The Anonymous Widower

Passengers On The GOBlin

I wonder if it is worth looking at the numbers of passengers using the Gospel Oak to Barking Line by station in 2014/15.

• Woodgrange Park – 751,000
• Wanstead Park – 846,000
• Leytonstone High Road – 1,002,000
• Leyton Midland Road – 1,355,000
• Walthamstow Queen’s Road – 541,000
• Blackhorse Road – 1,102,000
• South Tottenham – 1,047,000
• Harringay Green Lanes – 1,293,000
• Crouch Hill – 832,000
• Upper Holloway – 1,166.000

Compare these with similar stations on the North London Line.

• Kentish Town West – 1,983,000
• Caledonian Road and Barnsbury – 1,595,000
• Dalston Kingsland – 6,289,000
• Homerton – 5,240,000
• Hackney Wick – 1,674,000

The big difference in this rather crude analysis is that passenger figures on the higher-frequency electrified line are generally higher.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a narrowing of the gap, when the two-car Class 172 trains are replaced with four-car Class 710 trains.

The other difference, is that whereas the use of various stations on the North London Line varies between stations, usage on the GOBlin is much more constant.

Without seeing a detailed analysis from Transport for London, I do wonder if passengers on the GOBlin use it for much shorter distances or to travel to places where they can get a bus or another train to their ultimate destination.

The reason, I’m mulling this over, is that with the stories about line closure for up to eight months, as I talked about in A Story And A Rumour About The Gospel Oak To Barking Line.

If there was a station on the line with very heavy usage, then it would make a long closure difficult.

In fact most of the stations on the GOBlin have an alternative of another station or lots of buses.

• Barking – District/Metropolitan Line and c2c
• Woodgrange Park – OSI to Manor Park and buses
• Wanstead Park – OSI to Forest Gate and buses
• Leytonstone High Street – OSI to Leytonstone and buses
• Leyton Midland Road – Buses only
• Walthamstow Queen’s Road – OSI to Walthamstow Central
• Blackhorse Road – Victoria Line
• South Tottenham – OSI to Seven Sisters and buses
• Harringay Green Lanes – OSI to Harringay , Walk to Manor House and buses
• Crouch Hill – Walk to Finsbury Park and Archway and buses
• Upper Holloway – OSI to Archway and buses
• Gospel Oak – North London Line

I have a feeling that closing the line completely and running a Rail Replacement Bus service might not be the great inconvenience, it would be on some other lines.

These recent upgrades and other factors will help in any long closure.

• The new crossing and higher frequency on the Victoria Line.
• The signalling improvements to the Northern Line.
• The higher-capacity S stock trains on the District and Metropolitan Lines will take the pressure off at Barking.
• The recently improved interchange at Whitechapel will make journeys between Barking and Gospel Oak easier.
• The opening of Lea Bridge station in Spring 2016.
• The North London Line is now fully-equipped with five-car trains.
• The improved service on the Shenfield Metro through Forest Gate.

Hopefully, if the line is closed, it will not be the usual crowded buses stuck in traffic.

When I first saw the story in London 24, which is entitled Barking to Gospel Oak Overground line “to close for EIGHT months this year”, I thought it was bad, but then other sites had predicted worse a year or so ago.

I wonder if this story is the worst that will happen and that someone is getting the bad news in first.

After all, you wouldn’t want to announce a long closure of an important rail link in North London just before the election of a new Mayor. But if say you announced a definite plan in April, which said there would be a three month closure in the summer months to deal with something important and there was evidence of wires all around, North London would grit its collective teeth and grin and bare it.

As I believe my brief analysis shows, closing the line is not the complete disaster, that closing some lines would be.

January 24, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Electrification, Gospel Oak And Barking Line