London’s New Stations
This is a list of the new stations that are being built or are proposed for the London area.
- Battersea Power Station – Being built for Northern Line Extension – Opening by 2020
- Brent Cross Thameslink – Outline planning permission
- Canary Wharf – Being built for Crossrail – Opening in 2018
- Cassiobridge – Being built for Croxley Rail Link – Opening in 2020
- Lea Bridge – Being built – Opening in 2016
- Maiden Lane – Proposed for North London Line
- New Bermondsey – Being built for East London Line
- Nine Elms – Being built for Northern Line Extension – Opening by 2020
- Old Oak Common – Being planned for Crossrail and HS2 – Opening in 2026
- Primrose Hill – Proposed for North London Line
- Silvertown – Proposed for Crossrail
- Watford Vicarage Road – Being built for Croxley Rail Link – Opening in 2020
- West Hampstead Interchange – Proposed
- Woolwich – Being built for Crossrail – Opening in 2018
There are of course other proposals in the dreams of London’s many local authorities.
Those Canny Yorkshire Folk Seem To be Thinking About More Stations
Different parts of the country seem to have there own preferred ways of expanding their transport network.
Only London can probably afford large projects like Crossrail or Crossrail 2, but several cities like Manchester, Cardiff and Nottingham can make good cases for sensible projects that cost from say a hundred million pounds up to a billion. Projects in this category would include.
Croxley Rail Link to Watford – £230 million – Click for details
Midland Metro extension to New Street – £127 million – Click for details
North West Electrification – £422 million – Click for details
Nottingham Express Transit – Phase 2 – £570 million – Click for details
Valley Lines Electrification – £400 million – Click for details
The costs I have quoted are probably only indicative, as Network Rail have had their problems lately. But I just wanted to show that trains and trams don’t come cheap.
Underneath these large and medium sized projects, there are a large assortment that generally get chosen to suit the problems of an area. For example.
1. East Anglia got the Bacon Factory Curve at Ipswich to sort out delays to all traffic caused by the large number of freight trains going into and out of the Port of Felixstowe.
2. Lancashire got the Todmorden Curve to allow direct trains from Blackburn and Burnley to Manchester Victoria.
3.Warwickshire received funds to develop new stations at Coventry Arena, Bermuda Park and Kenilworth.
So as I said at the start of this post different areas of the country see their own priorities and attempt to get schemes funded.
Sheffield and Manchester for example might promote schemes based on their tram networks, and Leeds and Liverpool might want to expand their successful rail networks.
It is interesting to look at this page, which is a list of current projects on the West Yorkshire Metro.
Three new stations; Apperley Bridge, Kirkstall Forge and Low Moor are either under construction or could be so in the next year or so.
Improvements at major stations in the area are listed and there is even a project to identify places for new stations.
So as I said in the title of this post, it looks like West Yorkshire is hoping new and improved stations will be a successful, practical and affordable way of bringing more traffic to the network.
They do have a project on the possible introduction of tram-trains in the City. The web site just says this.
Development of a tram-train network for the Leeds city region would be through conversion of existing heavy rail routes and construction of some on-street alignments.
Further consideration will be given following the outcome of a trial in South Yorkshire.
How sensible!
Like many other cities and areas are probably doing, to wait for the trial between Sheffield and Rotherham to show if tram-trains are viable in the UK, is a very good idea.
If what I have seen in Germany is any indication of how the Vossloh tram-trains are introduced and perform, I suspect we’ll be seeing quite a few of their UK variant, the Class 399 tram-train.
Are There Any Sensible Places For New Stations On The Overground?
This is just a list of possible Overground stations that have been tslked about.
Maiden Lane on the North London Line
With so much money being spent in this area on property development to say Never about this station would not be a safe bet. I once researched and proposed a walking route that connected Kings Cross, St. Pancras and Euston. If this was operated by electric people movers and included a connection to Maiden Lane, it might just be made to work.
But it will be all those offices at Kings Cross Central between Kings Cross/St. Pancras and the North London Line, that will decide if Maiden Lane station is reopened.
North Acton on the North London Line
No one thinks this is that likely, but it does link the Central Line to the Overground, in an area where a lot of development is happening. If the Goblin Extension to Hounslow is scheduled, this station might become more likely.
Earls Court on the West London Line
Nothing is planned here yet, but read this post on London Reconnections. A large amount of residential and other development is to be built over the West London Line at Earls Court. The railway line will be enclosed in a concrete box. This sounds very similar to Crossrail at Woolwich, where a station is being built under a massive development.
There must be very good reasons for not doing the same thing at Earls Court!
Brixton on the South London Line
There has been a lot of pressure for a connection at Brixton to the Victoria Line. But if you look at this post, you’ll see why it will probably never happen.
East Brixton on the South London Line
East Brixton is probably a better option than Brixton and the proposal is discussed here.
Camberwell on the South London Line
I have assumed this to be at Loughborough Junction and I’ve discussed it here.But it could be at East Brixton. The developments around the station will probably decide what station gets built.
Surrey Canal Road on the South London Line
When the new South London Line was created and opened in 2012, provision was made for the building of this station. According to this article in Wikipedia, it now looks that a start could be made on the station in the near future with a possible opening date of 2015.
It would appear that Transport for London got their planning right with this station. When the money became available, the building of the station was able to proceed.
Gospel Oak to Barking
There are various plans listed here.
Summing Up
I think we might see some of these plans come to fruition.
Surrey Canal Road should be a model for the creation of new stations on the Overground.
Leeds To Get Two New Stations
Modern Railways is reporting, that two new stations; Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge are to be built in the Leeds area.
Stations seem to be like buses. You wait for a new one for years and then they arrive in bunches.
We Can Build Affordable Rail Stations When We Have To!
There are plenty of places on the UK rail network, where it would be advantageous to build new or replace old stations. Around Newmarket and Cambridge there are a lot of places where stations used to be and proposals have been actively pursued at Soham and Cherry Hinton, although the latter is a bit tenuous. Now that the services have been upgraded with newer trains, it would seem logical that improved stations might increase the number of passengers.
The reason these improvements are not carried out is cost.
But have Network Rail created a precedent at Workington North station? Although it had to be built to meet a need created by tragic circumstances, it proved that a working station could be built quickly and affordably. Albeit it only was in use for a year and a supreme example of what could be build with scaffolding.
So should some of the lessons learned be applied elsewhere? Of course they should! Modern Railways are talking this month, about a proposal for a simple rebuilding of Fishguard & Goodwick station to create a transport interchange for the town.
The trains are coming, but there is no station, so they should go for it!
The Anonymous Widower 