A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
London Underground
Plans to upgrade Leyton tube station in East London have received a boost after the Mayor of London approved additional funding to complete design work on the plans for the station. ianVisits
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Maynard Appoints Elizabeth Line Design Chief Costar (£)
The Elizabeth line trains running through the core tunnels averaged service reliability of 97.8% over the first five days of service, with 100% delivered for three of those five days. ianVisits
Mainline / Overground
All Greater Anglia train lines between Ilford and Stratford were been blocked after a line-side fire, causing cancellations and delays to the trains on Saturday afternoon Essex Live
Hitachi Rail starts static testing of Avanti West Coast’s new train fleet Railway Technology
TfL says that it is bringing forward the launch of London Overground services on the extension to Barking Riverside, ianVisits
HS2: supplier sought for £20m tower crane work at Old Oak Common Construction News
Eurostar’s direct train services to Amsterdam could end in 2024 when major work starts on revamping Amsterdam’s central station, Dutch News
DLR
This weekend there will be a chance to see a steam locomotive on the DLR — as a 150-year old engine will be on display at Poplar DLR depot. ianVisits
Miscellaneous
London Tory rebel MPs urged by Mayor and Assembly members from three parties to back ‘long-term’ TfL funding deal OnLondon
TfL funding crisis deepens with fresh row over pensions reform Sky News
A new splash of colour has brightened up a corner of Camberwell – thanks to the influence of artist Anish Kapoor. South London Press
Lewisham man fined nearly £400 over dodged £4 train ticket Local London
Inside BTP’s Force Control Rooms and First Contact Centre BTP News
Problems with rail replacement bus services Diamond Geezer
And finally: Disability charity Co-Chair awarded MBE for services to public transport for disabled people Charity Today
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The image above is from May 2018: Hackney Wick’s brutalist new London Overground station opens
Eurostar to Amsterdam. I wonder if temporarily terminating the Eurostar at Rotterdam or Utrecht (with free onward single ticket travel to Amsterdam or maybe anywhere in the Netherlands) would be an alternative.
Not as quick or convenient, but still broadly competitive with flying (and Utrecht is a better change point for onwards connections to Germany).
One of the selling points of the Amsterdam service is that it’s a one seat ride from St Pancras. Remove that and you remove a huge incentive for many people to use it.
It’s already a 4 hour trip (which will come down by about 15-20 mins when stop selling BRU-AMS-BRU tickets and can remove a security sweep of the train) but adding time back and a likely platform change and a slower train won’t help.
https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2022/06/09/eurostar-will-no-longer-sell-brussels-rotterdam-amsterdam-tickets/
And Eurostsr isn’t competitive to flying for a lot of people.
For me living in Brighton going to Gatwick and flying to AMS and then train to Centraal is a heck of a lot quicker at around 4 hours compared to 6 on the trains