Transport for London Warns Crossrail 2 Could Be Delayed By Decade
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in the Financial Times.
It’s all about funding and probably the Government not wanting to finance all of the large rail projects.
- HS2
- Crossrail 2
- Northern Powerhouse Rail
- East West Rail
HS2 is funded and underway and the last two projects are being sorted, but the cost of Crossrail 2 is too much to digest.
I have believed for some time, that Crossrail 2 is a number of separate projects.
- Increasing capacity on the Waterloo suburban lines
- Increasing capacity on the Lea Valley Lines
- Creation of the mega-station at Euston-St. Pancras
- New trains
- The high capacity central tunnel
I will now look at each in detail.
Increasing Capacity On The Waterloo Suburban Lines
In An Analysis Of Waterloo Suburban Services Proposed To Move To Crossrail 2, I showed that it would be possible to run a service with Crossrail 2’s characteristics terminating in Waterloo.
I said the following were needed.
- More platform capacity in Waterloo.
- Modern high-performance 100 mph trains like Class 707 trains or Aventras.
- Some improvements to track and signals between Waterloo and Wimbledon stations.
- Wimbledon station would only need minor modifications.
- A measure of ATO between Waterloo and Wimbledon stations.
Much of the infrastructure works have been completed as I reported in It’s All Over Now, Waterloo!.
All it needs is Bombardier to build the new Class 701 trains for South Western Railway.
Increasing Capacity On The Lea Valley Lines
In Could A Lea Valley Metro Be Created?, I looked at the possibility of creating a Lea Valley Metro with the following characteristics.
- Four-tracks between Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne stations.
- Step-free stations.
- Termination in the unused loop at Stratford.
- 10-15 trains per hour.
- Links to Crossrail, the Underground and Southeastern Highspeed services at Stratford.
I came to the conclusion it was very much possible.
Creation Of The Mega-Station At Euston-St. Pancras
In Should A Mega-Station Be Created At Kings Cross-St. Pancras-Euston?, I looked at this mega station project for Crossrail 2.
I came to these conclusions.
- If Crossrail 2 is built, there will obviously be a mega station at Euston St. Pancras.
- But I believe that all the other improvements that will happen before HS2 opens may well be enough to cope with the extra capacity needed.
- Obviously though, any improvements must not compromise the building of Crossrail’s mega-station.
In Should A Mega-Station Be Created At Kings Cross-St. Pancras-Euston?, I proposed a four-level mega-station.
- Surface level – National Rail and HS2
- Sub-surface level – Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan Lines
- Deep level – Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines.
- Very deep level – Crossrail 2
Lines would be connected by escalators, travelators and lifts going all over the place.
It would not be that different to the double-ended Crossrail station at Moorgate-Liverpool Street station, which I described in London’s First Underground Roller Coaster, except that it connects three stations instead of two.
This would enable Crossrail 2 to be bored through at a deeper level after Euston station had been rebuilt for HS2.
In terms of Crossrail 2, the creation of the mega station at Euston St. Pancras could be the last project to be completed.
New Trains
This should be the easy bit, as surely using the same Class 345 trains on Crossrail and Crossrail 2, would be an objective, if it were possible.
The High Capacity Central Tunnel
I’ve never built a tunnel, although my software; Artemis helped to build the Channel Tunnel, but I would suspect that building the central tunnel for Crossrail 2 will be easier than building that for Crossrail.
So many things like riding a bike or sex are a lot easier the second time.
There must be so many lessons from Crossrail that can be applied to Crossrail 2.
If all of the central stations on the tunnel, from Dalston to Wimbledon, where there is interchange with Crossrail 2 can be made tunnel-ready, then I don’t see why boring the central tunnel can’t be one of the last jobs to be started.
The tunnel boring machines would then just pass through the stations to link them all together.
It’s probably not as simple as that, but it is going to be a lot easier job than Crossrail.
The Importance Of The Victoria Line
I’ve never seen this said before, but one of the keys to building Crossrail 2 is the Victoria Line or Dear Old Vicky.
I believe the Victoria Line should be updated as follows to be as near the standard of Crossrail as possible, by using the existing trains, track and signalling and by updating the stations.
- Addition of the missing escalators and other features left out to save money in the 1960s..
- Full step-free access at all stations.
- Addition of new entrances at Oxford Circus, Highbury and Islington and Walthamstow Central.
- Better interchange with the Overground at Blackhorse Road and Walthamstow Central.
- Better interchange with National Rail at Brixton, Vauxhall, Finsbury Park, Seven Sisters and Tottengham Hale.
- Forty tph between Brixton and Walthamstow Central.
Forty tph may need a reversing loop at Brixton and an extra one-platform station at Herne Hill.
I believe that an update of this type and scale could be applied to the Victoria Line without causing too much grief for passengers. The work on the stations is necessary to cope with the current and increased passenger numbers and could be carried out in much the same way as the upgrade at Victoria station has been done in the last few years.
The Victoria Line would then offer a high capacity link between Tottenham Hale and Vauxhall prior to the building of Crossrail 2’s central tunnel.
Passengers from say Broxbourne to Hampton Court would take the following route.
- Lea Valley Line from Broxbourne to Tottenham Hale – (10 tph)
- Victoria Line from Tottenham Hale to Vauxhall – (>30 tph)
- South Western Railway from Vauxhall to Hampton Court – (4 tph)
Two changes (both hopefully step-free) would be needed, but with improvement to the National Rail routes at both ends, it would be faster than now.
The Importance Of The Bakerloo Line
Ask TfL’s Journey Planner, which is the quickest way from Tottenham Hale to Waterloo and it gives the following route.
- Victoria Line from Tottenham Hale to Oxford Circus
- Bakerloo Line from Oxford Circus to Waterloo
There is a simple cross-platform interchange at Oxford Circus, with the two legs taking 16 and 8 minutes respectively.
Currently, the Bakerloo Line has a frequency of twenty-two tph and plans have been mooted, that will see this going to twenty-seven tph by 2033.
It looks like when combining an updated Victoria Line with the current Bakerloo Line, you get a excellent connection that can stand-in for the Crossrail 2 central tunnel between Tottenham Hale and Waterloo.
But the Bakerloo Line might be extended to Lewisham, so will this extension make the combined Victoria/Bakerloo route more important.
The extended Bakerloo Line is not planned to have a connection with Crossrail 2, so using the Victoria Line across Central London will probably be the fastest way from say Lewisham to Enfield Lock.
It looks to me, that the cross-platform interchange at Oxford Circus between the Bakerloo and Victoria Lines is more important than anybody thinks and will continue to be so.
The Splitting Of The Northern Line
TfL would like to split the Northern Line into two branches, but this can’t be done until Camden Town station is rebuilt around 2024.
The only effect this split will have on Crossrail 2, is it will give extra routes to Euston station, which may probably make it less important that Crossrail 2 is completed before HS2.
A Possible Timetable
This is very much speculation on my part.
- 2020 – Improved Overground services to Cheshunt, Chingford and Enfield Town using new Class 710 trains.
- 2021 – Increased Greater Anglia services on the Lea Valley Lines using new Class 720 trains.
- 2021 – Waterloo suburban branches running at four tph using new Class 701 trains.
- 2024 – Extended Camden Town station opens.
- 2024 – Splitting of the Northern Line
- 2024 – More capacity on the Victoria Line
- 2025 – Increased services on the Lea Valley Line after four-tracking.
- 2025 – Upgraded Euston station opens with better connection to the Underground.
- 2026 – Old Oak Common statio opens
- 2026 – HS2 opens to Birmingham
The Crossrail 2 central tunnel could be built, when traffic levels are predicted to be too much for the Victoria Line.
Conclusion
This analysis says to me that Crossrail 2 could be planned as a series of much smaller projects, that would give passengers benefits from the early-2020s and also ease the funding problems for the line.
But the analysis also says that if the central tunnel is not built before the 2040s, then the Victoria Line must be upgraded to create a high capacity link between Tottenham Hale and Vauxhall or Waterloo using the Bakerloo Line.
Could A Lea Valley Metro Be Created?
Crossrail 2 envisages these developments and level of service North along the Lea Valley.
- A four-track West Anglia Main Line between Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne stations.
- Step-free stations
- A service running between Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne stations.
- 10-15 trains per hour (tph)
Crossrail 2 also envisages that at Tottenham Hale station, the line will enter a tunnel for Central and South West London.
But there is an unused alternative terminal, that could handle perhaps 16 tph with modern signalling.
Look at this map from carto.metro.free.fr of the lines at Stratford.
Note the double-track loop that encircles Stratford International station and goes through Platforms 11 and 12 at Stratford station.
Consider.
- Loops like this can easily handle 12 tph, as they do in Liverpool with the Wirral Line.
- Stratford is well-connected to the Central, Great Eastern Main, Jubilee and North London Lines, Crossrail and the Docklands Light Railway.
- The Loop could be connected to Stratford International station for Southeastern Highspeed services.
- There’s probably enough capacity to allow a couple of Stansted services to terminate in the loop.
- There is a massive development going on at Meridian Water, where a new station is being built.
- Liverpool Street station lacks capacity.
I can’t believe that a viable 12 tph service is not possible.
The major works would be as follows.
- Four-tracking the West Anglia Main Line into two fast and two slow lines.
- Making all stations step-free.
- Removing the level crossings.
- Creating a flyover at Coppermill Junction to connect the fast lines to Liverpool Street and prepare for Crossrail 2.
If Crossrail 2 is built in the future, the Metro service would be diverted into the central tunnel at Tottenham Hale station.
Integration With The London Overground
The Chingford, Cheshunt and Enfield Town services of the London Overground will not only offer alternative routes during the four-tracking of the West Anglia Main Line, but they could be better connected to a Lea Valley Metro.
- Tne Class 710 trains could enable four tph on each branch.
- The Class 710 trains will enable faster services on each branch.
- A reinstated Hall Farm Curve would connect Chingford and Walthamstow to Stratford.
- Creation of a step-free Cheshunt station would ease transfer between the London Overground and the Lea Valley Metro.
The new trains will be key and may open up more possibilities.
Note too, that moving services to Stratford from Liverpool Street will release capacity at Liverpool Street, that will be well-used by Greater Anglia and London Overground.
Dear Old Vicky
She’s always there when you need her and engineers keep coming up with ways to keep the Victoria Line giving more.
Currently, the frequency of trains between Walthamstow Central and Brixton is 36 tph.
I can’t believe that the engineers working on the line, don’t want to squeeze another four tph out of her, to achieve the fabulous forty.
This might be possible with the trains, tracks and signalling, but the problem is the capacity of some of the 1960s-built stations.
- Many stations have an empty space, where a third escalator could be.
- Lifts are few and far between.
- Some stations don’t have ceilings in the platform tunnels.
These stations could be improved.
Walthamstow Central Station
Walthamstow Central station gets desperate in the Peak, but it could be given a third escalator, a second entrance at the other end of the platforms and a much better step-free connection to the Chingford Branch of the Overground.
Blackhorse Road Station
Blackhorse Road station could be finished and given a third escalator to cope with the extra passengers that will transfer to and from an electrified Gospel Oak to Barking Line.
Tottenham Hale Station
Tottenham Hale station is being rebuilt to increase capacity. Will it get the missing third escalator and ceilings?
Seven Sisters Station
Seven Sisters station will be a Crossrail 2 station and will need updating to cope with an expected eight tph on the Overground. Expect a major project here.
Finsbury Park Station
Finsbury Park station is one of London’s stations designed by Topsy. Improvements are underway to cope with the extra passengers from Thameslink and an upgraded Northern City Line.
Highbury and Islington Station
Highbury and Islington station suffered worst at the hands of the Nazis and 1960s cost cutting, when the Victoria Line was built. This made it one of London’s worst stations.
However help is at hand.
- Plans are being prepared for a second entrance to the station on the other side of the Holloway Road.
- The frequency on the Northern City Line is being upgraded to twelve tph with new larger capacity Class 717 trains.
- There is space for a third escalator to be added to connect the Overgriound with the deep-level Victoria and Northern City Lines.
It should be born in mind, that Highbury and Islington station is busier than either Manchester Piccadilly or Edinburgh Waverley stations.
But with an upgrade, because it has cross-platform interchange between the Victoria and Northern City Lines, it could be an upgrade that increases the passenger capacity of the Victoria Line.
Euston Station
Euston station will be upgrqaded for HS2.
Oxford Circus Station
Oxford Circus station is desperately in need of more capacity, especially as there will be an upgrade to the Bakerloo Line in the future.
The opportunity at Oxford Circus is that some of the buildings around the junction are tired and some probably need to be replaced.
So will we see a development like Bloomberg Place, that will create a new entrance to Bank station, at Oxford Circus?
Could it also have an subterranean connection to Crossrail’s Hanover Square entrance for Bond Street station?
Victoria Station
Victoria station is in the process of being upgraded.
It certainly appears to be a case of so far so good!
South Of The River
Vauxhall and Brixton stations have rather undeveloped interchanges with the National Rail lines and these could surely be improved.
Under Possible Future Projects in the Wikipedia entry for the Victoria Line, this is said.
For many years there have been proposals to extend the line one stop southwards from Brixton to Herne Hill. Herne Hill station would be on a large reversing loop with one platform. This would remove a critical capacity restriction by eliminating the need for trains to reverse at Brixton. The Mayor of London’s 2020 Vision, published in 2013, proposed extending the Victoria line “out beyond Brixton” by 2030.
This would surely be the last upgrade to squeeze even more out of Dear Old Vicky.
Conclusion
A Lea Valley Metro can be created and eventually, it can be the Northern leg of Crossrail 2, when and if that line is built.
Before Crossrail 2 is completed, it will have great help in the following ways.
- In North East London from the London Overground.
- Across London from the Victoria Line.
Don’t underestimate how Crossrail and an updated Northern City Line will also contribute.
Is Highbury And Islington Station To Get An Upgrade?
This article on IanVisits is entitled New Entrance Planned For Highbury and Islington Station.
If this happens, it will be good news for me, as Highbury and Islington station is my nearest Underground station.
But it is a cramped, very busy station with extremely poor access. According to Wikipedia, it is the fifteenth busiest station in the UK and in terms of passenger numbers, handles more in a year, than Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Queen Street and Liverpool Lime Street.
A lot of these high passenger numbers are due to the unrivalled carrying capacity and success of the Victoria Line and the recently-rebuilt North London Line.
Proximity to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium has also added thousands of passengers.
The future will draw even more passengers to the station.
For the last two years, passengers like me, have tended to avoid the station, as contractors have been rebuilding the road bridge in front of the station.
But this will finish soon and Islington Council and Transport for London have grand plans to create a very pedestrian-friendly environment outside the station.
And then there’s Crossrail and the Northern City Line!
Crossrail doesn’t connect to the Victoria Line, but thanks to the Northern City Line, Highbury and Islington station has a good connection to Crossrail.
The Northern City Line is also getting new Class 717 trains and increased frequencies between Moorgate and Hertfordshire.
It all adds up to more pressure for something to be done at Highbury and Islington station.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines at Hoghbury and Islington station.
Note how the Northern City and Victoria Lines have cross-platform access, courtesy of some clever platform swapping, when the Victoria Line was built.
Two developments will give alternative routes that might take the pressure off the station.
The doubling in capacity of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line from early next year, will help.
Crossrail will benefit the station, in that a lot of passengers wanting to go between Eastern parts of London and the West End, currently use the Overground and the Victoria Line. Some of these passengers will use Crossrail to go direct.
But something needs to be done.
The four Overground platforms have full step-free access, but the deep-level Victoria Line and the Northern City Line both rely on just two crowded escalators.
If you look at the layout of the four deep-level platforms, they lie together and because the two Northern City Line platforms were dug as a pair in the first few years of the last century, I suspect that all platforms are roughly the same level.
As the lift shafts from the old Northern City Line station are still intact, although full of equipment, I feel that the plan of using this abandoned station to create another entrance to the deep-level platforms will be possible.
- A new ticket office can be provided in a quality building.
- It will need escalators, as well as lifts.
- It should be possible to connect directly to the four platforms, with perhaps a wide passenger tunnel under Holloway Road.
- This tunnel could also have lifts on the other side of the road to the Overground.
It is one of those smaller intricate projects, that can be really good value.
17 Tube Stations That Face Chronic Overcrowding If Crossrail 2 Is Stopped
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in today’s Standard.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Hundreds of thousands more Londoners will suffer chronic overcrowding on the Tube if Crossrail 2 does not go ahead, it was claimed today.
Transport for London released a list of 17 Underground stations that could buckle under the strain of too many commuters within a few years.
It then lists the stations.
- Euston
- King’s Cross St. Pancras
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Victoria
- Waterloo
- Finsbury Park
- Stockwell
- Stratford
- Oxford Circus
- Highbury & Islington
- Clapham Common
- Clapham North
- Clapham South
- Holborn
- Warren Street
- Leicester Square
It then quotes Caroline Pidgeon, who obtained the list, as follows.
Overcrowding on the Underground is already a daily battle, with many passengers facing regular delays to simply get through barriers at stations.
Unless Crossrail 2 is built these delays will increasingly build up until drastic measures are necessary at 17 key Tube stations, not to mention Clapham Junction railway station.
“Planning ahead for Crossrail 2 is not an optional extra for London’s transport network but of vital importance to keep London moving.
She has certainly highlighted a serious problem.
Call For Crossrail 2
Two years ago to the day, I wrote a post called Call For Crossrail 2 in response to a letter in The Times, from a wide cross section of business leaders calling for a start to be made on the line.
In the post, I talked about improving various stations, just by building Crossrail 2, so in the following notes on the list of crowded stations, I will refer to this post several times in the following.
Euston
Euston tube station is a particular problem in that in the next decade or so, the following will or could happen.
- HS2 will arrive at the station.
- Euston main line station will be rebuilt.
- Crossrail 2 will pass under the station.
- A connection will be created to Euston Square station for the Circle and Metropolitan Lines.
- There might even be an extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Euston.
- Step-free access must be added for all platforms.
Hopefully, the rebuilding for whichever comes first of HS2 or Crossrail 2, will make provision for even the most fanciful of expansions.
One Transport for London engineer told me that one of the main reasons for building HS2 and terminating it at Euston, is to be able to sort out the dreadful Euston tube station.
Kings Cross St. Pancras
Kings Cross St. Pancras tube station had a pretty good makeover around the time of the 2012 London Olympics, but it does suffer congestion and travellers have to walk long distances.
The Wikipedia entry for Kings Cross St. Pancras tube station has a section for Crossrail 2. This is said.
Since 1991, a route for a potential Crossrail 2 has been safeguarded, including a connection at King’s Cross St Pancras and Euston, forming the station Euston King’s Cross St Pancras. The proposed scheme would offer a second rail link between King’s Cross and Victoria in addition to the Victoria line. The locations for any new stations on the route will depend on the loading gauge of the final scheme. In the 2007 safeguarded route, the next stations would be Tottenham Court Road and Angel.
There is also a proposal to reopen the closed York Road tube station. In the Wikipedia entry for York Road station under Proposed Reopening, this is said.
One of London’s largest redevelopment projects, King’s Cross Central, began construction in 2008 across the road from the station. Islington council and Transport for London commissioned a study in 2005 to consider the possible reopening of the station. At the same time, however, it was recognised that other transport priorities reduced the likelihood of such a project moving forward in the near future. The site would need extensive overhauls to bring the station up to modern day standards, at a cost estimated at £21 million in 2005. Local political groups have been keen to see the station reopened in order to reduce passenger congestion at King’s Cross St. Pancras and to encourage development in the surrounding community. The Islington Liberal Democrats advocated the reopening of the station in their 2006 local election manifesto, and at least one candidate for the Islington Conservative Party similarly campaigned for the station to be reopened. However, to date, the reopening proposal has not been taken forward.
I wonder if York Road tube station will ever be reopened.
Liverpool Street
The Liverpool Street station complex will be even bigger and busier after Crossrail opens.
The main difference will be that the current Shenfield Metro will now disappear into the ground at Stratford and go under Central London to Heathrow and Reading.
Crossrail 2 will effectively channel the Lea Valley services, that current go into Liverpool Street station under London to emerge in the Wimbledon area.
Effectively, Crossrail and Crossrail 2 major effect on Liverpool Street station are to free up capacity in both tracks and platforms, thuis allowing more longer distance services to use the station.
London Bridge
London Bridge station is being rebuilt and expanded, but little seems to be planned for London Bridge tube station to cope with more passengers.
In Call For Crossrail 2, I said this about Crossrail 2 and the Northern Line.
Crossrail 2 will have interchanges with the Northern Line at Angel, Kings Cross St. Pancras, Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Tooting Broadway and possibly Clapham Junction. So it looks like that Crossrail 2 will certainly make journeys easier for users of the Northern Line.
This should mean that travellers on the Northern Line will be able to avoid a congested London Bridge tube station.
Victoria
Victoria tube station is being extended and rebuilt, which should result in sufficient capacity for more than a few years.
In Call For Crossrail 2, I said this about Crossrail 2 and the Victoria Line.
Crossrail 2 will effectively by-pass the central part of the Victoria Line as the two lines connect at Tottenham Hale, Seven Sisters, Kings Cross, Euston and Victoria.
This should take some of the pressure from Victoria tube station.
Waterloo
Waterloo tube station is a very busy tube station, as it has to cope with all the passengers using Waterloo station.
Crossrail 2 will allow passengers to bypass Waterloo, when travelling to and from Central London.
However, three major improvements will be delivered this year.
- The old Eurostar platforms are being brought back into use.
- Extra capacity is being added to the Underground station.
- I also think that when they have completed the improvements at the Bank end of the Waterloo and City Line.
- Will improvements follow at the Waterloo end?
I think Waterloo shouldn’t be judged until the current round of work is completed.
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park station is a station that suffered badly when the Victoria Line was tunnelled through in the 1960s.
Lifts are being installed, but extra services will be added.
- Thameslink will call regularly at the station.
- The services on the Northern City Line will become the Great Northern Metro with an increased frequency.
Crossrail 2 will provide relief for Finsbury Park, as it provides a by-pass for the Victoria Line.
But the station needs to have quite a bit of rebuilding.
Stockwell
Stockwell tube station is where the Victoria and Northern Lines meet South of Victoria.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines at Stockwell station.
I’m not sure how Crossrail 2 helps here, but I suspect Transport for London hope that the new line will divert passengers away from Stockwell.
Stratford
Stratford station is another station that will be partially bypassed by Crossrail 2.
I do think that after Crossrail opens, that changes will be made at Stratford station to perhaps move some Liverpool Street services to Stansted and Cambridge.
This would bring more services to some not very busy platforms.
In West Anglia Route Improvement – The High Meads Loop, I described how it might all work.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines in this area.
Trains from Cambridge and Stansted would arrive at Temple Mills East Junction and would go round the High Meads Loop dropping and picking up passengers in Platforms 11 and 12 bwfore returning North.
An extra platform could even be added to serve services in Stratford International station.
The tunnels under the platforms at Stratford station would probably need improvement, but who knows how Eastenders will duck and dive after Crossrail opens.
As an example, passengers from Shenfield to Canary Wharf will probably use the cross-platform change at Whitechapel station, rather than pick up the Jubilee Line or the DLR at Stratford.
Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus tube station has needed improvement for years.
Crossrail will give some relief, as there will be new additional entrances to Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations closer to Oxford Circus.
I did look at what might happen in What Will The Elizabeth Line Do For Oxford Street?.
I came to this conclusion about Crossrail 2 and Oxford Street.
Crossrail 2 has just one interchange in the Oxford Street area at Tottenham Court Road station.
I would be very surprised in that in the massive rebuilding of the current station for Crossrail, that provision hasn’t been made to connect to Crossrail 2.
There have been surface issues around the station concerned with Crossrail 2, but given good planning of the project, I feel that the building of Crossrail 2 would only effect the area in a similar way to the replacement of a major block on Oxford Street.
Crossrail 2 will have two major effects.
- It will bring large numbers of visitors to the Oxford Street area.
- Just as Crossrail and the Central Line will work as a high-capacity pair, it will work closely with the Victoria Line to relieve that line.
This leads me to the conclusion, that the wider Oxford Street area needs to be and will be pedestrianised.
In some ways preparation for the pedestrianisation has already started by reorganising the buses.
Oxford Circus tube station is also high on Transport for London’s improvement list.
This map from carto.metro,free.fr shows the lines through the station.
I suspect that if developers were interested in rebuilding any of the buildings on the South side of Oxford Street or perhaps even around the BBC to the North, that there could be arm-twisting and deal-making to sneak new entrances into Oxford Circus tube station.
Highbury & Islington
Highbury & Islington station, is one of my local ones and it is getting some much-needed improvement.
- The Northern City Line will be getting frequent new Class 717 trains to create the Great Northern Metro.
- Highbury Corner will be remodelled to improve pedestrian access to the station.
- Bus and taxi access is being improved..
But nothing has been announced about improving the chronic access to the two deep-level lines at the station.
Speaking to staff at the station, they feel that a solution is possible, using the second entrance on the other side of the road.
In some ways the Great Northern Metro with its cross-platform interchange with the Victoria Line could be the saviour of this station, as it gives direct access to the City and to Crossrail at Moorgate station.
One of London’s forgotten lines could be riding to the rescue.
Clapham Common
Clapham Common tube station is one of my least favourite. This picture shows why.
It’s downright dangerous now, so when the Northern Line frequency is increased will the station cope?
Clapham North
Clapham North tube station is another dangerous island platform.
But at least the station has escalators.
In A Journey Round The Clapham Stations, a post I wrote in December 2015, I said this.
Having seen Clapham North and Clapham Common stations today, I do wonder if a diversion could be dug as at Angel, Bank and London Bridge, to create safe new stations. This new tunnel could surely be part of the works to add step-free access to one or both stations and connect the tunnels to Clapham High Street station.
What with the Northern Line Extension to Battersea, the rebuilding of Bank and Camden Town stations and all the resignalling of the past few years, the Northern Line could at last be fulfilling its potential.
This could go a long way to sorting the problem of the Clapham stations.
Clapham South
Clapham South tube station is not as bad as the other two Clapham stations discussed earlier.
Crossrail 2 may reduce the level of overcrowding on the Northern Line trains through the three Clapham stations, as passengers could change at Balham or Tooting Broadway stations to and from the new high-capacity line.
However, nothing short of some serious building work will solve the island platform problems at Clapham Common and Clapham North stations.
Holborn
Holborn tube station is very busy, but is one that could benefit from Crossrail, due to that line’s relationship with the Cerntral Line.
Crossrail 2 will certainly benefit the station, as it will relieve the pressure on the Piccadilly Line.
But Transport for London have published plans to add a second entrance and full step-free access. This is a 3-Dview of the plans.
Note the second entrance will be in Procter Street.
The only problem is that it could be 2021 before a decision is made.
However as a Piccadilly Line station, Holborn will benefit from the New Tube For London, before the upgrade.
Warren Street
Warren Street tube station is another Central London station on the Victoria Line, that could benefit from Crossrail 2’s duplication of the Victoria Line.
Leicester Square
Leicester Square tube station is just one stop on the Northern Line from the major new interchange of Tottenham Court Road station, which will be served by both Crossrail and Crossrail 2.
The station has needed more capacity since I first used it in the 1950s.
It needs step-free access.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines around Leicester Square station.
There is quite a tight knot of stations, of which only Tottenham Court Road has both escalators and lifts, although Goodge Street and Covent Garden have lifts only.
Leicester Square is an unusual station in that both the Northern and Piccadilly Lines are accessed by short passages and a short staircase from a fair-sized lobby at the bottom of a long set of escalators.
Clapham Junction
Clapham Junction station is the only non-Underground station in the seventeen stations named, where overcrowding could become chronic if Crossrail 2 is not built.
It is the busiest station by number of trains in Europe, so it must be difficult to keep on top of increasing numbers of passengers.
In the Wikipedia entry for the station under Future Proposals, this is said.
In 2007 the alignment of one of the two variants of Crossrail 2, that via the station rather than Putney and Wimbledon, was safeguarded. The Department for Transport and Transport for London continue to discuss proposal for a Clapham Junction Northern Line extension and its London Underground alignment has been legally reserved through Battersea Park, and would connect Clapham Junction to the London Underground for the first time.
Government and Network Rail funding for in the early 2010s of £50 million of improvements was granted. This comprised an upgrade to the main interchange: new entrances and more retail.
Surely something needs to be done, if Crossrail 2 is not built.
My proposals would include.
- Developing the West London Line services.
- Extending the Northern Line from Battersea Power Station station.
- Improving the frequency of trains into Waterloo.
- Make the station subway step-free.
There may be a need for more platforms, but the London Overground found this difficult.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the platforms in the station.
Simple it isn’t!
Conclusions
It surprised me how many of these stations will need substantial building work to cure the overcrowding.
Note.
- Every Victoria Line station between Oxford Circus and Finsbury Park is on the list.
- Four Northern Line stations between Stockwell to Clapham South is on the list.
- I think this shows how the designers of the Northern and Victoria Lines didn’t expect the traffic the lines now handle.
But overall, I think it shows how when you design a station, you don’t cut corners.
I also think to blame all these problems on the uncertainty about Crossrail 2, is probably a bit strong.
Consider.
- Liverpool Street will probably have enough capacity when Crossrail opens, especially as the station will incorporate Moorgate and be substantially step-free.
- The new London Bridge effectively adds high-frequency rail lines to Blackfriars, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and St. Pancras and when Thameslink and Southeastern are fully developed, the station will cope.
- Victoria shouldn’t be judged until the current upgrade is complete.
- Waterloo shouldn’t be judged until the current upgrade is complete.
- Finsbury Park shouldn’t be judged until the current upgrade is complete.
- Stratford will probably have enough capacity when Crossrail opens, especially as the station is substantially step-free.
- Oxford Circus should see improvement when Crossrail opens, especially as there’ll be new step-free entrances to Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street, that will be closer to Oxford Circus, than the current stations.
- Highbury & Islington should see marginal improvement, when the Northern City Line is updated.
However, nothing short of substantial construction will sort Euston, Clapham Common, Clapham North, Holborn, Leicester Square and Clapham Junction.
Changing Between The Circle/District Lines And Victoria Line At Victoria Tube Station
This is not a change, I do regularly, as I have direct access to the Circle/District Lines at Whitechapel station, but it must be a change that some passengers need to do.
For example.
- Sloane Square to Kings Cross St. Pancras
- Temple to Kings Cross St. Pancras
- Monument to Pimlico
In these journeys a good interchange at Victoria could speed up the journey.
One thing that helps is the upwards of thirty trains per hour on the Victoria Line, where you only have to wait under three minutes for a train on that line.
I did this the District/Victoria change this morning and took these pictures.
The new passages and escalators certainly speed up the change.
The position of the passages may be more obvious from this map from carto.metro.free.fr.
Note that the escalators to the Cardinal Place entrance are the more Northerly of the three sets and I think it is reasonable, that they start between platforms 3 and 4 and rise to the surface in line with the platforms.
The divided passage connecting the two lines would appear to be underneath the Circle/District platforms and lines and after aligning Northwards it links up with the middle set of escalators between the two platforms of the Victoria Line.
In some ways it looks like the space underneath the Circle/District Lines has been dug in a similar manner to the traditional mining method of room and pillar. There certainly seems to be tunnels going everywhere, but I suspect the methods used were more sophisticated than the traditional mining ones. I suspect that there may even have been a fair bit of hand digging.
At the top of the escalators connecting the Cardinal Place entrance to the Victoria Line, there would appear to be another blocked off passageway leading off to the west.
Could behind the blue be future-proofing for another exit on the West side of Bressenden Place close to the Victoria Palace theatre?
I have found this visualisation on the Internet in this PDF document on the TfL web site.
The Passenger Link Between North And South Ticket Halls At Victoria Tube Station
So it would appear to be a passenger link, allowing passengers to enter the station at the Cardinal Place entrance walk underground to the South Ticket Hall and from there into the main line station.
Passengers entering the station at the Cardinal Place entrance, in the top right of the visualisation,would take the following route.
- Go down the escalators after the ticket gates.
- Take the cross passage, that also leads to the second set of escalators for the Victoria Line.
- Go straight on into the connecting passage.
- The passage turns left and goes over the Victoria Line platforms and under the Circle/District Line platforms.
- After crossing the platforms, the passage turns right to run parallel with the Victoria Line platforms.
- A set of new escalators, then brings passengers to and from the South Ticket Hall.
It’s a bit round the houses, but I suspect it was the best that can be done in the grand scheme of things.
- The Terminal Place entrance, has its own routes to all four Underground platforms.
- The Cardinal Place entrance, has direct access to the Victoria Line platforms and indirect access to the Circle/District Line platforms.
- There is a short route between the Circle/District and Victoria Lines.
- There is a walking route in the dry between the Cardinal Place entrance and the main line station.
I wonder when the scheme opens will there be other features to improve routes and accessibility.
The New Cardinal Place Entrance At Victoria Tube Station
In The Start Of Change At Victoria Tube Station, I talked about the new Cardinal Place entrance to Victoria tube station.
It opened this morning and I took these pictures as I used it to get to an Eastbound District Line train.
It’s obviously not fully finished and it had only just been opened.
But passengers were able to flow straight through the gates and down the escalators to the Victoria Line platforms. So there won’t many of them, but it was lunchtime.
The Victoria Line platforms now have three sets of escalators.
- The original set of three at the Southern end linking to the original ticket hall and Victoria station.
- The new set of three at the Northern end linking to the new ticket hall and the new Cardinal Place entrance.
- In the middle another bank of three link to cross passages under the District and Circle Line platforms.
Passengers only wanting to change lines at Victoria would appear to be separated from those needing to enter or exit the Underground station.
It’ll be interesting to see, how passengers distribute themselves between the two station entrances.
- If you are coming from or going to Victoria station, you’ll probably still use the existing route.
- If you are coming from or going to Victoria Street, Westminster City Hall, Westminster Cathedral or Cardinal Place, you’ll probably use the new Cardinal Place entrance.
- Travellers to and from the Victoria Palace and Apollo Victoria rheatres, who want to use the Underground, will probably have better access.
A guy who worked in the station, felt that passengers wanting to get to or from the District and Circle Lines could be the major beneficiaries and he should know his passenger flows better than most.
As this is only an interim solution until the rest of the Underground station opens in 2018, it is certainly a quality improvement.
Wikipedia also says this about improvements at the main line station end of the Underground station.
The work will also enlarge the existing Victoria line ticket hall serving the railway station and add a new relief bank of escalators there. This aspect of the scheme has been criticised as access to platforms from the new escalators will be very long and indirect compared to the direct access using the existing escalators.
On the other hand, with all the new routes and escalators in Victoria tube station coupled with substantial capacity improvements on the Underground Lines through the station, I suspect that it’ll all even out, as passengers find their own best routes.
Incidentally, I arrived at Victoria station on a 38 bus from Piccadilly Circus and although it was the middle of the day, the access couldn’t be faulted.
Once all the building work is complete, I suspect the buses will have a bugger part to play.
The Start Of Change At Victoria Tube Station
On the early-evening BBC London News last night, the BBC showed preview pictures of the new entrance to Victoria tube station, which they indicated is on Brettenham Place.
The station certainly needs more capacity, as this extract from Wikipedia indicates.
Victoria is currently the fourth busiest station on the London Underground, after Waterloo, Oxford Circus and King’s Cross St. Pancras, with nearly 85 million using the station (not including interchanging passengers) in 2013, of which around 60 million (including interchanges) use the Victoria line platforms. The station was not built for this number of passengers, which results in severe overcrowding. To prevent any dangerous situations like crowds pushing people off the platforms onto the track, crowd control measures are in place at the busiest times. This effectively means closing all the entrances to the Underground platforms and operating as an exit-only station until the overcrowding is relieved. These measures can last anywhere between a couple of minutes (when minor delays are occurring) up to several hours (during major incidents).
As to the layout of lines through the station, Victoria tube station is fairly simple, as this map from carto.metro.free.fr shows.
Note.
- The Circle and District Lines have a typical Victorian layout, with two platforms on the outside of the tracks.
- The 1960s designers of the Victoria Line at least left a lot of space between the two tracks.
- The Victoria Line also incorporates two full sidings, numbered 22 and 23 between the tracks.
As nearly all trains throughout the day run run between Walthamstow Central and Brixton, the use of these sidings must only be for purposes like overnight stabling and parking failied trains.
According to Wikipedia, currently each set of lines have their own ticket offices on different levels and built over a hundred years apart.
Walking between the Circle/District Lines and the main line station is not for the faint-hearted or those with need for step-free access. The 1960s designers at least made walking between the Victoria Line and the main line station a bit easier, but there is still a flight of steps to be overcome.
If I go to Victoria station with a wheeled bag, which is not often, I take the easy route of a 38 or N38 bus from around the corner, direct from around the corner from my house.
So what is happening over this weekend?
This Google Map shows the area to the North of the station.
Note.
- North of Victoria Street is a massive building site.
- The rows of white-roofed red buses on the station forecourt..
Wikipedia says this about the current upgrade.
To provide a lasting solution to this problem preparatory building work has begun on major upgrade of the station. This will include a new northern exit/entrance on the north-west corner of Victoria Street which will be accessible via a new additional ticket office under Bressenden Place that will lead to both the Victoria line and the Circle and District line platforms.
I will go and do some more digging.
The Victoria Line Platforms
Currently, the Victoria Line platforms have two sets of escalators.
- The original set of three, that so up into the Victoria Line ticket hall under the bus station.
- A second set of three, that go from the platforms into a series of passages underneath the Circle and District Line platforms, to which they connect with short sets of stairs.
These pictures show the Victoria Line platforms, various passages and works.
It looks like there are two new sets of works.
One set could just be an extension of the current lobby at the bottom of the original escalators. This would increase the capacity between the Victoria Line and the main line station.
Judging by the sign saying Cardinal Place on the other works at the Northern End of the platforms, it would appear that these works are a new entrance from Cardinal Place.
The Cardinal Place Entrance
On the surface, the Cardinal Place Entrance is clearly visible, outside the Cardinal Place development.
According to a personable member of the station staff, The new entrance will open sometime after ten on Monday morning.
At Cardinal Place, the overall design would appear to be simple, where an escalator shaft has been dug between the Northern end of the Victoria Line platforms and a new entrance hall beneath Bressenden Place, which then has the simple pop-up entrance shown in my pictures
The constructure, appears to have been carried out, without massive closures of the Victoria Line platforms.
The surface building also looks very similar in concept to the new standalone glass and steel entrances at Kings Cross St. Pancras and Tottenham Court Road stations.
So I wonder how many new entrances can be created at existing stations, by using a similar design and building method.
Walthamstow Central Station
Walthamstow Central station suffers very bad overcrowding , with only two escalators and no lifts having to cope with the passengers from over 40 trains per hour.
This map from carto.metro.free,fr shows the layout of platforms at the station.
Note how there is a wide lobby at the Eastern end of the platforms underneath the Overground lines, which is used to accommodate the escalators and the waiting queues of passengers.
The crossover to the West of the station was installed in August 2015 and I suspect that this work didn’t compromise any of Transport for London’s thoughts of improving capacity at Walthamstow Central.
It could be tight to dig a shaft for three escalators into this area, but at least the area on top is mainly grass, market stalls and not the best of buildings, with the exception of the Library.
If you look at the length of the current escalators at the station, they indicate that the Victoria Line is not deep. So that would help.
I suspect we could see a very innovative and simple solution to create a new Western entrance at Walthamstow Central station.
I would also be possible to build the entrance without any disruption to either existing train services or passengers in the existing station.
An Improved Station For Brixton
In the June 2016 Edition of Modern Railways, there was an article entitled Turning South London Orange.
One of the proposals in the article is to create an improved station at Brixton, by reopening disused platforms on the Northernmost tracks at the station.
Brixton station was designed by Topsy.and could probably be summed up by my post; Changing Trains At Brixton.
This is a Google Map of the station.
Lines Through Brixton Station
Note.
- The Northernmost lines don’t have platforms.
- The Overground uses the Southernmost lines, which also don’t have platforms and soar high above everything else.
Centre for London’s proposal envisages platforms being added to the two Northern platforms and using them for the Overground.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines between Wandsworth Road and Brixton stations.
WandsworthRoad, Clapham High Street And Brixton Stations
This map shows all the junctions between the lines, which probably means that running Overground trains on the Northern pair of tracks is probably possible.
If the only platforms where trains stop are the low-level ones in Brixton station, surely, it would be be much easier to link them to the Victoria Line.
These are some pictures of the station.
If it was being sold by legendary Estate Agent Roy Brooks, he would describe it as a building with potential.
The four low-level platforms are on solid Victorian railway arches and I suspect that a 3-D rendition of the station, would show it was possible to tunnel from the arches into the Victoria Line platforms, to give an escalator and lift connection.
It wasn’t done in the 1960s, when the Victoria Line was built or when the Overground was created, as in both cases, money was short and no-one believed that the two lines would be as successful as they are now!
But the more I look at the pictures and the maps, Centre for London’s idea of running the Overground on the Northern pair of tracks looks more feasible.
The related proposal of creating a tunnel under Brixton to remove the fast trains between Victoria and Kent, also helps, as it removes the fast trains from passing through Brixton station.
London’s Trains With Built-In Energy Storage
I took this picture at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line.
London’s Trains With Built-In Energy Storage
Since it opened in 1968, all trains have had built-in energy storage to save energy. Under Design in the Wikipedia entry, this is said.
Each platform constructed specifically for the Victoria line from new is 132.6 metres (435 ft) long. The line has hump-backed stations to allow trains to store gravitational potential energy as they slow down and release it when they leave a station, providing an energy saving of 5% and making the trains run 9% faster to a speed of 87.2 km/h.
I wonder if Crossrail and other lines use this technique.
Dear old Vicky, may be just two years off fifty, and some things may have been skimped in the construction, but some features of the line can’t be described as anything but the best of designs.
Will Walthamstow Central Station On The Victoria Line Be Expanded?
This post is prompted by this article on London Reconnections, which looks at Transport for London’s World Class Capacity Upgrades for the Victoria, Jubilee and Northern Lines.
After the upgrade of the crossing at Walthamstow last summer, the Victoria Line now has a capacity of 33 trains per hour and most trains run all the way between Walthamstow Central and Brixton stations.
Sometime this year the limit will be further increased to 36 tph, which will be a very high limit considering the design of the line.
The London Reconnections article says this about future upgrades.
With the Victoria line pushing towards what must be the theoretical limit for a line with that amount of rolling stock and – more importantly – two-platform termini, there are no plans to further improve the service. Indeed the challenge of procuring more trains and finding the depot space for them would probably discourage any such plans on its own. This does not mean that the line will be forgotten, as both Oxford Circus and Walthamstow Central are on TfL’s top ten hit list of stations in need of a major capacity upgrade. Simply that the days of pushing more trains through the same stations more quickly have passed. In the case of Walthamstow Central it is highly likely that the next step will be making the station double-ended, with an entrance near or in the shopping centre.
Certainly with just two escalators, Walthamstow Central station can be busy with both working. At the moment it is on my list of stations to avoid, as one of the escalators is being replaced.
Is the idea of creating a double-ended station at Walthamstow Central worth pursuing?
Look at this map from carto.metro.free.fr, which shows the lines at the station.
Walthamstow Central Lines
So it would appear that the Victoria Line platforms could be somewhere under the bus station and the shopping centre.
It certainly isn’t an impossible dream to create a second entrance to the Victoria Line platforms.
Walthamstow Central station was one of London Transport’s economy stations. Wikipedia says this.
The underground station, like many stations on the Victoria line, was never completely finished. White ceiling panels were never fixed to the ceilings above the platforms; instead the steel tunnel segments were painted black and used to support the fixtures and fittings. This has had a detrimental effect on the lighting levels. There is a concrete stairway between the two escalators instead of a third escalator; this caused a hugely disruptive station closure for several weeks in 2004 when both escalators went out of service.
It would be hoped that any upgrade of the station finishes the 1960s era construction.
But surely creating a double-ended station is the way to go.
- It would take the pressure off the passageways in the existing station.
- The existing station is not step-free and there is no deep lift.
- If the second entrance had two escalators and lifts, it would give a lot of redundancy in platform access.
- There is plenty of space in the shopping centre for a new entrance.
Passengers interchanging with the Chgingford Brancxh Line and those interchanging with buses or going shopping, could possibly be persuaded by good design to use appropriate and different entrances.
Conclusion
It’s feasible.
But the biggest advantage is surely that by planning carefully, the second entrance can be built around the current station, without disrupting passenger entrance and exit.
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