Whitechapel Station is closed this weekend as part of the £16 billion Crossrail ‘super tube’ construction, passengers in east London are warned. London Underground’s District and Hammersmith & City services and the Overground are running non-stop through the station tomorrow (Sat) and Sunday.
The old ticket hall and station entrance closes after the last train tonight.
A temporary station entrance and ticket hall opens on Monday on the corner of Court Street and Durward Street, behind Whitechapel Road, which will be used until 2018 when the new station complex opens with Crossrail.
New pedestrian improvements around the temporary entrance are being laid out by Tower Hamlets council this weekend. Court Street is being pedestrianised with new paving, bollards and lamp-posts.
The pedestrian crossing in Whitechapel Road is being shifted closer to Court Street and some bus stops are being moved.
Crossrail will also be carrying out audio and evacuation testing in the station during the early hours of Sunday, January 24, between 1am and 5.30am, residents are being advised.
The tiny Victorian station entrance and ticket hall in the Whitechapel Road, first opened in 1871 when the station was built on the East London Line between Shoreditch and New Cross, is being replaced with a three-way transport interchange.
It will connect the new Crossrail—with its direct 35-minute link to Heathrow Airport—to the London Underground and Overground directly.
The new Crossrail line going east from the City and West End divides at Whitechapel, with one branch to go to Stratford and Shenfield, the other to Canary Wharf and under the Thames to Abbey Wood.
The new transport hub is also part of the Whitechapel Masterplan to transform the run-down district into a modern, 21st century town centre, with a new shopping precinct and a new Tower Hamlets council civic centre on the site of the old London Hospital opposite.
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