1.
Crossrail
–
Crossrail is a 118-kilometre railway line under development in London and the home counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex. The project was approved in 2007 and construction began in 2009 on the central section and it has been described as one of Europes largest infrastructure construction projects. Its main feature is 21 km of new twin tunnels through central London and these tunnels will run from Paddington to Stratford and Canary Wharf in the east. Crossrail will be operated by MTR Corporation Ltd as a London Rail concession of Transport for London, in a similar manner to London Overground. The need for extra capacity along this corridor is such that the head of TfL, Sir Peter Hendy. New nine-carriage Class 345 trains will run at frequencies in the section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction. The project that became Crossrail has origins in the 1943 County of London Plan and 1944 Greater London Plan by Patrick Abercrombie and these led to a specialist investigation by the Railway Committee, appointed in 1944 and reporting in 1946 and 1948. The term Crossrail emerged in the 1974 London Rail Study Report, although the idea was seen as imaginative, only a brief estimate of cost was given, £300 million. A feasibility study was recommended as a priority so that the practicability. It was also suggested that the alignment of the tunnels should be safeguarded while a decision was taken. The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed tunnels linking the rail network as the East–West Crossrail, City Crossrail. The City route was shown as a new connection across the City of London linking the Great Northern Route with London Bridge, the report also recommended a number of other schemes including a Thameslink Metro route enhancement, and the Chelsea–Hackney line. The cost of the east–west scheme including rolling stock was estimated at £885 million, in 1991 a private bill was submitted to Parliament for a scheme including a new underground line from Paddington to Liverpool Street. In 2001 Cross London Rail Links, a joint-venture between TfL and the DfT, was formed to develop and promote the Crossrail scheme, the proposal was rejected by Crossrail, and failed to receive the backing of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, or the DfT. In February 2008 the Bill moved to the House of Lords, the Act gave CLRL the powers necessary to build the line. Construction began on 15 May 2009 when construction started, in September 2009 the project received £1 billion in funding. The money was lent to TfL by the European Investment Bank, the original planned schedule was that the first trains would run in 2017, but in 2010 the government delayed this to 2018 in order to save £1 billion. Crossrails central core section will utilise new east–west twin tunnels under central London, the tunnelled sections will be approximately 22 kilometres in length
2.
National Rail
–
The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
3.
West Ealing
–
West Ealing is a district in the London Borough of Ealing, in west London. The district is about 1 km west of Ealing Broadway, although there is a long history of settlement in the area, West Ealing in its present form is less than 100 years old. Ealing Dean may derive from denu, its first reference was in 1456, most of what is now West Ealing was open countryside, with houses at Ealing Dean, Drayton Green and Castle Bear Hill. In 1387 Drayton Green was known as Drayton and, later, during the late 19th century, Drayton was a hamlet with eight householders. The area around Drayton Green Lane was later called Stevens Town and had over 40 cottages, a major east-west road in the area became known as the Uxbridge Road. It was a popular 19th-century stagecoach route, and the London-to-Banbury-and-Oxford coach stopped at the Halfway House pub in West Ealing, the Green Man pub in West Ealing was a carters stop, reportedly with stabling for a hundred horses. During the 19th century much of the land from the Uxbridge Road south to Windmill Road, east to Northfield Avenue and west to Boston Road was market gardens and orchards. The allotments on the east side of Northfield Avenue are original, Ealing Deans principal claim to fame in the 1800s was its pony and donkey races. These races, on what was known as Jackass Common, ended in 1880 when the council forbade them on moral grounds. In 1882, the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club was founded on land between St. Leonards Road and the Great Western Railway, the club quickly became the most-successful womens lawn-tennis club in the world. Three Ealing-born club members won a total of 13 Wimbledon Singles titles between 1886 and 1906, in 1906, the club moved to Creffield Road in Ealing Common. During the 1890s, central West Ealings shops were more informal than those in central Ealing, there were then fruit and vegetable stalls in West Ealing which were absent from Ealing. Later, Waitrose, McDonalds and Blockbuster Video arrived, the West Ealing Library is on Melbourne Avenue south of the Uxbridge Road. Its former location, which opened in 1903, was between Melbourne Avenue and St Jamess Avenue, West Ealing had a large cinema at the Uxbridge Road end of Northfield Avenue, which opened as the Kinema in 1913 and replaced the Ealing Dean Cottage Hospital. The cinema was rebuilt in 1928 as the Lido, when attendance fell, it was divided into two small cinemas and the main hall became a bingo hall. After a change in ownership, the cinemas became Cannon 1 and 2, with another change of ownership it was briefly the Gosai, an Indian cinema primarily devoted to Bollywood films. After it closed, it was demolished in 2005, above the voluntary-organisation work space are a number of small utility flats intended for social housing. During the 1920s, a number of houses were built on the Argyle Park estate, later housing developments replaced the allotments west of Northfield Avenue, others created flats in Langham Gardens in 1970 and another, in 1977, created the Green Man Lane Estate
4.
London Borough of Ealing
–
The London Borough of Ealing /ˈiːlɪŋ/ is a London Borough in west London, England, and forms part of Outer London. It is the 3rd largest London Borough in population, and 11th largest in size, covering part of west London and its administrative centre is Ealing Broadway. Other major centres include Acton, Greenford and Southall, the local authority is Ealing London Borough Council. The London borough was formed in 1965 by the merging the area of the Municipal Borough of Ealing, the Municipal Borough of Southall and the Municipal Borough of Acton. Along with Brentford, the London Borough of Ealing is the setting for much of the action in Robert Rankins series of novels, The Brentford Trilogy. Ealing is also the setting for The Sarah Jane Adventures. Within the borough are two garden suburbs, Brentham Garden Suburb and Bedford Park,330 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Ealing Central and Acton Ealing North Ealing Southall There are four stations within the London Borough of Ealing. Southall and Northolt have similar-sized station grounds and both house two pumping appliances, Southall attended some 700 incidents more than their Northolt counterparts in 2006/07. Ealing, with two pumping appliances, and Acton, one pump and two fire investigation units, are the other two appliances in the area, interestingly, the ward of Northfield had over forty malicious calls made from it, more than twice as any other ward within Ealing. Ealing has a total of 91 state-run schools and nurseries, There are 13 high schools under the domain of the local education authority,12 of which are either comprehensive, foundation or voluntary-aided, and one city academy. The King Fahd Academy is an independent Saudi funded school within the borough, the Japanese School in London is a Japanese international school in Acton. The borough of Ealing is ethnically diverse, in 2011, 49% gave their ethnicity as white, 30% as Asian, 15% as Black and 4. 5% as of mixed or multiple ethnicity, the remander identifying as Arab or other ethnicity. The main religions of the population in 2011 were Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, 15% stated they had no religion. The borough has a long-standing Irish community which is visible through the number of established Irish pubs in the borough. Country flags for example can be flown on the outside or hung inside of various pubs in the area. St Benedicts School has also had a long affiliation with the Irish community in Ealing. Many Irish members of the Ealing borough attend Ealing Abbey which is linked to St Benedicts School, the Irish population is mostly concentrated within Hanwell
5.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
–
The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
6.
TfL Rail
–
It is operated by MTR Corporation Ltd under contract to Transport for London, and forms part of the future Crossrail route from Shenfield to Reading and Heathrow Airport. TfL Rail took control of the Liverpool Street to Shenfield metro service in May 2015, in May 2018 Heathrow Connect services between Paddington and the airport and the Heathrow Express shuttle from Heathrow Central to Terminal 4 will also come under TfL Rail operation. TfL Rail will then be re-branded as the Elizabeth line in December 2018, between opening in May 2015 and the end of the 2015/2016 period TfL Rail carried over 38 million passengers. In July 2014 TfL awarded the contract to MTR, with a duration of eight years with an option to extend by a two years. The existing Class 315 trains were re-painted in the TfL Rail livery, every station is also staffed from first train to last of the day. TfL Rail utilises the existing 20 miles 16 chains of track on the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, during peak times, service frequency is increased and calling patterns vary, with some stations omitted on certain services. On Sundays there are two trains per hour between Liverpool Street and Shenfield and two trains per hour between Liverpool Street and Gidea Park. TfL Rail operations commenced with the fleet of Class 315 rolling stock. These units will be replaced by 66 new Class 345 trains built by the Canadian firm Bombardier Transportation, the Class 315 trains will continue to be maintained at the existing Ilford depot. The Class 345 fleet will be maintained at a new depot at Old Oak Common
7.
Great Western Railway
–
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
8.
District Railway
–
The Metropolitan District Railway was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete the circle, an underground railway in London. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District introduced its own trains in 1871, the railway was soon extended westwards through Earls Court to Fulham, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow. After completing the circle and reaching Whitechapel in 1884, it was extended to Upminster in Essex in 1902. To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over, Electric propulsion was introduced in 1905, and by the end of the year electric multiple units operated all of the services. On 1 July 1933, the District Railway and the other UERL railways were merged with the Metropolitan Railway, today, former District Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Undergrounds District, Piccadilly and Circle lines. In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened the worlds first underground railway, the line was built from Paddington beneath the New Road, connecting the main line railway termini at Paddington, Euston and Kings Cross. Then it followed Farringdon Road to a station at Farringdon Street in Smithfield, the Mets early success prompted a flurry of applications to parliament in 1863 for new railways in London, many competing for similar routes. The House of Lords established a committee that recommended an inner circuit of railway that should abut, if not actually join. Proposals to extend west and then south from Paddington to South Kensington, initially, the District and the Met were closely associated and it was intended that they would soon merge. The District was established as a company to enable funds to be raised independently of the Met. The District also had permission to extend westward from Brompton station and, on 12 April 1869. There were no stations and this service initially operated as a shuttle. By summer 1869 additional tracks had been laid between South Kensington to Brompton and from Kensington to a junction with the line to West Brompton, during the night of 5 July 1870 the District secretly built the disputed Cromwell curve connecting Brompton and Kensington. East of Westminster, the section ran in the newly constructed Victoria Embankment built by the Metropolitan Board of Works along the north bank of the River Thames. The line was opened from Westminster to Blackfriars on 30 May 1870 with stations at Charing Cross, The Temple, the Met initially operated all services, receiving 55 per cent of the gross receipts for a fixed level of service. The District were also charged for any extra trains and the Districts share of the income dropped to about 40 per cent, the Districts level of debt meant that merger was no longer attractive to the Met and its directors resigned from the Districts board. To improve its finances, the District gave the Met notice to terminate the operating agreement, on Saturday 1 July 1871, an opening banquet was attended by the Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was also a shareholder
9.
Tramlink
–
Tramlink is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in London since 1952 and it is owned by London Trams, an arm of Transport for London, and operated by FirstGroup. The Tramlink is the fourth-busiest light rail network in the UK behind Manchester Metrolink, Tyne and Wear Metro, in 1990 Croydon Council with London Regional Transport put the project to Parliament and the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994 resulted, which gave LRT the power to build and run Tramlink. In 1996 Tramtrack Croydon Limited won a 99-year Private Finance Initiative contract to design, build, operate, TCL was a partnership comprising FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation, Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey, and Royal Bank of Scotland and 3i. TCL kept the revenue generated by Tramlink and LRT had to pay compensation to TCL for any changes to the fares, TCL subcontracted operations to CentreWest Buses. One of the leading to its creation was that the London Borough of Croydon has no London Underground service. There are four routes, Route 1 – Elmers End to Croydon, Route 2 – Beckenham Junction to Croydon, Route 3 – New Addington to Wimbledon, and Route 4 – Therapia Lane to Elmers End. Route 2 runs parallel to the Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction line of the Southern network between Birkbeck and Beckenham Junction – the National Rail track had been singled some years earlier. At Woodside the old station buildings stand disused, and the platforms have been replaced by accessible low platforms. From Woodside to near Sandilands and from near Sandilands almost to Lloyd Park, Tramlink follows the former Woodside and South Croydon Railway, including the Park Hill tunnels. The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon mostly follows the single-track British Rail route, closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink, a partial obstruction near this point has necessitated the use of interlaced track. A Victorian footbridge beside Waddon New Road was dismantled to make way for the flyover over the West Croydon to Sutton railway line, the footbridge has been re-erected at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway. In March 2008, TfL announced that it had reached agreement to buy TCL for £98m, the purchase was finalised on 28 June 2008. The background to this purchase relates to the requirement that TfL compensates TCL for the consequences of any changes to the fares, in 2007 that payment was £4m, with an annual increase in rate. In October 2008 TfL introduced a new livery, using the blue, white and green of the routes on TfL maps, the colour of the cars was changed to green, and the brand name was changed from Croydon Tramlink to simply Tramlink. These refurbishments were completed in early 2009, the tram stops have low platforms,35 cm above rail level. They are unstaffed and have automated ticket machines, in general, access between the platforms involves crossing the tracks by pedestrian level crossing. There are 39 stops, most being 32.2 m long and they are virtually level with the doors and are all wider than 2 m
1.171 million[2]
0.989 million[2]
London transport portal
UK Railways portal
National Rail
Crossrail
London Underground
