A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
London Underground
A new tube map has been unveiled, featuring two brand new Northern line stations, opening on Monday 20 September. Londonist
A long-running signalling upgrade on the London Underground is starting to show results as the latest timetables show faster journeys on some trips. ianVisits
Falls on Tube escalators rise as Londoners fear catching Covid if they hold onto hand rails Standard
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
Watch a sped-up journey of an Elizabeth line train as it travels from Abbey Wood to Westbourne Park sidings. Crossrail
Hayes & Harlington station in west London has opened a new larger ticket office and added step-free access to the platforms as part of the Elizabeth line preparations. ianVisits
Mainline / Overground
Network Rail scraps plans to close Angerstein Wharf foot crossing Charlton Champion
Trains were delayed around Balham station after a lorry has struck a railway bridge. Local Guardian
RMT stages Waterloo protest over South Western changes RailNews
Greater Anglia is reintroducing a full timetable on some services and adding additional trains on others from Monday. BBC News
The train derailment at Lee yesterday is causing major delays and disruption for a second day in a row after the rescue team encountered ‘serious problems’ Local London
DLR
Newham All Star Sports Academy (NASSA) has been recognised for its work in supporting young people through the Covid-19 pandemic with a plaque on a DLR train. Basketball England
Miscellaneous
The head of Transport for London has called on the government to provide nearly £17bn in funding over the next decade after the body lurched through four separate short-term finance deals during the Covid-19 pandemic. FT (£)
Police hunt serial sex attacker who struck on three consecutive weekends near Dollis Hill Tube station Standard
No, Oyster’s day are not numbered Diamond Geezer
Man dies after being ‘struck by train’ at Wimbledon station Local London
Little sign of greater Transport for London control of suburban rail in government plans, Assembly hears OnLondon
It’s been a bonanza year for delivering step-free access at TfL stations Diamond Geezer
Throughout his 30-year career in the rail industry, Steve Murphy has been fortunate enough to travel the world to see how rail systems work in different countries. CEO Magazine
And finally: A man got off a tube train when it was stopped in a disused station, getting trapped there for a week, according to a legend remembered in a London Underground staff magazine. Daily Star
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The image above is from Sept 2017: The project restoring London Underground’s Art-Deco era trains
With regard to the point about people not holding onto the hand-rail, I am sure I read online that Imperial College London had been swabbing surfaces on tube trains, stations and buses and did not detect any traces of Covid on the surfaces most frequently touched.
Is the new tube map showing the Battersea line an amateur’s joke? The Kennington interchange is cross- platform, so should look like the single circle which depicts the same arrangement as at Stockwell. At Elephant & Castle the ‘main line’ station is reached by going outside the TfL one (with an underground foot corridor between Bakerloo and Northern line platforms), so what is shown for Clapham North and High St would be a more accurate depiction than a single circle.