NEWS
Higher penalties for fare dodgers
Blackfriars Underground station has been reopened, following a complete rebuild over the last three years.
It has been designed to accom- modate 40,000 passengers a day.
The work will provide better con- nections between Tube and rail services. New lifts and escalators have provided increased access to the station, making it the latest to become step-free. The project has provided jobs for 13,000 peo- ple over the last three years.
Laurence Whitbourn, Network Rail’s senior programme manager for Blackfriars, said: “Rebuilding Blackfriars Underground station was a hugely complex engineer- ing challenge; we excavated, de- molished and rebuilt the whole station while Underground trains continued to run beneath our feet, and Thameslink services ran over- head.
“The new Underground station brings our plan for the whole of Blackfriars one step closer to completion. Both Tube and rail passengers at Blackfriars stand to benefit from a modern, accessi-
TfL has raised its penalty charge for failure to pay the correct fare from £50 to £80.
It covers all TfL services in the capital, with fare evasion esti- mated to have cost TfL around £63m last year. The new £80 penalty will be cut to £40 if paid within 21 days.
Steve Burton, director of Com- munity Safety, Enforcement and Policing at TfL, said: “We know that our honest, fare-pay- ing passengers feel angry when they see others not paying for their journey and this should reassure them that we are tack- ling this issue head on.”
Derailed train going too fast – RAIB
ble station; longer, more frequent Thameslink trains; and convenient connections between services.”
Howard Collins, chief operating
officer at London Underground said: “The re-opening of the newly renovated Tube station is fantastic news for our customers, who can now reap the benefits of the huge improvements that have taken
place at Blackfriars.”
As part of the Thameslink project, platforms are being lengthened to provide adequate space for longer trains, which will operate more frequently. The new Blackfri- ars main line station, built on top of Blackfriars bridge spanning the Thames, will be fully open and op- erational by summer 2012.
First TBM complete for Crossrail
The first Crossrail tunnel boring machine (TBM) is now completely assembled, ready for tunnelling to start next month.
Construction between Royal Oak and Farringdon is due to take place under a joint venture with BAM Nuttal,
Kier Construction and Ferrovial Agroman.
The first TBM is to undergo testing before tunnelling and the second machine is currently being assem- bled.
The first TBM will be launched into one of the twin bores at Royal Oak Portal tunnelling east towards Far- ringdon next month.
A second TBM will subsequently be launched in April through the
second bore. They are over 140 metres long and weigh around 1,000 tonnes, and will travel 6.4km (4 miles) eastbound under London via Paddington, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road before reaching Farringdon in 2013.
This will be followed later this year by the launch of a further two TBMs from Limmo Peninsular in the Royal Docks that will travel a total of 8.3km (5 miles) towards Farringdon via Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and Liverpool Street.
Towards the end of 2012 another two TBMs will begin construction of the south-east section of the route, launching from Plumstead portal in the south-east and trav- elling a total of 2.6km to construct the Thames Tunnel. Two TBMs will also be used to create nearly 3km of twin-bore tunnels between Stepney Green and Pudding Mill Lane.
Andrew Wolstenholme, Crossrail’s chief executive, said: “At least 90% of all Crossrail expenditure will be invested within the UK. Further high-value contracts will be awarded later this year including t he main construction contracts for Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road stations.”
More on page 32.
The train that derailed at Bletchley Junction on Febru- ary 3 was driven “significantly faster than permitted speed”, the RAIB’s preliminary investi- gations show.
The derailment caused exten- sive damage to the track and overhead line equipment, af- fecting all four lines of the West Coast Main Line and causing significant disruption. The line was closed for over 12 hours.
RAIB stated that there was so far no evidence that the condi- tion of the track had played a part in the derailment. The in- vestigation is ongoing.
Fatigue guidance published for rail workers
The ORR has issued revised guidance for rail companies concerning the management of fatigue. The RAIB estimates fa- tigue was a factor in 111 rail in- dustry accidents and incidents between 2000 and 2010.
Recommendations include re- viewing fatigue controls when weekly hours exceed 55, in- stead of the current 72 hours. Visit
www.rail-reg.gov.uk and search ‘fatigue’.
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 | 7
© Network Rail
© Crossrail Ltd
© Network Rail
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