Stevenage: could we see a rebuild of the station, and could this lead to improved services?

[Fred26]

It's all in the main town, by the bus station, isn't it? The stuff over to the leisure park has gone on hold, if it ever got to any sort of planning stage?

Yes. There's a couple of other projects dotted elsewhere too.

At some point Stevenage station will need a rebuild. It does now, really. Visit in either peak and you'll see just how cramped it is. Narrow stairs lead to a bottle neck through the tiny booking hall, before passengers can exit through the small gate line. The toilets are pitiful, too. Anyway, the whole station building needs demolishing, and rebuilding on a much bigger scale. Platform 5 will practically be a separate station and so will hopefully force Network Rail and others, to come together and get the rebuild done.

 

[Aictos]

Would the new platform also mean a later service to London Monday to Saturday so instead of a 23:30 departure to London via Hertford you could terminate the 00:25 in Platform 5 and use it to form a 00:30 departure to London as the last stopping service to London.

Yes it will need retiming at Hertford but if the infrastructure is there, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be possible?

 

[Fred26]

Would the new platform also mean a later service to London Monday to Saturday so instead of a 23:30 departure to London via Hertford you could terminate the 00:25 in Platform 5 and use it to form a 00:30 departure to London as the last stopping service to London.

Yes it will need retiming at Hertford but if the infrastructure is there, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be possible?

Depends on the diagrams (driver, unit), but I would doubt it.

 

[Hadders]

Yes. There's a couple of other projects dotted elsewhere too.

At some point Stevenage station will need a rebuild. It does now, really. Visit in either peak and you'll see just how cramped it is. Narrow stairs lead to a bottle neck through the tiny booking hall, before passengers can exit through the small gate line. The toilets are pitiful, too. Anyway, the whole station building needs demolishing, and rebuilding on a much bigger scale. Platform 5 will practically be a separate station and so will hopefully force Network Rail and others, to come together and get the rebuild done.

I agree the current station is far too cramped. The gate line doesn't help or the new-ish departure boards installed at the refresh in the dying days of FCC which instead of being wall mounted (as they always had been) were moved to a gantry in front of the wall.

It might be possible to make a bit more space by:

Moving the toilets to the platforms (might also help with vandalism as the platforms are permanently manned)
Move the ticket offices to the closed down coffee shop on the lift side on the station.
Remove the Costs coffee unit
Knock out the ticket office and space occupied by the toilets and Costa unit to create more circulating space and a longer gate line.

Long term an additional set of steps needs to be provided to each platform. These could go where the current lifts are but you'd then have the issue of where to put replacement lifts, unless space could be found in the middle of the larger circulating space created by the above.

 

[TrafficEng]

But, there isn’t capacity on the ECML slow lines for any more services, short of slowing down the non Moorgate services on the slows to be all stations or thereabouts.

What this comes down to is the tension between longer-distance services and local services. In the past (and present?) there was a focus on ensuring the long-distance routes get priority and a generous share of of capacity. But within the places nearer to London the ECML passes through there are people wondering why locals are not getting a better service and why the system is facilitating people who choose to travel much longer distances to their workplace.

As the 'climate emergency' starts to bite I personally expect to see long-distance commuting becoming as socially unacceptable as drink-driving (even if you travel on an electric train). So just as transport planners talk of reallocation of roadspace from private cars to public transport and walking/cycling, then I can see a time coming where the capacity constraints of routes like ECML might be addressed by reallocation of railspace from long-distance to local.

Now this is has become a speculative thread, I could see the possibility of CR2 more or less taking over the slow lines to WGC, with services to/from places north of there largely confined to the fast lines (questionable if re-signalling + HS2 makes this feasible?). If CR2 perhaps captures most (all?) the existing services Moorgate-WGC at a point just north of Alexandra Palace then there is spare capacity between Moorgate and Alexandra Palace to be able to operate a more frequent service on the Hertford Loop.

I have no idea what the TfL planners are thinking right now. But I do know that what was once the Chelsea-Hackney line has turned decidedly more northwards. And that New Southgate doesn't scream out as the most obvious place to put a northern terminus.

 

[malc-c]

The problem in Stevenage is the town centre was a model for the 1960's/70's, but is well past its best before date. By modern standards the land-use planning is clunky. The principal shopping area is pedestrianised, but all at ground level leading to a long walk between shops at either end, and being open-air that walk is unpleasant in the rain or cold. I hope Stevenage-ites won't be offended if I refer to it as 'pretty grim'. In addition the older leisure facilities are dotted around the central area, apparently without too much thought. The railway station is severed from the town centre by a busy dual-carriageway, and this plus the railway sever the newer leisure facilities from the town centre. There is residential development in the centre, but again rather than being highly desirable flats within walking distance of a major station they are also 'pretty grim'.

What the town needs is a rationalisation of the land use, with modern (i.e. smaller) retail units all under cover, the leisure facilities regrouped, and the residential element reprovided in modern attractive blocks. There is considerable scope for densification with the existing sprawling shopping area (and ground-level car parking) being replaced with pure residential. And of course for the whole to be fully integrated into a modernised railway station as well as the leisure park beyond. I'm not sure how much of a factor internet shopping really is - some of the stores most likely to be impacted have already gone (e.g. M&S) leaving behind units which are useless in their current form. What remains is more to do with impulse buys and leisure-shopping.

As a result, the redevelopment is likely to be driven by money from the Government/LA and receipts from all the lovely residential development that can be crammed into the currently poorly used space. I believe the extent to which the wider economic situation will impact on that is not as great as some of the other posters appear to believe. But maybe I'm too much of an optimist.

My view is that Stevenage town centre is too large and will slim down to be smaller and more concentrated in area. We've already seen a number of shops close (e.g M&S and even the town centre branch of McDonalds!) These shops won't get replaced by other retailers, people go elsewhere or online for major shopping. That level of business is never coming back to the town centre.

We'll end up with more flats near the station. We've already seen it in small scale redevelopments (e.g the old land registry building) over the last few years but more will follow. I'd bet on the current library and the other former health service/council buildings nearby becoming residential. I could see new offices for the council - that will be more flats along with a couple of other office blocks (Swingate) and maybe a car park or two, and the bingo hall.

I have to agree with a lot of the points raised. I have to disagree with the suggestion of rebuilding the town centre as a new undercover building - This happened at WGC and the Howard Centre is just as deserted or full of phone / coffee shops and empty retail units as Stevenage town centre. The problem is that people's shopping habits have changed for the 21st century, to out of town retails parks. Stevenage's Roaring Meg retail park has all the big names, and with the convenience of large free car parking within a short walk of these stores, the town centre can not compete. All the old council buildings have been converted or developed into flats, which again are priced out of the reach of local first time buyers, and to be honest don't offer the nicest of views (who wants to look through their windows at the multi-story car park just feet way). Stevenage is a mess, but there is no means of redeveloping it as it should be as it needs commercial investors and those investors want a return on their money, which sadly wouldn't happen. Maybe this is why the additional station work for platform 5 seems more like a band-aid as a temporary measure rather than remodelling and rebuilding the whole station as part of the project.

But Stevenage isn't alone... a lot of town centres are struggling as retail habits change. A few years ago if I needed some 20mm quick blow fuses I would walk/drive down town and pop into Maplin Electronics. Now I order them from Amazon and they arrive early the next morning.... In the future town centres will just be places full of restaurants and coffee shops, with all the larger retail units converted into housing...because housing currently makes a financial return. There was recently an outcry as a proposal was put forward to demolish an iconic all glass office complex and build several tall tower blocks of flats on the land. The most recent development was the old John Lewis distribution centre which is now a Costco, but again, its out of town in the industrial area, has ample free parking for customers, and encourages people away from the town centre.

 

[Meerkat]

Like most town centres it just needs shrinking. Rezone the fringes to flats and concentrate on small and convenience shops and food places. If you surround the shops by flats you have thousands of customers for whom the shops are more convenient than online shopping for everyday stuff.

re extra stairs at the station - couldnt walkways be extended out round the lifts to reach extra stairs on the south side?

 

[TrafficEng]

I have to agree with a lot of the points raised. I have to disagree with the suggestion of rebuilding the town centre as a new undercover building - This happened at WGC and the Howard Centre is just as deserted or full of phone / coffee shops and empty retail units as Stevenage town centre.

WGC is slightly different because the old town centre contains a useful mix of sizes of retail unit, plus (at least at the time the Howard Centre opened) it was possible to park on-street (for free, if I remember correctly) outside almost all the shops. The Howard Centre also suffers from the fact that the John Lewis store is the principle attraction for shoppers coming to the town from the wider hinterland and the distance between them means people shopping at John Lewis are less likely to visit the Howard Centre at the same time. Compare that to (say) Brent Cross where people might go to get something from John Lewis, but then spend time in the shopping centre as well.

Moreover, it was never that clear to a lot of people what the Howard Centre was supposed to be. Competition with the Galleria (and the associated expensive debacle for the local council) demonstrates that it was probably one shopping centre too many in the district.

However, in light of the emerging 21st century patterns for retail/leisure it is well placed as somewhere commuters pass through on the way to/from the station with opportunities to grab food (for now or later) and a coffee. That is the model Stevenage ought to be aiming for.

The problem is that people's shopping habits have changed for the 21st century, to out of town retails parks.

That's only part of it though, and as you also pointed out internet shopping is also putting pressure on the out of town sites. What is happening is more of a holistic change in people's habits and lifestyle.

The 1960's Stevenage was built at a time where most of the shops would sell specific goods, and were more likely to be used by a "wife" who typically didn't work and instead spent time going from shop to shop buying each kind of product (e.g. meat, fish, groceries, fruit and veg they required.) They did so as quickly as possible in order to get home to do the washing, cleaning and cooking.

In the 80's and early 90's people predominantly switched to weekly supermarket shopping. The old-style town centre shops were repurposed for new activities with more focus on leisure and comparison shopping. One of the main things that remained in town centres were the banks though.

We are now in the process of moving on to a new phase where people are less likely to do a weekly shop, and also use the internet and delivery services, as well as online banking. So the reasons for going into a town centre are changing (again).

One of the key reasons remaining for going into a town centre is to get to a railway station (for those town centres that have one). For many places commuting is one of the only noticeable growth activities.

Maybe this is why the additional station work for platform 5 seems more like a band-aid as a temporary measure rather than remodelling and rebuilding the whole station as part of the project.

From what I can see it is a do-minimum scheme designed only to overcome an immediate operational problem (the excessive occupation of the down slow line by Hertford trains) experienced by the railway. There is no value added for passengers - or Stevenage itself - other than to have the previously suspended rail service to Hertford reinstated.

In that context the need to do it quickly and without bells and whistles is understandable. But it still feels like a 1980's railway stop-gap solution rather than something planned with the future in mind.

 

[edwin_m]

I saw an article somewhere saying the best way to regenerate town centres would be to build offices, as they generate a steady rent income and the workers will make use of local shops during their breaks. Offices in central Stevenage would have reasonable medium- and long-distance rail links for business visitors, but I suspect the workers would nearly all arrive by car.

 

[Ianno87]

I saw an article somewhere saying the best way to regenerate town centres would be to build offices, as they generate a steady rent income and the workers will make use of local shops during their breaks. Offices in central Stevenage would have reasonable medium- and long-distance rail links for business visitors, but I suspect the workers would nearly all arrive by car.

Not if the planning conditions for the offices restricts the available on-site parking.

 

[TrafficEng]

I saw an article somewhere saying the best way to regenerate town centres would be to build offices, as they generate a steady rent income and the workers will make use of local shops during their breaks. Offices in central Stevenage would have reasonable medium- and long-distance rail links for business visitors, but I suspect the workers would nearly all arrive by car.

Not if the planning conditions for the offices restricts the available on-site parking.

In which case Stevenage would end up with many new but empty office blocks.

For Stevenage town centre to be an attractive place for office space there would need to be ample car parking. The railway means anyone having access to a station in the area would be better off getting a train to London and a better paid job there. That leaves buses, walking and cycling. Stevenage is well provided for in terms of cycling facilities, but realistically offices will need to be attracting employees from a much wider catchment, which also makes walking of limited utility. Likewise with bus services- ok in the town, but not much further out.

I believe - as with many areas in Outer London and the surrounding area - the trend in Stevenage at the moment is for existing office space to be converted into flats. As the demand for offices is low, but the demand for housing is high.

 

[bramling]

Would the new platform also mean a later service to London Monday to Saturday so instead of a 23:30 departure to London via Hertford you could terminate the 00:25 in Platform 5 and use it to form a 00:30 departure to London as the last stopping service to London.

Yes it will need retiming at Hertford but if the infrastructure is there, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be possible?

Anything's possible, but with the current timetable the last 3x 717 services go forwards ECS to Letchworth carriage sidings to stable. Unless the stock balance is altered, with implications on what the drivers do, these three Letchworth stablers would need to be incorporated somewhere.

Given that there's already a fair few services which run ECS back from Hertford North to Hornsey and stable, is there any demand for such a late service?

 

[bramling]

WGC is slightly different because the old town centre contains a useful mix of sizes of retail unit, plus (at least at the time the Howard Centre opened) it was possible to park on-street (for free, if I remember correctly) outside almost all the shops. The Howard Centre also suffers from the fact that the John Lewis store is the principle attraction for shoppers coming to the town from the wider hinterland and the distance between them means people shopping at John Lewis are less likely to visit the Howard Centre at the same time. Compare that to (say) Brent Cross where people might go to get something from John Lewis, but then spend time in the shopping centre as well.

Moreover, it was never that clear to a lot of people what the Howard Centre was supposed to be. Competition with the Galleria (and the associated expensive debacle for the local council) demonstrates that it was probably one shopping centre too many in the district.

However, in light of the emerging 21st century patterns for retail/leisure it is well placed as somewhere commuters pass through on the way to/from the station with opportunities to grab food (for now or later) and a coffee. That is the model Stevenage ought to be aiming for.


That's only part of it though, and as you also pointed out internet shopping is also putting pressure on the out of town sites. What is happening is more of a holistic change in people's habits and lifestyle.

The 1960's Stevenage was built at a time where most of the shops would sell specific goods, and were more likely to be used by a "wife" who typically didn't work and instead spent time going from shop to shop buying each kind of product (e.g. meat, fish, groceries, fruit and veg they required.) They did so as quickly as possible in order to get home to do the washing, cleaning and cooking.

In the 80's and early 90's people predominantly switched to weekly supermarket shopping. The old-style town centre shops were repurposed for new activities with more focus on leisure and comparison shopping. One of the main things that remained in town centres were the banks though.

We are now in the process of moving on to a new phase where people are less likely to do a weekly shop, and also use the internet and delivery services, as well as online banking. So the reasons for going into a town centre are changing (again).

One of the key reasons remaining for going into a town centre is to get to a railway station (for those town centres that have one). For many places commuting is one of the only noticeable growth activities.



From what I can see it is a do-minimum scheme designed only to overcome an immediate operational problem (the excessive occupation of the down slow line by Hertford trains) experienced by the railway. There is no value added for passengers - or Stevenage itself - other than to have the previously suspended rail service to Hertford reinstated.

In that context the need to do it quickly and without bells and whistles is understandable. But it still feels like a 1980's railway stop-gap solution rather than something planned with the future in mind.

This is an excellent and informative post. One thing to add is that the last decade has seen a considerable expansion in the "out of town" retail parks, which in Stevenage's case aren't really out of town at all, but all focused in a particular area south of the town centre. The advent of a new Debenhams in one of the retail parks has furthered this. With Stevenage already being an incredibly car-centric town, this has provided further competition to the traditional town centre. I'd suggest the town centre would have died entirely were it not for Tesco's (itself rather unusually located at one end of the town centre) and in particular its large car park which has traditionally provided free and easy medium-stay parking for the whole town centre!

 

[Bald Rick]

What this comes down to is the tension between longer-distance services and local services. In the past (and present?) there was a focus on ensuring the long-distance routes get priority and a generous share of of capacity. But within the places nearer to London the ECML passes through there are people wondering why locals are not getting a better service and why the system is facilitating people who choose to travel much longer distances to their workplace.

As the 'climate emergency' starts to bite I personally expect to see long-distance commuting becoming as socially unacceptable as drink-driving (even if you travel on an electric train). So just as transport planners talk of reallocation of roadspace from private cars to public transport and walking/cycling, then I can see a time coming where the capacity constraints of routes like ECML might be addressed by reallocation of railspace from long-distance to local.

Now this is has become a speculative thread, I could see the possibility of CR2 more or less taking over the slow lines to WGC, with services to/from places north of there largely confined to the fast lines (questionable if re-signalling + HS2 makes this feasible?). If CR2 perhaps captures most (all?) the existing services Moorgate-WGC at a point just north of Alexandra Palace then there is spare capacity between Moorgate and Alexandra Palace to be able to operate a more frequent service on the Hertford Loop.

I have no idea what the TfL planners are thinking right now. But I do know that what was once the Chelsea-Hackney line has turned decidedly more northwards. And that New Southgate doesn't scream out as the most obvious place to put a northern terminus.

We will have to disagree on all of this.

With the ‘climate emergency’ most likely impact is a switch from air to rail for long distance traffic. Given that Edinburgh to London is the single greatest U.K. domestic air flow, you can expect more long distance traffic, not less. HS2 would help to solve this, if the NE branch is built.

Secondly, there is zero chance of Crossrail 2 taking the slow lines over north of New Southgate. For lots of reasons - Welwyn - New Southgate would lose its direct link to the city, there wouldn’t be capacity on the CR2 trains through Zone 1, it would be physically difficult (both joining the railways up and rebuilding lots of stations for 250m trains, and it would require service reductions on the ECML proper.

 

[TrafficEng]

We will have to disagree on all of this.

Quite happy to do so, it is to a large degree crystal ball gazing and it is always difficult to work out whose ball is best.

What I would say though is about 15 years ago I sat in a meeting room and made a prediction the Chelsea-Hackney line would never go to Hackney. Cue much laughter and a little derision. The learning point for the people in that room would be that priorities and circumstances change, and in a changing world what once seemed certain and absolute might not be tomorrow.

With the ‘climate emergency’ most likely impact is a switch from air to rail for long distance traffic. Given that Edinburgh to London is the single greatest U.K. domestic air flow, you can expect more long distance traffic, not less. HS2 would help to solve this, if the NE branch is built.

Just to clarify the point I was making, I believe there is going to be a significant change in attitude towards travelling full stop. Another potential outcome is that instead of there being a mass mode-shift, the total number of trips might fall. To most of us - living in a time where travel has become easier and cheaper - the concept of people travelling less seems quite alien. But there are precedents where people's expectations have radically changed as a result of external influences.

People should note the blog post by Dominic Cummings the other day. The people he is seeking to recruit are not those who will want more of the same. He wants people who will turn conventional thinking upside down. And whilst some people will dismiss his views as right-wing claptrap, the kind of thinking he is talking about will be familiar claptrap to many who've been around the civil service in the last 15 years or so.

More specifically, some pro-railers see rail hovering up a large percentage of car-based trips in addition to air travel. The primary basis for this is usually that rail travel is cleaner than car or air travel. Congestion is also a factor for car trips, particularly those associated with commuting. But what if all three modes are powered by electricity[/hydrogen] (the 'clean' argument is undermined) and what if people's work/life patterns change so they don't all need to rush to work at 9am and back home at 5pm (the 'congestion' argument is undermined).

My expectation is the cost of alternative fuels and/or carbon taxes will drive down demand for travel and mode shift won't be anywhere near as dramatic as people expect. The aviation industry is not going to sit back and wait until the environmentalists make them extinct.

Secondly, there is zero chance of Crossrail 2 taking the slow lines over north of New Southgate. For lots of reasons - Welwyn - New Southgate would lose its direct link to the city, there wouldn’t be capacity on the CR2 trains through Zone 1, it would be physically difficult (both joining the railways up and rebuilding lots of stations for 250m trains, and it would require service reductions on the ECML proper.

I'm curious about the physical difficulty of connecting CR2 to ECML. There is a lot of land in railway/public ownership either side of the line here, part of which is earmarked for a depot, or at least it was the last time I looked (which admittedly was a while ago). I'd assumed CR2 would be on the surface by this point. And wasn't this section once six-track? I'd be surprised if there wasn't enough wiggle room to make the physical connection somehow.

 

[malc-c]

I saw an article somewhere saying the best way to regenerate town centres would be to build offices, as they generate a steady rent income and the workers will make use of local shops during their breaks. Offices in central Stevenage would have reasonable medium- and long-distance rail links for business visitors, but I suspect the workers would nearly all arrive by car.

I would have to disagree about building more office complexes for Stevenage. It already has a large modern looking complex with on site car parking that is situated just beyond the station car park. It has remained empty for the past year or so, and as mentioned above, been the subject of a planning application to demolish it and build tower blocks of flats on the land.

The old Fujitsu building (again just a couple of minutes walk from the station) was developed into flats rather than refurbished back into offices.

Part of Stevenage's problem lies in its original design. The railway station was located close to the main bus terminal station, with the shops close to hand. The housing was then built outwards, starting with the Bedwell area between sixhills and fairlands way. Industry was segregated away from the town and housing, being developed to the west of the railway line, resulting in the daily east to west and then west to east commute between home and work. Some firms set up closer to the railway / bus station which made Stevenage the ideal commuting town, but now with the way these buildings, and others are all being converted into accommodation, the commute is more probably out of Stevenage into London or north to Peterborough or out to Royston.

 

[edwin_m]

I would have to disagree about building more office complexes for Stevenage. It already has a large modern looking complex with on site car parking that is situated just beyond the station car park. It has remained empty for the past year or so, and as mentioned above, been the subject of a planning application to demolish it and build tower blocks of flats on the land.

The old Fujitsu building (again just a couple of minutes walk from the station) was developed into flats rather than refurbished back into offices.

Part of Stevenage's problem lies in its original design. The railway station was located close to the main bus terminal station, with the shops close to hand. The housing was then built outwards, starting with the Bedwell area between sixhills and fairlands way. Industry was segregated away from the town and housing, being developed to the west of the railway line, resulting in the daily east to west and then west to east commute between home and work. Some firms set up closer to the railway / bus station which made Stevenage the ideal commuting town, but now with the way these buildings, and others are all being converted into accommodation, the commute is more probably out of Stevenage into London or north to Peterborough or out to Royston.

The think I read was general and not specific to Stevenage, for which I bow to your better knowledge I guess there would be reverse commuting to Cambridge too, given all we hear about pressure on housing there.

 

[Bald Rick]

I'm curious about the physical difficulty of connecting CR2 to ECML. There is a lot of land in railway/public ownership either side of the line here, part of which is earmarked for a depot, or at least it was the last time I looked (which admittedly was a while ago). I'd assumed CR2 would be on the surface by this point. And wasn't this section once six-track? I'd be surprised if there wasn't enough wiggle room to make the physical connection somehow.

There were possibly 6 tracks in the New Southgate station area up to the proposed depot, but certainly not by the time Barnet Tunnel is reached. It’s not so long ago it was only two tracks from New Barnet to Potters Bar, of course.

CR2 (if it ever gets to New Southgate) would be on the surface, and to the east of the existing tracks. It must be that side to access the proposed depot north of the terminus. There would then need to be a flyover to get up and over the main line from the north end of that depot before Barnet Tunnel, and there’s not enough distance to gain the necessary height. Strictly speaking it would be possible, but it would likely mean another bore of the tunnel. It all gets very expensive, and doesn’t solve any of the problems as mentioned above. To increase frequency to suburban stations on both branches it would be far easier to buy a few more trains and fit ATO to the section between Ally Pally and Moorgate. There’s no reason why a total of 20tph wouldn’t be possible.



Re the environmental point and mode share when cars go electric - there will be very few people making daily commuting journeys by train who factor environmental issues I need their decision. For most it is cost, time, convenience.

 

[bramling]

I would have to disagree about building more office complexes for Stevenage. It already has a large modern looking complex with on site car parking that is situated just beyond the station car park. It has remained empty for the past year or so, and as mentioned above, been the subject of a planning application to demolish it and build tower blocks of flats on the land.

The old Fujitsu building (again just a couple of minutes walk from the station) was developed into flats rather than refurbished back into offices.

Part of Stevenage's problem lies in its original design. The railway station was located close to the main bus terminal station, with the shops close to hand. The housing was then built outwards, starting with the Bedwell area between sixhills and fairlands way. Industry was segregated away from the town and housing, being developed to the west of the railway line, resulting in the daily east to west and then west to east commute between home and work. Some firms set up closer to the railway / bus station which made Stevenage the ideal commuting town, but now with the way these buildings, and others are all being converted into accommodation, the commute is more probably out of Stevenage into London or north to Peterborough or out to Royston.

This is all pretty spot on IME. Stevenage has two waves of commute outwards, a mass army of white van man types at the very start of the morning peak, followed by a wave of more office types - a large proportion of this traffic will be accessing the A1(M). Meanwhile there’s a mass wave into the industrial area in the morning, which all seems to leave at 1700 on the dot.

Welwyn suffers a similarly concentrated evening peak, much of which centres around its own industrial area, but made worse by a lot of traffic detouring to avoid the congested section of the motorway.

Any incident on the motorway or on one of the major routes and the entire Welwyn / Stevenage / Hitchin / Letchworth area can gridlock very quickly indeed.

 

[TrafficEng]

This is an excellent and informative post. One thing to add is that the last decade has seen a considerable expansion in the "out of town" retail parks, which in Stevenage's case aren't really out of town at all, but all focused in a particular area south of the town centre....

Thanks bramling. I agree with your comments about the retail parks. In effect they have further stretched the already elongated town centre making it impractical to reach all stores on foot. Arguably the town centre starts with the Broadwater Tesco and finishes at Aldi, with then just a short hop to the old town.

The original thread started off with the news of the loop service being cut back temporarily, and I believe at one point there was a speculative discussion about having a temporary station to minimise the inconvenience for passengers. In fact this issue of Stevenage being 'stretched' means there is some logic in having a station to the south of the town, although it isn't obvious where to put it to make it useful for the retail park, yet served by trains to/from platform 5.

Welwyn suffers a similarly concentrated evening peak, much of which centres around its own industrial area, but made worse by a lot of traffic detouring to avoid the congested section of the motorway.

Any incident on the motorway or on one of the major routes and the entire Welwyn / Stevenage / Hitchin / Letchworth area can gridlock very quickly indeed.

Again, I agree with all of this. I think it was disgraceful that so much money was spent on the junction 6 scheme a few years back without making any actual improvement. It is such a clear example of where widening to three lanes is necessary from junction 6 to 7, and ideally all the way to junction 8. And proper widening, not just hard-shoulder running. This needs to be done in addition to public transport improvements, not as an 'either/or'.

 

[Bald Rick]

Again, I agree with all of this. I think it was disgraceful that so much money was spent on the junction 6 scheme a few years back without making any actual improvement. It is such a clear example of where widening to three lanes is necessary from junction 6 to 7, and ideally all the way to junction 8. And proper widening, not just hard-shoulder running. This needs to be done in addition to public transport improvements, not as an 'either/or'.

Work to convert the A1(M) to three lane all lane running starts in March. 2 years of roadworks.

 

[bramling]

Work to convert the A1(M) to three lane all lane running starts in March. 2 years of roadworks.

Which will cause total and utter chaos, delivering a scheme which will still be rather vulnerable to events like breakdowns.

Whilst there is an argument to say that widening this section may simply move the problems elsewhere, what will no doubt happen is the road will simply fill to capacity immediately with people who currently use local rat runs (in some cases doing some quite hefty detours just to “keep moving”). There is some pressure growing locally for a proper scheme, but this may likely run out of time if the March date isn’t put back.

Glad I don’t live in Knebworth or Codicote!

It doesn’t help that every other change carried out to this section of the A1(M) has made the flow of traffic on the motorway worse, right down the design of some of the entry slips (for example the northbound entry approaching the Hatfield Tunnel forces joining traffic into the middle lane, or the way the southbound start of the three lane section at Welwyn has the additional lane commence on the left side, again encouraging traffic into the third lane which shouldn’t really be there). No wonder barely a day goes by without a major accident on this road.

 

[Bald Rick]

Which will cause total and utter chaos, delivering a scheme which will still be rather vulnerable to events like breakdowns.

Whilst there is an argument to say that widening this section may simply move the problems elsewhere, what will no doubt happen is the road will simply fill to capacity immediately with people who currently use local rat runs (in some cases doing some quite hefty detours just to “keep moving”). There is some pressure growing locally for a proper scheme, but this may likely run out of time if the March date isn’t put back.

Glad I don’t live in Knebworth or Codicote!

It doesn’t help that every other change carried out to this section of the A1(M) has made the flow of traffic on the motorway worse, right down the design of some of the entry slips (for example the northbound entry approaching the Hatfield Tunnel forces joining traffic into the middle lane, or the way the southbound start of the three lane section at Welwyn has the additional lane commence on the left side, again encouraging traffic into the third lane which shouldn’t really be there). No wonder barely a day goes by without a major accident on this road.

Yes the layout of that lane gain is rather odd. There must be a reason for it, I wonder what it is.

The roadworks will no doubt be painful, although in theory with a lower speed restriction the road should have higher capacity. When it’s done, and with Active Traffic Management, the capacity of the road at peak times will be around 70% higher.

 

[TrafficEng]

Yes the layout of that lane gain is rather odd. There must be a reason for it, I wonder what it is.

I've always assumed it was a combination of geometry and also the lane gain being on the approach to the J6 exit slip.

If traffic queues back from junction 6 and is blocking lane 1 then with the lane gain of 2 into 2+3 you have the problem of through traffic in lane 1 needing to move into lane 2 in the area in which people from lane 2 are also sorting themselves out between 2 and 3. There is then an accident risk from the conflicting 1->2 and 3->2 lane change movements.

The lane gain being on the left means lane 1 traffic sorts itself between the new 1 and 2 without conflict with the 2->3 transition. The only issue is for vehicles not permitted to be in lane 3 needing to move over to 2.

Ideally the lane gain would be in the form of a dedicated lane to exit at junction 6 and then reappearing the other side of the junction. But as the long climb for Digswell Hill starts before you get to junction 6, lane 1 is probably also necessary as a through lane here, functioning as a quasi-crawler lane for heavy vehicles as the gradient increases.

I remember the northbound lane drop being swapped from the right to left (I guess around 2005?) so would imagine if the southbound layout was deemed unacceptable then it would have been altered at the same time.

 

[Peter Kelford]

Looking at the place, replacing the flat-level carpark with a multilevel one will free up some space, as would building the ticket hall onto the bridge over the dual carriageway...

 

[Railwaysceptic]

There were possibly 6 tracks in the New Southgate station area up to the proposed depot, but certainly not by the time Barnet Tunnel is reached. It’s not so long ago it was only two tracks from New Barnet to Potters Bar, of course.

As a small boy I used to train spot at New Southgate Station in the mid 1950s. There were six tracks at the station. The fasts and slows were as now. At the east side of the station a small goods shed, on a platform if memory serves correctly, manned by a single member of staff had its own running line while a second ran between that and the up slow. Most of the freight trains did not stop but went through the station very slowly as they had to join the up slow to negotiate New Southgate Tunnel. Steam locomotives in those days, of course, including 9Fs!