The £1.35 million upgrade for Shepherd’s Bush Overground station contains a new entrance and a new pedestrian footbridge which makes it quicker for commuters to enter to another platform and new ticket machines.
From TFL’s press release:
London Overground customers using Shepherd's Bush station now have a new second entrance and a new footbridge, which will make their journeys easier and more convenient.
The £1.35m station upgrade includes two new ticket machines, improved customer information screens and a new pedestrian footbridge bridge - enabling customers to cross from one platform to the other without using the main station entrance.
The Director of London Overground, Mike Stubbs, said: `This will be a great improvement for passengers by helping to reduce their journey times and relieving congestion at the main station entrance and exit by providing alternative access to and from this popular and busy station. During peak times the new exit, combined with the new pedestrian footbridge, will allow a quicker and more convenient route to Westfield shopping centre.'
Shepherd's Bush station has also recently benefited from new longer platforms, which were installed and funded by Network Rail, as part of a £25 million project to accommodate Southern trains, which are up to eight carriages long. A culmination of nine months work by Network Rail has seen platforms lengthened at stations along the West London line - Clapham Junction, Imperial Wharf, West Brompton and Shepherd's Bush.
Mike Smith, route enhancement manager for Network Rail, said: `The West London line has gone from strength to strength, from a period where there were no passenger trains at all, to today, where trains are frequent and full. This investment reflects that popularity and will continue the success story.'
On May 31, London Overground will start to run the services from Liverpool Street station to Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters), Enfield Town and Chingford lines as well as the Romford to Upminster line. At the same time, services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield stations will also join the TfL network and will see improvements for the introduction of TfL-run Crossrail services from 2017.
There are also proposals to extend London Overground to Barking Riverside in east London and Old Oak in west London, which are in different stages in the public consultation process. These would help trigger jobs, housing and business opportunities.
Besides expansion of the network, capacity on current London Overground services is being increased by 25 per cent through the introduction of a fifth car to trains across the network.
· The platform extension works at Shepherd's Bush, is part £25m project of platform lengthening, funded by Network Rail and supported by Department of Transport (DfT)
· The London Overground Shepherd's Bush Station is currently used by around 10m passengers each year and this is predicted to increase to 13.5m by 2031
· A rack for twenty cycles has also been installed outside the new entrance/exit
This is good news for London Overground users that use Shepherd’s Bush station.
It is also good news for the Abellio Greater Anglia users that travel between London’s Liverpool Street to Shenfield as they will see their service taken over by TFL. However, they have forgot to mention that the actual operation is contracted out to MTR, a Hong Kong government owned railway service.
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Image attributions
"Shprdbush-overground-2011" by Senseiich - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shprdbush-overground-2011.jpg#/media/File:Shprdbush-overground-2011.jpg