The Overground Connection to the Lea Valley Line at Seven Sisters
I tried to take a picture of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line of the Overground, as I passed over it, just before I got to Seven Sisters station whilst travelling to Bruce Grove today.
The Overground Passing Under the Lea Valley Line South of Seven Sisters
It was not good and neither was the one of the I took of Seven Sisters South junction that connects the two lines.
Seven Sisters South Junction
Some might argue that an interchange station here would be a good thing. Or perhaps that some trains from Enfield might use this junction to get to Barking and other places in East London.
I wouldn’t! But I would make the walk from Seven Sisters station to South Tottenham station as easy as possible. According to Wikipedia, there is a shorter route that is not well signposted.
So often improvements in many things can be brought about by decent signs, maps or a few litres of well-applied paint. Perhaps when we signpost an area, we should involve the teenagers. They know all the short-cuts and those places that are dangerous.
Returning from Bruce Castle
I didn’t come back by train, but took a 243 bus direct to Dalston Junction station.
A Well-Appointed Bus Stop at Bruce Castle
As you can see, the bus stop by the museum was well appointed.
The buses are so much easier than the trains. And also the climb up the stairs is optional and only is used to get a better view from the front.
More Dangerous Staircases
I went to Bruce Castle Park again today to see the museum. I took a few more pictures of staircases to go with the previous ones at Stoke Newington and White Hart Lane.
I had a brief chat with one couple with a baby in a buggy. They weren’t impressed with the staircases either.
Connecting Hackney Central and Hackney Downs Stations
It says this in Wikipedia under the entry for Hackney Downs station.
The station is a short walk from Hackney Central, on the North London Line. Until Hackney Central’s closure in 1944, a passenger connection linked the two stations. However, when Hackney Central reopened in 1985, the footway did not reopen, and passengers transferring between the two stations are obliged to leave the station and transfer at street level.
Last night, I took the Overground to Hackney Central and then walked to Hackney Downs station.
It was quite an easy walk, but not the most obvious.
These pictures show how close the lines are and some of the local area.
It may not be possible to reinstate the walkway, but surely something better can be done, incorporating sensible bus interchanges as well.
I see this very much as an opportunity for Hackney.
Should We Add the Lea Valley Lines to the Overground?
There are effectively three surburban Lea Valley lines.
- Liverpool Street to Enfield
- Liverpool Street to Chingford
- Liverpool Street to Cheshunt via Southbury
Some count the line through Tottenham Hale as another Lea Valley Line, but I prefer to think of that as part of the West Anglia Main Line to Bishops Stortford and Cambridge.
I know the lines quite well and they are not in the best of health with stations that need investment, disabled access and to be incorporated into the Oyster fare network.
You might say it is just like the North London Line of a few years ago!
Except there is one major difference. The trains may be old, but they are in a much better state than the travelling urinals of the old North London Line.
The lines are also not badly connected to both the London Underground and the Overground.
- Seven Sisters and Walthamstow Central are shared stations serving both the Lea Valley Lines and the Victoria line.
- A footpath is planned to connect Walthamstow Central with Walthamstow Queen’s Road on the Overground.
- Hackey Downs used to be connected to Hackey Central on the Overground by means of a path at track level. This interchange could give the Overground a quick way to get to the city as an alternative to walking from Shoreditch High Street on the East London Line.
The more I look at this, the more I like it!
The lines are already built for eight car trains and frequencies approaching ten trains per hour. All they need is punters to fill them and that is where the expertise of the Overground comes in. They certainly have a track record of doing it on the current lines.
Transport for London also have good project management expertise, as they showed at the Dalston Curve, where the project was under budget and early. They also know about making stations disabled-friendly.
So I think we should go for it!
More Steps At Stoke Newington
I took the train back from White Hart Lane station to Stoke Newington station in order to get a seventy-free to the Angel for some lunch at Carluccio’s and also do some shopping at Waitrose.
Platform Access at Stoke Newington
These show the steps up from the train to street level. And of course there is no lift! This was illustrated by a rather large fit guy carying a woman’s large buggy and two children up the stairs, just before I took the picture. Surely we can do better than assure access by having to rely on the kindness of strangers.
The bus stop to go south from Stoke Newington is a large double one, but it doesn’t have one of those displays that tell you how long you’ll have to wait. These are important and really help passengers, as often you have more than one option. For instance yesterday, if I’d had to wait too long for a 73 or 476, I might have changed plan and gone home directly on a 76 via a pub.
Return From White Hart Lane
I returned to central London, by taking the train from White Hart Lane station.
It is another station that has seen better days and it doesn’t seem to have improved much since I used it in the 1960s to go to see Spurs at White Hart Lane.
White Hart Lane Station
Note the stairs in the picture. In common with most stations on this line they are rather steep and given the numbers of people on match days at White Hart Lane, surely something better should be done.
The Class 315 trains were built in the early 1980s and despite being thirty years old aren’t that bad. They are certainly better than the slam door stock, that I used to use all those years ago.
The slam door stock did have the great advantage in that as you approached Enfield Town station, you could fold the door back, so that when the train had slowed to your running speed, you could jump and start running to be first in the queue for the old 107 bus for Oakwood. I never had an accident doing that and I won’t now, as sadly slam door trains are no more.
I can just about remember the old compartment stock used with the steam tank engines on that line and others out of King’s Cross. As the compartments on these trains were essentially private, one game played by many, but not me, was seeing if you could have it off between stations.
On To Bruce Grove
Bruce Grove station is a few stops up the line and is really at the south end of Tottenham High Road, where the riots started last week.
Bruce Grove Station
The line has been on an embankment since Hackney Downs and there are again steep steps to get down to the road below. Wikipedia makes this claim about the station.
Despite being in the heart of Tottenham and being at one time a busy station, Bruce Grove ticket office is rarely open.
I was using my Freedom Pass, so it didn’t bother me.
Hackney Downs Station
I wanted to go to Tottenham today, to answer a few questions that had arisen in my mind after the trip yesterday to IKEA.
I started at Hackney Downs station.
To say it is a dump would not be fair, as I suspect that staff try hard to keep a station that has lacked investment for years, working well.
It could be a very good station and I think it could be made into a major interchange by just a few changes and perhaps by borrowing ideas from the Overground.
The access to the platforms, which is by steep staircases, must be improved. I’m not disabled, but do appreciate the problems of those who are. In a wheelchair, unless accompanied by say four of Her Majesty’s squaddies, you wouldn’t stand a chance.
It is dark and dingy too and desperately in need of an imaginative repainting. Hackney has lots of artists, so perhaps they could help or design a scheme. Has a station ever been converted into an art gallery? I know the Musee d’Orsay was formerly a station, but they threw the trains out. Babies and bathwaters come to mind.
How about adding a food shop and a coffee bar?
The interface to the buses underneath the station is poor, as the picture in the gallery shows. There should be a light-controlled crossing over Dalston Lane.
But there is a lot going for the station.
It is close to the open space of Hackney Downs.
It is well served by services going to Enfield, Tottenham, Chingford, Cheshunt, Hertford and of course, Liverpool Street.
A walkway did link it to Hackney Central and this could be reinstated to create a true rail interchange for Hackney.
The Little Trains are Popular
At least something is booming amongst all the gloom. According to this report, all the small branch lines are popular and are showing substantial increases in traffic.
And it’s not just the traditional branch lines. Recently, I’ve travelled a couple of times on the secondary line between Cambridge and Ipswich. It used to have some of the worst rolling stock in Europe. Now it has much newer and larger, Class 170 trains, and traffic is rising fast. The newer trains are typically ten years old, but this is nothing compared to some of the rubbish, like Pacers, operating in parts of the UK.
Obviously, there is a need for more and better services on a lot of these lines. Hopefully, this will be rectified in the next few years, as the most suitable trains, the Class 170s are fairly numerous and a lot are used for fairly long distance services, where longer and larger trains are needed. So the new trains would go to these services and the current units would be relocated. But remember a new carriage costs the best part of a million pounds, although in this country, we are very good at rebuilding old ones to a modern standard.
The Anonymous Widower 