Shephard bush station

Shepherds Bush lost it's character and interesting look when they refurbished the underwater garden at least that's what I call it. Now it just looks like a boring Jubilee line station and it's always cold!

I think the solution for lifts to the platforms at SB would need to involve re-routing one of the tunnels as at Angel or proposed at Bank. Something which would have been so much easier to do before Westfield was constructed. The station's also now suffering from dangerous crowding at peak times, particularly around the entrance to the e/bound platform. OK so it's not as bad as Bank, but something will need to be done at some point.

Relevant to this is a (fairly acclaimed it seems) comment I posted on London Reconnections about a month ago:-
www.londonreconnections.com/2012/london-freight-part-3-a-quart-into-a-pint-pot/#comment-20322

"Further to the WLL discussion, the White City area, North of Westfield and South of the A40 Westway, currently presents opportunities that are likely to crumble away if the relevant vision and safeguarding are not put in place. The area consists of a number of shabby industrial units and old office buildings; none of which is particularly well utilised. Additionally the recent fire at the former Unigate site presents an additional opportunity. This entire area is already earmarked for substantial redevelopment.

Meanwhile both stations down at Shepherds Bush are feeling the pressure of the crowds. Whilst we’ve devoted a lot of discussion to line capacity, it’s completely inconceivable to me that the present LO station in particular could in future cope with the projected levels of traffic, and the site is constrained significantly so expansion opportunities are limited. Equally the LU station feels crowded at most times of the day. Most of the traffic is for Westfield, but a significant number of people are crossing the bus station to interchange with LO.

The White City area presents the opportunity of creating a fully-fledged, fully accessible strategic interchange between the Central, H&C and Overground, whilst simultaneously creating freight loops to hold trains waiting for GWML or WCML slots. Having cleared the industrial units and the ‘ugli’ office blocks alongside White City station, LO services could leave the existing WLL with a dive-under just NE of the Westfield complex, curving at sub-surface level to loop underneath the H&C arches into new platforms alongside the central line, with the existing overbridge at White City being extended to serve them, and a new overbridge at the south end of the platforms to link both LO and the central to the H&C station at Wood Lane. Neatly we create a fully accessible and very useful interchange between the three lines without the expense of deep level work, and the stations at Shepherds Bush are relieved of interchange traffic.

Leaving the new station, still at sub-surface level, the line could then simply re-join the existing WLL in the vicinity of the westway; this would probably just about squeeze 750m freight loops out of the existing WLL alignment. Another option would be, with a very small number of residential demolitions, to continue the sub-surface alignment below Wormwood scrubs, leaving the entire section of the WLL north for freight.

Following construction of the new sub-surface railway, the entire area is ripe for the major development which then can be built above – providing a significant source of funding for the project, and potentially a large number of new homes with excellent transport links and local amenities."

Any tunnelling work at Shepherds Bush would mean shutting down between White City and Marble Arch for however long it would take as the crossover east of Queensway is still out of service.

When we shut down for engineering work between these two at weekends we send the passengers up to Willesden Junction for the replacement bus services to avoid extra congestion on Oxford Street. It works on a Saturday but Monday morning during the peak it might prove a little more tricky.

I doubt if anyone at 55 Broadway would think a lift would be worth that much trouble.

Apparently the Queensway crossover has been fixed, the problem was that the 92s, being a larger than the 62s, had a nasty habit of hitting the wall as they went over.

However that still leaves the problem of using Queensway as a terminus. The crossover goes from the WB onto the EB platform, passengers leaving the train would have to struggle past those waiting to board. The only exit from the platform is the single stairway between the platforms and the passage leading up to two lifts (or the spiral stairway).

With Notting Hill Gate, Holland Park and Shepherds Bush closed I doubt if Queensway would be able to cope with the extra numbers and it would be increasingly difficult to keep up the 2-3 minute peak time service.

Just not worth shutting down MAA - WHC for months to fit a lift at the end of the platform.

Would it really need months of closures to build off-line?
Surely all the existing line would need to be closed for would be the tie-in works at either end (which could be done concurrently) and testing/training of staff. Why would the engineering require a blockade of more than 3 weeks at most? If it were designed such that the existing route was available until all the training/testing should be acomplishable with early closures and a handfull of weekends? The dual running would enable it all to be non-consecutive. Running with both platforms in one direction in service at once would be theoretically possible but presumably not worth the hassle.
It then shouldn't take more than one or two weekend possessions at most to decommission and remove the temporary pointwork once the need for dual-running is over. The existing running tunnel could then be converted.

There would be a need for more station closures, and the entire project would take longer, but that wouldn't pose the same issues as a line closure. Step-free access would temporarily be in one direction only, but that shouldn't be a legal problem and no more of a logistical issue for passengers than existing step-free in one direction only stations.

It wouldn't be worth doing all this for just step-free access, but as project to increase capacity and make a better interchange then it might.

This is how L.T. dealt with such problems like that when they were building the Victoria Line. Go to 11mins and 36 seconds on the youtube video below.

How could you build off-line?

Ok, we’re installing a lift at the east end of Shepherds Bush, in order to do that we have to widen that end of the platform and insert a passage way, in order to do that we have to move one of the lines several metres sideways, the obvious one being the EB as the platform curves in that direction, and cut a new tunnel wall at the station and tunnel up to the point where it aligns with the existing route.

That's a shut down and a lot of digging.

Only issue is the H & S bods would not let what was done all those years be done today, just look at the guys digging the tunnels, not a hard hat etc in site.

In that case I was misinformed by a TOSM.