11.02.16
TfL kick-starts improvement works at eastern Crossrail stations
Transport for London (TfL) has kick-started a series of improvement works across the stations situated along the eastern section of the Crossrail route in preparation for the project’s full service in 2019.
Work is now underway at Manor Park, Seven Kings and the York Road entrance to Ilford station, all of which will have their ticket halls refurbished by the middle of the year.
Most of this work will be carried out behind hoardings or during engineer hours to keep disruption to a minimum, but Ilford’s York Road entrance will need to be closed off until mid-2016.
All stations in the programme will benefit from external deep cleaning and repair, improved signage and lighting, internal layout redesign, station refurbishment, and new ticket machines and extra ticket gates.
Howard Smith, TfL’s operations director of Crossrail and a member of RTM’s editorial board, said: “This is the start of the TfL station improvements programme that will transform stations along the Crossrail route.
“We hope that people will really take pride in these refreshed stations. Once the improvements are complete, customers using Manor Park and Seven Kings stations will enjoy modernised, cleaner and brighter stations, with improved facilities.”
Further TfL Rail station works will start later this year, including bringing step-free access to Manor Park, Seven Kings and Maryland.
Once these TfL-run Crossrail services start, there will be 12 trains per hour at peak times from Manor Park, Seven Kings and Ilford to central London. Travelling from Seven Kings to Tottenham Court Road will take around 24 minutes.
Overall, the Crossrail programme is over 70% complete, remaining on time and on budget despite a few slips last year.
The first Aventra test train is being built in Derby, with RTM’s Bombardier source informing us that more details on it, of which computerised pictures have already been published, will be revealed around June.
Separately, TfL board member Daniel Moylan has this week been appointed as the interim chair of the new Crossrail 2 delivery company set up in December. Subject to funding, construction of the proposed scheme could open by 2030.