A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
Thameslink to get a new station in North London
London Underground
A 22-year-old man has been charged with trespassing on the tracks at Finsbury Park Tube station – an incident which brought service to a halt during rush-hour last week. Islington Gazette
Violent crime on London’s Tube network has increased by more than 43% in the last three years, figures have shown. BBC News
RMT ready to take on London Underground after plans to slash 1,000 staff Morning Star
Train users have been let down “once more” according to a Three Rivers’ councillor as plans for step-free station access is put on hold. Watford Observer
A court has found that London Underground twice discriminated against a disabled campaigner by failing to warn him that lifts were out-of-order. Disability News
Photos Of People Wearing No Trousers On The Tube Londonist
Residents of a Southwark street are fuming after rail chiefs ignored complaints that a planned second Tube entrance would lead to overcrowding and chaos. South London Press
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Bexley Council will continue to press for Crossrail to be extended through the borough despite TfL claiming the move was “not on the agenda”. News Shopper
Misleading transport maps featuring the delayed Crossrail railway are being included in 2019 diaries sold by a major retailer. BBC News
Crossrail has re-started dynamic testing of its systems after a previous round of testing failed last year. New Civil Engineer (£)
Crossrail 2 under threat from budget raids to pay for Crossrail, London Assembly warns Building
Crossrail has heeded calls to refrain from forcing departing staff to sign non-disclosure agreements in light of concerns raised about transparency. CityAM
Crossrail bosses are negotiating extra payments to its contractors so that they can finish remaining Crossrail station works, New Civil Engineer (£)
Crossrail chief confirms “main dynamic testing phase has commenced” London Loves Business
Mainline / Overground
MP backs housing on Radlett Airfield rail freight site Local Times
A rail users’ group has warned that a London Overground line is “on the brink of collapse” as long-promised electric trains have still not been introduced. Waltham Forest Echo
Network Rail says chopping trees by Petts Wood train tracks ‘essential’ Local London
Miscellaneous
A gay porn star has pleaded guilty after filming a threesome on a London Underground train, allegedly before other passengers. Pink News
Trains between Liverpool Street and Stratford were delayed after an injured swan wandered onto the tracks. Evening Standard
Selfridges have started selling a range of London Underground themed items that are officially licensed from TfL. IanVisits
A medical student who helped deliver a baby at a central London Tube station said it was a panicked situation. BBC News
A London teacher has set himself the target of walking each of the 11 tube lines in 2019. SW Londoner
BAE advertises the Eurofigher Typhoon in the London Underground alongside ads for Scotch and guitars Wall Street Journal
If you’ve ever found yourself sitting on a delayed tube train while a loudspeaker on the platform booms out “There is a good service on all lines”, you may have wondered what the hell a ‘good service’ actually means. Diamond Geezer
And finally, London Underground passengers made to stand so a cake could have a seat Joe
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Image above is from May 2018: Thameslink to get a new station in North London
That’s all great but what about this.
Camden Town station redevelopment canned which means Northern line split (and massive capacity increase) can’t happen.
Bakerloo extension and Piccadilly line upgrade referred to Government for funding which means the usual “why are you funding London and not the North” argument.
https://www.building.co.uk/news/tfl-told-to-come-clean-about-capital-project-plans/5097400.article
TfL told to come clean about capital project plans
By Jordan Marshall18 January 2019
The London Assembly’s budget and performance committee says the organisation’s plans regarding future capital projects should be made public
Transport for London has been told to make its capital project priorities public, as its ongoing financial woes continue to threaten future schemes.
In its response to London mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft budget for 2019-2020 the London Assembly’s budget and performance committee has said the cash-strapped transport authority should come clean about which projects are on the chopping block.
In its latest set of results, published last May, TfL reported that its operating deficit worsened by 26% to £1bn.
The committee said: “There may be more postponed or cancelled projects in future years, particularly if the revenue position does not go exactly as TfL says it will.
Camden Town tube station
A planned upgrade to Camden Town station has been canned by TfL.
“TfL says that uncertainty means it has to re-prioritise its capital programme. It has colour-coded its capital programme, with projects labelled in descending order of importance from ‘critical’, to ‘central’, to ‘desirable’ or to ‘deprioritise’. We think this exercise should be public.
“TfL is cancelling capital projects and Londoners deserve to know which projects might be at risk.”
The committee said it had “specific and serious concerns” that TfL’s business plan, which it identified critical issues with, signalled a downward trajectory for the organisation, with “services curtailed, and planned modernisation programmes delayed or cancelled”.
It also flagged Crossrail as a further barrier to future projects, including Crossrail 2, saying the delay to its launch and budget increases “may have significant ramifications that have not yet started to emerge”.
Cancelled or delayed TfL capital projects
Scheme Latest position
Oxford Street Pedestrianisation
Cancelled due to lack of support from Westminster council, and the £43m diverted to Healthy Streets.
Bakerloo Line extension
Now referred to as a project that can only happen with government funding
Camden Town Station improvement
Cancelled
Holborn Station improvement
Pushed back another year to 2023-24
Piccadilly Line signalling upgrade
Procurement stopped. Now referred to as a project that can only happen with government funding
Tram extension to Sutton
Postponed. Previous business plan said that TfL would “develop a proposal”; new business plan says the same again
Proactive road maintenance
Cancelled for the second year in a row. TfL will only do the minimum road works it has to maintain safety
Northern Line extension
Delayed for nine months. TfL says this is not a financial decision in itself, but the mayor has so far been unable to quantify the lost revenue
Silvertown tunnel
Delayed by five months. TfL says that the delay is not a financial decision, but due to complications with land surveys and a problem with the Development Consent Order
I suppose this Government needed TfL money to fund companies without ferries etc.
While former Mayor Boris Johnson left TfL lumbered with 1000 Vanitybuses which have no resale value as buses because of dangerous opening rear ends and 2nd stairs which reduces capacity!
Are you talking about the new Brent Cross “Thameslink” railway station which is due to be built very soon which could replace Cricklewood and/or Hendon stations on the same line. And will also become a Out-of-Station-Interchange “OSI” station with the Northern Line tube station and the shopping centre nearby that the new station will be build.
And yes about the Gospel Oak-Barking line that might not have no trains running with the last remaining Class 172/0 which are sent to West Midlands Railway. I probably would think that London Overground could transfer some Class 315s or Class 317s to work on the Gospel Oak-Barking Line for short time. As the delays to the Class 710 Aventra trains may not be in service until Spring or Summer.
It’s very easy to point fingers or critisise for delays on Crossrail. Not many people are aware how complex it is and that this type of instrastructure project undertaken underneath the city of London is unique, probably never done anywhere else in the world before.