Crystal Palace train station

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Crystal Palace
The station building
The station building
Data
Location in the network Separation station
Design Wedge station
Platform tracks 6th
abbreviation CYP
IBNR 7000635
opening 1854
location
City / municipality London
London Borough London Borough of Bromley
Part of the country England
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 51 ° 25 '6 "  N , 0 ° 4' 21"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 25 '6 "  N , 0 ° 4' 21"  W.
Railway lines
List of train stations in the United Kingdom
i11 i16 i16 i18

The Crystal Palace railway station is a railway station and regional railway transport hub in the London Borough of Bromley and lies between the two districts Crystal Palace and Penge , named after the between 1851 and the fire in 1936 nearby Crystal Palace . The station is owned by Network Rail but operated by Southern . In addition to Southern trains, the London Overground also serves the station. It is located on the border of the Travelcard zones 3 and 4.

history

The station was built in 1854 by the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway (WEL & CPR) to develop the Crystal Palace after it was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill in 1851 . The main purpose of the station was to accommodate the flow of spectators to and from the palace. The trains were operated by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway . Initially it was the end point of a branch line from Sydenham, but was expanded to a through station in 1856 when the previous line was extended via West Norwood to Clapham Junction station. This required the construction of the 690-meter-long Crystal Palace Tunnel to pass under the palace, the excavation of which, despite its short length, was presented as a great achievement of its time, as the material to be excavated , clay minerals , and the palace itself presented difficult obstacles for the workers.

In 1857 a connecting clasp was built to Norwood Junction station on the Brighton Main Line , which was expanded a year later to include an extension to Beckenham Junction station on the North Kent Line . They separate at the level of the crossing-free crossing of the BML. The latter route is now shared in its eastern section by the Tramlink tram . The expansion turned Crystal Palace into a separation station. The separation of the lines from West Norwood after Sydenham and after Norwood Junction is in front of the station, so that it has the track plan of a wedge station with platforms at both junctions. In contrast to most wedge stations, however, the station building is not located between the tracks. Today's tracks 1 and 2 are on the route to Sydenham, tracks 3 to 7 are used for traffic to Norwood Junction / Beckenham Junction.

In 1860 direct trains to Victoria Station were offered for the first time . In 1875 the Victorian station building was converted for the first time. In 1898 it was renamed Crystal Palace (Low Level) in order to avoid confusion with the terminus of the same name, which was opened in 1865 and is now closed, of a branch of the Catford Loop Line that ended there and which also provided connections to Victoria. This station was renamed Crystal Palace (High Level) . It was located directly above the Crystal Palace tunnel, a track connection was not created.

The rail lines in the Crystal Palace / Norwood area, Railway Clearing House , 1908

In 1911 the line between Balham and Crystal Palace was electrified. The reason was the Festival of Empire held as part of the coronation of King George V in the Crystal Palace . The goal was to establish a connection with electric trains between Crystal Palace and Victoria, the travel time of which was a maximum of 15 minutes, a project that was never achieved. The high-level station was also put under voltage, the Victoria-Balham section had been electrified since 1903, when the South London Line was one of the first railway lines in the United Kingdom to be equipped with an overhead contact line.

On February 2, 1913 there was a spectacular buffer crossing in the station because the brake on a train with four cars failed. Its locomotive broke through a wall, injuring 9 people, including the stoker .

After the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire in 1936, the number of passengers at the station dropped rapidly and the direct trains of the BML were run via East Croydon and then directly to Clapham Junction, so that the platforms on the route to Norwood Junction became less important . The main entrance to the station was moved south in the 1980s to focus on the route to Sydenham, which is part of the Outer South London Line . As part of this renovation, the station also received a new counter hall. The design of the hall and the entrance are based on the semicircular roof of the central nave of the Crystal Palace. In 2002, Railtrack carried out further renovations worth £ 4 million .

In 1954 the high level train station was shut down and the low level train station got its original and present name back. There are rumors and legends about the closure , which say that a locomotive still exists in the tunnels today, or that the closure of the high-level train station is the result of an accident in which a passenger train was swallowed by the earth and the passengers to this day are trapped underground.

In 2010 the station became one of the southern endpoints of the extended East London Line , which since then has no longer been used by underground trains, but by overground trains. It uses one of the two head platforms that were originally built for ending trains and have not been used since the 1970s. In the course of the preparatory work for the East London Line, a new central platform was built between track 5 and track 6 instead of the previous structure , and the platform on the no longer used track 4 was demolished. The overground trains end either at the head platform platform 5 or at platform 3.

business

Operations at Crystal Palace Station are carried out by Southern and the London Overground. Four different train routes meet in Crystal Palace. Various Transport for London bus routes also serve the station.

Rail transport

Southern

In addition, individual trains of the Brighton Main Line from Brighton or Eastbourne to London Bridge pass through the station at peak times, but without making a scheduled stop.

London Overground

Bus transport

The TfL serves the station during the day with the bus services 157, 249, 358, 410 and 432 and at night with the night bus line N3.

future

Tramlink connection

The TfL was planning to expand the Tramlink network in the form of a fourth line, which would branch off the existing lines at the Harrington Road stop and lead via Anerley and Crystal Palace train station to the bus station on Crystal Palace Parade. Three different lines were discussed. The cost of construction was estimated at £ 170 million. In November 2008, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced that the project would be overturned and, if at all, would resume after Crossrail 2018 at the earliest .

New construction of the station

The extension of the East London Line gave the impetus for the project to build a new station in Crystal Palace. The overground trains have so far ended at a head platform, but should be better integrated into the station image. In addition, all platforms should be provided with disabled access. The project presented to Bromley Council includes the following construction measures:

  • Renovation of the reception building
  • Demolition of the counter hall built in the 1980s
  • Demolition of the walkways over tracks 1 and 2
  • Reactivation of the old main entrance and the old counter hall
  • Installation of three elevators on the platforms for disabled access
  • Platform roof over tracks 3 to 7

However, an exact target for the date of completion does not yet exist.

Web links

Commons : Crystal Palace Train Station  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Illustrated London News, November 1, 1856
  2. ↑ Ludwig Stockert : Railway Accidents (New Series) - Another contribution to railway operations theory . Berlin 1920, no.190.
  3. ^ Railway Consultancy opens new offices in Crystal Palace . railwayconsultancy.com. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  4. ^ Crystal Palace High Level & Upper Norwood Station . disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  5. ^ Croydon Tramlink extension . tfl.gov.uk. Archived from the original on March 16, 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  6. ↑ BBC News Online Tfl scraps project