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Friday 13 Jul 2012

NEW AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWS CHANGING LONDON STATIONS

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National

Network Rail has today released new photographs from the air of many of its biggest projects in London which have undergone or are undergoing major redevelopments.

They include views rarely seen by the general public of the stunning new concourse roof at King’s Cross, the development of Farringdon where Thameslink and Crossrail services will meet the tube, and the changes at Stratford in the shadow of the Olympic stadium. The newly completed Shard also looms large over London Bridge and Borough viaduct which is being redeveloped as part of the Thameslink project.

Images taken last month were captured by the Network Rail helicopter which flies daily to monitor the network checking for faults or potential issues before they arise. Here it also enabled engineering and architectural teams on the London stations see project development from a unique perspective.

Simon Kirby, managing director for infrastructure projects for Network Rail said: “London’s stations are changing massively both on the ground and from the sky, and there’s more to come. King’s Cross is a great example of retaining the grandeur of original Victorian architecture but bringing new and modern facilities for the 21^st century passenger and Stratford has changed remarkably ahead of the Games. As well as providing some spectacular images which we are happy to share, aerial photography is extremely useful to us to see these complex developments from a bird’s eye view.”


What’s new?:

• Blackfriars: Half of the photovoltaic roof panels have now been installed on the first station to span The Thames
• Stratford: Massive redevelopment by Olympic Delivery Authority, Transport for London, Westfield and Network Rail including new station entrance at Westfield shopping centre and platforms lengthened
• Farringdon: A new ticket hall for Thameslink passengers, future proofed for Crossrail passengers is nearly complete. From the air you can see its brown roof which provides a new habitat for the redstart bird
• King’s Cross: The new concourse is the size of three Olympic swimming pools. From the air you can see some of the 1,200 triangular panels which make up this new structure.
• Borough viaduct: A new viaduct, over Borough Market has been built providing an extra two tracks to unlock the bottleneck at London Bridge. This section of track will link into London Bridge station once it is complete.
• London Bridge: Is the country’s fourth busiest station and it is full. Today 50m passengers use the station a year. When completed, the redeveloped station will see more than 90m passengers travel through each year.