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Battersea Extension Underway

The first official shovel hitting the earth happened last week out at Nine Elms to mark the official start to the Northern Line Extension, even though preparatory work had been going on for weeks.

We found ourselves walking through Kennington though the other day, exactly above where the Kennington loop is, and found a site there where work has also started, along with a nice noticeboard explaining to local residents what is going on.

Your new Northern Line Extension should open in 2019 …

NLE Kennington Park Site

NLE Kennington Park Site

Engineering / Future services / Tube — — 06 Dec 15

From Pavement to Platform

We popped down (as all proper Tubegeeks do) to Studio Egret West in Farringdon yesterday to have a look at their exhibition ‘Pavement to Platform’.  SEW have won the tender from TfL and have created the ‘Design Idiom’ a  book setting the future design ethos for the London Underground.

Idiom Park Platform

If you want to go down and see their mockup of what a new Tube station will look like – they’ve created one called ‘Idiom Park’, and you can see the designs and talk to people who created them about setting the future design standards for the Tube. Their website and free tickets for the event are here.

We quite like their ‘design type map’ which they’d created too – showing across the underground network, which stations falled into which ‘catageory’ of design – Charles Holden stations for example were all in one colour, Leslie Green stations in another … it’s on the floor, so if you go down try not step on it!

Design Type Map

Design Type Map

Future services — — 05 Jun 15

Croxley Link go-ahead given

A TfL Press Release today announced some major news, that the Croxley Rail Link had been given final approval, and work will start later this year – 2015, but won’t open now until 2019.

Actually we thought approval had already been given, but the press release confirmed that:

  • An agreement had been reached between the DfT and HCC over funding of the scheme
  • Work due to commence by the end of this year
  • The extension will see Metropolitan line trains serving Watford Junction and Watford High Street stations, as well as two new stations on the route
  • The new rail link will provide Metropolitan line customers access to West Coast mainline National Rail services from Watford Junction station
Map of new extension

Map of new extension

Construction work to re-route and extend the Metropolitan line to Watford Junction is planned to start later this year.  The plan, which is part of a major investment designed to support the growth and regeneration in the area, includes creating new links to Watford General Hospital, Croxley Business Park and Cardiff Road Industrial Estate – increasing employment opportunities.

Two new stations will be created at Cassiobridge and Watford Vicarage Road, served by new walk-through air-conditioned trains every ten minutes to and from central London during peak hours. The existing Watford station will close following the opening of the new stations, and the first trains are expected to run on the extended line by 2019.

Engineering / Future services / Infrastructure / Upgrades — — 27 Mar 15

Double the Circle

TfL announced yesterday that in the future, after signalling upgrades on the SSR (sub-surface railways) that there would be ‘Twice as many Circle Line trains’ running.

At the moment, they’re once every 10 minutes (6 tph) with District Line services filling in, in-between. And we couldn’t but help think that there’s just not going to be enough space/pathing time to fit in those extra trains.

Mixed Signals

Mixed Signals

Our friends over at London Reconnections had exactly the same thought, and wrote this rather excellent piece all about it …

 

Future services — — 25 Mar 15

Battersea goes ahead

A TfL press release this week confirmed that the Northern Line extension to Battersea is definitely going ahead.

Battersea extension

Battersea extension

They’re already calling it the ‘NLE‘, the Northern Line Extension, even though it’s just for two stations! We would expect them to be as large, and architecturally as brilliant as the new Jubilee (JLE) stations were back in 1999.

And they’re optimistically saying that they could be be finished as soon as 2020.

So what will be first to open? The new Metropolitan Line extension, Crossrail, or the NLE?

Future services — — 14 Nov 14

New Tube for London

We almost don’t need to mention it .. considering everyone else has, but in case you somehow missed the TfL press release yesterday which showed us the plans for the new tube train for London, coming … not that soon on the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City Line.

The BBC reported it here, Diamond Geezer here, even a design breakdown on Wired here. And of course, there’s a promotional video.

Go and see the display yourself at King’s Cross for the next month, and place a bet with yourself whether the timescales laid out will really happen.  We’re betting that we won’t be alive anymore by the time driverless trains do come to the tube.

I’m wondering if the tight curves and bends (bendier than other lines) on the Bakerloo line really can mean that new standard stock can be rolled out. Others are wondering due to the phrasing used if it really is air conditioning, or just air cooling.    Having on-board information screens is great though, but feels like we’re ten years behind the times as we should have those already – so they’ll be welcome.

And if the new trains are walk-through, it does beg the questions – why weren’t the new Victoria Line trains introduced only a couple of years ago made as ‘walk through’ trains instead of separate carriages?

Anyway. Aside from all that. You also have to ask yourself – are the new London Tube Trains as good as the new Russian Moscow trains …

Future services / Tube / Video — — 10 Oct 14

Bakerloo Proposals

A consultation is now open for proposals to the extension of the Bakerloo Line to head further into south east London, the BBC ran a story this morning.

Whilst there’s a nice graphic of the proposed stations, none of them were in ‘tube map’ style, so we put something together as to how it may look on the tube map.

New Bakerloo Map?

New Bakerloo Map?

Alternative Tube Maps / Future services — — 30 Sep 14

Old Oak Overground

Did you miss this?  It seems there is a consultation running on whether there should be a new Overground station as part of the redevelopment of Old Oak Common.

“A number of proposals are being developed in the Old Oak Common area which impact on local transport needs and strengthen the case for a new Overground Station in the area” – says the website, and basically they are asking local people whether they would like an new Overground station on this stretch of track or not.

You can read the full proposals and consultation on this website.

Old Oak Overground

Old Oak Overground

Future services / Overground — — 25 Sep 14

Night tube start date

A TfL press release today has confirmed the plans to start the new ‘Night Tube’ service next year on the 12th September.

TfL are being upbeat and optimistic about it, the RMT union has come back highlighting issues and problems which are yet to be resolved. The BBC reports on the story here.

Night tube

Night tube

 

Future services / Night Tube / Tube — — 24 Sep 14

Barking Riverside

TfL released their consultation a couple of days ago about a proposed extension to the London Overground which would extend it east and south by 4 kilometres – mostly over existing track but a new section over a new piece of proposed line to bring a railway station to the housing development planned at Barking Riverside.

Diamond Geezer looks at the social issues here, but for the consultation you’ll want to look at the TfL page here.

What we liked most of all though, because of how oddly strange it looks, is the new proposed London Overground map, which also contains the section between Romford and Upminster which may go over to the London Overground.

Click on the section of the map here to get the large PDF of the whole thing …

Barking Riverside

Barking Riverside

Future services / Overground — — 10 Sep 14
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