The Anonymous Widower

Thoughts On The Gospel Oak To Barking Electrification

The electrification of the Gospel Oak To Barking Line (GOBlin), is the closest I’ve been to an electrification project since the nineteen-sixties when I was travelling up and down between London and Liverpool, through the electrification on the West Coast Main Line.

Yesterday, I took a look at the start of work at Gospel Oak station. Thinking about what I saw, it strikes me that everything is much better organised than it has been in some places in the past.

Perhaps, they’re doing their project management in a lot better way.

Signalling

As an illustration of project performance, I have read that not knowing where signalling cables were buried, was a big problem on the electrification of the Great Western Railway. So out of curiosity, I searched the Internet for any reports about the state of the signalling on the GOBlin.

I found this web page on the Sweett Group web site, which is entitled Gospel Oak To Barking Electrification. This was a brief summary of the work they did.

Sweett Group was engaged by TfL to review and validate the Grip 3 estimate prepared by Network Rail in order to assist TfL in the determination of their funding contribution.

Reading the whole of the report, leads me to the conclusion that TfL wanted to make sure, that the only surprises they get on this project, will be positive ones.

As to signalling, very little is said, except this.

In addition, modifications to existing signalling had to be carried out in order to overcome conflicts with signal sighting caused by OLE support structures and to accommodate the introduction of longer freight trains.

So in answer to my original question on signalling, it looks like most of it is in good order.

Line Closures

Will planned closures of the line tell us anything? This web page from TfL details all their line closures for the next six months.

Those specific to the GOBlin are.

• Sun 10 Jan 16 – South Tottenham to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 17 Jan 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 24 Jan 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sun 31 Jan 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sun 07 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 14 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 21 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 28 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 06 Mar 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 20 Mar 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 27 Mar 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 03 Apr 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking until 12:00
• Sun 10 Apr 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 16 to Sun 17 Apr 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 23 to Sun 24 Apr 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 30 Apr to Mon  02 May 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 07 to Sun 08 May 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 14 to Sun 15 May 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 21 to Sun 22 May 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking
• Sat 28 to Tue 31 May 16 – Gospel Oak to Barking

There are also a few closures of the North London Line, that start at Gospel Oak.

• Fri 01 Jan to Sun 03 Jan 16 – Gospel Oak to Stratford from 22:00
• Sun 21 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Stratford
• Sun 28 Feb 16 – Gospel Oak to Stratford
• Sun 06 Mar 16 – Gospel Oak to Stratford
• Sun 20 Mar 16 – Gospel Oak to Stratford

The first is an interesting one, as it is this weekend, when the contractors are known to be piling for overhead wires, late into the night.

On all the other four Sundays, the GOBlin is closed all or part of the day.

Surely, you wouldn’t close both routes across North London, unless you wanted to work on both at the same time!

Could the contractors be wiring up Gospel Oak Junction and Platform 3 at Gospel Oak station?

These are my overall comments.

1. Monday to Friday passengers won’t have to suffer many replacement bus services.
2. Something is planned for the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend
3. As there is no closures scheduled in June, it looks like May 31st will mark a natural break in the project.
4. Someone has been doing some very good project management.

It will be fascinating to take a look on Mondays for the next few months, to see what has been completed.

Space To Work

I wonder if anybody has ever done any research on the performance of the amount of space available to building projects.

What surprised me yesterday, as my train trundled between Harringay Green Lanes and Gospel Oak stations, was how much space was available and it had all been cleared of vegetation.

I hope this is a sign that they mean to carry on as they’ve started.

Having looked at many large projects in the actuality, I strongly believe that a project with lots of space, that is kept tidy, is more likely to be delivered on time and on budget.

Today, I also followed the line on a Google Map and virtually all the way from Gospel Oak station to Leyton Midland Road station, there are green verges, several metres deep on both sides of the tracks.

Look at this section of the line from Crouch Hill to South Tottenham stations.

Note all the green space, especially where the line crosses the East Coast Main Line, where a chord is to be electrified.

This space must contribute to a successful project.

Obviously towards the east, where the line is on a Victorian embankment is going to be more challenging.

Murphy’s Contract

A lot more detail on the GOBlin electrification is given in this article in Rail Technology Magazine, which is entitled J Murphy & Sons to carry out electrification of Gospel Oak-Barking route. This is said.

J Murphy & Sons Limited will carry out electrification works along the 12-mile line from Gospel Oak to Barking on the Anglia route, after winning the £56.9m contract from Network Rail.

The contract, which was awarded three months later than originally expected, will allow work to start on the ‘Goblin’ project in October. 

In some ways, I was surprised, the contract was awarded to Murphy, as I didn’t think they were noted for doing rail electrification. I know them as a well-respected London contractor, who have been around since my childhood. Their premises are actually close to the line, which must help.

I know it said that the project would start in October and it just made a start in 2015, but at least it’s got going. The article says this about the project timeline.

The electrification contract runs until April 2017 but, if carried out according to the planned timeline, “major on-site works” will commence in June 2016 with services ready to operate a year later. Network Rail’s official classification of the works is for GRIP stages 4-8: ‘Main Works – Civils, Structure, Building, Track, & Bonding’.

This gives the intriguing prospect, that the electrification could take twelve months. This question has to be asked – Have major on-site works already started?

Even if they haven’t, judging by the noise at Gospel Oak something has started and that completion date of April 2017, is starting to look very feasible and just in time for the May 2017 timetable change.

Stations

Not all stations can accept the new four-car Class 710 trains or are to the standard passengers expect these days.

• Gospel Oak – Disabled access, lifts, coffee stall – Platform needs extending.
• Upper Holloway – Disabled access, ramps – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections – Road bridge by station is being replaced by the end of 2017.
• Crouch Hill – Stairs-only access – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections
• Harringay Green Lanes – Disabled access, ramps – Platforms need extending
• South Tottenham – Disabled access, lifts – Platform needs extending.
• Blackhorse Road – Stairs-only access – Disabled access in planning – Platforms need extending
• Walthamstow Queen’s Road – Disabled access, ramps – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections
• Leyton Midland Road – Stairs-only access – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections.
• Leytonstone High Road – Stairs-only access – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections.
• Wanstead Park – Stairs-only access – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections.
• Woodgrange Park – Stairs-only access – Platforms need extending by reopening closed sections.
• Barking – Disabled access, lift

So of the twelve stations on the line seven need platforms to be extended by reopening closed section, four need new extensions and six need improvements to the disabled access.

It will be interesting to see what is completed other than the necessary platform extensions, before the electric trains run.

Electrification

The Rail Technology Magazine article also details the scope of the electrification.

In addition to wiring from Gospel Oak to Barking and both the terminal platforms, the following will be electrified.

• Carlton Road Junction to Junction Road Junction – Connects to the Midland Main Line
• Upper Holloway Reception Line
• Harringay Park Junction to Harringay Junction – Connects to the East Coast Main Line

Note that there is no mention of the extension of the line to Barking Riverside.

Electrification work has obviously started at the easier Gospel Oak end of the line, so I think we can assume that Murphy and a lot of sub-contractors are pulling out all the stops to get this job finished on time.

One problem they don’t have is getting power to the new electrification, as it connects to several electrified lines.

There is also only twelve miles to electrify.

I think we could well be seeing, the electrification completed and the platforms lengthened, before the Class 710 trains are delivered.

Class 710 Trains

The Class 710 Trains ordered for the line are unlikely to arrive before May 2018. But I suspect that TfL will find something to run services.

They could even hire some of Porterbrook’s speculative build of Class 387 trains, or perhaps borrow some of the redundant and very ugly Class 319 trains.

After all, they only need eight trains of four-cars each.

Extension To Barking Riverside

It looks like, that this will be done, after the main project has been completed.

Conclusion

It looks like the following will happen.

• Due to some rather excellent project management, that finally the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will be electrified and capable of running four-car electric trains.
• It’s not the biggest of projects, that could be fairly straightforward.
• The completion of the electrification project could be as early as April 2017.
• The trains, unless they rustle up some from elsewhere, will probably be delivered later.
• There will be little if any interruption to the important Monday to Friday service of the line during electrification.
• More freight trains will be hauled by electric locomotives in the near future.

I can’t see anybody complaining about all that!

 

 

January 1, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Electrification, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Project Management