North London Railway Infrastructure Project
For many years the North London Line (NLL) was ‘London’s forgotten railway’, perceived as ‘shabby, unreliable, unsafe and overcrowded’. The need for improvement became all the more pressing when in July 2005 London won the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, as the line was a key route to the Olympic Park at Stratford.
In February 2009, London Overground and Network Rail signed an agreement to deliver the North London Railway Infrastructure Project (NLRIP) to design and implement their agreed joint proposals to address the immediate issues on the route and accommodate future traffic growth. The two year programme of works was funded by London Overground, Network Rail and the Olympic Delivery Authority with Network Rail and London Overground forming a partnership to manage this complex and challenging project.
The project won a number of awards and commendations including being voted Project of the Year at the National Rail Awards 2011.
North London Railway Infrastructure Project
This complex project, which took 3.5 million person hours to complete, included:
- upgrading 4 stations
- lengthening 16 platforms
- replacing 69 sets of points
- installing and commissioning 200 new signals
- closing 4 signal boxes and transferring control to an integrated electronic control centre
- laying more than of 200km of signalling cable
- laying 10km of new track
- installing or renewing 14km of overhead line
- diverting a Victorian sewer running under and parallel to the original 1800’s track into a new and deeper alignment
- extensive cutting wall stabilisation works
- planning 850 possessions.
North London Railway Infrastructure Project
The project created a rejuvenated, modern, efficient railway, serving both passenger and freight on a key part of London’s overground rail network. The key outputs were:
- a more frequent passenger service: four trains per hour during peak periods on each of the Stratford-Richmond and Stratford-Clapham Junction routes, providing eight trains an hour between Willesden Junction and Stratford
- maintenance of existing capacity for freight traffic (four trains per hour)
- extension of the East London Line to Highbury and Islington to create an interchange with the North London Line
- infrastructure to enable longer passenger trains to run
- greater reliability and better connections for the 2012 Games.
North London Railway Infrastructure Project
Client: London Overground
Location: London, UK
Start date: 2009
End date: 2011
Duration: 27 months
Contract value: £350m
Services provided: Whole railway upgrade, programme management, timetabling, railway performance & whole life cost analysis