With the Olympics and Paralympics over, September brings something of a return to normal for London’s Transport network. On the Underground, this means the unfortunate (but sadly necessary) return to weekend closures. In the corporate offices of TfL, however, it means it is time for a Board Meeting – along with the Commissioner’s Report and its accompanying appendices, which are always well worth digging into. This September’s Board Meeting was no different, with the Commissioner’s Report itself providing some interesting … Continued

With just two weeks to go until the start of the Olympics, London’s transport system is gearing up for what could be one of its most challenging six weeks: ferrying an extra one million passengers to and from Olympic and Paralympic venues, as well as having to cope with the usual daily commuters. Get ahead of the Games is a highly publicised website advising how to get around during the Games, and can be accessed here. Below are some key … Continued

Sources indicate that the Stratford International Extension to the DLR now has a fixed opening date – the 29th August. The opening of the extension has been delayed for some time now – an uncharacteristic event for a DLR project, which have traditionally been the more punctual of London’s Transport projects. Here, however, issues ranging from site thefts to the financial failure of a key signalling supplier have conspired to put back the opening date. To a certain extent, this … Continued

As regular readers have no doubt spotted, we are currently missing one final part of our London and South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) roundup – the proposals for West Anglia services into Liverpool Street and Stratford. This is, in part, because it’s an area where it is proving tricky to get it all to make sense. One issue, indeed one that several other articles and comments here have recently highlighted, is the lack of capacity into Liverpool Street. It … Continued

Today saw a number of London figures, including the Mayor and Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, participate in a “test run” on the new DLR Extension. Ostensibly to promote the various works being completed in the lead up to the Olympics, the occasion also provided an opportunity to get some good photos of the new Stratford International DLR station (as well as platform 16 at Stratford). The new DLR station broadly follows the current trend for clean concrete, steel and glass … Continued

The last time we addressed this subject was in reference to the speculative DLR Horizon 2020 report. Now, however, TfL have – without any accompanying publicity – put up a new map of potential DLR extensions. Tantalisingly, there is no comment on the proposals, which of course provides a golden opportunity for speculation. Some of the proposals were, in some sense of the word, already “official.” Others were known about but were little more than rumours and others are a … Continued

There are a number of pre-Olympic projects nearing completion at Stratford, the first of which is the new Ticket Hall on the mezzanine. This is now virtually finished, but is unlikely to open until the adjacent Westfield Shopping Centre does (as that is primarily what it is there to serve). Many thanks to version3point1 for the station photos below, which are reproduced with her permission. More can be found on her flikr photostream. A couple of looks at the gateline. … Continued