Slade Green Footbridge

[DynamicSpirit]

Does anyone know what's happening with the footbridge at Slade Green station? I use it, typically every week or so to get from Moat Lane to Howbury Lane, but when I got there today, the footbridge - umm - wasn't there! There was a sign saying it's closed until May for refurbishments. My first thought on reading it was that, making the entire bridge vanish is quite a refurbishment!

Is something different/better getting built in its place?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Mar 2023 ==

New Post 3 days later:

Wow - have I actually managed to stump all the experts here? A footbridge suddenly gets completely removed from an outer London station that typically sees 600-800K passengers/year, and no-one has anything to say about it? This is not like RailUKforums!

 

[StephenTH]

Does anyone know what's happening with the footbridge at Slade Green station? I use it, typically every week or so to get from Moat Lane to Howbury Lane, but when I got there today, the footbridge - umm - wasn't there! There was a sign saying it's closed until May for refurbishments. My first thought on reading it was that, making the entire bridge vanish is quite a refurbishment!

Is something different/better getting built in its place?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Mar 2023 ==

New Post 3 days later:

Wow - have I actually managed to stump all the experts here? A footbridge suddenly gets completely removed from an outer London station that typically sees 600-800K passengers/year, and no-one has anything to say about it? This is not like RailUKforums!

It's being replaced, although I'm not sure what it's being replaced with. That being said, it can't be worst than what was there which was an ice rink in the winter, poorly lit, not disabled friendly and rusting away. Works should be finished by 25th May, so I assume we should see something going up soon but looking today it didn't look like much work was happening on the replacement.

 

[yorksrob]

I've not followed the fortunes of Slade Green so much since the EPB's went, unfortunately.

 

[theageofthetra]

Even more ridiculous that a major railway structure was removed without advising any of those who sign that route.

 

[plugwash]

making the entire bridge vanish is quite a refurbishment!

I don't know about this particular scenario, but I'd imagine if you were going to do major refurbishment works on a footbridge, and access for cranes was good that it may well be easier to take the bridge out and do the work on it somewhere away from the railway.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

It's being replaced, although I'm not sure what it's being replaced with. That being said, it can't be worst than what was there which was an ice rink in the winter, poorly lit, not disabled friendly and rusting away. Works should be finished by 25th May, so I assume we should see something going up soon but looking today it didn't look like much work was happening on the replacement.

Yeah it did cross my mind that maybe the intention is to put something accessible there instead. I have to admit I quite liked the one that was there - the combination of ramp plus widely spaced steps made it very easy to wheel my bicycle across it, and seemed to me a nice compromise between a steep flight of steps and a long ramp that goes on for miles, but I guess that doesn't meet the criteria for step-free access.

 

[M Lips]

Now you have to go through the station and pay a ticket

 

[brad465]

Is there still a subway here, or am I confusing it with another SE station?

Yeah it did cross my mind that maybe the intention is to put something accessible there instead. I have to admit I quite liked the one that was there - the combination of ramp plus widely spaced steps made it very easy to wheel my bicycle across it, and seemed to me a nice compromise between a steep flight of steps and a long ramp that goes on for miles, but I guess that doesn't meet the criteria for step-free access.

Stone Crossing of course has a very long ramp on the relatively new bridge that replaced the level crossing; I assume it meets accessibility requirements, given it would have been a downgrade otherwise compared to when the foot crossing existed, but if Slade Green is getting a new accessible bridge the space may not exist for one of that extent.

Now you have to go through the station and pay a ticket

Given this footbridge was an important right of way generally I can't see this being allowed with a replacement. This is also why I believe Swanley station's footbridge has no ticket gates despite the station's patronage.

 

[Kite159]

Now you have to go through the station and pay a ticket

Last time I was at Slade Green there wasn't any ticket barriers.

 

[theageofthetra]

Last time I was at Slade Green there wasn't any ticket barriers.

There's a sign in the car park saying it's due to be shut one weekend in May (sorry didn't note which) , presumably this is to allow work on a replacement to commence?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Now you have to go through the station and pay a ticket

I cycled past there today so took the chance to check. The normal route now does take you through the station, via the subway between the platforms. But the station is still open and has no barriers so there's no need to buy a ticket to go that route. The only issue is that there are no signs advising people of that route, so anyone not familiar station might not know about it (granted there'll be very few non-locals wanting to cross there, so that won't affect many people). Stupidly there is a map posted up where the bridge used to be (pictured) suggesting that people go via Bridge Road - an utterly ludicrous route almost a mile long. I can't imagine there would be many people who are simultaneously capable of walking that distance and incapable of either using the subway steps or using the unpaved shortcuts through the park:




I also noticed that, despite the signs implying the bridge will be back on 22 May - which is now just 5 weeks away - there is absolutely no sign of any progress on the bridge. The place where it used to be is still an empty space.

On the other hand, a very nice flower bed has appeared:

 

[DynamicSpirit]

UPDATE 5 June: Well, seeing as 2 weeks has passed since 22 June, when the footbridge was supposed to be complete, I thought I'd take a trip round there. And guess what... Still nothing but a big empty space where the footbridge should be.

As far as I can see, the only thing that's changed is that the notice giving 22 June as the completion date has been replaced with an almost identical notice, with the one change that 1 August has been substituted for 22 June in the text.

This means that Slade Green has been without its footbridge for 6 months, in the name of refurbishment. Seems to me something is seriously wrong with the way this kind of project is managed.

 

[Horizon22]

UPDATE 5 June: Well, seeing as 2 weeks has passed since 22 June, when the footbridge was supposed to be complete, I thought I'd take a trip round there. And guess what... Still nothing but a big empty space where the footbridge should be.

As far as I can see, the only thing that's changed is that the notice giving 22 June as the completion date has been replaced with an almost identical notice, with the one change that 1 August has been substituted for 22 June in the text.

This means that Slade Green has been without its footbridge for 6 months, in the name of refurbishment. Seems to me something is seriously wrong with the way this kind of project is managed.

Have you asked Southeastern or NR what is going on? Beckenham Junction's bridge also went past several deadlines and was pushed back a month or so each time.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Have you asked Southeastern or NR what is going on? Beckenham Junction's bridge also went past several deadlines and was pushed back a month or so each time.

That's a good idea, thanks. A tiny bit of probing on Twitter turned up that the bridge refurbishment is being done by Network Rail Kent & Sussex. They explained the delay as

The refurbishment is taking longer than planned because we discovered some corrosion which needs to be fixed. These are essential works and the bridge will be lifted back in ready for August.

From that I'd infer that they actually removed the bridge from the station in order to refurbish it off-site, which would imply it really is being refurbished rather than replaced - although I couldn't get any info about the nature of the refurbishment.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

UPDATE 28 July

The footbridge has reappeared! It's not yet open to the public, but it's back in position. Looks like the refurbishment consisted of, adding much higher mesh fences, and resurfacing the walkway. Maybe other stuff that I can't see.

Not sure how impressed I am by it. I guess the higher fencing was considered necessary to reduce the risk of suicides/bad behaviour - but it really makes the bridge look like an ugly eyesore. And it seems sad that the UK has reached the point where we now spend money on doing this rather than, teaching people and expecting people to act reasonably. And the ~6 months the bridge has been missing for seems a very long time to do what doesn't look like a huge amount of work.