Canary Wharf railway station

Design and construction

The station is located beneath and within the West India North Dock on an artificial island and extends from east of the Docklands Light Railway bridge to the east end of the dock. It stands within a 475 m long concrete box with a 245 m long island platform. It is fitted out to 210 m with the potential for extension should the need to operate longer trains arise.

Original design

The main access point for the Crossrail station was initially going to be the rebuilt Great Wharf Bridge. From this entrance there would have been a set of escalators to the concourse level, which would have been located underwater. Another bank of escalators would take passengers to the platforms.

Construction of the station was to predominantly take place on Hertsmere Road, which runs parallel to the West India North Dock. This would have involved digging a 9 m wide shaft to the station depth of 30 m below the dock water-level to enable crew and equipment to begin boring the box that would form the station. The construction including fit-out and commissioning of the Hertsmere Road shaft was expected to take approximately four years whilst the same would take five years for the station.

Redesign and construction

In December 2008 an extra £150 million of funding from the Canary Wharf Group was announced for the station with work due to commence in January 2009. As part of the deal Canary Wharf Group substantially redesigned the station, incorporating a large shopping centre and a park above the platforms situated in the middle of the dock. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091230195117/http://www.canarywharf.com/media/media_news_t.asp?id=398 |archive-date=30 December 2009

A ground-breaking ceremony for the station development was held on 15 May 2009.

Throughout 2009 the main focus was on installing 293 interlocking steel piles 18.5 m high and 1.2 m wide into the dock floor using ten-storey high piling cranes and Giken piling machines to form a cofferdam. As part of this, 38 m deep reinforced concrete piles were placed through each of the 293 tubes.

On 11 February 2010 Sadiq Khan, then Transport Minister, activated pumps designed to drain nearly 100 million litres (100000000 L) from the work site over the following six weeks. The pumps transferred water from inside the site's cofferdam to the North Dock at a maximum rate of 13500 L per minute.

A station 'box' was constructed in a dry environment in a similar technique to that used in the construction of the nearby Canary Wharf Underground station. Crossrail Place is the structure above the platforms and was partly opened on 1 May 2015. In September 2015, the station construction was completed and the focus has shifted to fitting the station screen doors, ticket machines and other things before the station is scheduled for opening.

The station project became the subject of a dispute between Crossrail and developer Canary Wharf Group after Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild said work was inadequate. The station "had to have a wholesale retrofit, particularly in the safety systems," and Wild said the station required an extra £80m to fix. Canary Wharf Group dismissed the comments as "an attempt to pass blame for the delays on Crossrail". Wild said: "The key issues [at Canary Wharf] have been the quality of the electrical installation [redacted phrase] and the extensive safety critical upgrade work that has been required." The work was completed and handed over in January 2022, ahead of the official opening as part of the beginning of services between Paddington and Abbey Wood on 24 May 2022.

Ownership

Whilst the Elizabeth line operates services at the station as a train operating company and forms a part of National Rail, all infrastructure is owned and maintained by Transport for London and not by Network Rail.

Services

All services at Canary Wharf are operated by the Elizabeth line using EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:

• 8 tph to
• 4 tph to of which 2 continue to
• 4 tph to

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours, increasing the service to up to 12 tph in each direction.

References

References

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8. Lydall, Ross. (2022-05-23). "Elizabeth line is 'game changer' for Canary Wharf, says estate boss".
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11. (24 December 2008). "Crossrail given £150m fund boost". BBC News.
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