The Anonymous Widower

Have Bombardier And Transport for London Pressed The Publicity Button On The Gospel Oak To Barking Line?

This morning, both the National Rail and Transport for London Journey Planners are still showing a Saturday March the 23rd service of four trains per hour (tph) on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line.

To run a four tph service will need six trains, which is a bit difficult with only three four-car Class 378 trains.

There are only three possibilities.

1. Both timetables are wrong. But they have been like that all week and surely a mistake would have been rectified.
2. They have shortened three more Class 378 trains and these will be joining the party. But it is known that other lines are under pressure because of the smaller fleet, so this is unlikely.
3. Three Class 710 trains will come to the aid of the party.

Possibility three is the only practical one.

There is also another event on Saturday. A steam train will be passing along the route, with these tiomings.

• Barking – 8:42
• Leyton Midland Road – 8:51
• South |Tottenham – 9:02
• Upper Holloway – 9:11
• Gospel Oak – 9:15

The steam train will also be coming back later in the day.

Is it a coincidence that it appears the full four tph electric service on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line starts on the day that a steam train uses the route?

Think of all those publicity pictures!

Or has it been organised to see if the steam trains interfere with the sophisticated computing on the Class 710 trains?

March 21, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 710 Train, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Steam Locomotive