TfL’s £3.6bn wish list

Crossrail 2 tops the £3.6 billion wish list as Transport for London seeks package of rail improvements.

TRANSPORT for London is calling for a £3.6 billion package of rail improvements around the capital, to be delivered over five years from 2019.

TfL’s call comes as the Department for Transport prepares for this summer’s High Level Output Specification (HLOS) that will explain what it wants from Network Rail over that period.

Top of London’s list is Crossrail 2. However, TfL admits that this stands outside the HLOS process, and so it is calling for ‘metroisation’ of services in south and southeast London. This will involve changes to infrastructure and timetables, as well as trains better suited to carrying more people for shorter distances.

TfL says the improvements it wants will contribute to faster journeys, more frequent trains and reduced crowding, and that they will contribute “significant wider economic benefits”. It is focusing on south London, where economic activity per head is lower than in other parts of the capital. The area is also more reliant on national network rail services because it has fewer London Underground lines.

London’s transport chiefs are keen to see improvements to London Overground, including capacity increases to run longer and more frequent trains between Stratford and Richmond and Clapham Junction.

They are looking to boost East London Line services from 16 trains per hour to 24tph by applying digital railway technology.

In west London, TfL is investigating the case for an interchange station at Old Oak Common, at Hythe Road and Old Oak Common Lane.

TfL has identified 18 stations that will require more space to accommodate the extra passengers generated by its ambitions for more services. While noting that its list is not exhaustive, TfL suggests improvements to stairs, gatelines, bridges, underpasses and concourses at stations varying from Victoria to Bromley South and Paddington to Peckham Rye (see panel).

In the longer term, beyond the 2024 conclusion of Control Period 6 to which the next HLOS applies, TfL has an ambitious programme that includes ‘Thameslink 2’ linking Croydon, Lewisham, Canary Wharf, Stratford and Tottenham. Other projects include:

■ London Overground extension from Old Oak Common to

Hounslow.

■ Greenford-West Ruislip corridor.

■ Crossrail 3.

■ Outer-orbital network.

■ Further ‘metro-isation’ to turn south London orange (the colour of TfL’s London Overground lines).

Away from the national network, TfL is pursuing the Bakerloo Line’s extension to Lewisham, as well as Croydon Tramlink and Docklands Light Railway extensions. It expects to provide more details of these and other plans when it publishes an updated transport strategy reflecting the policies of the new mayor.

TfL said its list of HLOS schemes has been developed in the knowledge that funding was expected to be constrained, and that many of the projects planned for 2014-19 would be delayed into 2019-24.