2 January (Part 1) - What a difference a year makes. Make that half a year!
In an effort to fill the gap before the year starts in earnest I thought a look at how Crossrail has changed Abbey Wood over the past year might be instructive, but there was a snag. The old station wasn’t actually taken down until mid-May and year old comparison photos were not very useful.
Photos 1 and 2 (6th June
2015 and yesterday) don’t really do the situation justice. A station platform complete with canopy
and half a mile of track is barely visible in the background and invisible
again, 100 30 foot piles are buried in the ground ready to support the new station.
Meanwhile, in roughly half the time that Network Rail has taken to transform the
old station site, Bexley Council or whoever the responsible local authority is, has failed to fix the street lights on
Harrow Manorway. None are working on the eastern side and at least three are out across the road, leaving
the bus stop area in darkness.
Worse than that is the stairs leading to the station
are also in darkness - but rather worse. In just a few weeks
that staircase will be the obvious route to Abbey Wood station for everyone
living north of the railway line who travels by bus or on foot. The alterative
is via the Knee Hill roundabout, nearly an extra half mile.
A history of comment on local Crossrail developments is available from
the Crossrail Index page.