A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
Where is the first railway bridge out of London?
London Underground
Anatomy of a London Underground station’s rush hour BBC News
Photos of the disused King William Street tube station IanVisits
Tube drivers on the Piccadilly Line are set to hold fresh 24-hour strike action in a row over staffing and working conditions. BBC News
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Delays and cost overruns on the Crossrail project could have a significant impact on HS2, according to the Construction Products Association. RTM
FCA could slap fine on TfL for not informing London Stock Exchange of Crossrail delay in July CityAM
Mainline / Overground
Hull Trains cancels all trains to London on Saturday BBC News
Full Thameslink service to be restored on Woolwich line from December? From the Murky Depths
Travelling to Bordeaux by train in under five hours from London could become a reality in the not-too-distant future. Business Traveller
Virgin Trains and Stagecoach shared in £51.2m worth of dividends from the West Coast main line railway, shortly before walking away from another franchise. BBC News
A dark and dingy road tunnel that runs under London Bridge station has been transformed into a wide pedestrian space linking both sides of the railway. IanVisits
Rail Minister Jo Johnson has been urged to back an extension of Oyster and contactless payments to Luton, Stansted and Southend airports ahead of Euro 2020. ITV
Ipswich MP Sandy Martin has called on the government to end an anomaly that keeps rail fares from Ipswich higher than other stations with commuters to London. East Anglian Daily Times
Victorian rail tunnels on the London to Brighton line are getting a modern £67m makeover. BBC News (video)
Miscellaneous
The proposed Bakerloo line tube extension is expected to push up house prices in a similar way to areas surrounding the Northern line extension to Battersea. Mortgage Introducer
Two teenage girls have been sentenced after a sick Tube hoax in which one of them screamed: “She’s got a bomb!” Evening Standard
Commuters have been hit with rush hour chaos on the Tube as Network Rail warned separate disruption at Paddington could continue into Thursday. Evening Standard
MTR Crossrail HR Director, Alison Bell, ASLEF District Organiser, Nigel Gibson, and the drivers explain how they quadrupled the number of female drivers in less than 12 months. Global Railway Review
London Transport Museum’s Sam Mullins on reaching tomorrow’s engineers today The Engineer
And finally, As the Flying Scotsman climbed towards Stoke Bank the ashes of Alan Pegler were placed on a shovel and lowered carefully into the searing glow of the engine’s firebox. Telegraph
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Image above is from Feb 2014: Where is the first railway bridge out of London?
One further piece of news is the lift to the eastbound Circle and District Line platform at Victoria Underground Station is now in service meaning all platforms of Victoria Underground Station are now step free .
Thanks Melvyn. So relieved.
The test train that brought the overhead wires down for 500meters probably would of had some problems with the pantograph which I think the pantograph must of clipped something that caused the overhead wires to come down. Causing widespread delays and cancellations to most services in & out of London Paddington.
Also will GTR Thameslink start operating to Ashford International in December this year. When the December timetable is to be introduced. Which hopefully won’t cause any more delays just like what happened back in May when the timetable was first introduced on most rail networks in the UK. Which caused lots of cancellations and disruptions to services on GTR Thameslink & Southern and on other rail operators.