London Banter - View Single Post - North London Line

E27002

On Jun 1, 12:28*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Jun 1, 11:53*am, "Dr. Sunil" wrote:

The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington
and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London
Overground roundel. The last station seems to become an island
platform, whilst the others are both four-platform stations, though
the southern set of tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL
trains use the northern pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of
Highbury, a lot of tracks is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes
over what must have been the former eastbound NLL track through
Caledonian Road. Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland seem to be
unchanged.

Here's my addition to the above.

I went to have a look at the section through to Dalston as that was
scheduled to have the most work done.

At Gospel Oak the westbound platform extension is still under
construction.

At Kentish Town West both platform extensions have been completed but
the new bits are not yet open to the public.

No sign of huge change at Camden Road other than what looked like
mounts for new signals.

East of Camden Road the alignment has been altered to create the
additional freight capacity and to put the NLL in the centre of four
tracks.

At Caledonian Road & Barnesbury a significant reconstruction has been
undertaken with new electrification, new tracks and a revamped station
including new bridge, lifts and stairs. All to the Network Rail
modular design which looks over engineered, cheap and horrible.

At Highbury and Islington the scale of change is quite breathtaking. I
couldn't quite believe my eyes when I stepped off a NLL train. The NLL
platforms are larger and more substantial than I imagined. There are
new lifts and a much wider upper concourse that more than doubles the
old area behind the ticket gates. There are much wider stairs down to
what will be the centre platform for w/b NLL and s/b ELL services.
There is also a new overbridge at the western ends of the platforms.
The ELL tracks still have a lot of work to be done to them and the
future platform 1 is really the site office for the contractors. *I
suspect that commuters using the place this morning got the shock of
their lives.

At Canonbury the new NLL platforms are in place as is the new bit of
the centre platform for the ELL. The w/b ELL platform has a lot of
work still needed - there is a missing overbridge and lift towers and
stairs not connected together! *Of all of the locations Canonbury
looked the most rushed and it was evident to my eyes that there'd been
a last minute rush to get it to the point of being ready for
passengers. *There are no train indicators, PA or CCTV at Canonbury so
it's staff with loudhailers and scribble boards for the time being.

At Dalston Kingsland the platform extensions are in place but not
finished yet. The new Boleyn Road footbridge is all done and dusted.
To the west the new line to Dalston Junction is much in evidence. The
trackform is there and you can see down the tunnel now. Tracks are
partly in place but much is still to do. Looks hopeful though.

Passenger and freight trains were both running OK on the new line
although there were some minor delays to NLL trains. *When I first
boarded a NLL train it was quite quiet but loadings were noticeably
higher about 2 hours later - word had obviously got about that the
trains were running again.

There are a lot of new signals in place but many of them are covered
over. *While I am not familiar with the NLL signalling of old it does
look like capacity is pretty much as per the old days with what must
be supplementary sections not yet commissioned. It also looked like
Canonbury tunnel had not been reconnected signalling wise - the signal
was covered over at Canonbury.

Photos are still loading up but most of them are there at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/

Thank you for the report and the pictures. You were very informative.