London & South East

New milestone for Crossrail

Pudding Mill Lane station, Crossrail

Designed to transform rail transport across London, Crossrail is a £14.8bn project that covers 38 designated stations with the aim of increasing capacity, supporting regeneration and cutting journey times.

Once completed, nine new stations will have been created as part of the project, including Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, Woolwich and Custom House.

Work started on Crossrail in May 2009 and once work is complete in late 2018 an additional 1.5 million people will be able to access key areas of the capital within just 45 minutes. The project has now successfully passed the halfway point and within months of doing so unveiled the new Docklands Light Railway (DLR) Pudding Mill Lane station.

The new Pudding Mill Lane station iscurrently the largest station on the DLR network and officially opened to the public in April 2014. The station, along with ‘double-tracked’ rails that link it to the wider DLR network, boosts capacity to enable the railway to carry an extra 1,100 passengers per hour and delivers improved service reliability on the increasingly popular route between Stratford and Canary Wharf/Lewisham.

Pudding Mill Lane station, Crossrail

Transport for London’s DLR Director, Rory O’Neill, said:

The new station at Pudding Mill Lane is a great asset to commuters, local residents and to visitors to this part of the capital. With the largest capacity on the DLR network the station will provide excellent access for people travelling to new entertainment venues in the area and to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.”

The Pudding Mill Lane station project was undertaken with Crossrail, which has moved the location of the previous station to make room for a tunnel portal for one of its new lines, as part of Europe’s largest infrastructure project.

From the end of 2018, Crossrail trains will emerge from the new tunnels at Pudding Mill Lane and join existing rail lines through northeast London to Essex. DLR passengers will be able to interchange with Crossrail, London Underground, London Overground and National Rail at Stratford station.

Pudding Mill Lane station, Crossrail

In a major piece of civil engineering, Crossrail’s works involved building the new Weston Williamson-designed station, as well as a tunnel portal and approach ramp. Careful management of works was required because of the site’s close proximity to vital sewerage and power utilities, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, live National Rail and DLR lines and an entry portal for Crossrail tunnel boring machines heading towards the City.

Andrew Wolstenholme, Crossrail Chief Executive, said:

The team is very proud to have delivered this new piece of infrastructure on time and within budget. This was a large and challenging project with the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, Great Eastern Mainline, DLR and several crucial London utilities all on our doorstep. It required sophisticated engineering and construction work and a great deal of communication and collaboration to get to this point. It is another great example of what can be achieved by working well together.”

Pudding Mill Lane station, Crossrail

 

For more information about Crossrail, please visit: www.crossrail.co.uk.

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