The Anonymous Widower

Transport for London Do The Sensible Thing

Various news items on the Overground like this story in the Enfield Independent, have been reporting that the Class 315 and Class 317 Trains on the Lea Valley Lines are not very reliable.  I’ve read somewhere that they are spending up to two million pounds to get them running better.

Some reports and commentators have also accused Greater Anglia of keeping the better of these two classes of trains for themselves, but as I’ve seen a couple former Stansted Express 317s working Overground services, like this one on Romford to Upminster, this isn’t true in all cases.

But now TfL have ordered the new trains for delivery in 2018, according to this article in the Derby Telegraph. This must be the real solution to the problems of unreliability.

They’ve also done as I predicted and bought more Class 378 trains, so they’ll have a fleet of trains that are all the same, although there will be sub-fleets of different lengths and voltage capabilities.

They have also been very sensible in ordering extra trains to boost current services and making provision to order more as necessary. There are documents around on the Internet, that state that the East London and North London Lines might go to six-car trains in the next few years.

Their order strategy seems to make it possible to cover all eventualities that passenger numbers might throw up.

One advantage of their strategy would appear to be that to accommodate the new trains on all the London Overground network, with the exception of creating new depot space and modernising the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, there is very little infrastructure changes to be made, after the current round of platform extensions on the East London and North London Lines is completed. Obviously, stations will be improved, but that is a parallel process that is independent of the new trains.

June 20, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 378 Train, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Lea Valley Lines, London Overground