Crossrail receives first sections of Custom House station from East Midlands factory

The first sections of the new Crossrail Custom House station have arrived on site in Docklands after making the journey from the factory in the East Midlands where they were made.

The component parts of the new station are being fabricated in the state of the art Laing O’Rourke factory in Steetley and will now be assembled on site in East London. The first sections to be delivered comprise columns and platform beams and slabs, which have been installed using a 120 tonne crane.

Building large sections of the station off site saves time and money and ensures that disruption to residents, existing rail services and the nearby ExCeL London conference and exhibition centre are minimised as far as possible.

The Crossrail station will be built on the site of the former North London Line station and will include a new ticket hall, an interchange with the Docklands Light Railway and step-free access between the platforms and street level.

Linda Miller, Project Manager at Custom House said: “A bit like a complex puzzle, piece by piece, we’ll be assembling the new station at Custom House over the next eighteen months. Constructing the station elsewhere and putting it together on site significantly simplifies the process, saving time and money and reducing disruption. Custom House station will be of the very highest quality when it opens in 2018.”

With Crossrail, the journey between Custom House and Bond Street will be around 10 minutes quicker and passengers travelling to and from Heathrow will be able to knock around 35 minutes off their journey. The new line will also reduce journey times for many of the four million annual visitors to the nearby ExCeL London.