Report and further consultation on Bakerloo Line extension

Didn't the Bakerloo get 59TS in a stock cascade?
I've often heard how the Bakerloo route makes it difficult to justify big modernisations.

Report and response on 2019 consultation here . Nothing much new revealed except names decided for OKR1 and OKR 2 stations as Burgess Park and Old Kent Road! It was already reported that connecting the extension would require closure of Bakerloo south of Waterloo. Doesn't say for how long! What service can be maintained on the line, presumably reversing in London Road depot? Perhaps double ended from Waterloo. Can they stop on the ramp to reverse or must they proceed into the sidings?

There is an historic precedent for trains which were third rail for part of the time and fourth rail at other times.

The Mersey Railway (Liverpool area) was like this - 3 rails on open air sections and 4 rails in the tunnel below the river Mersey.

There are a few driver’s eye videos on the net which are very interesting although I don’t know how old they are may give a clue. I expect no more than 6tph at best could be reversed at Waterloo as the access road is single line. Ironically it might be better to make the journey to the sidings and reverse there as it buys some element of layover time.

6tph might do for a Christmas - New Year break, but otherwise would risk overcrowding throughout the line. Reversing 6tph also at Piccadilly Circus might help from Oxford Circus north. Since before the closure all trains will use the current line, and after the closure is over almost all trains will use the new line, they could build a flat junction rather than two step-plate junctions. I presume the new junction is as far east as possible to cut tunnelling costs, but too close to platforms to allow safe reversal at Lambeth during works.

Given that Lambeth North is a lift station and has a small entrance, it might not cope with a regular service terminating there. The sheer volume of passengers might overwhelm the place.

On 26 May 2020, a customer on the Underground tragically died after he alighted from a Bakerloo line train at Waterloo station. We have commissioned a formal investigation into this and will publish our findings in December. On 29 October, the Office of Rail and Road issued an Improvement Notice on London Underground in relation to our assessment and management of the risk of someone falling into the gap between the Bakerloo line platform and the train at Waterloo station. We are addressing the issues identified in the notice and have included relevant elements in our own investigation. [TfL Commissioner’s report
to the Board meeting - 9 December 2020] Perhaps we will see the gap fillers whose trial has been promised for some time! Back to topic!

Yes, Piccadilly Circus is not an option, unless you want to screw up the entire service!

Sounds like a sensible plan. There are good onward transport links from Waterloo anyway.
How busy does Lambeth North get I wonder?

Its statistic in 2019 showed that it had 3.87 mil entries and exits, quite similar to Northfields patronage, or Boston Manor if that helps with a reference. For more of a Central London reference, Holland Park has slightly fewer at 3.72 mil. If reference is taken from a station on the same line, Warwick Avenue station has slightly more, at 4 mil, and Regent’s Park has exactly the same ridership figure.

Yup especially when Battersea is not served by any other tube routes in town. Though I think it will take off some pressure on National Rail i suppose

I suspect that they will detrain at Waterloo and run empty to Lambeth North, reversing in the platforms there, as if they were Elephant & Castle. Because there is a scissors crossover north of Lambeth North, they should be able to run to pretty much the same service level as currently.
If for some reason they can't access Lambeth North station platforms then they would have to reverse in London Road depot. Since the depot is single access road, with very low speed limit it probably makes very little difference whether they reverse in the depot or on the access road.
They would have to double-end the train on departure from Waterloo in order to reverse on the access road.
Frankly with detrainment time, platform re-occupation time and the reversal time, even if double ended, and the depot access road re-occupation time, I can't see them going better than a 4 minute headway, which is substantially below normal peak service level. 15 trains per hour versus a normal 22 in the morning peak.
Could be a pretty painful period of construction.

I think the closeness of the new step-plate junctions to the ends of Lambeth North platforms might be a problem for normal speed entry, which in turn might reduce the number of trains that could be reversed each hour. When I was on the Bakerloo last Century (!), any problem at Elephant meant that the running Station Master moved up to Lambeth and operated the service in the same way from there.

Pretty well used.

Not surprisingly a lot of people from the Old Kent Road use it as a bus interchange plus those from the Walworth Road.

Plus a lot of students.