6 June (Part 2) - Crossrail closes Costcutter
It
was inevitable and it closed more than a week ago - but I forgot about it. The Costcutter store in Felixstowe Road, Abbey Wood was
deprived of all parking facilities several months ago and of all passing trade when
the station entrance was closed in April.
According to the owner of the beauty salon next door, the bailiffs went in and Costcutter was closed
a few minutes later. The notice on the door suggests much the same thing and the shutters were down on the salon today as well.
When I was taking notes at the Abbey Wood Traders’ Association meeting six weeks
ago, the Crossrail PR man who was there to give the traders an update said there was no provision to provide compensation to commercial
operations which it forced out of business.
Given the misery inflicted on Abbey Wood by the disruption generally and the
station closure on every weekend for the past six months it is a miracle that
more traders have not gone to the wall.
More misery is due at the station shortly, at least for some. The lift to
Platform 1 is to be taken out of service.
As
the new Dartford bound platform is readied for its first train on 20th August
the precast concrete blocks have been making their way to the central footbridge.
When they get there making the arrangements to get around the Platform 1 lift will take longer
than a weekend, so it will be out of service for a whole week.
Perhaps disabled passengers heading towards London will be sent down to Erith to
make the change to a London bound train. Oh no! That won’t work, Erith hasn’t got a lift either.
Update:
The lift closure will be from 15th to 22nd June.