Crossrail

Further Crossrail works planned at Whitechapel

Transformation works to ensure Whitechapel station is accessible ahead of 2018 Crossrail services have kicked off this week.

Though Crossrail works have been ongoing in the station since 2010, Transport for London (TfL) said it will now make the site entirely step-free. It will also expand and refurbish the existing ticket hall and integrate the new Crossrail platforms with the Tube and London Overground services to facilitate access to services across the capital and onto Essex and Berkshire.

Howard Smith, TfL's operations director of Crossrail, said: “People living or working in Whitechapel will benefit from convenient, step-free journeys to new parts of London without the need to change trains.

“When the work is complete customers will have a brighter, more spacious station with a bigger ticket hall and lift access to all train platforms from street level. In the meantime we are doing everything possible to keep disruption for our customers to an absolute minimum.”

Once work is complete towards the end of 2018, the 140-year-old station will boast new lifts from street level to all train platforms.

But from 18 January, passengers will have to use a new temporary station entrance a short distance away. TfL has also advised that although a substantial amount of work has already been carried out to rebuild Whitechapel and create new Crossrail tunnels without disruptions, some suspensions are now required given that the work site is directly above Overground tracks.

When work at the station comes to an end, there will be more frequent journeys between Whitechapel and stations to Reading in the west and further east out to Abbey Wood and Shenfield. Travelling from Whitechapel to Canary Wharf is also expected to take just three minutes, while journeys into the capital's central Tottenham Court Road will take around seven.