Transport for London has published its budget and business plan for 2016/17. Unsurprisingly, it includes several commitments for rail, most of which are confirming previously announced plans.
Amongst the rail projects included are:
- Crossrail, with construction continuing in preparation for the Elizabeth line to open in 2018;
- Redevelopment of the London Underground network with new signalling for the Sub Surface Lines, extensions to the Northern and Metropolitan lines, and a number of station improvements;
- Introduction of the Night Tube;
- An increase to the station accessibility fund, up from £75 million to £150 million, in line with the target of having 50% of all stations step-free by 2018;
- Electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking line on the London Overground network, together with modernisation of stations taken over from West Anglia in 2015.
The GLA budget, announced in February 2016, included a £250 million fund for two new overground stations at Old Oak Common, linking with Crossrail, national rail and HS2, and £100 million towards a potential extension to the tram network to Sutton.
New Tube for London, the replacement of rolling stock on the Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines, is also included in the document as is a possible southern extension of the Bakerloo line to Catford Bridge.
Image courtesy of PriestmanGoode/Transport for London.
The electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking line on the London Overground network is a vastly expensive project and will make a vast difference to the users of this N.E. London orbital line, not the least to people who live close to the new Barking Riverside station who will now have direct access to the whole of the Overground system. Congratulations to TfL !
Nevertheless there are two things that TfL could do, which they have not yet done, which they could do at a small fraction of the cost of the electrification of the N.E. outer London orbital:-
1. Complete the S.W. outer London orbital by allowing trains on the Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction line to continue their journey to West Croydon where they would meet trains from Surrey Quays to West Croydon. This would complete a South outer London orbital made up of the S.E. and S.W. outer London orbitals. This line is already in existence it is only a question of TfL making it part of the Overground system.
2. The S. inner London orbital passes right over the top of the Brixton terminus of the Victoria Line WITHOUT STOPPING. The inhabitants of Brixton are excluded from access to the S. inner London orbital which passes right over their heads without stopping. This is grossly unfair, to say the least, to residents of Brixton who are entitled to access to London’s orbital rail network just as much as anyone else.
Two cheers to TfL for the electrification bit, but reserving one cheer for when they undertake items 1. and 2. above which will, in effect, turn the Overground Network into a completed orbital system for London, with inner and outer London orbital networks.
In answer to the points made by “Dissident_opion”
It would be great if trains could do a complete loop apart from 2 factors, the line from Wandsworth Bridge to Platforms 16 /17 at Clapham Junction are normally busy as it is with freight passing through, also it would create a disconnect in interchange for Overground passngers on the West and South London Lines, the lines to West Croydon are already very well served by Southern either by the mainline through Selhurst or via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace
Add to that the works needed at West Croydon to create more sidings and so on to allow for such an enhanced service that already works.
Nor is it possible to now do the full loop of Clapham Junction platform 1 via Willesden, Highbury and Islington, Canada Water and back to Clapham Junction, LOROL decided in the December 2015 timetable change that trains on the South / East London Line from Clapham Junction would terminate at Dalston Junction rather then proceed the full way to Highbury, this was not annouced to passngers and station line maps between Clapham Junction and Queens Road Peckham still show the line in its former entirety.
The idea of a station at Brixton was looked at but ruled out on a cost basis of how much it would take to build, bearing in mind the height of the viaduct meaning that it would need full lifts for DDA compliance and also escalators for able bodied passengers, coupled with the factors of there is already both a mainline connection at Brixton and the Victoria line, plus the local bus network with 3 major routes (35, 37 and 345) all running between Brixton and Clapham Junction.
Add in the costs of dwell time, line capacity and such it was just not cost effective.
The old chestnut of reopening the former “East Brixton” station also crops up now and then but this is in an out of the way part of Brixton and would have no real benefit