Paddington Bakerloo Line Link Construction

Project Description

The Paddington link tunnel, linking the new Crossrail station and the LU Bakerloo Line platforms.

Paddington is one of the busiest stations on the Tube network and to alleviate the demand additional passengers place on existing infrastructure once Crossrail arrives, it was necessary to build a new link between Crossrail and the Bakerloo line.

Around 85,000 passengers interchange to and from the Bakerloo line each day and it was anticipated this would increase to over 115,000 when Crossrail starts serving Paddington in 2019.

The new link will be completed by the end of 2018 in time for Crossrail opening.

To help ease the flow of passenger numbers, a new 130m long pedestrian tunnel running 25m below the Network Rail concourse was constructed. This offers passengers a smooth interchange between the underground station and Crossrail, without conflict with other commuters and passengers travelling to Bristol, the West Country and South Wales from the Network Rail concourse.

The subway has been routed to minimize impact on the existing station facilities.  

Among the complexities of the job, an existing underground switchroom was demolished to make way for an escalator barrel. A new switchroom was created off-line and the necessary equipment installed and tested before the original room was demolished.

The design of the route was developed during the ‘Innovatiove Contractor Engagement’ pre-tender period.  The final route mimimised impact on the Bakerloo Line escalators, with the tunnel passing beneath the lower machine chamber only, rather than beneath the escalators themselves. The engineering team were able to mitigate the impact by underpinning the chamber from within the new tunnel, meaning that the escalators could remain in service throughout the construction and cause far less disruption for passengers.