The periodic board meeting minutes at TfL have been published, and amongst all the words and pictures some useful nuggets sometimes emerge.

Looking at the railways…

Tube Stations

While upgrades are visible and ongoing at places such as Victoria and Tottenham Court Road, it is the future developments that are of interest.

Bank Station upgrade is being planned, with the consultation recently completed. However, the interim second exit from the Waterloo and City line may be running behind schedule. There’s a 7-month delay to the handover of the site, but it was caused by one of the best archeological discoveries in recent years, so I personally don’t object.

A short comment about improvements at Kennington should be obviously the Northern Line Extension, but brief mention is also made about Elephant & Castle — and there is indeed a consultation planned for late 2015 to discuss what can be done to that rabbits warren of tunnels. They are looking at new over-site developments to help fund the works.

Holborn is also due to see improvements, but with completion not expected until 2022, when a new ticket hall (presumably without a ticket office) and link between the two tube lines will open.

Camden is mentioned — and seems to be at the “we need to do something, but how to proceed” stage at the moment.

Fifty out of 430 escalators are due to be replaced over the next 10 years. TfL has adopted a standard escalator design, allowing a longer-term commitment to higher volumes to create economies of scale. This means that the cost of each escalator is now 57 per cent cheaper than the Underground’s previous bespoke designs.

Railways

Still planning Crossrail 2 construction to start in the 2020s — subject to all the usual caveats. Later this year safeguarding rights will be adjusted to reflect the likely route so that future skyscrapers are aware of a possible railway running under them.

The Northern Line signalling works took a step forward at the end of October when the Camden area was upgraded.

The tunnel lining replacement works near Bond Street due to acid is on target, with 8 rings replaced so far, although that is slightly behind schedule. Completion is still expected in Jan 2016.

DLR track upgrades at Pudding Mill Lane should be finished next Spring, increasing capacity by 1,100 passengers per hour. A new train depot at Beckton is expected by 2022 to store more trains that are expected to be ordered by then.

Interestingly, the long running calls for improved services south of Lewisham to Bromley are mentioned, with a possible dual DLR-Bakerloo Line project being talked about. All subject to funding of course.

23 stations on the West Anglia line will be upgraded to Overground standards in 2015 as part of TfL taking over the franchise. Ordering replacement trains is likely to be tied with the Gospel Oak-Barking line electrification, but the trains will be 4-car lengths, leaving possible space for a 5-car upgrade later.

Trains

Sixteen of the Met line trains have completed a reliability enhancement programme. A further 10 trains will be completed over the next three months and conclusion of the programme is forecast for March 2014.

The District line rollout of the new trains is phased  is due to the need to immunise LU and Network Rail track circuits and other signalling equipment from electro-magnetic interference from the new trains. S-Stock operation on the Wimbledon to Edgware Road branch of the District line should start in February 2014.

The programme remains on track to complete the roll out of new trains on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines ahead of the target of the end of 2014.

An order for design suggestions for new trains to be used on the Bakerloo, Piccadilly, Waterloo & City and Central lines should be released at the end of 2015.

Maps

Oh, and because everyone loves a new map – here’s the map as it might look in 2021.

tube_map_2021

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13 comments
  1. Dan says:

    The 4-car train order for the Anglia trains is a surprising one. Trains are currently usually 8 (or even 10?) on this route and are full in the peaks.

  2. Greg Tingey says:

    NO LINKS shown between Walthamstow Central & Midland (The mis-named “Queens Rd”) – which was due to open this April, err August err next week err ….
    Or between Hackney Central & Hackney Downs – work due to start 2014 or 20154, IIRC

  3. DJC says:

    Interesting plans. On a side note, I really hope that doesn’t end up being the actual map, it’s hideously cluttered. A redesign would have to happen surely? East London looks like chaos!

  4. Metrication says:

    No mention of tramlink? Interesting that they’ve included it on the map there but they won’t included it on the standard tube map due to ‘clutter’. Yet north of the river is so much more messy than the south of the map could ever be even with its addition! Any more details on the Bakerloo/DLR combined extension? Sounds a bit unrealistic to me, but perhaps this is a substitute for Crossrail 3.

  5. JaJaWa says:

    Strange to see an Airport symbol at Blackfriars but nowhere else without an airport?

    Also I think this is the first TfL map with the new station names on the Watford extension, even until last week they were were referring to the stations as Ascot Road and Watford Hospital.

  6. Ed says:

    The map really needs a proper redesign. Don’t at all like how they’ve slammed the West Anglia lines in:

    1) Realign the GOBLIN so a Walthamstow interchange can at least be popular.

    2) Shoreditch/Whitechapel area is a mess. Surely they can shift some of the detail over into that relatively sparse area between Old Street and Hoxton.

    3) Currently looks like West Anglia line has a direct interchange to Moorgate at Liverpool Street. Needs to be on the Liverpool Street side of Crossrail. Would help of course if the subsurface lines were made step-free and thus their interchange circle could be used!

    4) I’m sure with a little reworking it would be possible for a smooth diagonal on Crossrail through Whitechapel to Canary Wharf. Move Limehouse label to below the DLR and you’ve got a clear run.

    5) It’s a shame Paddington Bakerloo now looks like the odd one out. Might be possible to extend the diagonal down so it runs between Crossrail and H&C through Paddington station before curving back up to Edgware Road. Layout could be:
    ( ) [h&c horizontal]
    ( ) [bakerloo horizontal]
    ( ) [crossrail horizontal
    ….( ) [circle/district vertical]

    “Paddington” to right of circle/district bubble, Bayswater shifted a few millimeters down.

  7. dave_in_chiswick says:

    There are already a few options for the Camden redevelopment which you can see in this presentation:

    http://democracy.camden.gov.uk/documents/s29641/Item%208%20Presentation%201.pdf

    • IanVisits says:

      There are plenty of ideas — the issue is how to propose something without then having every single local activist group ripping it to pieces when announced — as happened last time they tried.

  8. Greg S. says:

    DG will hate this map…

  9. whiff says:

    Interesting map but since when have trams and cable cars been part of a rail network.

  10. Peter Stevens says:

    How about reversing the loop at heathrow, so that trains go first to terminal 1,2&3 then park for 10 minutes at terminal 4. The current situation is quite frustrating for unsuspecting travelers who need to catch a train…

    • IanVisits says:

      Because that would cause an exceptionally busy crossover junction where the two lines diverge unless you dug a couple of expensive bypass tunnels.

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