it's Thursday the 25th of May and we're
using the tube map but not to go on the
Underground to go on the overground the
Orange
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Line St
St so we don't have to do the tube lines
as partable the stations but the London
overground um the orange line on the
tubean uh is part of the national ra
Network so predominantly we're just
spending a day on the overground today
so we're starting to clap them and there
is this circular roof that goes around
London so the idea is that we'll go in
an anticlockwise Direction around uh the
bottom of through South London up the
East London line little diversion at
whopping rather High got to do the
Branch today that's the gos block to
barking line and then end up coming out
back over the top at Wilson and we'll
Dash down and do uh Imperial wolf and
then end up at Richmond Q Gardens
Gunners beway so that is our journey for
the day
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welcome to clap High Street this is clap
High Street brilliant thing about the
overground is that it sort of links a
lot of lines together we bit in a
slightly awkward way because again
classic historical case of separate rber
companies building their own lines and
their own stations so to connect from
clap High Street to clap North which is
a handy connection it's still like a 90
seconds walk along along the street but
they didn't always used to appear on the
tube map when it was part of the South
London rail network um people would
forget that clap and High Street existed
as a station so one of the good things
about tfl and what the overground has
brought is is the tube map has more
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connectivity that southbound train there
we just got Northbound train it just
come out of that tunnel a very famous
Tunnel built by a man called Brunell
it's the first railway tunnel under the
TS in London so famous in fact there's a
museum up above dedicated just to it
we're going to go have a look
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mum is this
way so we're standing inside the Shar
that I know was originally sunk in what
year was did the building start
1825 they finished the tunnel in 1843
six men died in here we don't know how
many died from chera and typhoid and
dentry working inside the tunnel Boring
Machine men in cages a wall of planks
and they dig in 4in strips replacing the
planks and the poles and edging forwards
showered in sewage dodging Flames from
ignited methane so it was just just a
dreadful Dreadful job but it is actually
Cutting Edge technology this is the
first tunnel under a river anywhere in
the world this is not just the oldest
tunnel in the London Underground this is
the birthplace of the
tube now it was built by Brunell and one
of the things we said off camera a
moment ago there's four of them so could
you tell us who the four Brunell were
the famous One the little man with the
big hat and the big cigar and the big
chains and the Big Ideas is isod King to
Brunell his father SAR Brunell is the
engineer who devised the first tunnel
boring machine which was used here the
third Brunell is Henry Mark Brunell who
is the son of ismad kingd of Brunell
built tower bridge but the fourth was
Sophie and she is Brunell isard king of
brunel's elder sister when they were
children she showed more promise she
showed showed more aptitude in things
mathematical and Technical and
Engineering than he did at that time uh
however talented a woman she is not
going to get a job uh in in engineering
so if isard king of Brunell is our most
famous engineer I always remind people
especially uh young women that Sophie
promised to be a better engineer Robert
you a pleasure thank you so much come to
whopping come to Rive ride the tunnel
come to the rhve side come and have a
look at the Brum is fantastic thank you
so much you're very
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welcome made it to Hager it's a lovely
bright sunny day who says that London
weather is terrible or British weather
is terrible I need my sunglasses it's so
bright um got out here because this
whole section haggerson hawton one of my
favorite sections on the overground not
only is it in the open it's actually
elevated cuz this whole section going
right down there see there's a bridge
over Road there it's part of an Old
Railway there used to be um another
London termin called Broad Street which
was right next to London Liverpool
Street they closed it got demolished in
the 1980s the area now is known as
broadgate but trains used to come up
here down the north London line and run
along the section down into Broad Street
and then when they decided to you know
create the London overground Network
they realized that they could reuse this
piece of Old Railway this old elevated
section of track turn it into the
overground it's just a nice example of
reusing an old alignment for a new
Railway which is kind of
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cool we've been trying to film for about
5 minutes but trains just keep coming
they're just so regular on the
overground they're just noisy trains
keep coming overground you're too
efficient stop it stop being so frequent
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no this is strapford
one of the best London examples of where
lots of different modes of transport and
transport services are merg and
integrated together we're on the
overground today but originally
Stratford was just underground and
British Rail later came the DLR then of
course the overground and most recently
tfl rail itself the Olympics in 2012
came to this part of London and
Stratford became a very major hub for
people traveling to and from the Olympic
Stadium lots of regeneration has gone on
in this area we have the shopping center
the Westfield shopping center behind us
as
well uh this is a really impressive view
you can see over the train station you
can see the orbital which was the
sculpture uh in the Olympic Park which I
think is now a giant slide why have we
never done that J and also The Shard
everywhere you look in London you can
see The Shard there it is sneaking into
our landscape once
again of course don't forget about the
other Shopping Center in Stratford the
Stratford Center which is just on the
other side of the station it does make
you wonder doesn't it because we're all
like ooh Stratford Olympics regeneration
but were there like local businesses or
local people were there things affected
absolutely by the Regeneration of
Stratford were there any detrimental
side effects which people don't think of
like is there now a business in
Westfield which obliterated someone's
local business out here I'm guessing it
could have caused upset as well
as progress
that was my first tfl rail experience we
are at Forest Gate and there is a lot of
building work going on all part of cross
rail clearly a new lift going in over
there they taken down part of what I
assume was a passenger bridge at one
point and the uh temporary foot bridge
over there the scaffolded one seem to
suggest that a new foot bridge is coming
as well
Forest Gate is going to look very
different we actually going to come back
and do tfl rail will we cross Ro
properly uh maybe next week we're going
to do the hold of that line in one
stretch we just have to arrive between
Stratford and uh where' we go Forest
Gate yes cuz we wanted to walk up the
road here literally 200 M to W Park
to get back on the overground okay
that's well that's the train we
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want the next station is walmo Queens
Road
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it's really
busy wow what time is it is it rush
hour is it Rush 5 it's R show okay let's
go this is gopel Hope think when people
are are desperate to get a seat and they
don't let you off they they just they
really want to maybe they've got a long
journey man they go all the way back but
they they don't let you off this line is
going to be really handy when it goes to
four cars rather than
two straight away at gospel Oak it's
kind of it's
full one of my favorite books about the
railways I've spoken about this before I
think there's a guy called Ian Marchant
who wrote a book called parallel lines
and he used to live on what was then the
north London Line near Camden town
There's a brilliant bit in that book
where basically he predicted the future
and he went this rway line could be
brilliant cuz back then it suffered from
a lack of investment there were no
shelters there was no lighting the
service was at one stage just two trains
an hour and he basically said look if
somebody just came in and you know gave
the stations a liquor paint you know
cleaned it up improved better lighting
improve the frequency of the trains more
people would come and that's exactly
what tfl did uh brilliantly you know
they they've given it this whole orange
identity the trains are every 10 to 15
minutes depending what line you're on so
they've got it to a point where it's now
really popular all the trains we've been
on today uh even off peak have been
quite busy loads of people in London are
using the overground and I think I think
it's a great success story for how good
a railway can be if the company bother
to invest money in it and say look
here's a railway come and use it
basically I'm a little bit in love with
the overground
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at Chelsea Harbor Station no that's a
lie we're at uh Imperial wolf station
but when it was being built cuz it's a
relatively new station on the
Underground Imperial wolf it was almost
called but it was code named I think in
the ticking system somewh it's still
labeled as Chelsea Harbor after tfl had
taken overline and upgraded it uh this
was never a stop back in the old tring
days and the development of the area
there's some like Posh houses and around
here the whole area has basically seen a
lot of Redevelopment uh there was a case
for a new station to be built and again
it's one of those brilliant cases where
the first few years it was open uh it
was only getting like a million or so
passengers a year but in last year's uh
office of rvo Statistics uh 2015 to 16
uh that had then doubled like 3 million
people per year were using the station
so again for me it's just it's another
great example of how if you build it
they will come
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as you're traveling on the overground it
can seem like a very Urban environment
but all across London are lots of
amazing parks in East London you have
Victoria Park and also the Olympic Park
or now Queen Elizabeth Park and here in
West London only a few short minutes
from the station is Richmond
Park actually I decided to get the
bus we're just coming up to Richmond
Park gate which will be the way in to
the park
itself I used to live not very far from
Richmond Park and there's just this
moment as you come through the
gates and you just it changes from being
busy this Urban London
to a very wonderful picturesque
Park hope we see some
deer I think there are some deer over
there wow
that is absolutely
incredible and there are ducks
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the Acoustics are
wonderful should we do this you good to
do it
oh can I have a go yeah do this door no
I was going to go all the
stations it's a good it's a good rever