Before Crossrail – Iver
A Quaint Small Station With Bad Access – Rating 4/10
Iver was the last Crossrail station I visited and I didn’t save the best to last.
This is the Google Map of the station.
Iver station – Downloaded 6th July 2015
Iver could become part of the Heathrow Hub in the future, but for Crossrail it will need lifts and updated buildings.
An Aerial Look At West Drayton Station
In my visit to West Drayton station, I also noted a railway line going away from the main line towards the North West.
West Drayton Station
In this aerial view you can clearly see it branching away at the station, which is marked by the red arrow. It then curves round to go under the Great Western Main Line in a Southerly direction, at the far left of the picture.
This is the Staines and West Drayton Railway and the northern section from West Drayton to Colnbrook is still used by freight trains. Some take fuel to a depot near Heathrow.
It seems to me over the last few years, there have been several proposals to improve the links from places like Reading and the West and Waterloo and South London, some of which pass through this area. But none seem to build on and improve this line.
We know that trains will be able to get from Reading and the West to Heathrow, but all projects to Waterloo and South London like Airtrack, seem to have foundered until now.
On the other hand, when Crossrail and Thameslink are fully operational in 2019, it looks like the journey time between East Croydon and Heathrow, changing at Farringdon will be around an hour. Currently, it looks like it’s a couple of minutes over an hour and a half, with two changes. Fast times need a trip on the expensive Heathrow Express.
I think that the only certainty is that in the next ten years or so, Heathrow and Crossrail/Thameslink will have a tremendous influence on railways in the vicinity of West London.
Is Crossrail Going To Be The Shopping Line?
Crossrail seems to be a rail line that connects most of London’s Main shopping centres together. Starting from the East at Shenfield and going West, you get Romford, Ilford, Stratford/Eastfield, Moorgate, Oxford Street, Bond Street, Ealing, Slough and Reading.
You probably have to include Woolwich and Canary Wharf on the Abbey Wood branch, although Canary Wharf could be described as an important station in the basement of a shopping centre.
Even Westfield at Shepherds Bush is just a detour away from Crossrail on the Central line.
So will one of the slogans for the new line be something like.
Going shopping? Then go Crossrail!
I searched for “Shopping Crossrail and found this article in Retail Week. This is an extract.
As John Platt, managing consultant at location analyst CACI explains: “Currently no major high speed rail routes offer direct access to the heart of central London’s retail offer from the suburbs. All the major stations are on the edge of central London’s retail, meaning shoppers travelling from outside central London have to make a second trip on some form of transport.
“With stations at Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street this will not be the case with Crossrail.
So the article is optimistic that Crossrail will increase business in the retail sector.
Before Crossrail – Issues On The Reading Branch
The issues on the Western branch to Reading are broadly similar to those on the Shenfield Metro.
1. Disabled And Step Free Access
There are some good stations like Reading and Slough and some terrible ones like Hanwell.
One advantage in the West is that a lot of stations have plenty of space and are not cramped like say Manor Park.
2. Train Access
The platforms in the West are probably worse matches to the trains than those in the East.
But like the East, they seem to fairly straight.
3. Long Distance Trains
The Western branch has the same problem as the Shenfield Metro in that how does it interface in the best manner with the long distance trains.
But it does have the opportunity of connecting Heathrow to Wales and the West through Reading.
4. Buses And Onward Travel
These are probably worse than the East and might be more difficult to saolve as you’re often not talking to London or its boroughs.
I have a feeling that Transport for London may get all of the stations to use London’s very much proven system.
5. Freight
As in the East, there appeared to be a lot of freight on the line.
Before Crossrail – Langley
Not Much To Do Here! – Rating 6/10
Langley station is almost Crossrail-ready now and probably just needs lifts on the bridge and the usual cosmetics.
The bridge obviously needs reconstructing, but there is also a lot of potential in doing something positive with the station building and perhaps the small cafe.
Before Crossrail – The Proposed Schedule
Wikipedia has a schedule of proposed services. I have broken this down to get the figures for my catalogue of stations. Starting in the East, they can be summarised as follows.
Shenfield Branch
This will have 12 tph (trains per hour) in the peak and 6 tph in the off-peak, calling at all stations and going through the central tunnel to the West.
In addition, there will be other services going into Liverpool Street. Wikipedia is saying 10 tph in the peak and 5 tph in the off-peak. Some will be limited stop, but it does look like that all stations will get at least 6 tph in the off-peak and some will get around ten.
As this is a substantially better service than exists today, you must be extremely pleased if you own or have just bought a house along the branch.
Abbey Wood Branch
Like the Shenfield branch, this branch is scheduled to get 12 tph in the peak, but the off-peak level is not stated.
If the off-peak is the same as the Shenfield branch, then that figure must probably be added to the 10 tph services Abbey Wood enjoys at the moment into other London termini.
Central Section
24 tph in the peak will pass through the central tunnels, with plans for 14 tph to turn-back at Paddington.
The off-peak is not stated, but if the Shenfield branch figures are correct, then it could be something like 12 tph, with perhaps 7 tph to Paddington only.
As the Class 345 trains will be so much larger than the typical Underground train, this will be a tremendous increase in capacity across Central London.
Western Branch – Paddington to West Drayton
As West Drayton will be served by trains to all the Western termini and will also turnback a couple of trains per hour, it should get 10 tph in the peak going through the central tunnels. Wikipedia says it will get ten in the off-peak as well, so that probably means my figure of seven off-peak trains turning at Paddington is wrong.
There will also be other trains going direct to Paddington. 4 tph are currently proposed to be the Heathrow Express. I can’t see this high-priced service surviving long past Crossrail’s opening in its present form.
Heathrow Branch
Wikipedia says that 4 tph will go to Heathrow all day and hopefully all night, running all the way to Shenfield and Abbey Wood. But these services will not go to Terminal 5 and the expensive Heathrow Express will still be running.
I think that there’ll be some replanning here. I know this is old an article in the Daily Mail from 2012, but it shows that Boris Johnson and others, think that Crossrail should go to Terminal 5.
As Terminal 5 could be joined to Reading, it might be that some Crossrail services from Reading go via Heathrow.
Western Branch – Beyond West Drayton
It looks like 2 tph will go to each of Maidenhead and Reading, with an additional 2 tph going limited-stop from Reading to Paddington.
Before Crossrail – Acton Main Line
A Very Draughty Station – Rating 4/10
Acton Main Line station is not an attractive one and I certainly found it very draughty today.
This is a Google Map of the station.
Acton Main Line Station – Downloaded 7th July 2015
It is a station that will be rebuilt for Crossrail and their plans are comprehensive. They say this.
Crossrail is building a new Acton Main Line station just to the south of the existing building on the junction of Horn Lane and Friary Road with a location and orientation that creates a new station forecourt east of the station and a new space to the rear.
With four trains an hour under Crossrail, you won’t have to do what I did today and catch a bus to get away from the area.
I think Acton Main Line shows how areas around Crossrail stations will benefit.
Before Crossrail – Ealing Broadway
More Romford Than Stratford – Rating 5/10
Ealing Broadway station will be one of the more important stations on Crossrail, ranking with Stratford. Just as Stratford will be a major interchange with suburban rail, the Overground, the Underground, the DLR and buses in the East, Ealing Broadway will in a slightly lesser fashion perform a similar role in the West.
This is a Google Map of the station.
Ealing Broadway Station – Downloaded 7th July 2015
At the moment, the station is rather a jumble of connections, with none of the elegance of Stratford or Reading. It’s got a lot of the run-down feel of Romford or Ilford.
Ealing deserves better and this station has been through a major rethink in recent months. But will there be the right connectivity between Crossrail and the Underground?
Suppose you want to get between Wimbledon or Richmond and Heathrow. Transport for London, recommend getting a bus for the first and going to Paddington for the second.
So London gets a new fifteen billion pound railway and it doesn’t easily connect to where it is needed.
I would assume that if Ealing gets full step-free interchanging between all lines, some of this will be easier, but connecting to Richmond probably needs a new Crossrail station at Old Oak Common connecting to the North London Line. Wimbledon would hopefully be a change at Farringdon onto Thameslink.
Before Crossrail – Hanwell
A Relic From The Past – Rating 3/10
Hanwell station is very much a relic of a time long passed. With a sympathetic refurbishment, it would have a style not unlike that of Birmingham Moor Street.
The station like Slough is a Grade 2 Listed building, but as the pictures show, except for the flowers, very little is what passengers expect these days.
It must have the worst staircases on any station in the UK.
On the other hand a fellow passenger, who was speaking what sounded like an East European language into his phone and to his child, thought it was rather a nice station with lots of heritage.
Finding the station was also difficult and on their web site Crossrail feels Hanwell is very much a station, where a good job can be done. They say this.
Hanwell station is a smaller and comparatively lightly-used station located in a predominantly residential area on a quiet street some distance away from the nearest major road. Despite the attractiveness of the Grade II listed station and the nearby houses, the streetscape generally suffers from inconsistent paving quality and a lack of step-free pedestrian crossings.
It will be a challenge to get this station fit for the twenty-first century.
Ealing Borough Council are also pushing to open up the station on the other side of the tracks. It would certainly make it easier to find the station.
Before Crossrail – East Is East And West Is West
I have now seen a good proportion of the Crossrail stations and they range from the spectacular new stations like Reading and Stratford to some much simpler ones like Taplow and Goodmayes.
But there is an East-West divide with the former Great Western stations being generally better designed and in a superior state of repair to those that were built by the Great Eastern.
Crossrail has a section on its web site called Urban Realm, which details their plans for all the stations.
Some of the more ambitious schemes involve virtually new stations like Hayes and Harlington and Southall, but they tend to be in the west.
So are we seeing another manifestation of the policy of not giving rail lines to the east, the investment they deserve?
Surely, if Southall needs a new station, then so does Manor Park?
Manor Park may well get a substantially rebuilt station, as the future development of the station is described like this in Wikipedia.
Manor Park station will be served by Crossrail from 2018. The platforms will not be lengthened so selective door operation will be used instead, allowing the freight loop to remain in use. Due to the narrow platforms, and the layout of the station, fitting lifts for disabled access would be difficult and expensive, requiring the walkways to be rebuilt and closing the station for several months. Like all the other Crossrail stations, this station will be made accessible.
As full step-free access has been promised, we may see more development at Manor Park.
The Anonymous Widower 