Newest London railway runs through world's oldest tunnel

“We’re now standing above the oldest tunnel in the oldest metro system in the world,” says Robert Hulse, director of the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe. “Do you hear the train now travelling under our feet?”

 










Hulse and a group of Californian tourists (see above photos) were standing on a false ceiling laid inside the vast Rotherhithe entrance shaft of engineer Marc Brunel’s Thames Tunnel. Built between 1823-1843, the tunnel runs 4.3m (14ft) beneath the river bed between Rotherhithe on the south bank and Wapping on the north.

The train rumbling beneath was a Class 378, one of an impressive new fleet of 20 undergoing testing before the newly extended East London Line Phase 1 opens for full public service on May 23. Transport for London begins running a 12-train per hour service from that day between Dalston Junction in Hackney and three south London terminals - New Cross, Crystal Palace and West Croydon. The new railway runs north-south through east and south-east London, improving access to London’s rail and tube network for residents of Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon. 

The ELL boasts faster, more direct services and cheaper fares. Thousands of people in residential neighbourhoods such as Brockley, Forest Hill, Sydenham and Croydon will be within 45 minutes of their City workplaces. TfL describe Shoreditch High Street station as a ‘new London terminus’ as it sits just a few minutes walk from Bank, Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate, Spitalfields and Brick Lane. Trains pass through the 'station’, but you can see what TfL mean with its 'terminus' accolade.

The ELL offers an interchange with the Jubilee Line at Canada Water, allowing commuters from south-east London to reach Canary Wharf, the Docklands, Stratford, Stratford City and the Olympic Park. From January 2011, the ELL will run north to Highbury & Islington where passengers can connect to the Victoria Line, North London Line and other mainline services heading north of Finsbury Park. 


East London Line Phase II, given the green light by Mayor Boris Johnson last year, will provide an extension from Surrey Quays over the South London Line to Clapham Junction via Peckham Rye and Wandsworth Road. This section is planned to open in 2012 before the Olympics running four trains per hour – and it's this section that will give London Overground’s map an orbital look. 

The East London Line is new in many respects – new trains, stations, depots and tracks, new passenger markets and the first line to exclusively use GSM-R radio communication between signallers and drivers. The ELL is also the first time that TfL, as an infrastructure owner, has presided over the construction, management and maintenance of a newly built railway. 


Hence, it’s poignant the ELL connects Wapping and Rotherhithe under the Thames by using Brunel’s 366m (400 yards) Thames Tunnel, believed to be the world’s first ever tunnel built beneath an expanse of water. Sadly, neither Marc Brunel nor his son, Isambard Kingdom, lived to see the day in December 1869 when their tunnel became one of the first to be used for a railway when the original East London Railway opened for public traffic.

Some things aren't new. London's beloved mayor, the Conservative Boris Johnson, and his Labour predecessor Ken Livingstone, arranged separate photo-shoots in April and May where they each claimed credit for the £1 billion project that includes Phase II and the Thames Tunnel's renovation. In fact, a lot of credit - literally - belongs to the European Investment Bank that underpinned the once struggling project with a £450m loan in 2005. But let's give Boris and Ken their due - they both backed the ELL to the hilt. 

However, if any individual deserves credit for driving the ELL forward, my vote goes to Ian Brown, TfL's experienced and enthusiastic London Rail director.Brown (see above photo) and his team confidently predict 33 million journeys will be made on the ELL in 2011 at the rate of 100,000 per day, rising to 120,000 per day and 40m annually by 2016.  

Whatever happens, I think Brunel would've been proud that Brown and his TfL colleagues have put the Thames Tunnel (illustrated below) to such good use for the benefit of Londoners.

Click on images to enlarge.

Paul Coleman, London, May 2010.

Real prospects for London rail in 2010

True, London's rail and tube commuters endure overcrowded trains but, as the photo of a train on the Indian sub-continent reminds us, there's often someone - somewhere - worse off than ourselves.


However, fingers crossed, London's rail and tube network ought to show signs of becoming less congested and overcrowded during 2010. The £1 billion East London Line extension, a new railway connecting north east and south east London, should start running from June. Big winners ought to be Croydon folk who'll be able to commute to Canary Wharf, the Docklands and to Stratford after a quick change at Canada Water onto the Jubilee Line. 

The ELL's 12 trains per hour will, it's hoped, reduce overcrowding on south London sections of the Northern and Victoria lines. The ELL fleet will eventually consist of 33 new air-conditioned, walk-through Class 378 Electrostars, each train holding 494 passengers. Hackney residents, who don't possess a tube station, will be connected to the rest of London thanks to new ELL stations at Dalston Junction, Haggerston, Hoxton (below) and Shoreditch High Street. The ELL will be run by private operating companies but managed as a strictly controlled concession by Transport for London's most recent addition, London Overground. So, if the ELL starts to go pear-shaped, quake with anger and quarrel with Boris Johnson, our beloved Mayor and TfL's boss.

Frequent Docklands Light Railway users will begin to notice three-car trains on some of their services towards the end of this month. Steadily, more 3-car trains will be introduced on the Bank-Woolwich branch during February. Three-car running on the Beckton branch is planned for 2011. 


The DLR's £211 million new Stratford International-Canning Town extension is due to start operating from mid-2010. Built on the old North London Line route the two-track extension will link High Speed 1 domestic passengers to the Central, Jubilee and North London lines and to the DLR at Stratford Regional Station. The extension includes four new stations at Star Lane, Abbey Road, Stratford High Street and the Stratford International terminus. No doubt this will spawn a popular pub quiz question: which parts of London have three or more railway stations with the place name included? (Put on your thinking cap and post your answers via a comment at the end of this blog).

The DLR upgrade and extension promise to add 50% capacity to the driver-less network before the 2012 Olympics. By the time of the Games' opening ceremony, the DLR is expected to carry 100 million passengers per year, up from its current annual 70m. To this end, the Olympic Delivery Authority is funding £78 million towards capacity enhancing projects, including co-funding 22 of the 55 new cars. 

New trains and new signalling also ought to reduce chronic peak-time overcrowding on the Victoria Line, the world's first automatic railway that now carries over 630,000 passengers per day. 

However, that's where the hunky dory chunk of the 2010 London rail story ends. High Speed rail, Crossrail, Thameslink, the Jubilee, Northern and North London Line upgrades, fare rises and strike action all point to real rail pain being endured in 2010 before real rail gains are enjoyed. That'll be the theme for the next railway posting from this blog.

Don't forget to have a go at that question and post your answer as a comment: which places in London have at least three railway stations (tube and/or rail) that include the place name? See if you can win the mystery prize. I can hear your minds creak...er...sorry..ticking!

Lower Photo: Artist's impression of new 
East London Line station at Hoxton (c) Transport for London


Thanks also to the artist Ruma Nowaz for pointing out the train photo (Courtesy AP)


Paul Coleman, London, January 2010