West Ham with a side order of Pstead

West Ham, the East London interchange between C2C, the District, Hammersmith and City (or should that now be: and Barking),Jubilee lines and imminently opening DLR from Beckton, is one of the three recommended stations for the Olympic Park.

Spectators will reach the southern entrance of the Olympic Park from West Ham by walking (or possibly healthily jogging) along an improved section of the Greenway which runs just to the North of the Station.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA, is carrying out work at West Ham Station to make sure it does not become too congested during the Games. It has built a footbridge and temporary walkway to help the high number of spectators travelling on the District and Hammersmith & City lines and mainline rail to reach the Olympic Park.

The footbridge does not span the adjacent C2C lines


Having crossed the bridge, spectators walk down a path running next to the station exiting on to Manor Road close to the existing station entrance, thus minimising the impact of increased passenger numbers on regular commuters and nearby residents. Having turned right, Spectators will then join the Greenway (a public walking and cycling route that runs on top of the major sewer carrying waste to the large treatment plant at Beckton) to reach the Park's southern entrance. The ODA have also made some permanent improvements to the local area, such as installing a new staircase and improving the access ramp from Manor Road to The Greenway. No doubt visitors will find the climb to the Greenway suitable enervating. However on their return they will find that, thanks to the wonder of gravity descent, it is somewhat easier


After the Games, the temporary walkway will be removed, although the suspicion is that in this case the rail footbridge and the adjoining path will be gated, locked and destined to become pub quiz picture-round fodder. West Ham will, however, receive its share of the permanent post-Olympic legacy, following the installation of a central reversing siding between West Ham and Plaistow.


This picture, taken from the Greenway as it crosses the LUL and C2C lines between West Ham and Plaistow, shows the new facility with the new footbridge at West ham seen in the background.

Hitherto short or late running H&C trains would be terminated in Plaistow’s bay platform 3. Reversal here was often accompanied by much arcing and sparking as the C stock movement cleaned relatively lightly used conductor rails.

The new reversing line links at the east end into the Plaistow bay and trains currently exiting the Plaistow bay access the West bound track by running through the new reversing line.

...Pstead

Included here for no other reason than to justify the tenuous title of this piece, are pictures of the progress at West Hampstead. With platform extensions to twelve car length completed and the disability access requirements met by the new footbridge, the new station building complex on Iverson Road is proceeding at a pace.



It is all going to be very good when it is finished, but it does seem to have taken a long time to get to this point – pictures of the new footbridge to nowhere at this station formed part of our Christmas Quiz in 2009.