Crossrail and West Ealing
Last night the Council's Crossrail Scrutiny Panel had its second meeting. This meeting concentrated on the plans for Acton Main Line and West Ealing stations.
Unusually for Scrutiny Panels, at least in my limited experience, this meeting was well attended by the public with representatives from residents groups surrounding both stations. The meeting was chaired by Walpole councillor John Cowing and attended by representatives from Crossrail, Network Rail and TfL as well the councillors who are members of this panel.
The format of the meeting was a short presentation by the Crossrail representative giving a broad outline of the plans for each station and then the Network Rail and TfL representatives gave supplementary information.
Crossrail plans for West Ealing Station For West Ealing, Crossrail propose to build a new ticket office in Manor Road with step free access from the street to platforms. New staircases and lifts will be fitted as will a footbridge over the tracks to access platforms. The platforms will be extended westwards to accommodate the 10-car trains. There will be improved cycle storage, upgraded passenger information boards and upgraded platform lighting. Lastly, the Greenford branch will terminate at West Ealing on a new platform and passengers can then transfer to Crossrail and other trains.
Questions and answers
Once the meeting was opened up to questions, both from councillors and members of the public, it quickly became clear that these representatives were not well briefed or prepared. They did not have the figures for the projected usage of the stations, nor where the potential users were coming from, in each locality. This meant that there were many questions unanswered about providing adequate bus links, sufficient ‘kiss and drop' parking space, appropriate access/entrances to each station and so on.
Looking specifically at West Ealing, Cllr Cowing reported back on the councillors recent visit to West Ealing station. In addition, there was a background paper with various points for consideration. So, between the visit and the paper the following points were made:
Although close to major routes, the station itself is only really served by Argyle Road and The Avenue Bus stops and services will need reviewing and, in particular, consideration should be given to a new bus route (proposed by WEN) from Perivale Tesco going south over the Lido Junction past Northfields station to Brentford and terminating at West Middlesex Hospital Better provision for pedestrian access Need accessible provision for pick up and drop off facilities May need a CPZ in surrounding area to control parking around the station Would like a new footbridge to give access to the station from Waitrose Concern that the new ticket office will be less obvious and visible so how can this be improved with better signs etc? Need to ensure that when the old ticket office is removed the bridge is made attractive Manor Road is an ordinary suburban road so concerns over traffic volumes and security Could the surrounding land, owned by Network Rail, be used to enhance the look of the area and enable a regeneration of this locale? In addition, new buildings here would help screen noise from residents - Must be suitable for disabled passengers
In the question and answer session much discussion was had about whether the Majestic Wine Warehouse site would not be a better one for the ticket office. Was this piece of land large enough? It would certainly make the ticket office much more prominent and may well offer better drop off and pull in facilities
David Highton and Eric Leach listed a number of points and concerns:
· Needs to be decent and signed pedestrian routes to and from the town centre and the Green Man Lane estate
· WEN is about to launch its report on the Lido Junction which will include details of the proposed new north-south bus route
· Stressed the importance of improving the shocking state of the Jacob's Ladder footbridge
· Can we be assured the station will be open on Sundays?
· Want to see a properly integrated local transport hub linking rail and bus services
Whilst there appears to be plenty of time until work starts in about 2013 there was concern that, in reality, Crossrail had already decided what it wants to do and there is little opportunity to change their plans. For example, Tim Gould from Ealing's Transport team, asked if funding could be found could the new ticket office be built on the Majestic site? The Crossrail representative did not dismiss the idea out of hand but it is clear they are reluctant to deviate form their plan, not least because they claim they must follow what was agreed when the government approved Crossrail and this included what land would be used.
The Scrutiny Panel has three more meetings and promised to come back to look again at West Ealing Station once some of the missing information has been supplied by Crossrail, Network Rail and also once TfL was further with its plans. David Highton 23rd September 2009
|
