The Anonymous Widower

New Train For Romford To Upminster

Until this morning, I didn’t know there was a train line from Romford to Upminster. But there is and it has a comprehensive Wikipedia page, which says it generally has a half hour service run by an elderly Class 315.

Today though, one of my trawls picked by the news that Transport for London has asked for tenders for new trains for the West Anglia and Gospel Oak to Barking services.  The story is on Global Rail News. This the last paragraph.

Thirty of the new trains will replace the current West Anglia stock, which will undergo a deep clean and rebranding. Eight more will go the newly-electrified Gospel Oak to Barking route, with the remaining unit going into service on the Romford to Upminster line.

So the Romford to Upminster line gets the 39th train.

This section is on Wikipedia about the future uses of Class 315.

As most duties of the 315s will be taken over by new Class 345 Aventra trains once Crossrail is built, it has been suggested that the 315s could be cascaded to the Wales and Borders passenger franchise to be used on Valley Lines services in the Cardiff area following electrification.

If most of the class do go to Wales, it will be a long way to move the single train on the Romford to Upminster line for servicing.

I can only see one reason why the order will not go to Bombardier to deliver some more of the excellent Class 378 and that would be because the company didn’t feel it wanted to bid.

April 10, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | London Overground, Romford And Upminster Line, Trains