Will The Northern Line Extension Open Before Crossrail?
That is what this article in Global Rail News is saying.
It looks to me like some clever project manager has examined the critical path and found a way to build it quicker.
Or could it be, that Crossrail has shown that digging tunnels through London has got a lot easier since they built the Jubilee Line Extension, as tunnel boring machines are now much bigger and faster? Crossrail have also shown how stations can be built independently of the actual railway, as commercial projects, at the same time as the railway is being dug or fitted out.
From Wikipedia too, it would appear that both station sites are not cramped and hemmed in by existing buildings.
So are we going to have a race between the Northern Line Extension and Crossrail, to see which opens first?
I think that Crossrail will open first, as it is a big project that has almost got successfully past the difficult parts and there are still questions to be asked of the Northern Line Extension, before construction can start.
One thing that might delay the Northern Line Extension is to build the line to Clapham Junction station in the first phase, rather than as a second one.
Could This Happen In The UK?
This article on the BBC web site is about how the French have ordered 2,000 new trains that are too wide for the platforms.
The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros ($20.5bn; £12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms.
But could it happen here?
The front cover of the February 2014 edition of Modern Railways has a headline of Mind the Gap. Inside it describes how at some London Underground stations there is a problem of large gaps between trains and station platforms with the new S Stock.
But the London Underground problem is for a different reason. As the lines get upgraded and new trains are delivered, London Underground is endeavouring to get the platform-train interface to help passengers and especially those with accessibility problems. And they have some curved platforms that make this difficult and will need rebuilding.
Regularly on the Overground, I see a wheelchair-bound passenger push themselves effortlessly into and out of the Class 378 trains, where the interface is easy. As the Overground platforms are lengthened for the new trains, any small gap problems are probably being addressed.
On the Continent except on Metros, there is usually a step-up into the train, which with heavy cases or a baby in a buggy is a slower process.
I wonder how long it is before some anti-Europe and anti-metrication politician or dinosaur, blames the EU and/or metrication for this French problem.
After all, the French are only probably doing what London Underground are and adjusting the platforms to their shiny new trains.
But are the new French trains solving the problem of access?
I can’t find any detailed descriptions of the trains or even their class, so I can’t answer that one.
This train-platform problem will happen more in the future, as many train platforms in the developed world were designed in the steam era and have been updated over the years. I suspect we’ll probably find some newish stations may have to be rebuilt for the next generation.
So we will see more of approach taken by the French and London of ordering a train, that you want for passenger needs and then adjusting those stations that don’t fit the new trains.
After all you would prefer to have the same type of train for all your lines like London Overground has done with the Class 378 rather than have a special version for some stations. If you look at the Class 378 as a go-anywhere train on the Overground, it has a dual-voltage and selective door opening capabilities to cope with lines without overhead electrification and short platforms.
I suspect that the French problems are worse as it’s a much larger number of trains and stations and there are politicians with axes to grind.
The Queen Starts An Inter Union Row
Her Majesty doesn’t often get involved in trade union disputes, but according to this report in the Standard, she’s very much involved in this one on the London Ungerground.
What puzzles me about this dispute is why we still have so many unions involved in the rail industry.
Over the many years, I’ve been watching industrial relations, it strikes me, that companies with a single union, seem to have better industrial relations, than those with more.
Please Stand On The Right
I’ve not seen this before on the Underground.
Please Stand On The Right
But it probably is a good simple idea.
Unless it was someone who forgot to clean their boots!
Action In West Hampstead
My post about the Dudding Hill Line got me thinking, so on my way to explore the area, I passed through West Hampstead, where I changed from the Overground to the Jubilee line. If you know the Jubilee line from the spectacular stations on the extension towards Stratford, then you’ll hardly recognise the stations on the line past Baker Street, as being on a modern Underground line. They probably have only had a couple of coats of paint, since my childhood.
The interchange I used consists of a walk down the busy West End Lane from one tired station to another.
Changing Trains At West Hampstead
Not very twenty-first century! Or even good nineteenth!
But look at the other side of the road. Signs talks about a new square for London. The development’s website is here. It might turn out well, with a nice square and cafe on the walk between the two stations. A decent cafe like a Carluccio’s would be ideal and help to improve the terrible interchange.
So it looks like Camden Council is starting to sort out one of the worst interchanges in London. Some old ideas for development are here.
I actually think that West Hampstead station has the same problem as Highbury and Islington station further up the North London line. They are both cramped Victorian stations on busy roads, that have been patched into a modern network, for the minimum amount of money. But then this is typical of many Overground stations!
Art On The U-Bahn
The U-Bahn is Berlin’s underground railway and just like some of the older lines on the London Underground, it has some appropriate artwork.
The one thing that I didn’t like was the stick on decoration of some of the trains, which meant you had difficulty seeing out to read the station names.
How Will Crossrail And The Central Line Link At Stratford?
I took this picture as I passed through Stratford station this morning.
Interchange To The Central Line At Stratford
I had intended to take pictures of the work at Pudding Mill Lane station, but the train windows were so dirty, I didn’t see anything worthwhile.
But it got me thinking as to how Crossrail and the Central Line will link at Stratford.
Will for instance, the two lines share an island platform for each direction, as they do now?
I think, that on the record of London’s interchanges of the past few years, the planners will come up with a good plan that works well.
A Gluten-Free High Street In Watford
I went to see Ipswich play at Watford yesterday and ate lunch in Carluccio’s in the High Street there. Their restaurant is actually in a sandwich between Nando’s and Jimmy’s World Grill, both of which seem to cater for gluten and other allergies.
A Carluccio’s Sandwich
There is also a Pizza Express on the other side of the road.
For the first time, I used the Overground to get to Watford, by travelling to Watford High Street station. This station is due to be rebuilt in the next few years as part of the Croxley Link project. As the Watford Junction station and the tracks through it are also being remodelled, it looks like Watford is getting a full transport makeover.
Après Bob, Le Déluge
It would seem that the successors to Bob Crow at RMT are out to inflict more pain on Londoners, than Bob Crow ever did, with five days of strikes in the next few weeks, as reported here on the BBC.
But Londoners will in the main survive and get on with their business, just as they did when Adolf gave the city, quite a few years of much more dangerous strikes.
As someone, who uses the Underground and Overground a lot, I pass by ticket offices quite a bit. Many are crowded with long queues at the ticket machines. Only a few stations seem to have long queues at the actual ticket offices themselves.
So to cure the problems of the queues at the ticket machines, Transport for London will introduce more and better machines at stations.
The ability to be able to use a contactless bank card as a ticket as well as Oyster, which is already happening and is supposedly working well on buses, will also contribute to a reduction of those needing the ticket offices.
If the machines and contactless cards do cut all the queues, then we could have have the situation of fully-manned ticket offices, where staff see hardly any customers at all.
Surely, the RMT should be stopping the installation of more ticket machines and the using of contactless bank cards as tickets, if they wanted to stop the closure of ticket offices.
Where else will this worrying new militancy turn up?
Mind The Gap – Threeses Style
I got off a Central line train at Bank station tonight and it was all a bit difficult for a family with a set of threeses, who were probably about three years old.
The platform there is rather curved and there must have been at least a twenty-five centimetre gap between the train and the platform.
But ushered by their parents, they jumped it successfully!
It really is a gap that needs sorting. This page has more details.
The Anonymous Widower 