A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
The year a DLR train visited Manchester
London Underground
TfL expects to spend a further £432M of public money to complete the Northern Line Extension in south London, Ground Engineering
Plans for a second entrance to Southwark tube station are set to go ahead following a recommendation from the council’s planning officers that they be approved. IanVisits
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Crossrail work set to cost £100m a month until next year Building
Laing O’Rourke has signed the main construction contract for Derwent London’s development over Tottenham Court Road’s Crossrail station. Construction Index
Industrial strife on Crossrail has been averted after Unite members secured the reinstatement of an electrician suspected of having faced fresh blacklisting. Morning Star
Crossrail bosses hope for new timetable estimate by April but Khan admits there is no confidence about opening date RTM
Crossrail 2 set to cost taxpayers £41.3bn, reveals London mayor CityAM
Mainline / Overground
Eurostar has been accused of “hiding” a train that runs from London to Brussels. Independent
Rail firms are facing a claim of £93m for overcharging passengers London Live
Miscellaneous
The Mayor of London and TfL must reduce the impact of freight traffic in the capital, the London Assembly Transport Committee has said. Air Quality News
Southern Rail staff suspended after throwing dirty water at homeless man in south London Sky News
Ban on junk food adverts across London transport comes into force ITV
Three graffiti artists were trying to avoid detection when they were killed by a train last year, an inquest has heard. The Guardian
And finally, The London flats being built above train tracks BBC (video)
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Image above is from May 2018: The year a DLR train visited Manchester
I had a chuckle at the Eurostar ‘hiding’ a train piece.
In the airline world booking a trip only to do part of it to get a cheaper fare is called ‘hidden city ticketing’ and is against the T&Cs for many airlines but enforcement varies.
So yes book this train that is not advertised (at present) to stop Brussels but plan to get off there but what if the train – because of late running or an incident on the line for example – just went straight through and you ended up in Amsterdam. You’d have no cause to complain to Eurostar because your ticket was to Amsterdam and they got you there.
Very nice picture of the P86 train whilst doing trial runs in Manchester in the late 1980s. As The P86 & P89 stocks were first built and introduced on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) after the completion of the DLR in 1987 that London got its 1st ever light rail transit system for the Docklands. Which soon the DLR was extended to other areas including Lewisham in the 1990s and 2000s.
And before then the P86 & P89 stocks were replaced by the B90/B92/B2k stocks that were built by Bombardier between 1991-1995 (B90 & B92) and B2K stocks between 2001-2002. And the P86 & P89 stocks were sold to Essener Verkehrs-AG and cascaded to Essen, Germany. Which they are operated lines that are supplied with DC OHL system.
And long before the B07 stocks were also built by Bombardier and introduced on the DLR network in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 respectively. With possibly more new rolling stocks that could soon be built and added to the DLR network in the future which could be Air-conditioned and with walkthrough passageways and other features.
I think I rode on one of these P86 stock trains before when I was a young child in the early 1990s after the Docklands Light Railway was built. Which I become a big fan of the Docklands Light Railway which I still ride on them.
Can’t construction of Crossrail 2 wait. Since the Crossrail project is still being delayed and it won’t be completed by the end of 2019 (or in 2020).
No point in delaying CR2 which would actually increase the costs. Plus work has already started and it would be even more expensive to stop then start again.
CR2 has different engineering needs to CR1 such as tunnelling and heavy civil engineering whereas CR1 is now mainly fit out and systems testing.
I do know that a new Meridian Water station is under construction which is scheduled to open on May 19th and is also planned for Crossrail 2 with extra track to be installed with new tunnel portals to be built south of Tottenham Hale.