On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:24:55 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:50:44 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

I'm not sure what will be "world-class" about the H&C station, but that
must surely imply escalators and lifts to platform level and a decent
covered interchange to White City Central Line.

Well a whole raft of plans have been on LB H&F's Planning website for
a year or so (http://tinyurl.com/jsl8r). They only show stairs and two
lifts to each platform, and it's a standalone structure, i.e. no links
covered or other to the Central Line station or the adjoining new bus
station, besides the pavement along the existing street. So I don't
think their idea of "World Class" aligns with yours.

Possible that the plans have changed but that ought to have prompted
them to appear on the LB H&F website.

The plans do show "public conveniences" under the tracks though. How
long they will be open to the public remains to be seen!

AIUI there is no plan for a dedicated link to the Central line station
as part of the current project. I assume that provision will be made at
each station's barriers to allow on-street interchange between the two.

However, the next stage of development in the area - the area north of
the H&C up to the Westway - is likely to create enough demand at the
White City stations for a new interchange ticket hall at the southern
end of the Central line platforms (and hence right next to the H&C station).

I was lucky enough to have a brief look round some of the Westfield
White City site as part of the London Open House weekend.

They said that the northern part of the development that you mention
is years if not decades away, but yes it's on the drawing board.

They also said there was no final name known yet for the shopping
centre but they were expecting it to substantially "White City", since
that's how everyone has referred to the area for the last 100 years or
something, no amount of marketing is likely to change that; whereas
Bluewater could be called more or less what they liked since there was
nothing of significance there before.

A project manager gentleman said the transport facilities including
the main line station, despite it being well advanced in construction,
are not scheduled to be completed until shortly before the shopping
centre opens, now planned for 3rd quarter 2008. Multiplex/Westfield
subcontracted all of the transport works out to specialists used to
working with the relevant transport companies, and the one doing the
main line station just happens to have spare capacity at the moment so
they are able to get on with it now, but they don't actually "need" to
to meet their schedule.

What surprised me standing in the middle of the site (as opposed to
regularly driving past either end of it) was the sheer scale of it.
And they haven't even started the central section at all yet, because
the Central Line sidings are still in the way (and very sorry they
looked too). They did have some photos of the near-completed
replacement underground sidings that looked very nice. The steelwork
currently visible above ground is just the two extreme ends of the
development, the bulk of it will start going up once the Central Line
switches to the new depot.