Stratford City development

A large redevelopment of the 180ha former railway land site, centered on Stratford International station, would see various transport improvements put into place.

Stratford is set to become an even more important transport hub in the future. It is already served by One Great Eastern and North London Line overground services along with London Underground's Central and Jubilee Lines and the Docklands Light Railway. In the future, One West Anglia will run new hourly services to Stratford and Stansted, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link will open a new station at Stratford International with high-speed services to Kent, France and Belgium, and the DLR will be extended from Canning Town via West Ham to Stratford and Stratford International.

The new development uses the old railway lands which have now been taken over by London & Continental Railways for their Stratford International station.

4,500 homes will be provided for over 11,000 people, with 465,000 m² of commercial space and a new town centre with over 120 shop units. Construction would start in 2006 if the planning application is accepted.

View the aerial impression of the new development.

A new ticket office on the northern side of Stratford Regional (the current) station would be provided together with a new bus station. A significant number of parking spaces will be provided for the shopping centre, and there will be cycle lanes throughout the site. The new bus station, outside the Regional station northern entrance, will be at the southern end of the main street through the heart of the development; at the northern end will be Stratford International station with new CTRL and DLR services.

A large new pedestrian bridge will link the new development to the existing Stratford centre at Meridian Square, passing over Stratford Regional station.

In addition to the new northern ticket hall and entrance mentioned above, an additional platform will be created for westbound Central line trains, so that doors on both sides of the train open when it stops. Mainline platforms will be widened.

Additional lifts and stairs will be provided to all platforms in the station to prepare for the Paralympics in 2012. A new mezzanine gate line will be created so that step-free access is available between the Central line and the new DLR platforms (for the new route to Canning Town).

In addition to these improvements, a number of other improvements have been proposed although cannot be guaranteed. They include a temporary Olympic bridge from platform 8 directly into the Olympic Park, the extension of platforms 11 & 12 to allow 12-car trains from here to the Lea Valley and Stansted, reconstruction of the road bridge for Angel Lane, extension of the western and central subways to the new North London Line platforms, and refurbishment of the eastern subway with connection of this to the central subway.

TfL believe the demand generated by the development will require "ten route extensions and eleven service frequency enhancements ... with an estimated cost of £17.8m". Most of these services already call at the existing Stratford bus station off Great Eastern Road, on the southern side of the Regional station.

The developer is proposing road links to the north, east and west sides of the site, but not to the south. This presents problems for bus services; to access the site other than from the south would require a long detour, making provision of those services more expensive.

TfL consider there to be three options.

The GLA and LB Newham are both opposed to any ramp over the station and/or town centre, and support option C.

TfL also require a third bus station to be constructed on the northern side of Stratford International station, as well as bus stands in the northern part of the site.

As part of the CTRL, the builders of the railway, Union Railways, agreed to provide a travelator between Stratford Regional and Stratford International stations. The developers of Stratford City will have to provide for this travelator by constructing an underground concrete tube through their development, which will later have the travelator installed by Union Railways. However, before 01 Jan 2006, Union Railways must agree a purchase date for the travelator; otherwise the Stratford City developers are not required to construct this tube.

TfL have sought safeguarding for future expansion of Stratford Regional station to accommodate Crossrail and DLR improvements at Stratford Regional as well as the new Stratford International line.

No current news for this project.