They're spending lots of money doing up the Underground. You can tell this because every weekend they shut down half of the network. Last weekend you couldn't travel anywhere up the eastern end of the Central line, this weekend Wembley Park is (again) a no-go zone, and the following weekend the entire middle chunk of the District line will be out of action one more time. You have to check where you're going very carefully these days in case what should be a quick tube trip turns into a bus replacement nightmare. Then there are tens of stations being closed for months, for part of the day at least, so that workmen can erect big blue hoardings and then pretend to deepclean the walls behind. I actually saw some of these workmen at Bow Road yesterday, during the rush hour no less, which was something of a revelation because I had thought that workmen at Bow Road were imaginary creatures like leprechauns or something. There are two big doorways in the front of the station building, one of which never ever opens. Until last night. Through the autumn gloom I saw a long secret room bathed in golden light, packed with orange-coated men in clean white helmets. There were at least four of them anyway, either busy renovating this space no travelling passenger ever uses or standing around in cryogenic storage until this whole sorry modernisation illusion is finally over. To give them their due these mystical workmen have somehow managed, over the last nine months, to paint half the ceiling, hang some lights and plug in some new cameras. But not a lot else. If this is where the government's hard-earned tube subsidy is going then I'd rather they'd left the old station as it was - rundown, functional, and 100% open.
Wednesday 10th November During the day someone has started to remove the peeling white paint from the old wooden panels along the side of the eastbound stairwell. About time too.
Thursday 11th November The paint has now been stripped right across the edge of the bridge, but not yet right along the stairwell.
Friday 12th November 11:30pm, and a crowd of at least ten workmen are standing around outside the closed station doing nothing.
Saturday 13th November Workmen are present in the station during the day. Maybe this is finally getting serious.
Sunday 14th November I peered behind the blue wall on the westbound platform. A lot of metal ducting appears to have been bolted to the wall (which remains unpainted).
Monday 15th November The stripped paint on the bridge now stretches part way up the window casing.
Tuesday 16th November I peered inside the station supervisor's office at the top of the eastbound stairwell. She has a nice vase of flowers in there.
Wednesday 17th November Workmen were seen standing outside the station, on a weekday. Still not quite sure what they're actually doing.
Thursday 18th November Peering through the gap in the door in the blue wall on the westbound platform I saw a lot of bolts on a trestle stand, plus a box of screws.
Friday 19th November I also saw yet more (ugly) metal brackets bolted to the old unpainted Victorian platform walls.
Saturday 20th November At 1pm, workmen were seen walking up the westbound stairwell discussing the PDP.
Sunday 21st November Announcements about engineering works can only just be heard over the intercom because there's a noise like a pneumatic drill in the background.
Monday 22nd November The stripped paint on the bridge now stretches all the way up the window casing.
Tuesday 23rd November One corner of the tarpaulin covering the big box of building materials at the front of the station has been fastened to the railings, obscuring the poster that tells passengers how to make alternative travel arrangements when the station is closed.
Wednesday 24th November New strips of silver sticky tape show that five new cameras will be installed up the eastbound stairwell.
Thursday 25th November Cam 14 is going at the foot of the stairwell, Cam 13 halfway up, Cam 12 round the corner at the top of the stairs and Cam 11 and Cam 10 together a few steps further along at the entrance to the ticket hall.
Friday 26th November According to another strip of tape, Cam 43 will be installed at the foot of the westbound stairwell.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
It's becoming disturbingly clear what the modernisation of Bow Road station actually involves, and it's not renovation. The most visible change in recent weeks has been a proliferation of cables - along the platforms, up the stairs, across the ticket hall - everywhere. They're especially ugly cables, attached to walls by particularly ugly cable brackets, and they're doing nothing for the Victorian heritage of the station. I had been wondering what all these cables could possibly be for, but the answer has come in the form of short swatches of silver tape plastered all over the stairs and ticket hall, each with some special code scribbled on in biro. Some codes indicate new lighting (Light fitting above) and some indicate new electrical equipment (Unswitched fuse for V.E.I.D) but a surprisingly large number foretell the installation of new cameras. And lots of them.
According to the stickers Cam 14 is going at the foot of the eastbound stairwell, Cam 13 halfway up, Cam 12 round the corner at the top of the stairs and Cam 11 and Cam 10 together a few steps further along at the entrance to the ticket hall. Why one stairwell needs five cameras to watch over it is beyond me. If the dozy mare who sits in the booth by the ticket barrier looked up from reading her Metro occasionally, like when yet another teenager is escaping through the luggage gate without paying, we wouldn't need half as many cameras.
Most worrying of all, however, is the sticker at the foot of the westbound stairwell which reads CCTV Camera 43. It appears that tube bosses plan to install at least 43 cameras at this station! What the hell for? It's not an especially big station, but some safety bigwig appears to think that no corner of this station can possibly remain unsnooped. It's not an especially busy station either, with an average of just 5500 users each day, but it looks as though there's going to be at least one camera for every 125 passengers. What an incredible waste of money. This looks like tube surveillance overkill to me, organised by some profligate underground Big Brother figure. Sorry, but I don't feel any safer just because the station supervisor can sit in her new office and flick between 43 different video shots of me walking around her empty platforms. I'd just like some money to be spent on a decent functional station with a lick of paint and a 'next train' indicator that's less than 40 years old, please. Some time in the next four months would be nice.
Saturday 27th November No sign of any of these new cameras yet, just the old ones.
Sunday 28th November A new poster is on display in the ticket hall apologising that the station will have to be closed more often at weekends over the next three months in order to complete all renovation work to schedule.
Monday 29th November Instead of the two remaining planned weekend closures, there will now be seven weekend closures during the next three months, including all three weekends in the run-up to Christmas.
Tuesday 30th November Conker tree update: half of the leaves have now fallen off, mostly from the top half of the tree. Of the leaves that remain most are yellow, but some (particularly the lower leaves nearest to the station building) are still mainly green with yellow edging.
Wednesday 1st December A silver sticker labelled Z2-5E has fallen off the wall and is stuck face-up to a stair in the eastbound stairwell.
Thursday 2nd December The writing on the silver sticker is now completely illegible.
Friday 3rd December The previous silver sticker has disappeared, and the sticker reading Cam 12 is now stuck to one of the steps on the eastbound stairwell instead.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 4-5 December>
Saturday 4th December A new leaflet being given away at the station apologises that "modernisation work will involve more closures than originally anticipated." This weekend sees the first of the additional closures.
Sunday 5th December I saw a few workmen standing on the platform of the closed station. If they were doing any work, it wasn't on the platforms.
Monday 6th December After the weekend closure, it appears that:
a) lots more cables have been coiled across the ceiling of the ticket hall.
b) strips of red and white tape have been stuck up the walls of the two stairwells, perhaps to protect the tiles (or where the tiles used to be).
c) strips of black and yellow tape have also been stuck up the walls of the eastbound stairwell, and also stuck to the wooden panels above the two ticket office windows in the ticket hall.
Tuesday 7th December A cross made out of yellow and black tape has appeared on four of the windowpanes above the eastbound stairwell.
Wednesday 8th December New fluorescent light fittings have been attached to the grey cabling boxes suspended from the ceiling along the western half of the eastbound platform. The lights are not yet functional.
Thursday 9th December Four of the pillars in the middle of the westbound platform have been painted grey, then covered by transparent plastic sheeting.
Friday 10th December Some of the new cabling is a light shade of mauve-y purple.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 11-12 December>
Saturday 11th December The station is closed for yet another whole weekend.
Sunday 12th December Still closed. The station is closed every weekend this month.
Monday 13th December After the weekend closure, it appears that:
a) there are loops of thin white cable in various locations around the ceiling of the ticket hall and up the stairwell.
b) cheap wooden boards have been placed over most of the rotten wood on the bridge.
c) there are irregular areas of brown cement daubed on the walls of the ticket hall
Tuesday 14th December All of the pillars on both platforms have now been painted grey (except for the very top of the easternmost pillar on the westbound platform which remains green and yellow).
Wednesday 15th December A giant reel of one-inch thick rubber cabling has appeared in the fenced-off area on the pavement in front of the station entrance.
Thursday 16th December The brown cement on the eastern wall of the ticket hall has been plastered over. The brown cement on the western wall of the ticket hall has been covered by orange plastic sheeting.
Friday 17th December Some of the windows on the bridge appear to have been reglazed. There is the smell of fresh (white) paint.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 18-19 December>
Saturday, December 18, 2004
You can't use Bow Road tube station today. You couldn't use it last weekend either, or the weekend before that. In fact, what with the Christmas weekend coming up, you won't be able to use the station on any weekend in December. Then there's three more weekend closures in January and another at the end of February, all of which makes for a prolonged period of travel misery for us Bow residents on top of all the late evening closedowns we've been suffering since March. And all because renovation work at Bow Road station is going on months longer than expected, and because it seems the only way to finally bring the whole overblown project to an end is to force passengers to find alternative travel arrangements at weekends while workmen try desperately to catch up. OK, so it's only a 7 minute walk from here down the road to Mile End, but it's the principle of the thing that matters. The chairman of Metronet admits that there have been problems...
Which appears to confirm my suspicions that my local station was shut after 10pm every night from March until September while virtually nothing was going on inside. Thank you Metronet. At least since October things really have started to happen. No really. Now there are black cables, and cameras, and white cables, and paint, and purple cables, and even the odd workman walking around trying to look busy during those increasingly rare hours while the station is actually open. I've still not seen one new development that improves my journey to work, though, not one.
Saturday 18th December The station is again closed this weekend. Through the entrance I could see the ticket machines covered by black plastic protective sheeting.
Sunday 19th December A small crane is fenced off to the right of the portakabins outside the station, supposedly being used to lower materials down to the platforms.
Monday 20th December After the weekend closure, there are loops of fresh cable hanging all across the station.
Tuesday 21st December There are more than ten loops of coloured cable hanging in the eastbound stairwell, and more than ten loops of coloured cable hanging in the westbound stairwell.
Wednesday 22nd December Finally, after 9 months, I have seen workmen actually working. Two men were visible through the freshly-glazed window panes on the passenger bridge standing on the scaffolding with paintbrushes in their hands. And I heard the noise of drilling behind the blue wall at the western end of the eastbound platform.
Thursday 23rd December And again. I saw one workman standing on the scaffolding, painting the external window frames white, and heard the sound of sawing behind the east end of the western blue wall on the eastbound platform.
Friday 24th December The Christmas decorations at Bow Road this year are loops of multi-coloured wire and cable hanging from the ceiling all around the station.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 25-26 December>
Tuesday 28th December There have been no obvious changes at the station over Christmas.
Wednesday 29th December Some of the plywood boards covering the wood on the bridge are coming unstuck.
Thursday 30th December All the health & safety licences on the blue walls across the station (at least one of which was due to expire tomorrow) have been covered by a fresh sheet of paper showing that the licence is now extended to 31 May 2005.
Friday 31st December Conker tree update: The lower branches of the tree still have leaves on them (approximately 300 leaves, I estimate). Most of the leaves are yellow, but a handful are still predominantly green. It's not natural, I tell you.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Saturday 1st January 2005 As part of London's New Year celebrations, today Bow Road station is open throughout the night. I alighted here at 3:45am. It was deserted. This is the first time I have been able to use the station after 10pm since 15th March.
Sunday 2nd January The station is open on a Sunday for the first time since November.
Monday 3rd January New year, but no new work yet.
Tuesday 4th January I saw a man standing on the scaffolding outside the bridge holding a wide flat tool, scraping or painting the window frame.
Wednesday 5th January The wall and floor around the doors in the centre of the longest blue wall on the westbound platform looks as if they've been splattered with splotchy sand.
Thursday 6th January I saw just one workman, standing at the foot of the eastbound stairwell having a chat on his mobile phone.
Friday 7th January The orange plastic covers over the eastern wall of the ticket office have been removed to reveal a smooth brown plastered wall with approximately ten bolts sticking out. There are three strips of red and white striped tape stretched across the plaster to protect the surface from passing passengers.
Saturday 8th January
Conker tree update: There are still about 200 leaves left on the tree, all yellow bar a couple which are still about half green.
Sunday 9th January A laminated noticed attached to the metal railings in front of the station announces that planning permission is being sought to install a Chip and PIN reader by the ticket window. Comments should be made by 25th January.
Monday 10th January The window frames at the southern end of the bridge have been painted white. Posters on each window warn passengers 'Do Not Touch - Wet Paint'.
Tuesday 11th January All the grey sheeting has finally been removed from the new light fittings along the westbound platform.
Wednesday 12th January The metal railings outside the station have been replaced by thick metal barriers, protecting the public from sections of scaffolding piled up inside. A red sign on the barriers directs pedestrians towards the station entrance.
Thursday 13th January Looking through a new gap in the sheeting above the door in the blue wall on the westbound platform, another row of new fluorescent lights can be seen to the rear of the platform parallel to the new lights already visible above the platform edge.
Friday 14th January Wet Paint signs are now stuck to the the remainder of the windows on the bridge.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 15-16 January>
Saturday 15th January The station is closed again all weekend. There are workmen all over the station (at 3pm, but not at 11pm).
Sunday 16th January Local graffiti: someone has spray-painted E3 on the new metal barriers outside the station.
Monday 17th January Over the weekend the floor surface of parts of the ticket hall, bridge and stairwells has been stripped away. At 8am a workman stands by the top of the westbound stairwell urging passengers not to tread on the not-yet-dry bit of cement on the top step. A sign by the ticket office reads "Cution Uneven Floor" 6pm update: the spelling mistake on the main sign has been amended.
Tuesday 18th January The blue wall in the ticket hall has been removed. Behind the wall are two areas covered by large sheets of plywood, a door and some newly-painted white panelling. It's very hard to work out why this particular corner of the ticket hall has been walled off for the last eight months.
Wednesday 19th January
Conker tree update: only one yellow shrivelled leaf remains on the tree. It falls during the day.
Thursday 20th January Most of the pillars on the eastbound platform have been repainted in the original green and yellow colours, although some of the strips on some of the pillars are still covered by grey undercoat.
Friday 21st January All the scaffolding across the front of the station has been removed. The brickwork looks a bit cleaner than it did nine months ago.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 22-23 January>
Saturday, January 22, 2005
We're now ten months into the renovation of my local tube station - six months where the contractors prepared to maybe do something followed by four months of gradual change. Visit my local tube station now and you'll usually be able to spot a few workmen hanging around looking less than busy, probably out the front taking a fag break. You'll see loads of ugly cables draped across the ceilings and down the stairwells. You'll see extra cameras all over the station as well as stickers showing where even more cameras are going to be installed. You'll see mucky blue walls along the platforms behind which restoration work may or may not still be happening. You'll see gaps where tiles used to be, repainted window frames and a whole host of unfinished repairs. But as of this week you'll also find one less blue wall in the ticket hall, which is being slowly gutted and replastered but not yet redecorated. You'll find the floors have just been stripped away beyond the ticket barriers and down the stairs, leaving an ugly uneven concrete surface surrounded by homemade safety notices. And, most excitingly, you'll also be able to see the front of the station again because they've just taken down the scaffolding that's been shrouding it for the last nine months. I suppose the brickwork looks slightly cleaner than it did last April but quite frankly I can't see why it's taken so long to give the front of the station a fractional facelift.
Saturday 22nd January Two thirds of the big blue sign on the front of the station that used to read BOW ROAD STATION District & Metropolitan Lines has been taken down, leaving only the panel that reads BOW ROAD.
Sunday 23rd January The complete BOW ROAD STATION District & Metropolitan Lines sign has been returned to the front of the station - despite the fact that Bow Road hasn't been on the Metropolitan line for the last 15 years. Sigh.
Monday 24th January After another weekend closure the floor at the entrance to the freshly-stripped ticket hall is covered by a temporary yellow surface, and a wooden recess has been revealed to the left of the station entrance.
Tuesday 25th January Wooden strips have been laid along the edge of the wall beneath the windows of the passenger bridge, stuck down by lengths of black and yellow tape.
Wednesday 26th January Some work has taken place on one small plank of rotten wood on the wall of the passenger bridge. Today's smell: sawdust
Thursday 27th January Overnight the walls of the ticket hall have been freshly painted, in white. Today's smell: paint
Friday 28th January The wooden strips on the floor below the windows on the passenger bridge have been removed, revealing freshly dried concrete. Today's smell: glue
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 29-30 January>
Saturday 29th January The station is closed for another weekend. Workmen are using both front entrances, as well as a rear entrance up a gated alley in Wellington Way, entering the station through the usually-locked doors at the top of the westbound stairwell.
Sunday 30th January Travelling through the closed station I could see that most of the protective sheeting above the blue walls on both platforms has been removed, revealing cabling, lights and what looks like white plastic panelling along the top of the walls behind.
Monday 31st January All the ironwork bolted to the ceiling along the rear half of both platforms has been repainted blue (the same blue as the blue walls).
Tuesday 1st February Two rows of wooden panels in the ticket hall have been repainted, most of them blue but some of them still in grey undercoat.
Wednesday 2nd February Another piece of plywood has been placed over part of the wall at the top of the eastbound stairwell.
Thursday 3rd February Hallelujah! The western half of the longest blue wall on the eastbound platform has been completely removed, revealing completed renovation work behind. The wall is now encased in a clean, white metallic plastic covering. On the new wall are full size 'Bow Road' roundels and a top strip (headlined in green and pink) that reads alternately 'BOW ROAD' and 'Bow Church DLR station →'.
Friday 4th February Another long section of blue wall has been removed on the eastbound platform, revealing the newly renovated wall behind. Only a short strip of this blue wall now remains.
Saturday 5th February All the rectangular wooden panels just above floor level in the ticket hall have been repainted blue. 'Wet paint' signs are everywhere.
Sunday 6th February The newly-revealed white wall on the eastbound platform is 79 panels long. There are 8 roundels altogether, positioned midway between every alternate pillar.
Monday 7th February Spaced out along the new white wall are several plastic squares, taped down and covering something as yet unrevealed behind them.
Tuesday 8th February Approximately six loudspeakers have appeared high up on the walls of the ticket hall, along with a couple of new cameras. Each is still wrapped in sheeting and sealed with tape.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Bow Road update: It was exactly one year ago today that the renovation of Bow Road station began. The arrival of four blue portakabins heralded the dawn of London's first PPP-funded station upgrade, and also the start of my regular blogging updates on daily progress. For the first eight months there was little progress. For the last four months stuff has actually happened. But still not much.
And then last week, finally, all of a sudden, we got the first glimpse of the new improved Bow Road station. Overnight workmen whisked away the long blue wall that's been stretched along the eastbound platform since May, revealing the new completed station wall behind. The old wall used to be covered by peeling off-cream paint. The new wall is covered by 79 panels of gleaming white plastic-y stuff. There are eight red and blue station roundels spaced out along the full length of the wall, which is topped off by a row of repeating station names beneath a green and pink strip. Step off an Upminster train and your eyes now meet this elegant modern canvas, free from adverts, graffiti and clutter. It can't last.
But, quite frankly, one nice wall and a few repainted pillars isn't much to show for a year's work. There has been a lick of paint throughout the ticket hall and across the upper reaches of the station, there are several new cameras and loudspeakers in every nook and cranny, and there are two rows of new lighting along each platform that maybe one day will be switched on. But take a look at the ceiling in this photograph and you'll see that most of the station is still as grimy and unloved as it used to be twelve months ago. You might also be to spot that the blue walls are still fully intact on the westbound platform (right), and I can assure you there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that any gleaming white walls are ready to emerge from there in the near future. In fact I've not yet seen one single innovation at Bow Road that actually improves anyone's journey. If you want to know when the next train is due or where it might be going, you're still better off peering down the tunnel to see if there are any headlights in the distance. Transport for London say that the whole Bow Road upgrade project will be complete by next May, maybe. Don't be surprised if my updates are still continuing this time next year.
Wednesday 9th February One year on, the wooden panelling on the overbridge is finally restored and fully painted (in white).
Thursday 10th February The window frames and woodwork on the front of the station building have been repainted (again in white).
Friday 11th February A large wooden frame has been constructed inside the recess just inside the ticket hall on the left behind the green door.
Saturday 12th February A tall thin rectangular block has been erected to the left of the ticket machine in the ticket hall. It too has been wrapped in sheeting and sealed with tape.
Sunday 13th February A gap in the sheeting reveals that the rear of the block is yellow, but the rest appears to be grey.
Monday 14th February Beside the new tall block, to the left of the ticket machine, a new wardrobe-sized recess has been opened up.
Tuesday 15th February New cameras and loudspeakers have started to be installed above the two stairwells, exactly where the grey stickers placed three months ago said they would be.
Wednesday 16th February The top part of the white sheeting covering the scaffolding on the passenger bridge has been lowered, giving a daylight view for the first time in six months.
Thursday 17th February The tall block in the ticket hall that was to the right of the new recess has now been moved to the left of the new recess. There are four small plastered circles where the block was previously attached to the wrong bit of wall.
Friday 18th February The four plaster circles have been painted over, so you'd (almost) never know they were there.
Saturday 19th February The smell of wet paint is in the air, again, although it's not immediately obvious precisely where.
Sunday 20th February A lot of discarded scaffolding is piled high inside the grey metal fencing outside the front of the station.
Monday 21st February White metallic covering has appeared on the walls behind the eastern end of the longest blue wall on the westbound platform.
Tuesday 22nd February A sign has been affixed to the wall above the tall block in the ticket hall, but covered by sheeting and taped up so that you can't possibly read it.
Wednesday 23rd February Two white-framed glass globes have appeared above the westbound stairwell, and three above the eastbound stairwell. An egg-shaped bulb lies at the centre of each. These new light fittings look very odd and extremely out of place. Meanwhile, at the foot of the westbound stairwell, a short section of blue wall has been removed to reveal an old door repainted grey.
Thursday 24th February The large wooden panel just inside the ticket hall has been removed, to reveal a huge sheet of glass behind which is a never-before seen (empty) room.
Friday 25th February The green doors at the front of the station have been repainted, green.
<Bow Road station closed all weekend: 26-27 February>
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Development work at my local tube station continues apace (and I never thought I'd be able to say that). Not only is stuff happening, but there's finally evidence that other stuff has been happening behind the scenes. The blue walls all over the station are starting to disappear one by one, and you never quite know what will be appearing behind each one. Will it be another 21st century white wall perhaps, or just a repainted grey Edwardian door? Or will it be the sudden and wholly unexpected emergence of a never-before-seen room lurking behind an enormous square sheet of glass, as it was last Thursday. I thought they'd installed a giant mirror to start with, just inside the station entrance, until closer inspection revealed an empty room behind that might one day be the new nerve centre at the heart of the station. Or not. And I must also mention the new lighting they're in the process of installing above the two stairwells. As a Grade II listed station, I was expecting that Bow Road would be filled with sympathetic period illumination. But no, we're getting nine beachball-sized spherical alien globes containing giant ovoid lightbulbs instead, just like the Victorians didn't have. If all this redevelopment enthrals you, I must apologise that you can't pop down to Bow Road and take a look for yourself this weekend because the station is closed. This'll be the eleventh weekend since October that the station has been closed to the public, but at least it should also be the last because there are no further closures scheduled. But who's to say that Metronet won't decide to add some more before this interminable business is finally over?
Saturday 26th February While the station is closed for the weekend, workmen are fitting another globe light at the foot of the westbound stairwell.
Sunday 27th February Two more mysterious tall blocks are being installed, this time spaced out along the new white wall along the eastbound platform.
Monday 28th February Following the latest weekend closure, I spy the following: • The floors in the ticket hall and across the top of the stairwells have been sort-of concreted. • A new sign on the wall at the south end of the ticket hall reads District and Hammersmith & City lines ? • Six new wiry-metal benches have been installed along the eastbound platform. Each has four seats and two yellow armrests.
Tuesday 1st March All five globes above the westbound stairwell and all three globes above the eastbound stairwell are now illuminated.
Wednesday 2nd March (report from Mr Kim) The "curfew" has been lifted!!! Without a single word of publicity, as far as I can see, Bow Road station is open til 'close of traffic' (to use the official parlance). I was told this earlier in the week by a Bow Bells' 'regular', and last night at Mile End, decided to stay on board the train and 'chance it'. Sure enough, again without any announcement, the train slowed to a halt on the EB at Bow Road and the doors magically opened, allowing a number of surprised people to jump up at the last minute and get off! (Thanks Mr Kim)
Thursday 3rd March A sixteen-panel section of new white wall has been revealed on the westbound platform, just to the west of the foot of the stairwell.
Friday 4th March A further four panels have been revealed, along with another twenty at the western end of the westbound platform.
Saturday 5th March The remainder of the longest blue wall on the eastbound platform has been removed, so that a white wall now runs all the way from the stairwell to the far end of the platform.
Sunday 6th March One new panel on the white wall close to the foot of the eastbound stairwell shows a diagrammatic map of the stations on the District line to the east of the station.
Monday 7th March The new striplights above the west end of the eastbound platform are now illuminated. About two thirds of them are working.
Tuesday 8th March Workmen are busy fitting out the new room behind the large pane of glass in the ticket hall. On the far white wall there's a heater, a loudspeaker, a lot of cables and a (not yet functional) digital clock.
Wednesday 9th March A new layer of flooring has been laid across the passage joining the top of the two stairwells, stuck down by strips of yellow and black tape.
Thursday 10th March A photo booth has been installed in the alcove beside the ticket machine in the ticket hall.
Friday 11th March All of the posters and signs have been removed from the remaining section of blue wall in the middle of the westbound platform.
Saturday 12th March The remaining section of blue wall in the middle of the westbound platform has been removed, revealing a new stretch of white panels along the indented triangular platform wall.
Sunday 13th March Each new white panel had a small green numbered sticker to ensure that workmen assembled everything in the right order. For example, the westernmost roundel on the westbound platform is still labelled EC PCPTO-DVI 62.1 50432.
Monday 14th March The remaining scaffolding across the front and side of the station building has been dismantled, leaving just a few supporting poles across the overbridge.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
It's exactly a year since Bow Road station was first closed at 10pm every night so that renovation work could (supposedly) take place. A year of early closures, and a year of me having to take a longer route home whenever I've been out late. Had I been mugged on the walk back, which thankfully I wasn't, maybe I could have sued. But in the last fortnight, all of a sudden with absolutely no publicity whatsoever, the station's opening hours have been returned to normal. Trains are now pulling into a very different Bow Road station to that which used to exist a year ago. Take a look.
This used to be a dark, gloomy platform with peeling paint on the walls and a grimy low ceiling. It was unappealing, uninviting and seriously unlookedafter. For eleven months its grubby surface was covered by a makeshift blue wall, screening the leisurely metamorphosis behind. And now, with the protective shell removed, this place has been reborn as a fresh, bright platform with gleaming white panels on the walls and a slightly repainted ceiling. The opposite platform, also newly revealed, looks much the same. All of a sudden, the 21st century has arrived.
Except they promised us it wasn't going to look modern. This station upgrade was supposed to retain all of the station's key Edwardian architectural features. I'm sure they're all still there, somewhere underneath this modern veneer, but both platforms now have rather more of an 'airport terminal' feeling to them. There are little four-seater benches that wouldn't look out of place at IKEA, there's strip lighting that might be found in any office, and there's an artificial white coating covering the full length of each wall. It's even less traditional up the stairwells where giant alien globes have landed, masquerading as light fittings. And everywhere, absolutely every-bloody-where, there are all-pervasive security cameras. I suspect these are to be monitored from the brand new control room that's magically appeared off the ticket hall, which should give the station staff somewhere warm to sit and read their newspapers while they continue to ignore all the passing passengers.
The end of the long drawn-out modernisation process at Bow Road seems (at last) to be in sight. The platforms have reopened, the scaffolding is coming down and all opening restrictions have been lifted. But there's still a lot of mopping up and finishing off to be done, which could take months. And I have yet to be impressed.
Tuesday 15th March A new electronic Emergency: Do not enter sign has been affixed to the wall outside the station to the right of the station entrance. It is not illuminated. In fact, it is hard to imagine credible circumstances under which it might one day be illuminated.
Wednesday 16th March A security camera has been installed on the outside of the station above the left-hand entrance.
Thursday 17th March • All of the remaining scaffolding has been taken down. • The ironwork bolted to the ceiling above the railway tracks has been painted blue to match that above the platforms. • A black plastic rumble strip has been installed close to the edge of the eastbound platform to aid visually impaired passengers. • A red alarm box has been installed in the new control room. • The digital clock in the new control room is now functional.
Friday 18th March • The two short blue walls on the platforms closest to the foot of the stairwells have been removed. Absolutely no renovation work of any kind appears to have taken place behind these walls for the last 12 months, just a lot of cabling. • The sheeting has been removed from two tall blocks along the eastbound platform, revealing two fully functional Help points. • Another black plastic rumble strip has been installed one third of the way along the westbound platform.
Saturday 19th March • The last blue wall, at the east end of the westbound platform, has been removed. Again, absolutely no renovation appears to have taken place. • A small TV monitor has been installed high on the wall in the ticket hall. • A large (still-wrapped) sign has been fixed above the ticket machine in the ticket hall. • The black plastic rumble strip now stretches two thirds of the way along the westbound platform.
Sunday 20th March Along the westbound platform I counted 24 security cameras and 28 microphones.
Monday 21st March The Help Point in the ticket hall and another at the top of the eastbound stairwell have been unwrapped and now appear to be functional.
Conker tree update: New leaves have appeared in golfball-sized buds at the end of every branch.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Tuesday 22nd March Two miracles have occured. • "Next train" indicators have been installed on each platform. They don't yet work, but their presence suggests that this redevelopment may have been worthwhile after all. • The blue sign on the front of the station reading "BOW ROAD STATION DISTRICT & METROPOLITAN LINES" has been replaced by a new blue sign which simply states "BOW ROAD STATION". Which, for the first time in 15 years, is a true statement.
Wednesday 23rd March Two new metal roundels have appeared on the unrenovated wall at the east end of the westbound platform, and another at the east end of the eastbound platform.
Conker tree update: The leaf buds have opened.
Thursday 24th March • All four doors at the entrance to the station have been repainted green. • All the new Help Points throughout the station have a sticker taped to them reading Not in service • Half of the rumble strip along the westbound platform has been peeled away, leaving several short strips behind.
Friday 25th March Seven computer monitors and a large microphone have been installed in the new control room off the ticket hall.
Saturday 26th March The four doors halfway along the westbound platform have been repainted black (gloss).
Sunday 27th March A digital clock has been installed on the brickwork above the western end of the westbound platform. It is not yet functional.
Monday 28th March The digital clock in the new control room has not been advanced an hour for Summer Time.
Tuesday 29th March Conker tree update: The tree now looks green again. Stalks that will soon drip with blossom are rising up from the end of each branch.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Wednesday 30th March A new poster has just been put on display in the ticket hall. It reads:
Station returns to normal opening hours Update February 2005 We are pleased to announce that Bow Road will return to normal operating hours from February 28th...
The bureaucratic incompetence demonstrated by the appearance of this poster more than one month late is absolutely staggering.
Thursday 31st March The digital clock in the new control room has finally been advanced an hour to British Summer Time.
Friday 1st April The entire (new) black plastic rumble strip along the edge of the westbound platform has been removed.
Saturday 2nd April Yet again there are Wet Paint signs stuck to the green doors at the entrance to the ticket hall.
Sunday 3rd April Two replastered patches on the ceiling of the ticket hall each have a couple of short stumpy electrical cables sticking out of them.
Monday 4th April The viewscreen high on the wall at the end of the ticket hall is now functional, displaying live pictures from the security camera positioned next to it.
Tuesday 5th April A new poster board and a small metal bracket have been installed on the wall opposite the top of the westbound stairwell.
Wednesday 6th April The red electrical box on the wall of the new control room (beneath the digital clock) has been removed.
Thursday 7th April The red electrical box has been repositioned on the wall, precisely one box height below its original location.
Friday 8th April A new sign on the wall opposite the top of the westbound stairwell directs departing passengers towards the Way Out and Bow Church Station (DLR).
Saturday 9th April There are wet paint signs on the metal grille between the ticket hall and the footbridge.
Sunday 10th April A new blue wall has appeared halfway down the westbound platform, creating a triangular space behind for the storage of scaffolding.
Monday 11th April New signs have been hung from the ceiling halfway along both platforms. From the west they read Way Out and from the east they read
Westbound platform 1 (or 2) Hammersmith & City and District lines
The sign on the westbound platform has been placed so close to a pillar that only the left half of the eastern side is visible.
Tuesday 12th April An electronic dot matrix screen has been uncovered above the ticket machine. This evening the top line of the sign reads Welcome to Bow Road station.
Wednesday 13th April All of the remaining metalwork across the platform ceilings and over the tracks has been painted blue.
Thursday 14th April Some wires have appeared beneath the word Road on the sign that reads Bow Road Station on the front of the station.
Friday 15th April A white lamp has appeared on the front of the station, to the left of the station entrance.
Saturday 16th April The licence stuck on the new blue wall expires on 10th May. The licence permits the storage of "Quarry tiles, cable, access towers, step ladders".
Sunday 17th April A row of 6 white lamps has been installed across the top of the front of the station. They look more 'cheap' than 'heritage'.
Monday 18th April There are now two rows of fluorescent lights all along the westbound platform, and a third row in the recess halfway along.
Tuesday 19th April Another white lamp has appeared on the front of the station, above the main entrance, attached to the wires beneath the word Road via a new cable.
Wednesday 20th April The new electronic 'next train' indicators are running in test mode. They read:
":Westbound trains: H & C and District Lines Passenger information display under test"
Thursday 21st April A new map-sized frame has appeared on the eastbound platform wall beneath the electronic display board.
Friday 22nd April Another white lamp has been added to the front of the station, this time to the right of the main entrance.
Saturday 23rd April All the new lamps on the front of the station are now lit.
Sunday 24th April The new blue wall on the westbound platform has been completely removed.
Monday 25th April All the new fluorescent lamps above both platforms are now illuminated.
Tuesday 26th April Conker tree update: the tree outside the station is now in full leaf, with large white blossoms at the end of every branch.
Wednesday 27th April One week on, the 'next train' indicators are still in test mode.
Thursday 28th April The protective covering has been removed from the new non-slip surface on the landing halfway down the westbound stairwell.
Friday 29th April The grey metal enclosure in front of the station has been removed, leaving the centre of the forecourt clear for the first time in over a year.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
The never-ending renovation project at my local station might just be edging towards a conclusion. I suspect the disruption will last another month or two, but only a few minor things now look as if they still need to be completed. The stairs still look a bit ropey, the 'next train' indicators have yet to indicate any next trains, the control room still needs fitting out and the platform walls still lack a considerable amount of signage, but this looks as if it might be the end game. Certainly there are still plenty of workmen busy doing something somewhere. Maybe they have one last project up their sleeve, or maybe they're just ekeing out this modernisation project for as long as possible before they get sent to vandalise the heritage features at some other godforsaken station.
Saturday 30th April Four poster-sized frames have appeared on the wall of the westbound platform, just beneath the old 'next train' indicator.
Sunday 1st May The knobbly black plastic strips along the edge of each platform have been completely removed, again, leaving behind a long narrow blotchy white adhesive stain.
Monday 2nd May The new platform sign above the westbound platform has been moved slightly so that it is no longer half-obscured by a pillar.
Tuesday 3rd May Two poster-sized frames have appeared on the wall of the westbound platform, just beneath the new 'next train' indicator.
Wednesday 4th May Three poster-sized frames have appeared on the wall of the eastbound platform, just beneath the old 'next train' indicator.
Thursday 5th May Three poster-sized frames have appeared on the walls of the ticket hall.
Friday 6th May Two more poster-sized frames have appeared on the walls of the ticket hall.
Saturday 7th May Four of the lightbulbs in the lamps at the front of the station appear to have blown.
Sunday 8th May The globe lamps in the main ticket hall are now illuminated.
Monday 9th May The globe lamps down the westbound stairwell are already filthy.
Tuesday 10th May The new 'next train' indicators on both platforms are now showing the destination of the next train, but not the number of minutes until it arrives.
Wednesday 11th May The new 'next train' indicators on both platforms are no longer showing the destination of the next train.
Thursday 12th May On my way home, the display on the electronic screen above the ticket machine read: Richmond 1 Plaistow 2
This could be: a) The destination of the next train at each platform b) The number of minutes before the next two trains arrive c) The latest football result
Friday 13th May Today, both on my way to work and on the way home, the display on the electronic screen above the ticket machine read: Ealing Broadway 1 Upminster 2
Saturday 14th May The new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform is no longer showing anything at all.
Sunday 15th May A disembodied voice now announces Mind the gap please whenever a train pulls into either platform.
Monday 16th May The disembodied voice continues to announce Mind the gap please after the train doors have closed, and usually says it at least once more (for no good reason) after the train has started pulling out of the station.
Tuesday 17th May A BT van is parked outside the station. Several short lengths of discarded white cable lie piled up just inside the station entrance.
Wednesday 18th May Conker tree update: the blossom has fallen. Tiny conkers have started to grow in their place.
Thursday 19th May A drinks vending machine has been installed on the westbound platform. It dispenses Coca Cola and Malvern Water.
Friday 20th May The new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform again shows Eastbound trains: H & C and District Lines but not the destination of the next train.
Saturday 21st May Three large poster-sized frames have appeared on the wall of the westbound platform, interspersed amongst the existing smaller frames.
Sunday 22nd May A large poster-sized frame has appeared on the wall of the ticket hall, just behind the exit gates.
Monday 23rd May A chocolate machine has been installed on the westbound platform immediately to the right of the new drinks machine.
Tuesday 24th May The green doors to the left of the station entrance are now both labelled: Fire exit Keep clear
Wednesday 25th May Most of the new frames on the platforms and in the ticket hall now contain posters.
The new tube map in the ticket hall has been positioned behind the exit gates so that you can only read it on the way out, not the way in. Which is bloody stupid.
Thursday 26th May Most of the new posters are advertising either the tube or Oystercards.
Friday 27th May A small black plastic chair covered with plaster stains has been left outside the front of the station.
Saturday 28th May The small black plastic chair has been removed.
Sunday 29th May The old British Rail sign on the eastbound stairwell reading Change at Barking for trains to Southend has been moved (sensibly) so that's it's visible when entering the platform, not when leaving it.
Monday 30th May A big digital clock has been installed at the western end of the westbound platform, presumably for the benefit of passing train drivers.
Tuesday 31st May A small group of workmen are standing around outside the station, not doing much.
Wednesday 1st June Things still to be done: The new 'next train' indicators need to give details of the next train.
Thursday 2nd June Things still to be done: Several more poster frames need to be affixed to the platform walls.
Friday 3rd June Things still to be done: The numerous Help Points around the station need to be made operational.
Saturday 4th June Things still to be done: The protective sheeting covering the floors in the stairwells and overbridge needs to be removed.
Saturday, June 4, 2005
The refurbishment project at my local station drags on into its seventeenth month. Everything's nearly finished, but nobody seems quite able to tie up all the loose ends and end the whole charade. In fact management have pretty much admitted (in the latest edition of the Metronet company magazine) that the whole modernisation of Bow Road has been a drawn-out incompetent balls-up. Well, in so many words...
I'm always nervy of anbody who can drop the buzzwords 'learning curve' and 'project scoping' into a conversation, and rightly so in this case. It sounds as if Bow Road has been used to trial inefficient and untested procedures, a triumph of bureaucracy over engineering, and never mind the inconvenience to local transport users.
I'll be delighted when somebody finally works out how to turn on the new 'next train' indicators, because they're not much use to me otherwise, although I suspect my local station staff are still too busy being taught how to use the 50+ security cameras now at their disposal. One day, maybe soon... but maybe still not.
Sunday 5th June Things still to be done: The raised strips a short distance from the edge of each platform (for the benefit of visually impaired passengers) both need to be replaced..
Monday 6th June An intercom activated by a security keypad has been installed in the ticket hall to the right of the new control room window.
Tuesday 7th June Both the drinks machine and the chocolate machine on the westbound platform have new signs saying Out of service.
Wednesday 8th June A smart new sign reading District and Hammersmith & City lines has been installed at the top of the electronic display board above the ticket machine in the ticket hall.
Thursday 9th June Some of the holes in some of the panels on both platforms have been filled by shiny metal squares, each with a lockable door.
Friday 10th June Conker tree update: the conkers now look like real mini conkers with tiny spiky green shells.
Saturday 11th June Someone has drawn a crossed-sword shape in the filthy dust on the top of the lighting globe at the bottom of the westbound stairwell.
Sunday 12th June The southernmost window in the ticket hall has a new sign above it reading: Assistance (temporary sign)
Monday 13th June A new (yellow) raised strip for visually impaired passengers appears to have been successfully installed along the eastern half of the eastbound platform.
Tuesday 14th June Another (new) yellow strip has been installed along the eastern half of the westbound platform.
Wednesday 15th June Both electronic clocks on the two 'next train' indicators are suddenly running 3½ hours slow.
Thursday 16th June The raised yellow strip now stretches the full length of the westbound platform.
Friday 17th June Both of the new 'next train' indicators on the platforms have been switched off.
Saturday 18th June The chocolate and drinks machines are both functional again.
Sunday 19th June Some new chairs have been delivered to the control room. They are still covered by polythene wrapping.
Monday 20th June Most of the holes in some of the panels on both platforms have been filled by shiny metal squares, each with a lockable door.
Tuesday 21st June A notice on the door to the new control room reads: Caution Wet paint on all walls. BBCL
Wednesday 22nd June (report from Andrew) "have just got back from looking around various stations, including Bow Road, where work is supposed to be going on... 23 workmen at Bow Road at 1.15am doing very little that I could see"
Thursday 23rd June The new 'next train' indicators have been switched back on, but they only tell the time and not the destination of the next train.
Friday 24th June The new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform now displays a destination which is not necessarily the destination of the next train.
Saturday 25th June The new 'next train' indicator on the westbound platform now displays the destination of the next train, but not how many minutes away it is.
Sunday 26th June The new 'next train' indicator on the westbound platform is five seconds slower in indicating the next train than was the old 'next train' indicator.
There are currently two functioning 'next train' indicators on each platform at Bow Road, one old and one new.
To your left is the old 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform. It's probably about 30 or 40 years old, it relies on ancient lightbulb technology and, for the last umpteen years, it's correctly told us the destination of the next eastbound train. To your right is the new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform. It's been in place for the last two months and it relies on fantastic new 21st century electronic technology. It's only recently gone into active service, but alas it's not providing accurate information. My camera can't photograph the flickering display but, trust me, yesterday it was displaying 'Upminster' no matter what the destination of the next eastbound train, even if that train was only going as far Dagenham East, Barking or Plaistow. Which is a bit rubbish.
The situation on the westbound platform isn't much better. The old 'next train' indicator could only tell us whether the next train would be on the District line or the Metropolitan line. This is rather remiss because the Metropolitan line hasn't served this station for the last 15 years - the Hammersmith and City line took over in 1990. The new 'next train' indicator manages to name both lines correctly. It's also able to tell us the destination of the next District line train, although that's only of practical value to anyone travelling further than Earl's Court (which is 17 stations up the line). But, alas, the new indicator is actually less efficient than the old. Watch the two indicators simultaneously (as I did yesterday) and you'll see that the new indicator flashes up details of the next train five seconds later than the old one. Which is also a bit rubbish.
It's always useful to know how many minutes it will be until the next train arrives, and also the destinations of the second and third trains due into the station. They can provide all this information for passengers at Mile End, the next station along the line (and have done for years), but the old 'next train' indicators at Bow Road couldn't tell us any of it. Guess what. The new 'next train' indicators don't show this information either. The displays still only provide a minute's notice before the next train whooshes into the station, and there are still no clues as to what trains might be queueing up further down the line. The new 'next train' indicators are in fact no more functional than the old, they're just newer. Which is more than just a bit rubbish, it's a criminal waste of money. Yet another one. But then we're used to that here at Bow Road. You may have read about it in the paper...
Monday, June 27, 2005
I was Andrew Gilligan's anonymous source
Yes, it's true. Oh ye of little faith. You probably thought that my daily reportage from Bow Road station was mind-numbingly boring trivia of the most anorakky kind. You probably thought that nobody would ever be interested in 16 months of regular updates on the renovation of my local tube station. You were wrong.
Tonight the Evening Standard devoted a whole double page spread to the sorry saga of Metronet's wasteful procrastination at Bow Road station, including several paragraphs lifted from this blog and a big picture showing some workmen sitting on the platform doing sod all. And all this penned by AndrewGilligan, the former BBC journalist at the centre of the Hutton Report debacle and now writing investigate articles for the Evening Standard. I'd love to link to the article so that you can read it in full, except that the Evening Standard appear to have downsized their online news presence in favour of advertising features and theatre ticket promotions so you'll have to make do with this photograph instead.
Last week Metronet's inability to complete station renovations to time finally threatened a huge £14 million financial penalty. This was big political news and, hey presto, Andrew Gilligan had the topic for his weekly investigative column in the Standard. In the course of his investigations he stumbled upon this blog, read my daily reports from the PPP's first station upgrade and sent me an email asking if I could shed further light on goings on at Bow Road. But of course. We had a 15 minute phone conversation in which I told Andrew more about what hadn't been going on, what I thought about the end results and how very little of the work had actually been of any benefit to my fellow travellers. And look, there's his full 1500 word article in the paper tonight. Result!
The suspicion must be that Metronet chose an easy station to begin its £17 billion, 30-year spending programme. But what the company may not have realised is that Bow Road has its very own beady-eyed resident blogger. Every move Metronet made, or rather did not make, was to be chronicled for ever on the blog kept by one Diamond Geezer, who travelled to or through the station twice a day for the entire duration of the works.
As well as quotations from the blog ("Tuesday 10 February: A blue wall has appeared in front of the four Portakabins."), Andrew's feature concentrates on the lack of visible evidence that £3.3 million at Bow Road has been well spent. He uncovers the nightmarish PPP bureaucracy that required more than 50 sign-offs before work could begin, which is probably why nothing happened much happened here for the first six months or so. He gets Metronet's stations director, Clive Coleman, to admit that "nobody quite knew how [quality] assurance and scoping worked, how you brought people on site." Andrew discovers that there are an astonishing 70 new cameras at the station, even though CCTV was already installed at the station before the work began. And he confirms that Metronet have indeed declared "practical completion" on Bow Road this month, although this doesn't mean that the work is finished. Not quite.
"I do wonder where the money has gone", says Diamond Geezer (he will not let the Standard use his real name. Perhaps he fears Metronet will come round and refurbish his flat).
All in all the saga of Bow Road has been a litany of shame and profligate waste with no particularly worthy outcome. And I'm delighted, finally, to see this written in inch-high letters across London's evening paper. Today I can be fairly certain that my Bow Road diary, which started out as an obscure daily 'spot the difference' activity, has been brought to the attention of a readership of 1 million Londoners, including the top brass at Metronet and maybe a few other political movers and shakers too. Who says that blogging changes nothing?
Indeed, Metronet's entire, much trumpeted 152-station refurbishment programme includes almost no improvements whatever in the thing that really matters on the Underground: capacity. The changes will be almost all cosmetic: new vinyl walls, new CCTV cameras, rumble-strips on platforms to help the partially-sighted. New escalators, new entrances, wider platforms or passageways are not on the menu. Given this company's difficulties to date with even quite simple tasks, perhaps from one perspective this is just as well. But it is one more example of how the PPP will fail to provide the Underground with the improvements it actually needs.
And to my new Metronet audience today I say, "Please remember that there's still more work to be done at Bow Road, and I'm still watching you not doing it."
Monday 27th June Some red boxes containing fire safety equipment have been installed on the southern wall of the ticket hall. They have been covered with black and yellow sticky tape, presumably to indicate that they don't yet work.
Tuesday 28th June The various Help Points around the station are now functional.
Wednesday 29th June At 10pm I saw two workmen in orange jackets park their car on the cobbled pavement outside the courthouse nextdoor and walk to the portakabins in front of the station to report for work.
Thursday 30th June A temporary Tickets sign has been placed on the ticket machine in the main ticket hall. It's long and very white with big blue lettering.
Friday 1st July The new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform now seems to be displaying the correct destination of the next train, but still not how many minutes away it is.
Saturday 2nd July New fire alarms appear to have installed at certain points around the station, but they are covered over by blue and white tape.
Sunday 3rd July New fire alarm notices have also been installed, and they too are covered over by blue and white tape.
Monday 4th July The globe light fittings above the westbound stairwell have at last been cleaned (and they look much cleaner).
Tuesday 5th July The new control room beside the ticket hall looks to be in full operation, maybe.
Wednesday 6th July A poster in the ticket hall congratulates London on winning the 2012 Olympics.
Thursday 7th July Following terrorist bombings at three other stations at the height of the morning rush hour, Bow Road (along with the rest of the network) is closed for the rest of the day.
Friday 8th July As the network reopens, Bow Road station is quiet but intact.
Saturday 9th July The end date on the 'storage licence' posted on one of the black doors halfway along the westbound platform has been extended until 30th August.
Sunday 10th July Conker tree update: Those conker cases on the tree outside the station are looking proper big and conker-sized already.
Monday 11th July One lonely-looking policeman is standing outside the station.
Tuesday 12th July Two not-quite-so lonely-looking policemen are standing outside the station.
Wednesday 13th July The two old 'next train' indicators, one on each platform, have finally been turned off after many decades of good and faithful service.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
After several decades of faithful service, the lights in the old 'next train' indicators were finally extinguished at Bow Road today. The glass may have been cracked and held together by sticky tape, but I shall miss them. This sudden termination still leaves passengers with the shiny new 'next train' indicators but these are, as I've already mentioned, thus far no more functional than the old. 17 months of work and there's still not been one change, not one improvement, not one thing to improve my daily commute. The big tower of blue portakabins remains on the pavement outside the station, so Metronet must still have some small behind-the-scenes stuff to complete, but public money is still dripping away here for no particularly obvious reason.
Thursday 14th July The bus stop outside the station has been resurfaced using red tarmac. It is more than twice as long as before - at least the length of two bendy buses.
Friday 15th July The 'red route' red line outside the station (and all along Bow Road) has been repainted.
Saturday 16th July The red boxes on the southern wall of the ticket hall, which I thought might have been new fire control equipment, have been removed.
Sunday 17th July There's a nice cube-shaped floral box of tissues on a shelf above the computers in the new control room.
Monday 18th July 7:45am - according to the new 'next train' indicator board, the next westbound train is heading for 'Check destination on front of train' (which wasn't an option on the old 'next train' indicator board)
Tuesday 19th July It's gone all quiet again.
Wednesday 20th July No obvious changes at Bow Road.
Thursday 21st July Bow Road is not targetted in today's bungled terrorist atrocity.
Friday 22nd July "Please keep your belongings with you at all times"
Saturday 23rd July "Please report any unattended packages to a member of staff"
Sunday 24th July "Please do not leave your luggage unattended"
Monday 25th July The temporary TICKETS sign above the ticket machine and ASSISTANCE sign above the assistance window have both been replaced by very swish brushed metal signs with white-ish writing on a black background.
Tuesday 26th July A very large irregular area of plaster has been removed from the wall in the ticket hall, just to the right of the new control room.
Wednesday 27th July The irregular area on the ticket hall wall has been replastered, but not yet finished off.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Not haPPPy: Transport for London have issued their second annual report into the performance of the PPP - the Public-Private Partnership that funds investment on the Underground. Both Metronet and Tube Lines have so far been given approximately £2 billion out of the public purse to upgrade the system and its infrastructure, but TfL are not impressed. Reports are normally woolly, positive things (I know, I've written a few) but this one is openly damning:
"There has been some progress in the first two years, but there are also some worrying trends and overall there is a shortfall compared with the expectations created by the private sector Infrastructure companies' bids. In short, performance is not good enough and is less than what was promised."
There follow several pages of paragraphs, tables and graphs that show exactly why performance isn't good enough. 'Availability', 'capability' and 'ambience' aren't improving fast enough, rolling stock is unreliable, track renewal is well behind schedule and a lot of projects are having to be 'rephased'. Meanwhile shareholders continue to receive profits, although most of them are probably sensible enough to live well outside London and drive around in nice big cars all day. If you fancy reading the full report then you can find it here (beware, 90 page pdf), or you might just want to look at the pretty photographs. Of course, I was particularly interested in any reference to the renovation fiasco at my local tube station, and I didn't have to look far:
"Metronet BCV was due to complete enhancements at West Ruislip, Roding Valley and Chigwell by 5 March 2005, as was Metronet SSL at Bow Road, Turnham Green, Plaistow, Dagenham Heathway and North Harrow. All of these projects are running late. The latest plans from Metronet show the remainder of the programme running to time. This is hard to believe given current performance and the acceleration required for year three and beyond." (page 54)
"Although Metronet has met early milestones in its Victoria line upgrade project, it strains credulity to credit progress on such a complex project when, currently, much simpler renewal work is consistently late." (page 5)
Or, in other words, if Metronet can't deliver on a piddly little backwater station like Bow Road (and so far they still haven't), then what hope does the rest of the crumbling network have? See, I told you my local station was important.
Thursday 28th July The irregular area of plaster on the ticket hall wall has been smoothed over, and its lower half covered by a large sheet of orange card. Some of the walls of the ticket hall have been repainted, for the umpteenth time.
Friday 29th July The sheet of orange card has been removed.
Saturday 30th July The two old lightbulb-driven big black rectangular 'next train' indicators have been removed from both platforms. Only the new 'next train' indicators remain. Sigh.
Sunday 31st July The new 'next train' indicators each have a yellow warning sticker that reads Warning - Laser Hazard
Monday 1st August The ticket hall has been repainted over the weekend, including the previously unpainted high-up bits of plastering around the edge of the ceiling.
Tuesday 2nd August 7:30am - three policemen are standing in the glass-fronted control room in the ticket hall, presumably watching some of Bow Road's 75 new CCTV cameras.
Wednesday 3rd August The white wooden panels on the overbridge have been painted, again, and are roped off with red and white sticky tape.
Thursday 4th August It's another two-coppers-outside-the-front-of-the-station Thursday.
Friday 5th August The white wooden panels on the overbridge have been painted, yet again, and are roped off with red and white sticky tape.
Saturday 6th August Lots of TfL leaflets are piled up (in nice neat piles) on the ledge in front of the unused ticket window, over where nobody ever goes.
Sunday 7th August One month after the tube bombing there are still a very large number of copies of the original Major incident - travel update leaflet piled up on the ticket window ledge, despite the fact that they're now several weeks out of date.
Monday 8th August An irregular-edged hole has been opened up in the plaster on the ceiling at the northern end of the ticket hall.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
The first portakabins appeared outside Bow Road station exactly 18 months ago today. They're still here. Nine months ago we were told that renovation of the station would be "finished by July 2005". It isn't. We appear to have reached the über-painting stage, during which walls have to be repeatedly repainted every time another sign is mounted or another bit of plaster is replaced, until the whole station looks perfect. Which it still doesn't. Which is, presumably, why the portakabins are still here. One day, one day...
Tuesday 9th August The new hole in the ceiling of the ticket hall has been replastered.
Wednesday 10th August The newly replastered hole in the ceiling of the ticket hall has been repainted.
Thursday 11th August If you look very carefully, with the light shining in the right direction, you can still see where the replastered hole in the ceiling of the ticket hall used to be.
Friday 12th August Other than that, the ceiling (and walls) of the ticket hall look all sparkly white again.
Saturday 13th August A couple of very premature conkers have dared to fall from the horse chestnut tree outside the station, probably from the one tiny clump of slightly browning leaves on the eastern side.
Sunday 14th August The temporary protective covering across the floor of the ticket hall, overbridge and stairwells has been removed, revealing the new grey (slightly speckled) plastic surface underneath.
Monday 15th August A small cross of yellow and black tape remains stuck to the floor of the ticket hall, just inside the main station entrance.
Tuesday 16th August Another short strip of yellow and black tape remains, on the small landing halfway down the westbound stairwell.
Wednesday 17th August Two 'Caution wet paint' signs remain stuck to the sparkly white walls at the top of the eastbound stairwell - almost a fortnight after the paint dried.
Thursday 18th August The easternmost green and yellow striped pillar on the westbound platform has a notice stuck to it which reads "Do not touch - wet paint"
Friday 19th August The other nine green and yellow striped pillars on the westbound platform all have notices stuck to them which read "Caution wet paint", or something similar
Saturday 20th August The 'wet paint' notices look like they've been recycled from several previous 'wet paint' events around the station.
Sunday 21st August The 'wet paint' notices on the pillars along the westbound platform have been removed.
Monday 22nd August In today's absolute downpour it is noticeable that the canopy over the eastern end of the westbound platform no longer leaks.
Tuesday 23rd August I watched two tourists reading the big sign on the blue wall outside the station, the one that still reads "The work is due for completion in spring 2005"
Wednesday 24th August Five 'wet paint' signs have appeared on the grey door opposite the top of the westbound stairwell.
Thursday 25th August Those two 'wet paint' signs at the top of the eastbound stairwell are still there, three weeks after they were last true.
Friday 26th August Four 'wet paint' notices have appeared on the green fire door at the top of the westbound stairwell, and even more on four green doors at the eastern end of the westbound platform.
Saturday 27th August All those 'wet paint' notices remain, although no paint still appears to be wet.
Sunday 28th August At last, the two 'wet paint' notices stuck on the wall at the top of the eastbound stairwell have been removed.
Monday 29th August 10:45pm: I saw a white van and four cars parked up on the pavement outside the newsagent's kiosk, with five workmen standing around beside them waiting to go in and do some work in the station.
Tuesday 30th August It is not at all obvious what those five workmen might have been up to overnight.
Wednesday 31st August 12:45pm: I saw a workman clutching a stepladder disappearing behind a door at the eastern end of the eastbound platform.
Thursday 1st September The main doors leading into the station have been repainted green (for at least the third time this year).
Friday 2nd September The green door facing the top of the westbound stairwell has been repainted, again, and labelled with amateur-looking 'wet paint' notices.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
I wonder what the world record is for the number of times a station door has been repainted, because the green entrance doors at Bow Road have now been repainted so many times that I suspect shares in Dulux must have shot through the roof. Close behind are the fire doors at the top of the westbound stairwell, and coming up fast are the green and yellow striped pillars on the westbound platform. A set of laser-jetted Caution - wet paint notices are being recycled all around the station, stuck to the wall beside a different newly gleaming surface every morning - or so it seems. Metronet's renovation work here is starting to feel like a never-ending resurfacing project - rather like the painting of the Forth Rail Bridge - only for no particularly good reason. Still, at least there's something going on at Bow Road this September, which saves me from spending another month writing about falling conkers...
Saturday 3rd September One premature conker has fallen from the horse chestnut tree outside the station, half-cracking out of its protective shell and coming to a rest close to the station entrance.
Sunday 4th September Many of the leaves on the tree have a slightly brown edge, but only a handful are wholly brown.
Monday 5th September The pavement is virtually conker-free.
Tuesday 6th September Irregular grey rectangular painted splotches have appeared on the easternmost green door on the front of the station.
Wednesday 7th September A big tube-map-sized poster frame has appeared on the wall just to the east of the foot of the stairwell on the eastbound platform.
Thursday 8th September The new poster frame is currently filled by a bright yellow rectangle.
Friday 9th September The new poster frame is lockable, and probably hides a sign reading Station Closed, 5mph
Saturday 10th September The conkers have started to fall. Must be the wind.
Sunday 11th September A roadsweeper is being employed to sweep up the conkers outside the station.
Monday 12th September Yellow streaks have appeared on the irregular grey rectangular painted splotches on the easternmost green door on the front of the station.
Tuesday 13th September A new tube-map-sized poster frame has appeared just inside the main entrance to the ticket hall, just above the Metro newspaper rack.
Wednesday 14th September The tube map behind the exit ticket gates has been replaced by a London Connections map.
Thursday 15th September The wall just west of the bottom of the stairwell on the eastbound platform has been repainted a sort of creamy magnolia colour, and a single piece of black and yellow tape has been stuck the full width of the wall as a wet paint warning to commuters.
Friday 16th September A small poster frame has appeared on the wall beneath the white lamp to the right of the main doors into the ticket hall.
Saturday 17th September Dark grey paint now covers the yellow streaks on the irregular grey rectangular painted splotches on the easternmost green doors on the front of the station.
Sunday 18th September There really are a lot of conkers on the pavement outside the station today.
Monday 19th September The easternmost green doors on the front of the station have been repainted green, covering over the dark and light grey splotchy mess that was there previously.
Tuesday 20th September Neither of the new 'next train' indicators on the platforms are working. Pity they've taken the old ones down.
Wednesday 21st September It's still not possible to tell where the next train is going, until it arrives.
Thursday 22nd September Normal 'next train' indicator service is restored.
Friday 23rd September Several randomly-scattered paving slabs along each platform have been replaced by noticeably lighter new slabs.
Saturday 24th September There are slightly more replaced slabs on the eastbound platform than on the westbound platform.
Sunday 25th September They're painting in the ticket hall again. Again. Again.
Monday 26th September Where's the wet paint notice? Aha - on the blue panels on the western wall of the ticket hall.
Tuesday 27th September Even with the new hi-tech floor covering in the ticket hall and on the stairwells, station staff still scribble their usual 'beware, floor surfaces may be slippery' message on a whiteboard when it rains.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
When renovation work on my local tube station began we were promised completion by October. Unfortunately that was October 2004, and the whole project has now dragged on almost a year longer than originally planned. Nothing major's happened for months, but the portakabin out the front of the station remains occupied while repairs and renewals continue intermittently inside. New poster frames are still being erected, old surfaces are being repainted, and only last week several random paving slabs on both platforms were mysteriously replaced. Having been wondering for months why this project has taken so long, I've at last uncovered 'the answer' inside September's edition of Metronet's in-house magazine (downloadable here). And who'd have guessed - it's all somebody else's fault...
Not that this appears to have stopped Metronet from installing huge lengths of new cable at Bow Road. It's been like the spaghetti harvest above some parts of the platforms and stairwells, even if much of the new wiring has now been hidden away inside non-heritage plastic ducting. And as for the 'Section 12' excuse, this relates to special fire safety regulations which apply only to stations which are 'wholly or partly underground'. That's 40% of all the stations on the network, then, including several which Metronet have yet to renovate. But reading elsewhere in the article it seems that an end to the Bow Road upgrade nightmare may (really, genuinely) be nigh.
So the whole circus at Bow Road should be over... by the end of this week! Maybe. I'll let you know if Metronet meet the deadline. What do you think?
Thursday 29th September A man on the westbound platform is checking his hair whilst staring at his reflection in a poster called If London Looked In The Mirror.
Friday 30th September The conker season looks to be drawing to a close.
Saturday 1st October Although latest reports suggest that Bow Road renovation should be signed off and complete by the end of Sptember, the portakabins are stiill here.
Sunday 2nd October The newsagents kiosk outside the station no longer sells papers on Sundays.
Monday 3rd October The big sign on the blue wall beside the portakabin outside the station entrance, the one describing Metronet's Bow Road renovation project in great depth, has disappeared.
Tuesday 4th October The 'next train' indicator announces the arrival of a Hammersmith and City train, but a Wimbledon train arrives instead.
Wednesday 5th October The Not Working Yet sign has been removed from the new Chip and PIN reader attached to the front of the ticket window.
Thursday 6th October An Ealing Broadway train hurtles into the westbound platform, despite no train being predicted by the new 'next train' indicator.
Friday 7th October The white box labelled LFB (London Fire Brigade) which had previously been affixed to the wall to the right-hand side of the station entrance has been moved to the wall on the left-hand side.
Saturday 8th October The blue panels on the wall in the ticket hall have been repainted (yet again), and the 'wet paint' notices are up.
Sunday 9th October Just below the screen in the ticket hall screening images from CCTV cameras around the station is a new sign reading Images are being monitored and recorded.
Monday 10th October A small trapdoor is ajar inside the northern wall of the tiny recess in the centre of the ceiling in the ticket hall.
Tuesday 11th October The trapdoor is still open.
Wednesday 12th October Still open. Nothing else happening.
Thursday 13th October The plastic covering on the floor across the front of the ticket hall has been removed, revealing a large black stripy doormat thing beneath.
Friday 14th October The three blue portakabins on the pavement outside the station have been removed overnight.
NDThey're spending lots of money doing up the Underground. You can tell this because every weekend they shut down half of the network. Last weekend you couldn't travel anywhere up the eastern end of the Central line, this weekend Wembley Park is (again) a no-go zone, and the following weekend the entire middle chunk of the District line will be out of action one more time. You have to check where you're going very carefully these days in case what should be a quick tube trip turns into a bus replacement nightmare. Then there are tens of stations being closed for months, for part of the day at least, so that workmen can erect big blue hoardings and then pretend to deepclean the walls behind. I actually saw some of these workmen at Bow Road yesterday, during the rush hour no less, which was something of a revelation because I had thought that workmen at Bow Road were imaginary creatures like leprechauns or something. There are two big doorways in the front of the station building, one of which never ever opens. Until last night. Through the autumn gloom I saw a long secret room bathed in golden light, packed with orange-coated men in clean white helmets. There were at least four of them anyway, either busy renovating this space no travelling passenger ever uses or standing around in cryogenic storage until this whole sorry modernisation illusion is finally over. To give them their due these mystical workmen have somehow managed, over the last nine months, to paint half the ceiling, hang some lights and plug in some new cameras. But not a lot else. If this is where the government's hard-earned tube subsidy is going then I'd rather they'd left the old station as it was - rundown, functional, and 100% open.
Wednesday 10th November
Most worrying of all, however, is the sticker at the foot of the westbound stairwell which reads CCTV Camera 43. It appears that tube bosses plan to install at least 43 cameras at this station! What the hell for? It's not an especially big station, but some safety bigwig appears to think that no corner of this station can possibly remain unsnooped. It's not an especially busy station either, with an average of just 5500 users each day, but it looks as though there's going to be at least one camera for every 125 passengers. What an incredible waste of money. This looks like tube surveillance overkill to me, organised by some profligate underground Big Brother figure. Sorry, but I don't feel any safer just because the station supervisor can sit in her new office and flick between 43 different video shots of me walking around her empty platforms. I'd just like some money to be spent on a decent functional station with a lick of paint and a 'next train' indicator that's less than 40 years old, please. Some time in the next four months would be nice.
Tuesday 21st December
Hallelujah! The western half of the longest blue wall on the eastbound platform has been completely removed, revealing completed renovation work behind. The wall is now encased in a clean, white metallic plastic covering. On the new wall are full size 'Bow Road' roundels and a top strip (headlined in green and pink) that reads alternately 'BOW ROAD' and 'Bow Church DLR station →'.
And then last week, finally, all of a sudden, we got the first glimpse of the new improved Bow Road station. Overnight workmen whisked away the long blue wall that's been stretched along the eastbound platform since May, revealing the new completed station wall behind. The old wall used to be covered by peeling off-cream paint. The new wall is covered by 79 panels of gleaming white plastic-y stuff. There are eight red and blue station roundels spaced out along the full length of the wall, which is topped off by a row of repeating station names beneath a green and pink strip. Step off an Upminster train and your eyes now meet this elegant modern canvas, free from adverts, graffiti and clutter. It can't last.
But, quite frankly, one nice wall and a few repainted pillars isn't much to show for a year's work. There has been a lick of paint throughout the ticket hall and across the upper reaches of the station, there are several new cameras and loudspeakers in every nook and cranny, and there are two rows of new lighting along each platform that maybe one day will be switched on. But take a look at the ceiling in this photograph and you'll see that most of the station is still as grimy and unloved as it used to be twelve months ago. You might also be to spot that the blue walls are still fully intact on the westbound platform (right), and I can assure you there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that any gleaming white walls are ready to emerge from there in the near future. In fact I've not yet seen one single innovation at Bow Road that actually improves anyone's journey. If you want to know when the next train is due or where it might be going, you're still better off peering down the tunnel to see if there are any headlights in the distance. Transport for London say that the whole Bow Road upgrade project will be complete by next May, maybe. Don't be surprised if my updates are still continuing this time next year.
Wednesday 9th FebruaryExcept they promised us it wasn't going to look modern. This station upgrade was supposed to retain all of the station's key Edwardian architectural features. I'm sure they're all still there, somewhere underneath this modern veneer, but both platforms now have rather more of an 'airport terminal' feeling to them. There are little four-seater benches that wouldn't look out of place at IKEA, there's strip lighting that might be found in any office, and there's an artificial white coating covering the full length of each wall. It's even less traditional up the stairwells where giant alien globes have landed, masquerading as light fittings. And everywhere, absolutely every-bloody-where, there are all-pervasive security cameras. I suspect these are to be monitored from the brand new control room that's magically appeared off the ticket hall, which should give the station staff somewhere warm to sit and read their newspapers while they continue to ignore all the passing passengers.
To your left is the old 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform. It's probably about 30 or 40 years old, it relies on ancient lightbulb technology and, for the last umpteen years, it's correctly told us the destination of the next eastbound train. To your right is the new 'next train' indicator on the eastbound platform. It's been in place for the last two months and it relies on fantastic new 21st century electronic technology. It's only recently gone into active service, but alas it's not providing accurate information. My camera can't photograph the flickering display but, trust me, yesterday it was displaying 'Upminster' no matter what the destination of the next eastbound train, even if that train was only going as far Dagenham East, Barking or Plaistow. Which is a bit rubbish.
Tonight the Evening Standard devoted a whole double page spread to the sorry saga of Metronet's wasteful procrastination at Bow Road station, including several paragraphs lifted from this blog and a big picture showing some workmen sitting on the platform doing sod all. And all this penned by Andrew Gilligan, the former BBC journalist at the centre of the Hutton Report debacle and now writing investigate articles for the Evening Standard. I'd love to link to the article so that you can read it in full, except that the Evening Standard appear to have downsized their online news presence in favour of advertising features and theatre ticket promotions so you'll have to make do with this photograph instead.
As well as quotations from the blog ("Tuesday 10 February: A blue wall has appeared in front of the four Portakabins."), Andrew's feature concentrates on the lack of visible evidence that £3.3 million at Bow Road has been well spent. He uncovers the nightmarish PPP bureaucracy that required more than 50 sign-offs before work could begin, which is probably why nothing happened much happened here for the first six months or so. He gets Metronet's stations director, Clive Coleman, to admit that "nobody quite knew how [quality] assurance and scoping worked, how you brought people on site." Andrew discovers that there are an astonishing 70 new cameras at the station, even though CCTV was already installed at the station before the work began. And he confirms that Metronet have indeed declared "practical completion" on Bow Road this month, although this doesn't mean that the work is finished. Not quite.
"I do wonder where the money has gone", says Diamond Geezer (he will not let the Standard use his real name. Perhaps he fears Metronet will come round and refurbish his flat).All in all the saga of Bow Road has been a litany of shame and profligate waste with no particularly worthy outcome. And I'm delighted, finally, to see this written in inch-high letters across London's evening paper. Today I can be fairly certain that my Bow Road diary, which started out as an obscure daily 'spot the difference' activity, has been brought to the attention of a readership of 1 million Londoners, including the top brass at Metronet and maybe a few other political movers and shakers too. Who says that blogging changes nothing?Indeed, Metronet's entire, much trumpeted 152-station refurbishment programme includes almost no improvements whatever in the thing that really matters on the Underground: capacity. The changes will be almost all cosmetic: new vinyl walls, new CCTV cameras, rumble-strips on platforms to help the partially-sighted. New escalators, new entrances, wider platforms or passageways are not on the menu. Given this company's difficulties to date with even quite simple tasks, perhaps from one perspective this is just as well. But it is one more example of how the PPP will fail to provide the Underground with the improvements it actually needs.And to my new Metronet audience today I say, "Please remember that there's still more work to be done at Bow Road, and I'm still watching you not doing it."Monday 27th June
