Yesterday I took one of the public tours of the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf which was somewhat interesting. Many of the escalators and lifts were working and they were starting fit out the platforms and to run test trains through, apparently. The appearance wasn't all that different from many of the Jubilee Line stations except for the use of yellow, "canary yellow" they said, to customise parts of this station. What colours they would use for the other stations wasn't divulged.

What I had not realised was that there is to be no easy interchange with the Jubilee Line. When I asked a question about this the project manager person said that they didn't see Canary Wharf as an interchange station, but as a destination in its own right, the implication being that they really didn't want the public changing trains there.

It seems to me that people coming from that branch of Crossrail such as Woolwich and wanting to get to say London Bridge or Waterloo might well want to change lines there. You will be able to do this under cover, but the connection will involve two sets of ticket barriers and being forced to use lots of escalators to go up to the surface and down again, and also pass a host of shops on the way. The latter are, presumably, the main justification for the feature. It's sad that at so many new stations passenger convenience is being sacrificed to the interests of the owners of these retail opportunities, just as in the Thameslink station at St.Pancras.

As to the absence of a station serving London City Airport, well that has always seemed barmy to me.


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Clive Page