A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
Double-deck trains proposed for Waterloo station lines
London Underground
London Underground passengers are set to face 24 hours of disruption on three Tube lines next month. BBC News
London Underground commuters fainting at ‘alarming levels’ BBC News
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Transport for London could face an independent probe into delays to Crossrail, Evening Standard
Bond Street completes £60m makeover ahead of Elizabeth Line launch Retail Gazette
London will have to “bear the cost” of a delay to the £15bn Crossrail project, the Department for Transport’s most senior civil servant has said. BBC News
Mainline / Overground
Sacking Southern is still an option, says rail minister Jo Johnson Local Guardian
Passengers on South Western Railway services in west and south west London are having to face disruption for the best part of a week with a five day strike following on the heels of a closure for engineering works. Neigbournet
Mum says she and autistic son were ‘mocked’ by rail staff after asking about earlier service iNews
Eurostar’s link from London to Amsterdam is proving so popular after just six months that extra trains are planned to start next summer. Independent
Passengers on a strike-hit route into London Waterloo station will face disruption into the evening because of an earlier signal failure. BBC News
Forest Gate station entrance set to reopen with lifts delayed until ‘later this year’ Newham Recorder
Watchdog forced to postpone closure of London Overground ticket offices after ‘unprecedented and overwhelming’ response RTM
Miscellaneous
Plans for a controversial rubbish tip just off the High Street in West Drayton have been “effectively scuppered” by Network Rail. Get West London
Hackney mayor Phil Glanville has written to the prospective new owners of the Network Rail arches hoping to discuss their “tenants first” approach. Hackney Gazette
There’s a tube station with a relatively little used staircase, and at the top, standing proud is a massive slab of rusted iron — from a warship. IanVisits
And finally, Adidas and TfL team up to release line of trainers that come with a free £80 Oyster card iNews
—
Image above is from Nov 2014: Double-deck trains proposed for Waterloo station lines
Yes Southern should be stripped from its current GTR franchise and to allow the government to take over. Including Gatwick Express. As GTR have failed to provide better rail services and caused lots of disruptions and cancellations since the start of the May 2018 timetable hiccup.
Andrew what world are you living in?
The GTR management contract (it is not a franchise) has been a disaster from the start. The timetable issues from May are just yet another disaster on top of all the other failures by GTR including the failure to recruit and train enough drivers from even the time they officially took over the service. Yes they knew in 2014 they would need more drivers yet simply didn’t recruit enough and relied on overtime and were surprised when many drivers simply said ‘enough is enough no more overtime’
The Government is already in charge of GTR – they specified the services and GTR won the bid to provide those services for a fee.
It is all very well sacking GTR but who is going to take over? They would still have all the same issues to cope with (some are network rails making) and isn’t a magic wand.
Suppose you are right ChrisC.
It does not need Government to take over Southern/GTR.
It needs a team of the old experienced railwymen.
Most were made redundant or took early retirement because of the attitude-from the new management. They couldn’t work with them. And, they are still going.
I can remember travelling on the double decker trains that ran from Charing Cross to points south east. They were shockers, cramped, no headroom and dwell time was forever due to difficulties of those on the upper deck trying to get out.
I think only two units were made, 4001 & 4002.
They were designed by Bulleid, who also designed the Merchant Navy and B of B/ West Country Pacifics.
2HAP if my memory serves me correctly. It also goes to show that OVS Bulleid was way ahead of his time.
They were not known as 2HAP, the “2” denotes a two car unit and these were used a lot as semi fast on the Brighton line.
The double deckers were called 4DD, yes really !
@ Roger Ian Mason
The 4001 and 4002 units with bi-level seating weren’t 2HAPs. The 2HAPs were similar to EPBs but with first class. They were a right pain on South Eastern because two thirds of the seating was allocated to smokers, as this photo shows.
Non-smoking was often standing room only, but smoking was half empty. Second class non-smokers were squashed into just half of one coach, and this meant that they were also denied access to both loos.
2HAP 4308 is being restored by Project Commuter.
Sorry Gerry I stand corrected.