Will Wembley Central station improvements match the dream?

Present entrance to Bakerloo and London Overground platforms

The Harrow Observer LINK reports that £2.5m is to be spent on Wembley Central Station in time for the Olympics. Regular readers will know that I have blogged regularly about the sad state of this 'allotment shed' on the modernised Central Square.

The money is to be spent on much needed access for the disabled including two lifts and a stair lift and making the toilets accessible. Two platforms will be extended to enable longer London Overground trains to stop there.

However there is no mention of improving communication between the Southern platforms which serve East Croydon-Shepherds Bush-Watford Junction and Milton Keynes route and the Bakerloo and Overground lines. At present you have to exit the station to change trains.

Present entrance to Southern train platforms

The original plans for the station were shelved when the money ran out.  The picture below shows what the new station was supposed to look like when the Central Square development was finished.

The original plan back in 2008

Wembley Southern Train Link: a little more official!

Since I publicised the Wembley Central Southern Trains route north to Milton Keynes (Platform 5) and south to Shepherd's Bush, Clapham Junction and East Croydon (Platform 6), here and in a letter to the Wembley Observer, there has been an increase in passenger traffic on the routes.

In a welcome and sensible step, station staff have now posted timetables at the rather forbidding entrances to Platform 6 (Southbound) and Platform 4 (Northbound). If changing from the Bakerloo or Overground you have go through the barriers to Central Square to access the Southern/London Midland platforms.  If you find the doors locked don't worry, they are opened just before the train is due. Trains in both directions leave just past the hour up to just after 9pm on weekdays, but finish earlier on Saturdays. They do not run on Sundays.

On Wednesday February 3rd I observed passenger traffic on the trains that depart just after 4pm. I counted 10 passenger boarding s the north bound train  and 22  the south bound service.