06.11.09
Tube Lines completes its 75th station upgrade
Tube Lines’ multi-billion pound upgrade of stations along the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines enters a new phase with work beginning at London Bridge, Bermondsey and North Greenwich stations.
The announcement comes as Tube Lines nears completion of its work to upgrade 96 stations along the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines by June 2010. The recent refurbishment of Southwark station now brings the total number of stations upgraded by Tube Lines to 75, with 13 stations currently being worked on and work on the remaining eight due to start later this year or early next year.
Some of the older stations haven’t seen a refurbishment in decades while some stations, like those along the Jubilee Line Extension are barely ten years old. As such, the refurbishment of London Bridge, Bermondsey and North Greenwich stations do not include the extensive upgrades of electrical and communications systems typical of older stations on the tube network. The refurbishment work on these three stations will include an extensive deep cleaning programme, installation of tactile flooring and the redecoration of staff rooms.
Eddie Stewart, Project Manager at Tube Lines said that the upgrade still presented some unique challenges.
“The diversity of architectural styles at stations is one of the biggest hurdles we’ve encountered – so we need to be creative with how we do our work. London Bridge station for example has over 23,000m2 of area that needs to be cleaned and we even have to use abseils to reach the high ceilings at Bermondsey.
“This is not an easy job and requires a lot of hard work and commitment from our staff. But it’ll be worth it in the end - commuters deserve to have access to a world-class tube network and we’re proud to play our part in delivering it to them.” he said.
London Bridge is the oldest station in London. It was first opened in 1836 with the underground station being added in 1900 and then the Jubilee Line in 1999. Today it serves over 54 million people every year. By contrast, Bermondsey and North Greenwich are two of the newer stations on the underground network – both being opened as part of the Jubilee Line Extension project in October 1999. North Greenwich is one of the largest stations on the Jubilee line, capable of handling around 20,000 passengers an hour to cope with the large number of visitors at the O2 arena.
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