Paul Stephen
PAUL STEPHEN delivers a progress report on London Underground’s transformative Bank Station capacity upgrade
“Things are not much better at the deepest part of the station, on the DLR platforms. Here, the two escalators and stairwell linking them to the rest of Bank station are also hopelessly overcrowded at rush hour.”
Anybody familiar with the London Underground network will know that Bank Tube station is a place to be avoided - if at all possible - on a weekday morning.
Located at the very heart of London’s ‘Square Mile’ financial district, some 70,000 people detrain here during the morning peak, to pass through its gatelines and those at the adjoining station at Monument.
A further 50,000 passengers squeeze into the station complex at exactly the same time of day, in order to change between the five lines that pass through it.
This makes Bank/Monument busier than Heathrow Airport, and (with a combined total of 120 million passengers a year) the third busiest interchange on the entire London Underground network.
With demand having increased by almost 40% in the past ten years, overcrowding now threatens to reach occasionally dangerous levels on platforms and in the warren of narrow subterranean passageways between them and the surface.
The station’s narrow Northern Line platforms suffer particularly badly as they can only be accessed at either end. Passengers form long queues for the stairs, taking up valuable platform space for those waiting for or alighting from the next train.
Things are not much better at the deepest part of the station, on the Docklands Light Railway platforms. Here, the two escalators and stairwell linking them to the rest of Bank station are also hopelessly overcrowded at rush hour.
This inability of passengers to quickly flow through and exit the station is placing severe capacity constraints on London Underground, whose staff are frequently unable to clear platforms and concourses before another trainload arrives.
This has inevitably led not only to unpleasant conditions and significant time penalties for waiting passengers, it has also increased dwell times for trains and even the temporary closure of the station itself when overcrowding is deemed to be approaching unsafe levels.
In order to relieve this pressure and improve the flow of passengers, Transport for London and contractor Dragados is currently engaged in an extensive station upgrade that is designed to increase capacity by 40%.
By late 2022, the station complex will feature 12 new escalators, two new lifts, two moving walkways, an additional station entrance, and substantially more circulation space for Northern Line passengers.
Transport for London Project Manager Andy Swift explains: “There was never a do-nothing option at Bank station. To keep the City of London growing we desperately needed to do something about Bank, and to help more people get through the station.
“We are a project of local and national importance, given not just the station’s vital place on the network, but also the City’s massive contribution to UK GDP.”
According to Swift, most of the problems were created by the lack of any overarching masterplan for the stations’ expansion, since Monument first opened on the District and Metropolitan lines in 1884.
A neighbouring station was then opened at Bank in 1900 on the Northern, Central, Waterloo & City lines, before the two stations were linked in 1933. A final addition was then made in 1991, following the extension of the Docklands Light Railway to link the Square Mile and Canary Wharf.
He adds: “Like a lot of the Underground, Bank wasn’t really planned as a junction and was sort of thrown together. Through time, new lines were added and the station just got deeper and deeper, which has given us several major problems to solve.
“Passenger numbers have increased by 38% in only the last decade, so not only are we having to cater for that, we have had the foresight to increase capacity by a further
There was never a do-nothing option at Bank station. To keep the City of London growing we desperately needed to do something about Bank, and to help more people get through the station.
Andy Swift, Project Manager, Transport for London
40% in order to have something that lasts for many decades.”
The single biggest part of the station upgrade is the digging of a new tunnel for southbound Northern Line services, that runs parallel to the existing line.
A new wider platform is being built here, freeing up the old tunnel to be used as a new concourse with cross-passages that will significantly increase the available space to passengers using the Northern Line.
From this concourse, a new tunnel has also been dug to provide a direct passenger link between the Northern and Central lines. A travellator will be included to further speed up interconnections.
Meanwhile, two new banks of escalators will link the Northern Line concourse with the DLR below and a new surface entrance on Cannon Street above.
Swift explains: “Now, instead of heading towards the Central Line at Bank or over to Monument, passengers can pretty much go vertically out of the station from the DLR or Northern Line platforms.
“Two new lift shafts are also being constructed to provide direct step-free access from street level to both the Northern Line and DLR.”
With the design completed, a Transport and Works Act Order was granted in December 2015 to enable construction to begin the following April.
Excavations then began a year later for more than 1,000 metres of new tunnels. This was done using two diggers, as the confined tunnel space prevented the use of a tunnel boring machine.
All tunnelling is now complete, and the bores are currently being waterproofed prior to being lined with concrete.
The internal fit out can then begin, alongside the installation of station systems and railway assets, prior to its commissioning in 2022.
The upgrade is being managed from two small worksites - one on the site of the new Cannon Street entrance (known as Whole Block), and the other at Arthur Street.
The latter is where most of the tunnelling work is taking place, with all material and equipment lowered down the 30-metre shaft for sorting beneath the surface, and spoil lifted to waiting lorries.
Access to the new Northern Line tunnel can
also be gained via a stairwell leading to the former King William Street station, which has been disused since Bank replaced it in 1900.
Working in three eight-hour shifts per day, approximately 200 engineers and contractors are working on the project, which officially passed the halfway stage earlier this year.
The latest milestone was reached on September 12, following completion of the superstructure and roof above the new Cannon Street entrance ( RAIL 888). Work will now begin here, to fit it out by creating dividing walls and operations rooms across its 11 storeys.
Escalators and other internal fittings can then be installed, with most of the work taking place away from the existing station and therefore not affecting passengers.
The works will be most noticeable in the spring and summer of 2021, when the Northern Line will be closed for three months between Moorgate and Kennington to connect the new and existing tunnels.
But anyone who uses Bank on a regular basis will surely agree that this is a small price to pay for the promise of a transformed experience beneath the ground.