Network Rail’s Lee Valley rail programme is set to deliver additional capacity and support a major regeneration scheme, as PHILIP SHERRATT reports
Railways and regeneration have a history of going together. And in north east London, Enfield Council is using a railway scheme to kickstart a £6 billion, 20-year regeneration project planned to incorporate 10,000 new homes and thousands of new jobs.
The scheme is called Meridian Water, based on a development site adjacent to the West Anglia main line near the current Angel Road station. A new Meridian Water station is therefore now at the heart of Network Rail’s £170 million Lee Valley Rail programme, which is planned to complete by May 2019.
The programme builds on what was formerly known as the STAR (Stratford – Tottenham – Angel Road) project, involving a third track being laid on this stretch to create additional capacity. But the programme has since grown in scope, and funding from a range of bodies has been combined to create a single scheme.
EVOLUTION
Steve Vidler, Network Rail’s Project Sponsor for the Lee Valley Programme, explains early planning for the scheme was based on a 2011 Route Utilisation Study, which identified the West Anglia corridor as…