Crossrail Update

I recently got to go to the Tottenham Court Road upgrade exhibition and found a lot of new information while talking to the Crossrail people there.

With Whitechapel under going major rebuilding the middle tracks are going to be lifted and the two island platforms made into one big one with escalators (although seems it might two side platforms with the trains running on the middle on the Crossrail document). This means that London Underground will no longer be able to reverse trains here. Currently the Hammersmith & City line trains from the west terimate here off peak and trains headed east terimate here when there engineering work on either side of the Circle. With this loss Crossrail is going to be creating a new reversing siding between West Ham and Plaistow. This will mean passengers get to use the Jubilee, DLR and c2c services creating better alternate routes.

The second change to the proposal is the change at Heathrow. It was talked about last year with Crossrail taking over Heathrow Express (HEX) services to and from the airport to Paddington. What it now seems is these talks failed and Crossrail will take over the Heathrow Connect services in and out of Terminal 4. This leaves Terminal 5 with HEx (and maybe Airtrack) express service to Paddington where BAA will get the most money.

It also seems Clapton station (yes its some distance from Crossrail) will be used as the testing ground for Crossrail. No word on what that actually mean yet.

The new Crossrail Briefing they gave out dated July 2008 is a basic leaflet explaining Crossrail. What I noticed is the Network SouthEast logo on the clock. They logo just keeps going.

More updates soon.

Tower Gateway closes

Tower Gateway (DLR)
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

As of last week the orignal city termius of the DLR closed for rebuilding as part of the three car project. I got to go and take some picture of the station before they closed it. ads you can see from this picture there is an island platform with two tracks either side. From next year it will be the other way around with a platofrom either side of a single track. This way there will be a departure and arrivals helping keep passanger flows seperate as this is only a small station.

For more images of the station go here

London Overground Works

It been reported in the Construction News (12th June issue) some information over the final stages of phase one of the East London Railway (the old East London Tube Line). The £6.5m Dalston Curve job is up fro grabs for firms with dedicated tracks as well all know. What's new from the article is they plan to put tracks from the Whitechapel to Cannonbury, Highbury & Islington, but keep them going to have reversing platforms at Camden Road. I think this is a mistake as there is no mention of Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. so does this mean services from south of Whitechapel are going to be extended to Caledonian Road & Barnsbury or is the plan to run empty to there from Highbury? I think is another mini extension of the Overground that TfL isn't talking about. The south end at Croydon is going past the published terminus of East Croydon, with two services terminating there an hour with a further two terminating new platforms at South Croydon. More on that when I find out.

Also mentioned is the £100m four tracking of the North London Line from Stratford to Gospel Oak. Now this is interesting as they mention the line is at capacity now on the 11 station section and works include platform lengthening and loops. Funded by DfT, the idea is to run longer trains, which is likely to be the 4 car Electrostars already ordered by TfL. This mean that freight as well as Overground trains will be running on the line. I have a feeling this will also tie into the mega Thames Port development at Thurrock providing a decent rail link for cargo. Just where it will go after Gospel Oak is questionable though.

LUL has also to do some further work on the four more station though which ones aren't mentioned. Basically the work is on CCTV and basic structure work to bring it up to the standards expected by a London Underground stations, good news for the regular user of the line!

Tube Alternations 6th June 2008

Tube Map Alternations 6th June 2008
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

The picture on the side shows the level of problems that commuters faced this morning and still are facing today. The discovery of an unexploded bomb on monday caused service suspension of District, Hammersmith & City and c2c mainline services. Then yesterday during work to disarm the bomb it seem the bomb started ticking and oozing liquid. Not a good sign. The Army then requested the shut down of the local transport link within the damage range of this device. At the moment there is no expected re-opening other than 10am this morning so it could go on for awhile.

West Ham must be having its quietist day seen the opening of the JLE with only the two Jubilee line platforms out of the 8 platforms the station has.

The c2c services have been diverted at Barking onto the Goblin line for the link to Stratford and then onwards towards Liverpool Street. This is of course causing some minor issues for the normal services in and out of Liverpool Street with the extra services.

The Hammersmith & City is completely suspended at Whitechapel. The District does managed to go as far as Bromley-By-Bow. The main eastern end is Barking to Upminster. There is a limited Plaistow to Barking service but this is due to lack of reversible places as Plaistow is set up to reverse trains back towards Central London and only big enough for a C stock train.

More updates when I hear more.

Bridge GE19

London Overground logo
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Yesterday doing something completely unrelated I was told a reason for the problems with the GE19 last week. It seems that it wasn't in its final resting place when the vibrations from plant (heavy machines used to build with) and trains have cause the bridge to slip and therefore create the events we saw last week.

So it seems that there has been a clear failing of the contractor at this point (I'm not sure which one has the responsibility for GE19) to not secure the bridge correctly and failure to plan for something that is expected (i.e. vibrations from a busy area).

Hopefully they can put this behind them and get on with building the ELR which before now was making great progress. I'm sure TfL and NR are working to check all the bridges now before they can work on them again. As for the cost, someone has mentioned a figure (£16M, a big mistake if its true) but who knows?

Stratford International DLR Extension update

West Ham (DLR)
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Small update here on the new DLR extension. I have some images of work in my flickr, click here to go to the folder.

West Ham -

The paving stones of the platform edge have been removed as have the track going through the station area. The track is still down north and south of the station.

Canning Town -

Paving stones here have been removed along with the track as well. The reversing track south of the station has been removed although it might be something to do with the 3 car project.

Circle Line Party

09032008612.jpg
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Seems what could have been a way for people to get to know each other in friendly sprit has been wrecked by the idiots again. What's worse is that several Underground workers have been hurt which is never acceptable.

Seems the run up to the party the local free rags decided to announce the party including one well know paper running it a a headline. Bet that didn't help.

Hopefully now the booze ban will help keep the staff across the transport network safer as most sensible people leave the booze at home and enjoy their nights out. Well we can live in hope.

Tube changes

Tube changes
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Here's one of my maps that I recently did showing two of the changes to the Tube network that in official plans. The Bakerloo re-extension back to Watford junction and the Circle Line being turned into a "T-cup" services, Basically it runs from hammersmith to Edgware Road via Wood Lane, Paddington, King's Cross, Victoria and the back to Edgware Road agin. This has a few issues including no direct train from the west side of the Circle to stations east of Edgware Road (I.E. Baker Street) But it will help keep the Circle Line more robust in times of service problems as well as doubling the frequency of the Hammersmith branch. Oh and if your wondering why the map looks so weird its because its the Tube network not the TfL transport network (what is currently on the Tube map).

Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City)

Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City)
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Here's a picture of the new Wood Lane station thats due to be open later this year as part of the White City development. Just 200m away from White City station on the Central line. The idea is this will be the main SSL station access to the development. The line is expected to be doubled in terms of trains by adding the Circle line to the route to Hammersmith (, although it seems this might not happen now). Its also rumored that this station will see the S stock shortly as early as next year. Time will tell but its always good to see more development on the Tube.

Metronet News

It's been announced today that as of tuesday 27th May 2008 Metronet will officially be out of administration and be put into the hands of two new companies under TfL control. This is a positive move after last years events and will hopefully see the Tube upgrade progress ahead with out further delay which all Londoners want. Just so we know the two company names of the new TfL Tube maintenance are LUL Nominee BCV Limited and LUL Nominee SSL Limited, they will be still trading as Metronet Rail BCV and Metronet Rail SSL

For press release see

Metronet Rail 

TfL