SkyscraperCity Forum banner

Stratford Station | Stratford

95K views 187 replies 62 participants last post by  gottago 
#1 ·
There was a thread somewhere around about this, but dunno where its gone.

These are images of the expanded Stratford Station, parts of the new Stratford City development and the new DLR platforms at Stratford (the multi-triangular structure).





 
See less See more
2
#5 ·
The Times
April 21, 2006

Ghost train station that cost £210m
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

A VAST new international railway station was completed yesterday but will remain empty indefinitely because Eurostar is reluctant to stop there.

Stratford International was billed as East London’s gateway to Paris and Brussels and was supposed to be the centrepiece of Europe’s biggest urban regeneration scheme. But the ceremony to mark completion of the £210 million station was overshadowed by an admission that international trains might never use it.

The station will be very busy for a few weeks in the summer of 2012 as thousands of spectators head to and from the adjacent Olympic park. But it threatens to be Britain’s biggest transport white elephant, used at other times only by a few services carrying commuters from Kent.

Local politicians said yesterday that the absence of an international service would undermine the £4 billion Stratford City scheme, which aims to attract 30,000 jobs and 12,000 residents to derelict land around the station.

London and Continental Railways (LCR), which built the station and is completing the 186mph Channel Tunnel Rail Link, said that Stratford International had been conceived as the London stop for Eurostar services from northern England. Trains were supposed to start in Manchester or Leeds and skirt round the edge of Central London on their way to the Channel Tunnel. But, with the rapid growth of budget airlines linking northern cities with the Continent, all Eurostar trains will terminate at St Pancras from the autumn of next year.

Rob Holden, chief executive of LCR and deputy chairman of Eurostar, said: “There is probably no chance of Eurostar services to the North taking place. It is possible the station won’t be used until the Kent domestic services start at the end of 2009. We will not satisfy everybody. Politicians and the media will criticise us.”

He said that Eurostar had yet to make a final decision on where its trains would stop but an announcement would be made in early summer.

Calling at Stratford would add eight minutes to the journey between London and Paris or Brussels, eroding some of the time advantage over airlines. Mr Holden said: “Stopping a high-speed train seven minutes out of St Pancras is less than ideal.”

Mr Holden said that it would be awkward to handle international passengers during the construction of Stratford City and the Olympic park. “Stratford is going to be a big building site for a number of years.”

There is also uncertainty about the links between Stratford International and Stratford’s rail and Tube station, which are a third of a mile apart. LCR is considering a £25 million moving walkway. “We continue to examine the merits of a ‘travelator’ but we do have to recognise that it’s a very expensive bit of kit and difficult to maintain,” Mr Holden said.

Extending the Docklands Light Railway to Stratford International is also an option.

John Biggs, the London Assembly member for Stratford, said: “It would be a massive mistake not to operate international trains from Stratford, which is the major crossroads of East London with connections to Canary Wharf and Stansted airport. It would jeopardise the momentum behind Stratford’s regeneration and undermine efforts to attract world-class companies.”

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, said: “I believe it is crucial for the regeneration of East London that an appropriate number of Eurostar trains stop at Stratford from 2009. From this time there will be a greater demand for Eurostar services following the major regeneration of the surrounding area.”
 
#6 ·
I think this is a political game with the Reuben brothers. It's a threat to devalue their investment massively. Ken made a comment, but not a strong one. Who's going to pay for the travelator and who will remove their blocking of olympic projects?

I also reckon LCR would be foolish not to even try a Birmingham - Brussels / Paris service as 3 1/2 or 4 hours city centre to city centre would be competitive. A stop between London and Birmingham would also make sense for the NW suburb towns IMO.
 
#9 ·
It's a glass box in a ditch. In 30 years time we will talk about it the way we regard Euston today.

I agree on the Birmingham service, im sure that could compete with a sutable frequency. The big mistake was having the plaforms so far from the tube station. Had they built a new station at the south east corner of the site, where the lines pass over eachother, it could have been a real hub. Would have been more expencive though...
 
#10 ·
Possibly a Florence like station could have been possibly where Fosters new HSR station is being built - its lie Canary Wharf, underground but with light wells.
 
#12 ·
The station looks very bland and boxy, and someone on the news said that there were likely to be a few bottlenecks at points when they were inspecting the finished station. I seriously doubt we're going to see high speed rail to the north anytime soon?
 
#14 ·
I never could see the point of having St Pancras and Stratford as international stations when they are so close. The guy from eurostar makes the point i have always thought....."Stopping a high-speed train seven minutes out of St Pancras is less than ideal"

oh well......lets hope they reconsider some Eurostar Links to the North of England to make it all worth while
 
#15 ·
With the development of Canary Wharf, Stratford City and Stratford becoming one of the largest transfer stations - Eurostar stops will be more frequent as redevelopment carries on.
 
#16 ·
samsonyuen said:
For £210m, it better be used for something! Couldn't they have an alternative route, where every other service stops at Stratford?
Exactly. A station exists because it is somewhere useful for passengers. This station serves a fair chunk of North and East London, plus East Anglia. For a train operator it would be ideal if there were just two stops, one at each end.
 
#17 ·
nick_taylor said:
With the development of Canary Wharf, Stratford City and Stratford becoming one of the largest transfer stations - Eurostar stops will be more frequent as redevelopment carries on.
Yes isnt this just a rare case of UK forward planning? Build the infrastructure first and let is develop rather than the other way around. There maybe no instant demand for international services here at the moment but what about in 5 or 10 years time?
 
#18 ·
An important transportation station, especially an international one, should scream "this city is amazing". St. Pancras succeeds, Waterloo succeeds, Straford does not. It's poorly designed and bottlenecks are expected, but perhaps even more seriously, it's bland. This will be one of the first buildings the people visiting "New London" for the 2012 games will see, and may become an international station. Do we really want "New London" to be about dull, glass boxes? Disappointing.
 
#19 ·
Sydney's, Barcelona's and Athen's Olympic stations weren't that incredibly exciting.

What annoys me more is the masterplan of Stratford City has the perfect opportunity to have a fabulous open square right by the station, with the majestic direct pedestrian link to the Olympic stadium running off of it, but they've chucked what looks like a massive department store in that space, meaning all sense of scale and orientation is lost.

Wasted opportunity.
 
#22 ·
Okay, here goes. First of all here's the latest Olympic masterplan.



And here's an amended rendering of the Olympic walkway connecting the Stadium to Stratford City and the International station.



Now the orange dots are the location of the International station and Stratford Tube station, with the red connection lines showing how people will move from each of these into the main Olympic Park and Stadium.

The blue dots arebuildings planned for this route. The latest Olympic masterplan includes the Media Centre each side of this walkways route, with the bottom three building sites now replaced with the walkway.

What I'd like to see is this final building, the one closest to the International stadium, removed and allow this grand open walkway to extend into the centre of Stratford City, and for a large central square to be created 'Olympic Square?'. Imagine coming out of the International station, to be greeted with this grand plaza, to turn to your right and see this massive pedestrian boulevard stretching off, with the Olympic stadium and flame visible at the end. It would be simply stunning, and create a much needed orientation device and central 'anchor' for Stratford City in relation to the Olympic Park.

The square could house endless coffee shops, bars, stores and be a mjor hub of entertainment for the Olympics and beyond for athletes and spectators who don't want to travel immediately to Central London via the Olympic Javelin.
 
#23 ·
I couldn't believe it when I heard that Stratford International was going to be so far (and not provide a proper interchange with) the lines at Stratford - that, in effect, they were going to be 2 separate stations. I understand that the same mistake is due to be made at Canary Wharf when the Crossrail line is completed. All a big shame.
 
#24 ·
Whilst I agree a huge plaza would be great for East London - I believe the reason why the idea was scraped is because they need to make the Olympic site usable after the Games for the local people. Rightly or wrongly, they believe a mall will be a bigger draw than a square.
 
#26 ·
Stratford International is a complete white elephant

It won't be opening in november like St Pancreas even though it's been built for ages.

They haven't built a moving walkway linking the two stations - saying that it will be too expensive!

Instead we have to wait until the new Woolich DLR line is opened taking over the old North London line.

Somehow TFL think it reasonable for international travelers to alight at Stratford International with all their baggage,*change onto the new DLR Woolich branch line, go one stop to Stratford & change again for a line that actually goes somewhere.

Surely it would have been more logical to extend the Jubilee line along the same line that DLR is planned to (it's only a matter of changing points - no new tunnels).

The Jubilee line is after all the only tube line that intersects with every other tube line, so passengers alighting at Stratford International need only get on the Jubilee & be one change away from anywhere on the tube map.

How logical is it for international travelers to change for a branch line to South Woolich when it could be the Jubilee for the O2, Canary Wharf, London Bridge, Waterloo, Westminster, Bond Street, Baker Street, Wembly?

Without a decent connection between Stratford International & Stratford Regional, the International Station will always be a White Elephant.

Few international passengers will go through the hassle of getting to Stratford. Most trains won't stop & for the few that do it will be an inconvenient waste of time for the passengers that boarded or are bound for St Pancreas.

So Stratford is destined to be a white elephant, inconvenient stop like Ashford International when it could have been a viable alternative to St Pancreas relieving passenger congestion.
 
#28 ·
Stratford International is a complete white elephant

It won't be opening in november like St Pancreas even though it's been built for ages.
Because the entire area around is a building site and therefore unsafe.

They haven't built a moving walkway linking the two stations - saying that it will be too expensive!
To build a covered moving walkway would be bloody expensive. Heard the underground walkway at waterloo was in the region of millions. The expensive bit for this would not be the walkway, but the structure that covers it!!

Instead we have to wait until the new Woolich DLR line is opened taking over the old North London line.
Always gonna happen so stop complaining this is TfL- the people who say it'll take a year to refurb a station and still 2 years down the line it isn't open (Mornington Crescent).

Somehow TFL think it reasonable for international travelers to alight at Stratford International with all their baggage,*change onto the new DLR Woolich branch line, go one stop to Stratford & change again for a line that actually goes somewhere.Surely it would have been more logical to extend the Jubilee line along the same line that DLR is planned to (it's only a matter of changing points - no new tunnels).
A further extension to the jubilee line along the same route would mean a closure of the line from West Ham through the station. Destruction of passenger walkways and entry/exit and fire escape facillities. Disruption to the lines in the higher part of the station for the duration (for safety reasons), drilling of new tunnels, laying of new rack and signalling works.

This is alot more work than conversion of existing rail-lines.

The Jubilee line is after all the only tube line that intersects with every other tube line, so passengers alighting at Stratford International need only get on the Jubilee & be one change away from anywhere on the tube map.
True. But remember again this is TfL and they like to make life difficult!
How logical is it for international travelers to change for a branch line to South Woolich when it could be the Jubilee for the O2, Canary Wharf, London Bridge, Waterloo, Westminster, Bond Street, Baker Street, Wembly?
The transfer will only be cross platform since the Jubilee and DLR extension to Stratford Int are adjacent to each other.

Without a decent connection between Stratford International & Stratford Regional, the International Station will always be a White Elephant.
Maybe but over the next 15 years the area will see growth with the development of Stratford City will bring an extra 25 000 people at current estimates so the DLR line and High speed Kent line WILL be used almost as much as the current station.

Few international passengers will go through the hassle of getting to Stratford. Most trains won't stop & for the few that do it will be an inconvenient waste of time for the passengers that boarded or are bound for St Pancreas.

So Stratford is destined to be a white elephant, inconvenient stop like Ashford International when it could have been a viable alternative to St Pancreas relieving passenger congestion.
White elephant! Maybe to start with. The DLR was seen as a novelty and an white elephant when it started, look at it now! As for the new route for the Eurostar, it will bring benefits to an area that is currently overlooked, and that is the one benefit that cannot be denied.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top