So, we're at Bank Station.
Now, if I was to talk to you about construction projects
taking place in London right now and on the Tube,
you might come up with Crossrail, everyone knows about that.
You might even get the fact that there was
the Northern line extension happening down at Battersea.
But right now taking place,
there is a third London Underground dig
happening here at Bank Station,
and almost hardly anyone I speak to
doesn't seem to know about it.
So we're here to put that straight today,
to put this on the map,
to point out there's a brand new platform
being installed here at Bank Station,
and have a look at the capacity upgrade works.
Bank Tube station, that's also connected to Monument,
is used by 52 million passengers a year,
making it the busiest interchange
on the whole of the Tube network.
And that the core of it is the problem
of the very narrow platforms here at Bank,
on the Northern line.
And can you see how there's a very narrow bit
and then that southbound platform is there.
So, the northbound platform will remain,
but this southbound platform is gonna be filled in
and then it's gonna be over there.
So the station is extending out that way.
This won't be here.
That's right, there's a massive capacity upgrade project
taking place right now,
that will bring a new running tunnel and platform
for the southbound Northern line,
complete step-free access for the Northern line
and DLR platforms, with three new lifts, 12 new escalators,
and a new station entrance on Cannon Street.
Oh, and also two new moving walkways, travelators,
that'll whisk you quickly between the Northern
and Central Line platforms.
Let's go and have a look.
So we're now inside King William Street.
This is King William Street Station.
King William Street Station
was on the City and South London Railway,
later, Northern line,
and was only open for 10 years between 1890 and 1900,
and is therefore London's first disused underground station.
Look at the tiles, look at the tiles!
Yeah amazing tiles, yeah, you'll see some more.
So this is the old disused King William Street Station.
Essentially, we use it for our access
in and out of the tunnel works.
It's got triple,
it's actually got five layers of brick arches.
We've just basically tidied it up.
We put, painted the walls, that sort of stuff.
It's been used over numerous things over the years,
since 1900, when it closed.
Most importantly as an air raid shelter in the war.
So we've got some posters down here you can see
where people would have been sheltering down here,
during the blitz.
But these are original,
so the tiles from the 1900s and 1940s.
Yes, yeah, probably, yeah,
this is the original brick work that would have been used
to actually support the actual main brick arches.
So the whole thing was formed with brick.
Original City and South London Railway tiles.
Geoff, we're coming from the old, disused station
into the new shaft, basically.
We go through this door, so, have a look up here.
(engines roaring)
That's Upper Street up there, tunnel's beneath us.
So this is where we put the new shaft,
right through the old station.
So all spray concrete here,
but everything below this level
is all spray concrete in the tunnels.
(engines roaring)
King William Street's on the curb.
And they put the shaft in on Upper Street
and put it in the middle.
So, a bit of King William Street is that way,
another bit of King William Street is that way,
and then the new Northern Line tunnels
sort of go off, heading north.
We're going down right?
Yeah.
How many steps?
What from here?
Yeah.
Oh, probably about 87.
I'm gonna count them for you.
49 steps later and you get a really good view of the shaft.
Time to go exploring the tunnels though.
Okay, but the bottom tunnel's that way,
why is it painted like a turquoise blue colour?
That's for your waterproofing layer,
protects the tiles for waterproof.
That's waterproof.
That's south, so London Bridge is that way,
and then you come round, through the duct
and this is towards Bank for the new southbound.
Important to note that at Bank,
the Northern Line is right-hand running,
so the new tunnel southbound is gonna be on the left.
In fact, here's a diagram to show what's going on.
At the moment, there are two narrow platforms
with the trains being in a right-hand running configuration
and the existing southbound platform is being filled in
and will become a corridor.
Then a whole new tunnel is being dug
for southbound Northern Line trains
and it's being constructed
with a wide platform to begin with.
Here's an artist's impression
of how it will look when finished.
But do note that this is not the same as Angel and Euston
on the Northern Line,
where a filled in track became the wide platform.
This is a brand new wide platform.
(engines roaring)
That's the running tunnel proper now.
So, segregated walkway for pedestrians,
roadway for vehicles.
Vents are actually duct in,
providing fresh air into the tunnel.
You feel the air against your face as you walk in.
There's new cross-passages being built too,
to link to the existing station.
And also as a way in and way out
for the new entrance to Bank Station,
that's being built up on the surface on Cannon Street.
Okay so, that's the first of the cross-passages,
that will actually connect you into a lift shaft,
which will take you up to Cannon Street.
So if you're a disabled person
mobility impaired person, I should say, sorry.
Into the lift, then down to this level,
straight down to the Northern Line,
lift also continues down to the DLR.
So you can get from Cannon Street to DLR with one lift.
[Construction Worker] So I've sunk the piles
and put it on site, bring Cannon Street down-
This where we're standing is a cross-passage.
So this will link you from the new southbound Northern Line,
straight into what will be the concourse tunnel.
So behind that sort of wall there,
that's actually the existing Northern Line southbound.
We'll go up on top of it, but you'll look down between
the two Northern Line tunnels at the moment.
We've got a temporary shaft here
to get down on top of the DLR.
So we're gonna create two cross-passages,
or add-it's, between the existing tunnels,
beneath the DLR, without going into the DLR.
We're doing it from above, basically.
And once we've constructed those,
we'll then back-fill the whole thing
back to the floor of the cross passage.
And then we'll continue on mining this way,
make a connection to the existing southbound.
There's a guy there with a black helmet on,
there's like a curved bit, that's the outside of DLR.
What, the arriving?
(man talking indistinctly)
The arriving, that's where the DLR arrives at Bank,
just the other side of that.
So when we started at the southern end,
and they're running rails at this side
to where this machine is, that's where the tracks will be.
Where I am here, on this side, is the platform.
So I'm standing on the platform, just two years early
for the new Northern Line platform.
But just as the incline lift at Greenford gets me excited,
or the travelators at Waterloo,
where are the new moving walkways here at Bank going to be?
So this is the moving walkway.
So what you're doing, we're standing on top at the moment,
we're midway down the actual tunnel itself.
We've excavated what we call the top heading,
the guys have trimmed it all up,
or John has trimmed it all up.
And the engineer is just checking that profile,
doing a bit of an as-built, you know,
make sure you know how thick the lining is
when we start spraying.
And then we'll move the machine out of the way
and bring the spray and equipment,
bring the concrete in and spray concrete on that face
that you see, which is the clay obviously.
And then all the shell itself.
When that's done, we'll then start digging down
and complete the bottom half of the shell
of the tunnel itself.
Here's where that new moving walkway, or travelator,
is on the map.
For some reason, I am getting really excited about it.
So the exciting part for me,
there's gonna be a new surface entrance,
there's gonna be a new Northern Line platform,
but Bank's gonna get a new travelator.
Yeah.
To connect what, the Northern to the Central Line?
Yeah, basically to all the Northern Line,
the DLR to the Central Line, yeah.
It'll whisky along your journey from the Northern Line
straight to the bottom of an escalator,
taking you up to the Central Line.
So more space, quicker transit times, that sort of thing.
I don't know why I find things like that so exciting!
I was at Crossrail the other week
and they've got new incline lifts,
but I think travelator beats incline lifts.
Travelators are just fun.
It's quite cool, isn't it?
It is fun.
Okay, and more importantly,
it's bigger than the one at Waterloo, is that correct?
That's right, yeah, it will be, yeah.
(drill grinding)
Oh, they've started drilling,
that's gonna really kill the audio.
It's fine, it's fine!
(laughing)
(drill grinding)
So, that's Daniel behind me making noise,
but this is the platform tunnel we're in.
So that's the cross-passage, cross-passage one.
The running tunnel extends behind me,
sorry, in front of me, to the North.
So, that's another.
At end of that, it's about 35 metres away,
through the connection
to the existing southbound Northern Line.
So we've got connection right over the north
and one right at the back by the shaft,
and we're gonna basically effectively put a blockade
on the Northern Line to make those two connections.
Then the trains, after the blockade, will come through here,
passengers will get off of the platform.
So, that's a key moment.
We made our way out, back up the shaft
and then I went to see where the new surface entrance
is being built.
(car engines growling)
So we're outside, it's just one more thing to mention,
I've walked around the corner from Monument,
I'm actually on Cannon Street.
So Cannon Street Station is down there
and you can see all these blue holdings.
These blue holdings are gonna be this.
There's a brand new entrance to Bank tube station
here on Cannon Street.
It's weird 'cause it's kind of near Cannon Street,
but it's not Cannon Street tube station,
it's definitely Bank tube station.
12 new escalators, as it says, to make the journey easier.
Opening quite soon.
Quite soon should be by the year 2022.
And if you want even more information,
hop over to the TFL website,
there are links in the descriptions with more maps,
diagrams and details on the construction.