Hello today, I'm getting a little bit of
purple in my life.
I've bought the correct face covering
which I will wear in a second.
I'm at Hanwell in West London on Cross Purp Eliz.
Yeah, we're doing that again.
There's three stations out here which have got
step free access now added to them,
ready for when the full line is up and running.
West Ealing and Acton Main Line too,
have whole new, brand new ticket offices.
So we're going to go take a look very quickly
at all three stations.
Hanwell is this really, really nice station.
I don't think it's great too, correct me if I'm wrong,
It certainly wasn't on the at risk register
because it needed a lick of paint
and TFL have done all the works.
They've come along.
They've got it ready for the purple trains
and they touched up everything.
And actually now it's come off that at-risk register.
The main thing that they've done,
is that there's some lift that side,
the lifts here.
This was like hand done.
It didn't get like a JCB Digger down here or anything.
It was like, the lift shaft was like manually carved out.
People working away with like shovels
because of this beautiful passenger archway here.
And we're going to go up to the westbound platform
- [Elevator Voice] Doors, opening,
lift going up, doors closing.
- On screen now in post, I would have added a statistic
of how many TFL rail stations are now
step free with this.
- [Elevator Voice] Doors opening.
- So that's the one for the westbound platform over here.
You can see there's actually a lift as well
for the eastbound platform.
There's a slight interesting twist with that one.
This is a new waiting room on platform two which is the
westbound platform.
Previously, This was just like a storeroom, right?
It wasn't in use.
There's going to be more things added,
sort of artwork and pictures on the wall.
But, as you can see,
it's been beautifully done up, repainted, new lighting too.
Yeah, it's got very lovely, quaint feeling to it.
So back outside, this area here that you can see behind me,
this paved area, that's all new.
If you drop to Google street view images
and if you go a short while back,
this was actually a road I'm standing in a road here.
So that by the council, by Ealing Borough council,
has all been nicely redecorated, tidied over.
The unusual thing about the lift at platform three,
which is here.
Not that there is a gate line, cause it's just validators.
But if there were a gate line,
the lift is outside of the gate lining area.
Was it Euston square on the tube for years,
on the westbound platform you had a lift
which allowed you to avoid going through the gate line.
So if there were a gate line here,
the lift would let you avoid it,
but, there's an Oyster validator right there.
It's the lift at platform three.
- [Elevator Voice] Doors opening. Going up.
- And I believe they've done up the waiting room
down this end as well.
And it also looks lovely.
(LOUD door beeps)
- [Train Announcement] This is a TFL rail service
to Paddington.
Next station, West Ealing.
(LOUD door beeps)
Whoa, that's all very new. Hang on.
Wow. This explains why it must've been
when I did the ghost train video
with the Chiltern train that now terminates here
at West Ealing, from that bay platform,
this was all blue hoardings.
The reason why is cause they built this.
So I'm at the Eastern end of West Ealing station
and you can see the entrance is now blocked there.
I've no idea whether these staircases and footbridge
is going to be decommissioned or not
but the entrance was up there
on the front on the main road.
Instead, there's a brand new footbridge there with lifts
and a shiny new entrance has now been installed
on the side road.
Let's go have a look.
So I'm walking in the new bit now.
Under the new canopy,
there's a lift just here.
Which I'll get in a sec, it's just a lift.
Mainly I want to walk up and count the number
of stairs that there now are at West Ealing.
This also means you can get behind the buffers
of platform five, which is where
the Greenford shuttle and ghost train runs from
Look, it's all. This is new space.
This just wasn't here before.
All opened up. Love it.
(train humming)
So I'm at like the mezzanine concourse entrance level,
13 steps down there to the westbound platform.
Left in there and then there's more steps here
that take you up to the over bridge.
Oh, the lift here that goes down to the westbound platform
and up to the over bridge to allow you step-free access
to the westbound platform.
Did I say eastbound?
I might've got my westbound and eastbound transposed there.
Sorry. (laughing)
The new station entrance. Yeah.
It's that way around the corner.
This is Argyll road, the main road,
like the ticket office and the bridge
used to be over the main line.
It's now moved from the sign, residents of Ealing,
West Ealing, your ticket office has now moved
round the side to Manor road.
Can somebody check Google maps, open street map?
See if someone's updated that.
What I'd like to know is that there's still,
there's like bars and arrows up there.
Obviously TFL have put their branding
and logo on the side entrance.
I wonder whether that old sign up there will stay there?
If it gets taken down, can I have it?
I can put that in my bathroom.
Yeah. So the new entrance is this side on Manor road.
Again, Edenborough council, the local council,
they're just doing some finishing works here
on the street outside.
Dropped to Google street view
to see what it used to be like.
What was here before? I might do that.
But you then get to this.
It's all new.
It's all shiny.
It's all very purple.
It's the new entrance to West Ealing
It's nine steps there. Oh, Greenford shuttles in.
And another nine steps here.
I'm going to get the lift.
So from the overbridge level ,
you can peer down onto the ticket office
just come up the steps there, the lift is there.
That goes top level, mezzanine level, platform level
and then new footbridge
through over to the westbound platform.
Right and really quickly,
although it's just another regular lift,
just to prove that the lift
down to the westbound platform does work, does work.
That is coming.
[Elevator Voice] Footbridge level.
[Elevator Voice] Doors closing.
That's the TFL press officer.
(laughing)
- [Elevator Voice] Doors opening.
- And that brings you out here on to the,
oh it's raining, onto the westbound platform.
Again, the old entrance there in the background,
that is West Ealing. Tick
Shall we go to Acton Main Line?
It's just started raining.
If only it was purple rain tah-dah!
Acton Main Line.
I thought it was going to be on the side road,
but the main entrance, the new main entrance,
I'm kind of blocking it.
There we go.
It's still on Horn Lane,
just slightly down from the mini roundabout.
So the old entrance looking all old and sad
and very dated and dilapidated, is over there.
When I was here, actually two years ago
doing least used TFL station, it was Acton mainline.
And I spoke then about the entrance
and the works are linked to that.
Update because COVID and passenger numbers dropped way
last year. When the new stats came out last week,
Twyford apparently is now the new least used
TfL rail station.
But we'll have a quick look to see what they've done here
to make this all shiny and new and step free as well.
Hi, ticketing, TfL oyster people.
Just to note that the oyster validators here
at the old entrance are still powered on
and I think I could still use it.
So when I leave in a minute, I'm going to tap on here,
just because I can.
I think it's safe to assume in the future
somebody will come along and decommission these.
So I'm still in the new ticket hall.
They're still doing some work, finishing it outside.
It's actually smaller than the West Ealing one.
I thought it's going to be bigger.
We'll go for a first person perspective journey
using the new lifts down to the platforms.
- [Elevator Voice] Doors opening. Lift going down.
And onto the platforms.
You can see the new, footbridge over bridge right there
as I'm on the westbound platform and similar to West Ealing
if you now look behind me, you can see the old steps,
the old way in, the old way out
and where we were just now up on the street,
no longer in use.
All shiny and new at Acton Main Line.
(LOUD door beeps)
So with my matching face covering for the moquette
of the purple train as the purple rain still falls outside.
There you go.
So that's Hanwell step free.
West Ealing new station building step free.
Same here for Acton Main Line.
I was chatting to the TfL person that's with me.
What's rather exciting is that this week
that we're filming this,
trial operations in terms of trains running
through the core section has now started.
There are purple trains whizzing between Paddington
and Abbey Wood right now,
and some point later this year,
Trial operations in terms of getting people in
getting the press and media,
and maybe even some like, sort of volunteer passengers
to ride the trains and try out the stations,
is going to happen at some point this year.
I'll obviously be there to make a video,
if I can, exciting times, #PurpleTrain
It's-a-comin'
It's coming soon.