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London Bridge rail redevelopment thunders on

editor

editor

hiraethified
london-bridge-redevelopment-01.jpg


Blimey. There's some mighty engineering work going on with this project! I guess they're going to slide over the metal arch soon (or has it already happened? These were taken last week).

More: http://www.urban75.org/blog/london-bridge-rail-redevelopment-charges-across-borough-market/
 
The whole Blackfriars/Bankside part of the project is friggin enourmous as well. But even so, it's all small potatos compared to the daddy going east to west . . . Mental infrastructure investments . . .
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Hope it works. LB is a fuck-up at peak times at the moment. Always queues.
Click to expand...

At the moment, there are 6 through lines coming into the station from the East, with a platform each, but only 4 lines heading out on the West. Two of those lines go to Canon Street and the other 2 go to Thameslink and Charing Cross. If you look at the area on this map, you can see that the south side of the Canon Street junction has only two lines, but has to serve 4 lines Westwards (2x Charing Cross, 2x Thameslink). This new viaduct adds 2 more tracks to this section, removing the bottleneck and matching the input and output capacities of London Bridge station.
 
the number of trains into and out of Charing Cross and Cannon St , is theoretically over the planning guidelines now - (but they squeeze them in anyway , due to the low speed and the fact that virtually everything runs on yellow signals , not green)

It always impresses me , the procession of trains into and through London Bridge - and the features of the timetable planning go back to 1916 ! - so this new bit of bridgework , and the associated painful track renewals / remodelling will really make a difference (along with the new double ended Blackfriars station)
 
Now this is interesting! Currently it takes me as long to travel from Charring Cross to London Bridge as it does to go from London Bridge to Lewisham, this will make a massive difference to the South-East. The engineering involved in this project is something else, the line goes around offices and house, this will take it to a new level! Also as part of Thameslink 2000 (!!) they will remove the bridge on St John's Vale in order to get a new line in, god knows how they will achieve that.

I love bridges!! :D
 
Google British Transport films "Operation London Bridge" for a 1970'sh view on the difficulties of runnig trains through this area - the basics havent changed about gettign 24 trains an hour through a 2 track section from Metropolitan Jct / Borough Market to Cannon St / Charing Cross and London Bridge.

Nothing changes bar the number of people ....
 
I don't like the new bridge. I don't think it's design is very sympathetic to the area. It's too bland and modern, and that part of London Bridge is all 18th and 19th C brick and cast iron.
 
Agreed its a modern bridge - but it will fit it in eventually and become part of the steetscape - dont think the Victorians really worried too much abiout the impact on the 19thC viaducts (maybe they should have) - and buildoing a brick bridge in keeping would be a tad difficult today ....
 
golightly said:
I don't like the new bridge. I don't think it's design is very sympathetic to the area. It's too bland and modern, and that part of London Bridge is all 18th and 19th C brick and cast iron.
Click to expand...

If you look at it closely you find that the part over the market for eample may have conrcete supports but the track bed lies on a pretty much exact copy of the Victorian bridge it sits beside

I had a long and careful at it during the week
 
New images have been released of the station redevelopment plan. This is the post 2012 works for a new concourse under the tracks. The previous scheme was very ambitious and included a large office block. Budget cuts mean we'll be getting a much simpler design, but no less capacity and circulation improvements (which is what the project is all about)

Looking down on Tooley Street:
LondonBridgeTooleyStreetfromabove.jpg


The new concourse runs all the way through under the tracks, in the location of the 'bump' in the roofs.

St. Thomas Street entrance:
LondonBridgeStThomasStreetentrance.jpg


Looking back along St.Thomas Street:
LondonBridgeStThomasStreet1.jpg


Note that the Victorian roof and walls are coming off (a casualty of extending three of the terminating lines into through lines - they run at a higher level and different alignment and would leave the roof without support)
 
Crispy said:
Note that the Victorian roof and walls are coming off (a casualty of extending three of the terminating lines into through lines - they run at a higher level and different alignment and would leave the roof without support)
Click to expand...
Can you find any picture of the new lines from London Bridge? Surely adding a further 3 lines will negate the efforts of the 2 additional lines that this bridge offers?

Fuck me, what a geeky reply! :D
 
Here's the new lines (red) overlayed

ama1zr.png

(note that this is the old, expensive, design. the new one has broadly the same approach, but doesn't change the shape of the station footprint)

The station suffers from a lack of through platforms and a lack of through lines. It needs both. The current design has 2 platforms for each destination (Charing X, Thameslink, Canon St.). The new one will have 3 for each (I'm guessing 1 for each direction and one reversible depending on the time of day)
 
IIRC, the East London (Overground) Line was intended (among other things) to relieve London Bridge of around 10% of its throughput, anyone know what capacity increase the new design adds to London Bridge?
 
There's no simple way to express the increase in capacity. It's a 50% increase in throughput (4 -> 6 tracks and 6->9 platforms), but there's also trackwork downstream that better segregates services in terms of destination so eg. a Thameslink train doesn't have to cross on the flat in front of a waiting Canon Street train. Similarly, the rebuilding of Blackfriars will prevent terminating trains holding up Thameslink trains. The whole area is improving in many ways.

The ELL shares track with London Bridge trains further South, but I don't know if any LB trains were sacrificed in the timetable to allow that.
 
Actually, I expressed that badly. The ELL was supposed to siphon off (redirect) around 10% of LB's passengers.

I see what you mean, it's a whole re-engineered system with very different ambitions.
 
When the ELL is extended to Clapham Junction, the SLL loop trains to Victoria wiol no longer call, freeing up some terminating space.

The ELL's London Bridge relief comes from people going to Canary Wharf by changing onto the Jubilee at Canada Water instead. I haven't seen any figures for this, so have no idea how well it's working.
 
The ELL workings have made a very significant change to LB commuting flows .- no figures available yet , but the trains are standing room only from as far out as Norwood Junction.

Course , repressed demand means that the space released will be filled with London and the SE rail traffic up by 4% ish compound growth each month !!!
 
Crispy said:
New images have been released of the station redevelopment plan. This is the post 2012 works for a new concourse under the tracks. The previous scheme was very ambitious and included a large office block. Budget cuts mean we'll be getting a much simpler design, but no less capacity and circulation improvements (which is what the project is all about)
Click to expand...

Very encouraging.

Shame we're losing the wedge-shaped South Eastern Railway offices on Tooley Street by the look of it, but I think that's a significant improvement on the previous scheme. That roof looks quite elegant (and a lot better than an office over the top of the centre station).

On a personal note, with the new entrance on Tooley Street, it'll knock at least five minutes off my journey to work. :)
 
Crispy said:
LondonBridgeStThomasStreet1.jpg
Click to expand...

How do such daft graphics (generated by a paint programme from wire-frame drawings???) get signed off. :confused:

The viaduct isn't uniform stock brick - and more importantly the arches would not stand up if the bricks continued marching across to the edge of the opening as shown there.

Those arches have very distinctive polychrome brickwork - red, black and white - that was the house style of London Brighton & South Coast Railway.
 
I am modeling similarly complex brickwork right now, and it's not simple or easy. Given the reduced budget for the project, I doubt they fancied paying the extra £££ for spot-on renders. Planners will happily sign off a less than completely accurate drawing so long as the specification is accurate, so it's a safe bet that the actual construction drawings represent reality.
 
Piloti's
nooks_and_corners.gif
feature in today's Private Eye has a bit about the polychrome brickwork. The part of the viaduct that doesn't form part of the trainshed -further east along St Thomas Street and Crucifix Lane - is not listed and Bermondset Village Action Group are fighting to get it protected.


Am I a conspiraloon for wondering if Network Rail don't want to draw attention to it.

Pictures of Crucifix Lane polychrome brickwork on Bermondsey Boy site
 
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