Liverpool Street consultation opens as TfL recovers from cyber attack

Welcome back to This Week on the Railway. I'm Seb, and it's Sunday, 10 November 2024, the end of the 45th week of the year. Let's take a look at what's happened.

Britain's busiest station: London Liverpool Street, the gateway to the Great Eastern Mainline (Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich) and West Anglia Mainline (Stansted Airport, Cambridge), is in line for a long overdue upgrade.

Network Rail has launched a consultation. Their plans include enlarging the concourse to increase capacity, installing more ticket barriers, ensuring step-free access throughout the station, and adding more waiting lounges, among others.

This is not the first attempt to redevelop London Liverpool Street's passenger facilities. A previous scheme was presented in 2023, but was met with "significant objection from heritage organisations." How kindly they'll take to the suggestion of a new office building on top the concourse, I don't know — this is how Network Rail is proposing they will pay for the station improvements (presumably by leasing the office space).

The public consultation form closes on Wednesday, 4 December 2024. The formal planning application will be submitted after this.

(Some) systems online: Following a cyber incident against Transport for London, the transport giant has worked to restore their Oyster applications system with some success.

Those in need of a 18+ Student, 16–25 Care Leaver, or Apprentice Oyster photocard can apply for these online again. Online applications for 60+, and 5–10, 11–15, and 16+ Zip photocards are due to resume later this month.

In light of the incident, expired 5–10 and 11–15 Zip photocards will be accepted until 31 December 2024, after which point they must be renewed.

Real-time monitoring: Northern has fitted real-time remote condition monitoring (RCM) hardware to its Class 170 Turbostars to reduce reliance on manual engine checks. This should aid the train operating company in implementing a more proactive, predictive maintenance programme, in turn reducing the time that their Class 170s are taken out of service. It is another component of their 'Intelligent Trains' programme, launched in 2022.

Southeastern's big clean-up: Southeastern announced a £2 million station improvement and deep clean programme that will see over 100 stations visited in the next six months.

The planned improvements are fairly minor, with public areas and customer facilities being repainted, repaired, and replaced where needed. Deep cleans will take place alongside Southeastern's usual cleaning schedule.

Do you live near a Southeastern station? Want to know if you'll see any changes? The full list of stations to receive deep cleans and/or station improvements can be found on our article.

Powys collision: The Rail Accident and Investigation Branch have shared the findings of their preliminary examination of a passenger train collision near Talerddig, Powys, Wales that left one dead and 15 injured.

The main concern surrounds wheel/rail adhesion. The automatic sanding system of one of the trains, 1J25, was reportedly blocked, which would have prevented it from discharging sand. 1J25's on-train data recorder indicated wheel slip beginning during service braking and that this was constant after the emergency brake was applied.

1J25 and 1S71 thus collided.

It is imperative that the industry learns from its mistakes. A full investigation will now follow.

We extend our condolences to the affected passengers and families.

Conductor saves life: Northern have shared that Liam King, a conductor working for the company, saved the life of a passenger who fell unconscious on his service in September. He performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the passenger until paramedics arrived on the scene at Middlesborough station.

“I was just glad I could do my bit and she was all right,

“I knew CPR because I had been on a training course with my old job. It’s one of those things you never think you’re going to have to use but it obviously came in handy.

“I remained pretty calm when it was happening but afterwards I took a step back and realised what happened.

“Her partner was on the train a few weeks ago. He explained what happened and put her on the phone so she could thank me.”

Liam King, Conductor, Northern

And on that note, we'll wrap up this week's recap. See you next time.