Clapham Junction railway station

Clapham Junction is a railway station in southwest London, more precisely in the district of Battersea, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. The station is considered the largest and busiest airport in the UK. Every day more than 2,000 trains pass through this station, mainly suburban trains, most of which hold here also. In the year 2011 there were 19.671 million passengers the station.

Operation

All trains that terminate at the Waterloo, Clapham Junction happen, as nearly all trains with the endpoint Victoria. The trains of the railway companies South West Trains, Gatwick Express and Southern operate this station on their way to southern and southwestern England. In Clapham Junction, the West London Line branches off, which leads to the western city center around to the north, on the courses of the Society of London Overground.

Plant

The station has 16 crossing tracks, numbered 2-17 (track 1 was shut down and dismantled ) and are composed of two groups: the first group with the tracks 2 to 6 shows in southwestern direction ( Richmond / Hounslow ), the second group ( tracks 7 to 17 ) in a southerly direction ( to Wimbledon / Croydon ). Both groups are separated by fan-shaped branching service tracks that lead to a Abstellgelände west of the station.

The main entrance is located on the street St. John 's Hill on the south side of the plant. A mere 4.6 meter wide pedestrian tunnel leads at the western end of the tracks to the other side. The northern exit is not opened permanently. During rush hour, there is quite a crowd here. In contrast, provides a covered pedestrian bridge over the eastern side of the tracks a lot of space. However, there are from there is no direct access to the station building.

History

Before the railroad era the area was specialized to the present station very rural and on the cultivation of lavender for the perfume industry. The hill east of the station is called Lavender Hill ( Lavender Hill). The station was built in 1863 as a joint project of the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. That created a transfer possibility to four railway lines which had been opened in 1838-1860 and branched in the area. Extensions of the station were inaugurated in 1874 and 1876.

The station was located halfway between the towns of Battersea and Clapham. While primarily thought of dirty industry and impoverished workers in the name of Battersea, Clapham was a nice residential area with high land prices. The railway companies, who wanted above all to attract customers from the middle and upper classes, therefore, decided to choose the more attractive as Clapham station name. The new station accelerated the development of the surrounding area. 1840, there were 6,000 people, in 1910 there were already 168,000.

In a report in the SBB News Journal of December 1976 The following values ​​are called in a report on this station: Thus, the number of moves is given within 24 hours with around 2400. Among them are about 150 freight trains that move here from Kensington - line in another part of the network. The majority are passenger trains, most of which use one of the 20 tracks, which lead towards London. For the operation of points were up 14 interlocking officials at the same time in the service ( still partly mechanical switches). In addition, at this time a year around seven million tickets were sold.

On the morning of 12 December 1988 to the southwest of the station a serious accident (see also railway accident at Clapham Junction ) occurred. In a collision of three suburban trains 35 people were killed and seriously injured more than 100 in some cases. It was the worst in a series of train accidents in the area of ​​Clapham junction between 1986 and 1997., The increased number of collisions and derailments was due to the extremely high stress on the outdated track and signaling systems. In the late 1990s they started their rehabilitation. The modernization was completed in May 2011 with the opening of a new entrance and nine lifts.

Future

• As of 2012, the line network the London Overground is extended by the Inner South London Line, so now also trains which operate on the East London Line, can be run from Clapham Junction.
• The construction of a branch line of the railway Chelsea - Hackney also Clapham Junction should be connected to the Crossrail 2 from 2027. Either the line is built as a railway line, then train movements were led by outside London via Wimbledon and Clapham Junction from the city center, or it is being built as a subway, which Clapham Junction would first connected to a London Underground line. On the Tube line network the station is recorded only since 2008 thanks to the presentation of the Overground network.