WORKSHOPS, DEPOTS AND MANUFACTURING
London Overground’s five-car extension: ‘A three-year programme delivered in 18 months’
Huw Edwards, head of programme delivery at London Overground, speaks to RTM about its ongoing capacity improvement programme (LOCIP), including the introduction of five-car services and associated upgrades to depots, sidings and signalling across the network.
ondon Overground is an undisputed success story for the rail industry, showing how good project management, attractive rolling stock and clever branding can unleash huge amounts of latent demand.
L
But passenger numbers have been growing faster than
the service’s ability to cope,
necessitating upgrades to ensure it is ready for the future and a growing London, and to try to deal with overcrowding.
In 2007, at the end of the previous Silverlink DfT franchise, passenger numbers stood at around 33 million a year. But in 2013, under London Overground – run as a concession let by TfL to LOROL, a joint venture of MTR and DB/Arriva until 2016 – that figure rose to 135 million.
Huw Edwards, London Overground’s head of programme delivery, told RTM that the growth has been due to suppressed demand, but also regeneration in north-east London especially, such as in Hoxton and Haggerston.
The short to medium term solution is a fleet extension for the Class 378 Capitalstars, from four-car to five, for all London Overground routes except Gospel Oak to Barking (the electrification of which will allow the introduction of higher-capacity trains at a later date).
Edwards called the extension “readily deliverable” – and the £88m order for 57 new carriages was placed with Bombardier in Derby under an option built into the original 2007
76 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 14 Longer platforms
Of the £321m London Overground Capacity Improvement Programme, roughly £174m is capital expenditure on the fixed infrastructure (the rest is the cost of the new rolling stock and alterations to the existing fleet, plus operations and maintenance over ten years).
Platform extension works on the East London Line started at Highbury & Islington, Canonbury and Surrey Quays in December 2013, with another nine due to be extended between February and June 2014. At some stations, a full platform extension to allow ten doors to open has not been possible; Wapping and Rotherhithe will have to remain at eight door opening, with passengers in the back car told to walk to the next doors, while Canada Water will get a compromise nine- door solution. Edwards said: “Canada Water is a very big interchange for us; we want to do as much as we can. We’ve found an affordable solution which takes us to nine door. To go to ten door would be a massive solution involving part-demolition of the bus station and a major civil
engineering project.
Yes, potentially there is a business case for that – but that solution isn’t deliverable in the timeframe the mayor wants.”
rolling stock contract, following approval from the TfL board in February 2013.
But preparing the network for the longer trains has been a bigger job, requiring platform extensions, depot and sidings modifications and signalling works.
At Whitechapel, selective door opening will apply until Crossrail is complete. Cleshar is the contractor for these works. “When Crossrail concludes at Whitechapel, a set of temporary overbridges and secondary means of escapes will disappear and the platform lengths for the ELL become that much longer,” Edwards said. “That means we will go to five-car door opening in two or three years’ time at Whitechapel.”
Considering that London Overground seems willing to implement selective door opening when necessary, RTM asked Edwards whether TfL ever considered saving money by selecting that option rather than platform extensions at other stations.
He said: “We took the view that we don’t see passenger numbers getting any
less, and
therefore where it is relatively straightforward to build, we would – and it is, in the majority of areas. In the south east in particular, platform extensions are going in left, right and centre, and many of them are much bigger ours, the 12- car extensions for example. The answer is, yes we did look in the initial stages whether we’d use selective door opening at a larger number of locations, but we made a business decision to deliver 10 doors wherever we feasibly could.”
The North London Line extensions and disused platform reopenings are simpler; 17 of these will take place between February 2014 and February 2015. Dyer and Butler is to undertake these works.
On the West London Line, platforms on the Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction route
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