11 February (Part 1) - The Crossrail update
Bonkers used to do a fortnightly pictorial update on the progress made towards providing a new train service from Abbey Wood next December but by the end of 2017 with the major infrastructure completed the interval was stretched to a month. Just recently there has been very little new to see, hence waiting two months to see if anything significant happened. It didn’t.
The
Felixstowe Road lifts have been just a couple of weeks away from commissioning
from soon after the station opened on 22nd October 2017. And still they are closed.
The barriers around them are changed periodically, sometimes it’s plastic
barriers, at other times it is yellow hinged metal screens and right now it is
an ugly corrugated metal shroud as can be seen in Photo 1.
The lack of lifts is inconvenient for the many but all around there are major problems for the few.
Photo 2 attempts to show what one business has right on their doorstep. A deep
trench crudely barricaded off within a couple of feet of their property’s
closest wall. The proximity is not shown because of security concerns. One
cannot safely show exactly where someone’s rear doors and windows are but be assured the
picture is cropped right up to the brick wall.
The situation is not only dangerous but it prevents the property owners going
about their normal and essential business.
I watched yesterday as they attempted to get help from Network Rail. None was
forthcoming. Photo 2 was taken today.
161 new Crossrail pictures show that nothing very obvious has been achieved over the past couple of months.
The Harrow Manorway approach has slowly progressed but the only other thing
you will notice apart from the varying lift barriers is that the stair handrails have all been on, off and on again more than once. I can see it must be
difficult to get all the angles right but with all the equipment Network Rail has
you would think they might have made a better job of it.