Stratford station can be a nightmare to get around, having grown over the years to become an impenetrable monster of an interchange. It needed a major rebuild in the late 90s before the Jubilee line arrived, fronted by the steel and glassconcourse we see today. It needed another major rebuild before the Olympics, including two new subways and an external overbridge, plus a brand new northern ticket hall adjacent to Westfield. And it needs another major rebuild today, or will do soon, as unforeseen numbers of passengers clog its platforms and passageways as they try to thread their way across a split-level labyrinth. Crossrail hasn't helped either.
Newham council recognises the issue, given it threatens to throttle their chief regeneration driver, so have drawn up an Outline Business Case for significant station improvements. It follow a consultation exercise this time last year, as blogged here, and was discussed at a cabinet meeting at the start of this month. You can tell it's an important issue because the documentation filled 47 pages of the agenda. [pages 185-231]
Here's the problem.
"Stratford Station and the two bus stations that serve it form a critically important public transport interchange for Newham’s residents and businesses. The station is currently one of the busiest in the country, with severe crowding slowing journey times and poor customer experience. By the mid-2030s, TfL estimate that passengers may be restricted from entering the station for up to 15 minutes at the busiest times, which will impact on the growth potential of Stratford."
And here's the opportunity.
"There is an opportunity to not only improve the capacity and quality of the station, but to enhance connectivity within the town centre by providing new public space and new bridge connections to the existing and proposed employment, educational, cultural and retail opportunities at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, as well as for the public sector to directly deliver new homes and commercial floorspace on public sector land."
A steering group has therefore knocked up three initial options for the enhancement of the station and its immediate surroundings, the idea being to select one, polish it and present it to Network Rail and the government in 2025.
There's a Minimum option, a kind of sticking plaster which delays the worst problems for a few years. There's a Medium option, creating fresh connections to improve circulation within and across the station. And there's a Significant option, which is of course the most transformational but may also be prohibitively expensive.
All three options take it as read that a new southwestern entrance will have been opened facing the Carpenters Estate (it's already under construction) and that platform 11 will be extended to cater for longer trains. They disregard any new entrance to serve the bulbous MSG Sphere (because the developers would pay). And they discount four enhancements already being considered by the DfT and Network Rail, namely...
» Relocating the lift from the western subway to increase space on the stairwell.
» Relocating the Elizabeth Line control room from platforms 6&8 to increase useable space for passengers.
» Moving the gateline at the southern ticket hall to provide more space for passengers within the station.
» Providing a new entrance at the southeast of the station with direct access to the eastern subway.
This seeks to increase the amount of usable platform space but doesn't improve existing circulation routes.
• Platforms 3/5 (Central line and Crossrail westbound): remove office and store areas, widen platforms at London end.
• Platforms 6/8 (Central line and Crossrail eastbound): remove staff accommodation, add slab over stairwell to central subway to create more space, widen stairwells to central subway.
• Platforms 9/10 (Greater Anglia mainline): replace shelters with canopy, widen stairwells to central subway.
• (maybe): Add new connecting subway between central and eastern subways.
This would add a new bridge inside the station (because going over is easier than going under) and also a new footbridge across the station. Assume all of the Minimum Option enhancements are included.
• New western overbridge linking the southern ticket hall to platforms 3/5, 6/8 and 9/10 with escalators and lifts down to platform level. A bit like Reading, perhaps.
• Reconfiguration of the southern ticket hall to include escalators up from mezzanine to new overbridge, plus more escalators down.
• Decking over northern end of Jubilee line platforms to create a new public square.
• New pedestrian and cycle bridge diagonally across the mainline linking the new public square to the end of Westfield Avenue (for more direct QEOP access).
• Two development sites unlocked by new public realm (including 150 homes).
This blows the budget by shifting railway tracks to enlarge platforms, and also covers over the full length of the Jubilee line platforms with new public realm. Assume all of the Medium Option enhancements are included.
• Realignment of tracks and widening of platforms.
• New western overbridge as before but less diagonal, more straight across.
• New station entrance on Montfichet Road at the end of Westfield Avenue.
• Major new public space created by decking over Jubilee and DLR corridor as far as Stratford High Street.
• Reconfiguration of Stratford bus station, retaining existing capacity.
• Six development sites unlocked by new public realm (including 2000 homes).
The Minimum option has the best Benefit Cost Ratio, but only because it's very cheap. The Medium option is better value than the Significant option but delivers fewer improvements beyond the station.
And these are not the only three potential outcomes under consideration. According to the council report "there is particular merit in investigating an option which includes the Medium option station infrastructure with the public realm and development associated with the Significant option".
All the council did a fortnight ago was agree costs to take the development of options to the next stage. Indeed they spent longer debating whether that £1.1m should come from the capital budget or the general budget than they did discussing the plans themselves, because they're politicians not train geeks. But things are at least moving forwards at Stratford's clogged interchange nexus. And who knows, by 2025 we might even have a government interested in investing in rail again, and by 2040 a barely recognisable station better suited to keeping East London moving.
