London Bridge dazzles

29 March 2018

Six weeks to go til the opening of the ‘new’ London Bridge station. So five years in, one billion pounds later and an awful lot of (at times painful) disruption what is the result?

Much of the work cannot be easily seen or understood – the Bermondsey ‘dive under’ for example is key to making sure trains avoid getting tangled up crossing in front of each other but cannot really be appreciated from the train. The net result in the long term will be more reliable trains, more trains and more seats – all key priorities for passengers as we know from our work:
https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/research-publications/publications/rail-passengers-priorities-for-improvement

The station itself – built in 1836, one of the oldest in London – is dazzling. Bright, modern, clean and with much better entrances and links between the surrounding streets. Much better access from the Underground. Having used London Bridge for over 40 years it is hard to recall just how grotty and awkward it had become.

The new station and tracks are a real game changer.

Interesting talking to Network Rail about lessons learned. The phasing of the project seemed to have gone well. Important lessons around the train planning which caused much grief early on.

However, my favourite point was the idea of only having temporary signage and wayfinding until the station is in full use and you really find out if the modelling works!

And yes, the toilets (done in time for 2012) are going to be refurbished.

Go and have a look – this is an impressive project.

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