Albert Square and St Stephen’s Association

One of London’s first two ‘cycle superhighways’ is due to run along Clapham Road and should be operational along its full length from Merton to the City by the summer.  The scheme promises ‘a safe, fast, direct, continuous and comfortable way of getting from outer to central London by bike along recognised commuter routes’ according to Transport for London.

The routes promise clear blue markings for the cycle lanes themselves, together with smoother road surfaces and better safety measures.  It’s not yet clear how much practical difference this will make – the document listing the implementation works is decidedly vague for something which is already underway:  the statement that existing cycle lanes will be widened ‘where possible’ does not inspire immediate confidence, and continuous blue cycle lanes through juntions are only being trialled.  There is though some willingness, at least in principle, to think slightly more strategically about some of the bigger junctions:

A survey will be conducted to assess the impact of reducing the two lanes heading northbound towards the A3 at the Stockwell Gyratory to one lane, allowing the installation of a new segregated cycle lane at this location.

Meanwhile, of course, the existing London Cycle Network route 3 winds its way from Clapham Common to Waterloo along Aldebert Terrace and Stephen’s Terrace, dealing with busy main roads largely by avoiding them.  That’s the paler blue route on the map below – an extract from a larger map showing the whole route of the new cycle superhighway – which casually allows Meadow Road to cross South Lambeth Road to join up with Larkhall Lane, so let’s hope nobody tries to use it to find their way.

But how super will the cycle superhighway really be?  Andreas Kambanis, who blogs as the London Cyclist is not optimistic, comparing what, on past form, we are likely to get in London with the rather more ambitious plans for cycle superhighways in Copenhagen.  No prospect for us of copying the ‘green wave’ which means that cyclists travelling at a steady 20 kph will get green lights at each succeeding junction – but at least a recognition that cycling is increasingly one of London’s core modes of transport.

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As many residents are all too well aware, we live on top of the Victoria Line, a largely benign subterranean neighbour since its arrival forty years ago.  In the last few years, though, the level of noise and vibration has grown to the point where it is a serious problem for some people who live very close to the line of the route.  The map below shows the two Victoria Line tunnels coming down from the north (the right edge of the map) and starting to curve as they come in to Albert Square to line up with the Northern Line tunnels (at the bottom left of the map) for the parallel platforms at Stockwell.  Click on the map to see a much larger version.

Transport for London came to an ASSA meeting last month to explain what they were doing about the problem, but seemed to be slightly baffled by it.  Their normal approach is to grind the rails where excessive noise is being produced.  That was done last August – but without resulting in any reduction in noise.  They are considering what more they can do but it was pretty clear that they don’t have an specific ideas.    We will keep you informed about progress in discussions with TfL, but if you want to know more or if you are directly affected, please email assacan@assa.org.uk or call Chris on 07971 198555.

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The latest proposals for the development of Battersea Power Station include the idea of extending the Northern Line from Kennington through Nine Elms to a new station at the power station itself.  Given the track record of Battersea Power Station proposals – a special shuttle service to Victoria was proposed twenty years ago and never got off the drawing board – it’s anybody’s guess whether this will ever come to anything, but it does have some local implications.

The proposal takes advantage of TfL’s intention (discussed here last year) of splitting the Northern Line so that Charing Cross branch trains always turn round at Kennington, but extending the terminus out two stops.

If it were to happen, one effect would be to put us within ten to fifteen minutes’ walk of four different tube stations, as there is a proposal for an intermediate station at Nine Elms, which looks as though it is intended to go roughly in Sainsbury’s car park.  The other effect would be that of the tunnels:  they would run south west of Oval station coming under Fentiman Road and grazing the end of Richborne Terrace, turning to run due west as they cross under South Lambeth Road somewhere around Wilcox Close.  That’s almost certainly far enough away to avoid the problems we have with the Victoria Line – but the margin is not huge.

That’s all a bit of an approximation because the map on the power station website is tiny, but there are larger samizdat versions on the London Reconnections blog, which also has more of the background.

None of this will happen soon under any circumstances, and as things stand at the moment if feels pretty unlikely that it will ever happen at all.  But it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.

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