Press Release from London Overground - note the Meet the Manager event at Acton Central 22 November
London Overground manager and passenger meetings will set out alternative travel for closures Sixty public meetings between London Overground managers and passengers will be held across the network to explain alternative travel options during a series of upcoming closures, Transport for London (TfL) announced today.The meetings will be held from mid November to early December, at stations on the Stratford to Richmond and Clapham Junction lines and aim to reduce inconvenience to passengers during the closures. The meetings will explain rail replacement services and ticket acceptance on alternative routes. The closures are needed to complete a multi million pound upgrade project by TfL and Network Rail (NR) due to be delivered by May 2011, which will increase capacity on London Overground services. The closures are: o Gospel Oak to Stratford from the evening 18 December until 24 December 2010. There will be no service on the whole London Overground network on Christmas and Boxing Day, 25 26 December 2010 o Richmond to Stratford and Shepherd’s Bush to Willesden Junction from 27 December until the 3 January 2011 Further shorter closures will be required during spring 2011 to complete the works by next May and the dates of these will be confirmed closer to the time. Works requiring weekend-only closures will carry on until mid 2011 The upgrade work involves the testing and commissioning of the signalling systems that were installed in early 2010, the installation of further signalling, and the completion of the refurbishment of several stations. When the complete upgrade is finished in mid 2011, London Overground will run more frequent services providing greater capacity. Services from Stratford will run at eight trains per hour in the peak and six trains per hour in the off peak; with 4 trains per hour continuing to Richmond all day and four trains per hour continuing to Clapham Junction in the peak. In the off peak there will be a shuttle service of 2 trains per hour between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction. Howard Smith, Chief Operating Officer of TfL London Rail, said: "The benefits to passengers of the first phase of this massive upgrade are already being seen with the introduction of longer trains earlier this year. “It is necessary to close sections of the network to get the work done. We are holding these public information sessions to ensure minimum inconvenience to passengers by giving them as much information as possible to make alternative travel arrangements.“The next closures will be much shorter in duration and we are doing all we can to minimise the disruption caused. These are essential works that will help us unlock the true potential of the London Overground network, which is to offer a far more frequent Metro-style turn up and go service.”The improvement work is part of an upgrade that will see more than 200 signals, seven kilometres of track and 69 sets of points improved and 30 station platforms lengthened. The meetings will be held in the morning (7am - 9:30am) and evening peak (4.30 pm -7pm) as follows: Stratford Station 15 November ; 9 DecemberHackney Wick Station 22 NovemberHomerton Station 30 NovemberHackney Central Station 17 NovemberDalston Kingsland Station 25 NovemberCanonbury Station 2 DecemberCaledonian Rd & Barnsbury Station 29 NovemberHighbury & Islington Station 18 November; 8 DecemberCamden Road Station 23 NovemberKentish Town West Station 24 NovemberHampstead Heath Station 15 November; 1 DecemberGospel Oak Station 16 November; 6 DecemberKensal Rise Station 29 NovemberBrondesbury Park Station 25 NovemberWillesden Junction Station 18 November; 9 DecemberActon Central Station 22 NovemberSouth Acton Station 23 NovemberKew Gardens Station 17 NovemberRichmond Station 24 NovemberGunnersbury Station 6 DecemberShepherd’s Bush Station 30 NovemberWest Brompton Station 7 DecemberKensington Olympia Station 2 DecemberClapham Junction Station 1 December• Two meetings will also be held at Homerton Hospital for staff • Bus service frequency during the first closure will be as follows:Sat 18th December until 24th December there will be 4 buses per hour 25-26th Dec no service 27th December until 3rd January there will be 3 buses per hour• Work to date has already delivered 1102 metres of extra station platform at 17 stations on the North London Line; a new bridge deck at Camley Street rail bridge; over 6km of track renewed between Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland stations during the closure earlier this year, 11 new sets of switches and over 100km of new signalling cable installed. • Much work in support of this has also been undertaken including the replacement of Victorian drainage systems, retaining walls and the removal of large amounts of soil.
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