Tube Lines, the company rebuilding the Tube’s busiest lines, is boosting the
environment in Highgate by modifying the design of its important new Northern
Line Control Centre. The new building will incorporate a flat green roof,
specially adapted to enable plants to grow on top providing an environment
which supports a variety of wildlife species. The design change is being made
following consultation by Tube Lines with members of the Corporation of London,
the organisation responsible for Highgate Woods which adjoins the Control
Centre site, and members of the public. The Control Centre will house computers controlling trains and signals on
the Northern line. Work towards a full line upgrade, including a new signalling
system, is already well underway with the first stages of testing completed.
The upgrade will mean faster, more frequent trains and more reliable services
for the 650,000 daily Northern line users, a significant number of whom board
or alight at Highgate. Journey times will be cut by 20% when it is implemented
in 2011. Consultation with the Control Centre’s neighbours has been taking place
since last autumn when the location of the new building was confirmed. Tube
Lines has made a number of modifications to the building design in order to
minimise its impact. For example, Tube Lines has re-positioned the building to
be further away from residential properties, has incorporated a landscaped
mound at the back of some residential properties and provided additional
planting to protect residents’ privacy. Tube Lines has also designed a
sophisticated lighting scheme that maximises the use of infra-red lighting to
reduce the effect of light spillage. The idea behind the green roof is to provide additional habitat at roof
level by using specially designed planting materials of varying depth and which
can support a selection of plants to generate a bio-diverse environment. This
type of roof has been quite widely used in Switzerland and Germany for a number
of years and is gaining popularity in the UK. Tube Lines will continue working with the Corporation of London and other
relevant parties to identify which species should be planted on the roof and
around the building itself. Dr Siv Bhamra of Tube Lines who has overall responsibility for the project,
said:
“As well as being committed to delivering an outstanding Tube for London,
we are also committed to doing all we can to ensure the long term well-being of
the environment. The habitats in and around Highgate Woods are particularly
valuable and we’ve conducted special consultations to work out how we can
minimise the impact of our vital new Control Centre which will contribute to
greatly improved reliability on the Northern line.”
David Millard, from London Underground, said:
“I am looking forward to the completion of the Control Centre building:
this will mean the achievement of another milestone on the road to a better
Northern line for Londoners.”
ENDS
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Press office 020 7088 4848
Notes to Editors
Sarah Baranowski 020 7088 4774
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