London mainline stations - what can we expect?

[lookingforit35]

Following on from the thread on which stations we can be proud of, I wondered what is planned for London mainline stations to bring them up to standard (or indeed just make them fit for purpose!).

Some have already had a lot of money spent on them, but I'm not sure what plans exist for the others. For what it's worth here are my thoughts on the stations I am familiar with:

Cannon Street - just reaching completion of a major overhaul (funded I guess from the office redevelopment above)

Charing Cross - smartened up a few years ago, still looks good.

London Bridge - woeful. Tatty, overcrowded etc but the Shard development seems to include some decent improvements.

Euston - always seemed to be the subject of plans to redevelop, but nothing has come to fruition and it still leaves a huge amount to be desired.

Waterloo - work commencing to create new shopping area, but I always felt the canopy offices built over the low numbered platforms ruined the look of the station, creating a dark dingy feel.

Victoria - some people love it but I always feel it's crowded and not exactly well planned. The Victoria Place shopping arcade is a bit "out of the way" to be useful.

Do you agree with my thoughts, and what other plans are you aware of to expand/improve the mainline termina?

 

[pendolino]

Have you been to London Bridge recently? It looks a lot better, on the Southern side anyway - although still ongoing, a lot has been down recently with new gateline and flooring, concourse opened up and much brighter with the glass roof over it. The plans for the station post-Olympics look quite exciting too (including the revival of platform 7!), NR were on the concourse last week with an exhibition.

 

[Mojo]

The Southeastern side of Victoria has had the roof done up in the past few months and the hoarding removed - looks really nice and airy. Similar story on the fourth span at Paddington which looks great and really brightens up the station.

I don't mind Euston; I think it's a pleasant enough station with adequate facilities and a nice airy concourse.

Kings + of course a large project and still ongoing.

Marylebone I am sure has been constantly having something being done to it since the 80s! I remember the works with total route modernisation which lasted a few years before it was all change when Chiltern installed the automatic gateline, then work on the roof, then the new platforms and it seems now more work on the roof!

 

[swt_passenger]

The Shard project at London Bridge only provides a new canopy for the existing 'Southern' concourse - but a complete rebuild of the rest of the station as part of the Thameslink project is in planning, to commence after the Olympics.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Marylebone I am sure has been constantly having something being done to it since the 80s! I remember the works with total route modernisation which lasted a few years before it was all change when Chiltern installed the automatic gateline, then work on the roof, then the new platforms and it seems now more work on the roof!

It has had a lot of money spent on it. The two instances of work on the roof being done were because they were done on separate roofs. The first lot was the roof over the concourse which was done just before Evergreen 2 if I recall correctly. The second lot was the roof over the train shed which was finished around Christmas 2010. The toilets were upgraded a year or two ago too, with the old bit where the gents and ladies were being made into a much larger ladies only toilets and the gents was moved all the way down the concourse to near the side exit of the station on Harewood Avenue. I dont think there are any major projects in the pipeline for a while now.

 

[lookingforit35]

The Southeastern side of Victoria has had the roof done up in the past few months and the hoarding removed - looks really nice and airy. Similar story on the fourth span at Paddington which looks great and really brightens up the station.

I don't mind Euston; I think it's a pleasant enough station with adequate facilities and a nice airy concourse.

Kings + of course a large project and still ongoing.

Marylebone I am sure has been constantly having something being done to it since the 80s! I remember the works with total route modernisation which lasted a few years before it was all change when Chiltern installed the automatic gateline, then work on the roof, then the new platforms and it seems now more work on the roof!

Good call I guess re Euston. I'm never offended by the place but it always feels functional rather than something to be proud of. I suppose I just always think it could be better!

 

[NSE]

The finished work on the Chatham side roof looks brilliant. I just hope at Kings Cross they install some seating. Having to wait fourty minutes for a train on the concourse isn't a problem for me, but when I'm trying to eat a burger king and there isn't anywhere to sit it's annoying!

 

[Yew]

Victoria - some people love it but I always feel it's crowded and not exactly well planned. The Victoria Place shopping arcade is a bit "out of the way" to be useful.

?

This area needs the rafters stripped and repainted, possibly in a non-white colour that wont go yellow with age. It could do with new floor tiles as well, and some general freshening up. however the aged roof is my main bugbear/ Ideally a wall would be installed next to the escalator going to the shopping centre, as the views from there arent good, and some idiot may try and jump the barriers behind it.

This area could do with the kind of glass roof refurbishments going on at KGX and STP. Personally I think the beams would look good in matte black, and wouldnt become dirty with age.

This the facade could so with the inside of the canopy beign sorted out, as it has chicken wire to keep pidgeons out, maybe they could put a glass front and some automatic doors, to keep the pidgeons out, allow some more retail space, and to allow the roof to look good.

 

[Mojo]

This area could do with the kind of glass roof refurbishments going on at KGX and STP.
http://www.london-traveltips.com/pics/london-victoria-station.jpg

Work finished doing exactly that several months ago!

 

[WCMLaddict]

I didn't want to start a new thread so thought about asking my question here.

Within next 2 months Network Rail is going to vacate their offices at 40 Melton Street. It is one of these high buildings in front of the Euston Station.
I've heard that the building is health & safety nightmare. The amounts of cancerous materials in it are huge and maintenance only waits till one of the windows comes crashing down on a pavement. Someone looked into fixing the issues some 15-10 years ago but they stopped the whole motion as soon as they were told that scaffolding in itself will cost tens(is that possible?) of millions of pounds.
I wonder if there are any plans to this bulding or the site it stands at?

 

[jopsuk]

Under HS2, the whole area will be redeveloped.

 

[oversteer]

I dont think there are any major projects in the pipeline for a while now.

The new V-shape gateline, and removal of the Excess Fares hut, seems to have opened it up a bit. Annoying not to have the overhead indicators though.

Also I was amused to see on the Twitter feed that there is a "dog toilet" on platforms 5/6 How many NR stations can boast that?!

 

[YorkshireBear]

London bridge will look superb when its done, the finished artists impressions ive seen are incredible.
Euston well lets wait and see what happens with HS2. The others i have no experience of.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Less Operational Facilities, More Retail

 

[aylesbury]

Marylebone will need expansion soon as every time I am on train into it we have to wait for a platform ,the gents is realy tucked away and difficult to find.The new platforms are a long walk from the barrier line but at least they were built,shame BR sold off the goods yard as that could have been used for expansion but overall its a good station.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I regularly use London Bridge, Waterloo, Charing Cross, sometimes Euston and Cannon Street, and occasionally use most of the others (though I haven't yet seen the new-look Kings Cross). Appearance-wise, I don't think most of them look too bad. My main bug-bear is lack of seating, and bad design that forces you to walk much longer distances than ought to be required.

London Bridge is one of the worse examples of walking: The main station platforms are too far East compared to where the connecting underground lines, and some of the main exits, are. And to make it worse the SouthEastern trains usually don't even stop by the platform exits, but stop some way down the platforms instead. I'd love to know whether the redevelopment includes any plans for dealing with that problem.

Euston is another example of much the same thing. For Virgin trains in particular, the fact that non-first-class passengers have to walk nearly half the length of the train to get to any standard class seats is compounded by the way the trains stop so far away from the main concourse in the first place. With the talk of rebuilding the station, it would be great if they could find a way to do it so that the main concourse was above the platforms rather than some way beyond the ends of them, though I suspect that would involve more extensive rebuilding than planned.

Cannon Street would be vastly improved if the underground station had an exit straight into the mainline station instead of having to go via the street. Last time I was there, I couldn't tell from the state of the building works whether that was going to happen or not?

I've noticed with some concern that at *Moorgate*, they are building what appears to be a western entrance to *Liverpool Street* crossrail. Given how far that is from the current Liverpool Street station, that makes me wonder whether the design of the new platforms will take any account of the desirability of minimizing walking distances to the existing platforms?

(With apologies if I've slightly diverted the thread topic)

 

[jbb]

I like my walk at Euston to coach A each day. It's about the only excercise i get. What Euston needs are some "do not stand in this area" paths from the back of the station to the platforms. When it's busy it can be very difficult to actually get through the crowd.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

The new V-shape gateline, and removal of the Excess Fares hut, seems to have opened it up a bit. Annoying not to have the overhead indicators though.

Yeah, I spoke too soon didn't I? Quite a few people have mentioned they miss the overhead indicators at the gate, I havent found it a problem so far. One thing I have noticed is that the "V" shape splits the station into two sections more than the old layout ever did. One side covers platforms 1 & 2, the other platforms 4-6. It seems to be faster to walk over to the side of the "V" furthest from where your train arrived than to stand in the queue with everybody else. I am sure people will wise up to that eventually but at the moment they tend to bunch up around one side unless prompted to use the full line.

Marylebone will need expansion soon as every time I am on train into it we have to wait for a platform ,the gents is realy tucked away and difficult to find.The new platforms are a long walk from the barrier line but at least they were built,shame BR sold off the goods yard as that could have been used for expansion but overall its a good station.

I cant see where Marylebone can be expanded. There might be room for a seventh platform at an angle from where platform 6 is at the moment, but it would have to be a very short platform and wouldnt do anything about the headways into and out of the station. It really needs to be four tracked but you would need more money than God to buy up all the land needed to expand between Marylebone and Neasden. It is a shame BR sold the land to BNP Paribas, but the money from the sale was used to fund the route modernisation into Marylebone which was almost certainly the catalyst for the stations renaissance over the past 20 years. If they hadnt sold up I think Marylebone would still be very much a backwater.

 

[lookingforit35]

Cannon Street would be vastly improved if the underground station had an exit straight into the mainline station instead of having to go via the street. Last time I was there, I couldn't tell from the state of the building works whether that was going to happen or not?

Looks like still out in the street, although oddly it appears that one small lift might connect directly into the tube station. On reflection, presumably this is for disabled passengers who cannot hope to use the many steps.

 

[swt_passenger]

London Bridge is one of the worse examples of walking: The main station platforms are too far East compared to where the connecting underground lines, and some of the main exits, are. And to make it worse the SouthEastern trains usually don't even stop by the platform exits, but stop some way down the platforms instead. I'd love to know whether the redevelopment includes any plans for dealing with that problem.

Well it doesn't alter the distance between the tube and the mainline concourse, but it certainly changes flows on and off the through platforms, it will be completely different, with the concourse underneath, and midway along the platforms. The ramps at the west end of the present through platforms will not be available after the rebuild.

Network Rail video here:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/12179.aspx

But we've already had a few threads about the London Bridge rebuild this year...

 

[cle]

Yeah, I spoke too soon didn't I? Quite a few people have mentioned they miss the overhead indicators at the gate, I havent found it a problem so far. One thing I have noticed is that the "V" shape splits the station into two sections more than the old layout ever did. One side covers platforms 1 & 2, the other platforms 4-6. It seems to be faster to walk over to the side of the "V" furthest from where your train arrived than to stand in the queue with everybody else. I am sure people will wise up to that eventually but at the moment they tend to bunch up around one side unless prompted to use the full line.




I cant see where Marylebone can be expanded. There might be room for a seventh platform at an angle from where platform 6 is at the moment, but it would have to be a very short platform and wouldnt do anything about the headways into and out of the station. It really needs to be four tracked but you would need more money than God to buy up all the land needed to expand between Marylebone and Neasden. It is a shame BR sold the land to BNP Paribas, but the money from the sale was used to fund the route modernisation into Marylebone which was almost certainly the catalyst for the stations renaissance over the past 20 years. If they hadnt sold up I think Marylebone would still be very much a backwater.

Are there not some abandoned tracks in the area which might be able to help?

 

[oversteer]

I can't see where. There is probably a bit of extra room in the station 'throat' and you could concievably extend the tunnels from Lords up to Finchley Road, but after that, there are buildings built right up to the line for a lot of the route up to Neasden, and of course the Met / Jubilee on the other side. I can't see it ever getting four-tracked.

 

[4SRKT]

The new V-shape gateline, and removal of the Excess Fares hut, seems to have opened it up a bit. Annoying not to have the overhead indicators though.

Also I was amused to see on the Twitter feed that there is a "dog toilet" on platforms 5/6 How many NR stations can boast that?!

Wakefield Kirkgate appears to have toilets on all platforms judging by the smell.