line.
I think the Overground and Crossrail could be the key to what happens in this area.
1. Transport for London’s Infrastructure Plan for 2050, talks about linking the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to Hounslow through the area. It would branch off just south of South Acton station.
Acton To Houslow Link
The line is there and I suspect, it will be used to provide a link between West and North London.
2. Crossrail calls at Ealing Broadway station, so will it be better if it joins up with the Piccadilly or District lines?
There are probably advantages for both lines and I won’t choose what is better. But note that the District line has two interchange stations with Crossrail and the Piccadilly has just the one at Heathrow.
3. There are also proposals to create another rail route into Heathrow. One is Airtrack, which goes through Clapham Junction and Richmond.
4. There is also the problems of installing platform-edge doors on the western reaches of the Piccadilly Line, as outlined in the London Reconnections article.
I think the only certainty is that these and many other factors will result in major changes in this area.
And the solution will be very radical.
One thing though convinces me that something must be done. I was on Chiswick Park station today, and in about ten minutes, I met two young ladies; one French and one Italian, who had got seriously confused by the track layout in the area.
The Anonymous Widower 