The Anonymous Widower

Freight At Hackney Wick Station

When I took the pictures, for the article about the redesign of that Hackney Wick station, two freight trains came through.

Is it just my feeling or are there more and longer freight trains on the North London Line?

The one that went west was particularly long. But at least it was electric hauled.

In all my searching for rail improvements in North and East London, I couldn’t find any plans for new freight routes to reduce the amount of freight traffic through the area.

The only positive thing is that the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is being electrified, which will mean that the trains will hopefully not be powered by noisy and smelly diesel locomotives.

So will we be seeing more freight trains going through in the middle of the night, as trains have to get past London on their way between. Felixstowe, Harwich, London Gateway and all the ports in the East to the West Coast Main Line and the Great Western?

The only partial solution is to electrify Felixstowe to Nuneaton via Peterborough and complete the East-West Rail Link to minimise traffic to and from Felixstowe going through London.

The only thing we can say about freight through North and East London, is that the problem will be get more and more difficult.

Imagine what would happen if the new Ultra Large Container Vessels started serving say Liverpool or Glasgow and then large numbers of containers were sent by rail through the Channel Tunnel to Europe. There have been plans to do this in the past as it saves time in getting goods from North America to Germany.

May 28, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Freight, Hackney Wick Station, North London Line, Trains